What What Say What?

So during dinner two nights ago, the news is on (Toby can't eat without background noise) and I hear that Mike Shanahan is fired as head coach for the Denver Broncos. I am shocked. I am floored. "What? Mike Shanahan was fired? 13 years?" I said. Nonchalantly, Toby says, "Yeah, that's what they said." "I can't believe that, it's crazy, 3 Superbowls!" I say. "Yep, they fired him," says Tob. I go on a little longer. Toby's very 'that's the way it goes' about the whole thing.... I let it go.

About 10 minutes later, Nat whispers to me across the table.

Nat: "Mom, is dad telling the truth... mumble... mumble"

Me: "What honey?"

Nat: "Is dad telling the truth about firing ...mumble ...mumble head?"

Me: "what honey? Is dad telling the truth about what?"

Nat: "Is dad telling the truth about firing your china head?"

Me: "What? Is dad telling the truth about my china head?"

Where did she get that? In my mind, I say it over and over (like the game MadGab) ''My china head? .... my china head? ... my .... Gasp! Mike Shanahan!!!!" Hahaha! I laugh and explain the whole thing to Toby.

That would be funny enough, but later she asked dad

Nat: "Dad, did you really fire mom's china head?"

Dad: "Yep, I did."

Nat: "Dad, tell me what you said!"

Dad: "I said, 'You worked for me for 13 years but that's no good. You should have won those last 3 games so you're fired china head."

Nat: "What else, tell me."

Dad: "That's it, that's what I said."

Nat: "Mom, did he really fire your china head or is he just joking me."

Periodically throughout the night and even the next day, she brought up dad's firing of my china head.

"G" It's Christmas!

Since Toby initially had to work all through the holiday (he subsequently got Christmas day off when a young single co-worker wanted to work that day for the extra money), my parents (the Gs), sister and BIL came down to spend the holiday with us. Too bad they had to stay at a hotel. I guess they could have slept on the couch and the blow-up mattress in a family-style slumber party. Whatever.

I told Natty they were coming and she got excited. "I'm going to be wowdy (rowdy) when they get here," she said." "You a-are? I said." "Yeah, I'm going to play with Uncle Jay!" and putting her hand to her forehead, said, "And Aunt Jess is going to give me like a thousand kisses!"

So after the fam arrived on Christmas eve, as is our tradition, we got to open one present - our Jammies! Here's a pic of the girls in theirs: (Julsie refused to put her pants on)

So, we chit-chat, have some snacks, etc. Shortly after they head to the hotel, I put the kids to bed and daddy gets home from work. Of course, both daddy and the girls are dying to see each other. There's just too much excitement in the air. Everyone gets all worked-up again and admittedly, I start to get irritated. I mean, Santa can't come unless you're asleep! So finally, I put the kids to bed and who else is in bed? John! I about flipped. I think the pressure of the holiday was getting to me. "What do you think you're doing?" I said. "Trying to sleep in the same bed as my wife on Christmas Eve." Ooooh. I felt low. He hurt his back again and had been sleeping on the couch all week. Once again, my fiery temper is cooled by his calm response.

Instead of staying up to finish, I hopped in bed too. I got up with Jules at 4:30am and stayed up to finish prep. John got up around 5. Well, not really. As I'm rocking Jules back to sleep, I see the girls' door slowly open. Was he peaking in to see if I was in there? No. He was crawling on the floor and pushing the door open with his head. He was looking for help. Remember I mentioned his back? Well, sleeping in our bed really "did him in" and he was on the floor for about 20 minutes before I could manage to help him up. (Nicely, he pretended like my yelling at him the night before never happened.)

Around 8, he couldn't wait any longer and woke the girls up. Nat is her daddy's baby and was like a total zombie for a while, despite the pile of presents before her. They had a great time opening their gifts and hanging out with my family all Christmas and the next day. (I think Uncle Jay needed a good nap after playing so much).


As a post-script, Toby, for once, was completely surprised (and thrilled) by one of his gifts - a leatherman from my parents. I too was totally caught off-guard with my gifts and felt like a little kid again. I thought I was way past that, but I guess not =)

"O" Christmas

My MIL and FIL are in from Montana for about 3 weeks and are staying in Linesville at my SIL and BIL's home. Tob had a few days off, so we headed up to celebrate Christmas with them on Saturday the 20th. We got in on Friday and as usual, SIL had a great meal for us and terrific baked goods. Saturday was exciting as they got a new dining room table and chairs and MIL made her famous sauce. We exchanged gifts and got to play cards. (I think that's my favorite tradition at his family's home. We eat dinner, have some great dessert and play cards or a board game together as a family. It can get wild, but it's always fun!) Here are some pics of Christmas day. The girls were, of course, spoiled rotten.

