Hello again

Ok, so I admit it's been ages since I posted.  I did not get thrown out with the Christmas tree or make a resolution to stay off the computer.  Just been dealing with normal domestic life.  Here's updates on everyone in the house:

Belle: Has decided that her first priority is moving.  Just yesterday she finally figured out how to inch-worm herself forward a bit.  Very exciting.  I mean that.  I know to you all it's not that great, but to us there was lots of cheering and clapping.  And this morning she moved herself well over a foot with her inch-worminess and didn't smash her face into the floor during the process even once!  What a big girl!  She also likes to eat finger food.  She may be developing an addiction to pancakes.  I'm fairly sure that any finger food she eats ends up being a negative calorie meal for her though.  It takes so much brain power and determination to pick up that tiny piece of pancake with her two little fingers, look at it intently, slowly bring it to her mouth and then gum it for about 30 seconds that she easily uses up the 14 calories that the tiny bite contained. 



Big D: Is in a tell-me-a-story phase.  It is unrelenting.  "Mommy, can you tell me a story about Dalton and Chick and the spaceship and the moon car and the bulldozer?"  Yes, that is an actual story.  There is a whole series of Chick stories, Chick being the little stuffed chick that Dalton sleeps with.  Why I named his boy stuffed animal Chick, I don't know, but it stuck.  Chick and his little boy have all sorts of adventures.  The problem with stories is that while normally I don't really feel like spinning a huge adventurous tale, every once in a while I do.  And that is a bad thing. 

If my stories always consisted of, "One day a race car raced really fast on a track and won!  The End!"  Big D would think, "huh, stories kind of suck.  I'll go play something else."  But no, I have to get in moods where I tell some exuberant, long-winded (I know you find that hard to believe...) tale with sound effects and jokes and motions and occasionally songs.  What is wrong with me?  OF COURSE HE'S GOING TO ASK FOR THAT EXACT SAME STORY AGAIN!  And again and again and again.... And will he let me leave out a sound effect, motion or song.  Noooooo.   And do I want to go to that much effort again?  Of course not.  My story telling mood is long gone. 

I really need to decide whether I'm a fun, exciting mom or just a boring, practical one.  No more waffling back and forth.  It just causes me more work.

Me: which leads me to my other issues.  I know this is the time of year that people make resolutions.  I also know myself well enough to know that resolutions are a complete waste of time.  I will not follow them.  What resolutions should I make?  Well, that's a list...

1.  Be a better housekeeper.  I had a conversation with my good friend Saskia over the weekend (thank you to her mother and my husband for watching the kids so we could have a lovely chat!) about how our houses are never clean.  She commented that she would need to change the core of her personality in order for it to be clean, and I feel exactly the same way.  Maybe I just need to decide if I am a good housekeeper or a lousy one.  A good one would be motivated to keep the house clean.  She'd decide, for instance, that she should vacuum up Cheerios instead of blogging.  A poor housekeeper wouldn't care.  She'd blissfully step on the Cheerios and think how that crunching noise reminded her of the crinkle of wrapping paper and she should go blog about how fun Christmas was.  Instead I am a mediocre housekeeper who sees all the mess but isn't motivated to clean it.  Just mildly annoyed by it.  Screw the New Year's Resolution, I need one of those robot housekeepers that the Jetson's had.  That'd be perfect. 

2.  Pick a hobby.  I have fairly limited time during the day to do any grown up sort of hobby.  I can't run the sewing machine while nursing or let Dalton help me cut wire for jewelery.  I've been having an etsy-identity crisis in what sort of crafty thing to make in  my free time.  I have this unfocused need to make something.  But what is that thing?  Sewing is fun, but can't come up with anything I really want to make.  I have these cute glass pieces to make necklaces out of but can't find a good glaze to use on them to keep their little decorations.  I like a bunch of wire wrapped jewelry that I've seen but there is very limited time to practice my skills at wire bending.  Here's a pictures of my very first wire necklace.  It may be cute but is so flimsy that a strong gust of wind would contort it. 




Medman: Is a movie star! Well, actually a TV star.  Ok, a local commercial star.  His clinic is putting out 3 commercials, one of which is already out, on the local TV station's website about medical stuff.  He has face time in all three!  Exciting, no?  This weeks commercial was on pediatrics and he is on at the end looking like the fun doctor who is playing with a little girl.   All the other doctors are testing reflexes and such.  Not Medman, he's helping a little girl rummage through a box of toys.  This is the reason that children love him.  Here's a screen shot. 

You'd better believe that if he has a speaking part in any of the other ones, I'll post a link to it.  He'll kill me but I'll post it!  :)