Saturday, December 30, 2006

Snow

We haven't seen much snow yet, so every little bit is exciting! The boys and Mist, our Siberian muttsky, enjoyed playing in it for awhile today.



Friday, December 29, 2006

It's Ours!!!

After several bumps in the road, the land is finally ours! We closed on the deal this morning and then went to visit. Here are a bunch of pictures!


Beach area in front of where house will be built.


Woods and water through trees in front of where house will be built.


View to the north from beach in front of house.


View east (straight out).


View to the south.


Thane trying to negotiate the rock beach.


Braeden exploring the rocks.


Check out the gloves!


Path too the other beach (around the tall rocks from north of front beach).


Views down the driveway, from the area where the house will be situated, and up the driveway.


This is the other stone beach.


A pocket of sand beach.


View of the neighbor's camp to the north.

Awwww, Isn't He Cute?

I've had a couple of "Awwwwww" moments recently. My favorite is that Thane likes to come into my office and say "Hello, Mommy!" and he will repeat himself if I don't reply fast enough. He does the same thing with good-byes. A few days ago he said "Bye-bye Sweetheart Mommy!" Talk about melting a Mommy's heart!

Thane has also been giving kisses lately. He gave Braeden a kiss. Braeden asked him if he would kiss me and he did. Then he kissed Braeden again. I just had a similar event with Dave earlier this evening and even announced "Mama's turn!"

Christmas

We had a fun Christmas . . . it took until the 28th for Thane to finish opening presents, but between his birthday, Hanukkah and Christmas he is so used to the idea that he has been going around the house looking for more. Tonight he unwrapped a book that is a gift for one of Braeden's friends, so I guess I get to re-wrap that!

I enjoyed shopping this year. I do consider shopping a sport, which helps on that front! But I bought a lot of stuff for other families this year, and then I just had some luck with my own. I wasn't really thinking about buying a PS3 or a Wii, but I couldn't help but feel that Dave and Braeden would enjoy at least the PS3. I was able to locate one of the premium systems a week before Christmas and get it delivered the Wednesday before. I was kind of proud of myself for not enduring the hassles I have heard about (of course, now that the holiday is over the stock is much better). I could have gotten it through Amazon too -- I found out that people do actually get selected in their lotteries!

Then I decided the Wii looked interesting and one of the few games I like on these systems are the Legend of Zelda series. Braeden had been using a dance mat a lot lately, so I thought maybe the physical part of it would be good for him (but probably not for the good old dog!). I walked into Wal*Mart the Tuesday before Christmas looking for a game for the PS3 and overheard a woman saying they just got the Wii systems in and she was waiting for the stock person to bring them out. I asked her if I overheard correctly and if she knew if they had more than one. She said she thought they did, so I stayed and waited. The stock person came out with two -- she got one and I got the other!

Braeden has been so excited about the Wii. He has been playing a lot of tennis on it and it really is fun for others to watch as well. Here is a picture of him opening the present Christmas morning.


My highlight with Thane was him getting a new wooden garage and having him instantly run out to his wooden kitchen and get some wooden food. He started driving bread and fruit around in it, and parking the bread at the top, after spinning the station sign. Even after we steered him toward new wooden cars for the garage, he preferred his fruit and bread!


Thane also received a gift from his Grammie that has really made him happy. Mommy got him a Kipper the Dog and a Wibbly Pig for his birthday, based on the Mick Inkpen books and cartoon, and Grammie made him Sock Thing! Kipper and Pig went to bed with him for several nights and now Sock Thing is beside him. Last night he put on Sock Thing, changed his voice, and said "Hello Bwaeden." Oh, that's another change. It isn't usually "Daeden" anymore -- we've progressed to "Bwaeden" with a very occasional "Braeden" too. Sock Thing also woke Mommy up at 3 a.m. today, but at least he and his owner are very cute!

Lighting the Menorah

I've been meaning to add a photo from Hanukkah, but this week has been nutty and I am just getting around to it!

This is Braeden trying to light the menorah with Thane laughing between puffs of drying to blow it out.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Celebrations & Mommy Over There

Thane is slowly getting the concept of celebrations, but it is interesting how things go with him. It's kind of like the social worker's suggestion that we bathe him first thing in the morning so that he is cooperative about diaper changes, but now he wants a bath with almost every diaper change!

On his birthday last Sunday, we had a "3" candle on a cupcake for him (we made gluten free cupcakes thinking that a cake wouldn't stay together enough, but I think this would have so we will try that tomorrow for my birthday -- and Braeden and his friends actually liked them too!). We encouraged him to blow out the candle. He was laughing so hard. It was cute.

We celebrate both Hannukah and Christmas because of our backgrounds. When it was time to light the menorah every day since then, Thane has started giggling, squealing "Birdie Party" (for birthday party), and trying to blow out the candles. So with my sense of humor last night I decided that in our house the miracle was that Braeden got all eight candles lit before Thane could blow them out! I have a cute picture of the two of them laughing away as Braeden is lighting it.

Later last evening, Thane decided to undecorate the Christmas tree in the living room. He very carefully removed all the round ornaments he could reach. He then sorted them by color/texture and lined them up very neatly at the base of the tree, hooks laid out at the top. This tree was done all in gold unbreakable ornaments since he spends a lot of time in the living room, so he was sorting shiny gold, antiqued gold, stuff like that. Some of the differences are very subtle, but I guess not to him.

When I went in and saw what he is was doing, I smiled and he looked up with absolute glee on his face and started jumping up and down "I did it! Again and again and again and again!"

I have been trying to explain to the little guy that if he ever wants to gain any weight, it would really help if he wore clothing to keep a bit warmer and curtailed the jumping up and down all the time as it uses way too many calories, LOL! (Think of a kid on a ogo stick, only without the stick.)

One last one . . . I was standing in the foyer talking to his speech therapist when the children left their classroom to get their coats on to go home. Thane saw me, and shouted "Oh look! It's a Mommy over there! Hello Mommy!" so the other three kids had to peek and see what mommy was over there!