Arent' my little nephews adorable? They are all-boy, but really sweet with the girls and love them. Unfortunately, only one of my beautiful nieces were able to get to visit with us that day.

Knowing that we probably won't see the grandparents again until summer, Tob and I were really hoping the girls wouldn't take long in "warming up" to them. (Sometimes Nat can be a little shy.) Both girls were great though. Hugs, kisses and the chit-chat flowed right away and we were very happy with that.

Our Christmas Decorations

Oooops. Forgot to show you what some of our decorations looked like. I don't have a good picture of our mantle with our homemade stockings, but these will have to do:

John made three beautiful grapevine wreaths .... HIMSELF! Included is a picture of one of them. I was completely floored by this. He took the dog for a walk and came back with the wreaths. He added the holly and berries himself too. Seriously. After almost 10 years, he still can surprise me.

Don't Need Much

I don't really want too much. We have a nice, but small apartment. I'm not totally stir-crazy in this joint and can hang out here as long as we need to....... but you know what? I'll be really glad to live somewhere where the official "boot drying area" is not the top of my kitchen cabinets!

Pick a Name, Any Name

A few months ago, Nat decided to give Jazzy a nickname. Apparently, Jaz and Jazzy are not nickname-y enough. Nat's first nickname for Jaz was "Tudor." That name stuck for a little while until I think she got mad at Jaz. Then we went back to Jazzy. Later we got Ariel and then Buddy. Two weeks ago was Bones and then she said to me, "I don't think I want to call my dog Bones anymore." "You don't?" I said, "what would you like to call her." In a very sweet, low, slow and serious voice, she said "I have a name for a big dog that I love, and that's Tudor." "Okay then," I said, "we can call her Tudor."

Today I noticed we were back to Buddy. Jaz was in the girls' room and Nat shouted, "Out Buddy out!" After screaming for a while and no reaction from Jaz, Natalie said, "I don't think she knows her name is Buddy."

12/20: We came home from our Christmas festivities with my in-laws and Nat called Jaz "Crumbs." Where she got that, I'll never know. It has stuck for a while now. I kind-a like it.

Just Wondering ....

Does it take anyone else three (3) hours to get their kids in bed? I mean, tonight was a short night because Nat was so tired she fell asleep while I was telling the Christmas Story. But even today, I started around 5:30 and left their room at 8:00. Some how I really don't think that is normal, but by the time we:

-take a bath (read in the bath, play in the bath, lolly-gag in the bath),

-chase naked babies around the house to get lotioned and dressed,

-get a bed-night snack,

-brush their teeth (they brush their teeth, we brush their teeth, nat hides her toothbrush, we have to find it),

and then any combination of the following:

-tell Nat a story "from my mind" while I rock Jules,

-put Jules down and "cozy-up" Nat,

-sing a lullaby to Nat, and one to Jules if Nat requests,

-prayers,

-"Jack and Bill" nursery rhyme,

- oops! Nat needs to go potty,

-"where's my drink?" "I'll be right back."

- "leave my door open"

-"but I'm a little bit scared" and subsequent reassurance of safety

-"but I'm a little bit sad when I don't sleep with you."

-"but my bed is not comfortable"

aaahh!

And then, if I'm not lucky, Nat will be back out in the living room in 5 minutes "I have to tell you something." "What." Insert the line-of-the-day "I'm a little bit..."

She also has been sneakily climbing into our bed in the middle of the night. John caught her one night, moving like an elite operative - cracking our door, checking for signs of consciousness, tip-toeing to the side of our bed, peering over the top to make sure we're still asleep... like stinkin' 007! She even tells us now "I'll just sneak in." Daddy said, "well, I'll just start locking our door, then what will you do? You'll have to go back to your bed ...or sleep there on the floor." "Well I like floors!" Another time she said, "I'll just try and scream."

Here's the new one she came up with tonight. You see, last night both daddy and I were home when I put her to bed. So, in the tub tonight she said, "When you put me to bed last night, I sang a song to myself." "You did?" I said happily, thinking it's a song to help her go to sleep. She began to sing, "Mo--mmy and Da--ddy are having FUN witho--ut me." oooooooh that little stinker!

I wish they were both 4 months old. I got better sleep then!

Why Me? Lucky Me? Shame on Me?

I don't know what to title this next post. All of the above fit.

I ran over to the neighbors' the other day to see if they would like to come over and play. Instead, we stayed at their house for about 1.5 hours. You see, she had a small crisis - her daughter spilled paint on the carpet.

Anyway, it was raining and cold and I only intended to invite them over and then come right back home.... Well, apparently, in my mad rush, I did not completely shut the front door. Oooops! - because when John came home from the gym, he found the door wide open. There was a clear hole dug in the mulch beside our front stoop and .... sure enough, there was mud all over the foyer and mud and mulch all through the living room. It appeared I had a slightly larger crisis happening with my carpet.

John was very calm about the whole situation. We were both amazed that Jazzy was still in the house! John said, "that's the difference between a male dog and a female dog." "That's the difference between a dead dog and a live dog," I said. (Si would have been long gone... and we know the rest of that story.)

The pictures here are after I had cleaned up a majority of the mess. I had mopped the linoleum and John had picked up the big pieces of mulch. I feel very sorry for that huge mistake I made and very lucky that Jazzy is still with us .... and that she didn't harass anyone (that we know of.)

Just Another Day at the O'Days

To tell you the truth, we really don't do much. We don't go to the movies, don't go out to eat, don't have people over. We just hang out, go on deal finding trips, library, preschool... that's it. But here are some pics of what you may come across when you come to our house:

Dress-up time! Oh, and no privacy.

Dance Time! Lately, the girls have LOVED dancing to the "Sounds of the Season" channel. Daddy can only sit out until Nat says the magic words, "Daddy! come dance with your girls."

Jungle Gym time! I mean, Jungle Daddy time! The poor man can't sit on the carpet for two seconds without being accosted by the girls... all of them (even Jaz).

But I don't know, looks like he doesn't mind too much. Whada you think?

The Tiny Tannenbaum

Here are a few pictures of us hunting for our Christmas tree. John thought we should go cut our own tree this year, but with everyone's sickness and it already being so late in the year, we just went to a couple stands.

Natalie kept saying she wanted a little tree. I guess she wanted a REALLY little tree. She looked at me, held this piece up and said excitedly, "I found one!" Daddy pulled one out of the line-up here to seek her approval. It was about 7, 7.5 feet tall. "What about this one Nat?" As if she thought he was crazy, she said, "What in the world!"

All the trees at the first stand were pretty tall (and a little expensive), so we decided to head down the street. We went to the Lions' stand. It had a wonderful selection of trees, organized by type. In addition to the monsters, there were plenty of small trees too! They were so nice there and gave us coloring books and candy canes for the kids and special tabs to keep the tree fresh!

And here she is:

the beautiful little tree we came home with (picked out by John and Natty). John and I think its the best tree we ever had =)

The Mad Gasper

Some kids do this thing - when they get excited or see something they like, they open their mouth wide. Some even gasp. Right now Julsie is into this phase where she does an extended gasp..... like 6 seconds worth.... as long as the wind in her little lungs can possibly do it. Tob called her "the mad gasper." Very endearing.

Here is a goofy pic of the end of one of her gasps. She's got a Cinderella skirt on her head and duck outfit on too.

Can you tell she's really into dress-up now? While we're at it I'll show you this pic. I went to the store and came back to get Julsie up from her nap looking like this:

Apparently Tob just put her to bed with all this stuff on - pj's, 2 dress-up outfits, and a bathrobe with a stuffed duck in the hood (that was courtesy of her sister).

She is CONSTANTLY asking for us to help put princess outfits on her and she walks around in these dress-up heels all day. In these shoes, don't her little fat, square feet look like Miss Piggy's feet? Dont' they? Ha! I laugh just looking at her.

Oh, and why are all these pictures so close-up? Because she sees me with the camera, yells "cheeeeee" and runs toward me. Then she says, "see, see" so she can see herself in the camera's viewer. See her in this one? She's got my chin! Poor thing.

Look for more info on Julsie to come! PS none of these are really flattering pics of her, but they will have to do.

Again?

I know, I know. How can I possibly expect people to read this blog unless I provide new material on a somewhat regular basis. Here are my excuses. Choose the one you'll sympathize with most.

1. We were at my parents' for a week (until 12/2)! We came home off schedule, facing laundry and an empty refrigerator. I am still recuperating.

2. The six (6) pieces of pie I ate on Thanksgiving DAY left me in a pie-induced coma from which I just awoke.

3. Mom gave me a cold, I gave it to Jules, and finally someone gave it to John. I don't know who is the biggest baby..., me or John.

4. John became addicted to his nasal spray and just returned from a stint in rehab.

5. I am so far behind on the blog that my old avoidance/procrastination mechanism kicked in

6. In case you didn't know, Christmas is coming!!!! (Toys to buy, gifts to make, a whole two bedroom apt to decorate!)

7. I left them. Left them all. I'm writing to you from an internet cafe' Buenos Aires.