We celebrated Christmas with the Linfoots last night. They gave Wil the latest LarryBoy video and Dress-Up Mix-Up Larry. When Wil opened the video, he said, "It's what I always wanted!" The Dress-Up Larry is similar to Mr Potatohead. Last night Wil took it, all it's parts, and the box to bed with him. He's got Larry tucked under his arm as he naps now. Elizabeth got a Disney Princess tea set. We've had at least three tea parties since last night as well as a full meal including pork chops, soup, and "round bread." I'm pretty sure she and Laylee are having a tea party instead of a nap.

We've been busy. Busy preparing for Christmas and guests, busy trying to put the house in order, busy making cookies, busy wrapping presents, busy shopping. Elizabeth asked where we were going today. I said "The store." She said, "Again?" in her funny exasperated voice.

We've had fun together this morning. Wil came to my room around 7:30 carrying their new 'Oliver and Company' DVD. "Come on, Mom," he said, "Let's go to the TV room." But he crawled into bed and snuggled some first. Just when I thought he was going to fall back asleep he said, "Come on, Mom" again.

I called Elizabeth a silly goose at breakfast. She thought that was funny and wanted to reenact it over and over. "Can we play where you say 'silly goose' again?"

We put batteries in their new Little People Zoo and played with it. About half of their Little People migrated to the living room to visit the zoo today. That's a lot of Little People.

Now they're playing a combination of Veggies and Oliver. We never did watch the video.

It's no surprise that Christine immediately provided some Elizabeth pictures. She was posing this day. 'Take my breath away...' God, I can't believe how beautiful they are. (Note: she has had her hair cut ('a little trim') since then. Otherwise, this is how she looks these days.)

I sing 'you are so beautiful to me' to Elizabeth. I've sung 'you are so handsome...' to Wil a few times. This morning when I sang it 'you are so beautiful...' to Elizabeth, and then she sang 'you are so handsome...' to Wil. That was a pretty sweet moment.

Here's the latest picture of Mr Handsome Himself. Elizabeth wasn't posing that day - too crabby. More of her soon.

When we woke up this morning there was no snow. It was disappointing, but Wil was sick so it turned out okay. But later it started to snow, and it snowed, and it snowed. By the time Wil woke up from his nap, the yard was nicely covered. When Sean got home, Wil and I went out. He did some sledding, threw some snowballs and pulled his sled around. But the best part was riding in the sled together.

WIL FOUND HIS VEGGIES! And there was much rejoicing.
We went to my closet to get out my ski pants so we could go sledding. He crawled behind my dresses that hang to the floor, and there in the most remote part of the closet, he found his Veggies! He was so surprised and so happy. Sean took him with him to a meeting and Wil took all his Veggies. He wouldn't let Sean put them in the backpack. He carried all five of them to the car. What a relief!

I made a more concerted effort last night to put Wil to bed and to sleep in my bed, instead of in his. This seems to me like it will be best for everyone in the longterm.

And it worked like a dream. They didn't come to our bed until after 7:30 this morning.

Woohoo!

The wishlist idea is working very well for us. The kids see something they want. We ask them if they would like to put it on their wishlist. Plenty of times they say 'no', which shows it's a low priority right there. It helps push out the expectation of getting things right away.

Now if we could only get the daddy on such a program.

It didn't start snowing until this morning, so no sledding yet. It hasn't really accumulated enough yet, anyway.

Plus, Wil is sick. He got up and threw up a little bit this morning (but happened to be in the bathroom and threw up in the toilet). It looked like it could just be phlegm, and he has a lot of drainage, so I just let it go. I gave him some Gatorade.

But he threw up more after I left, so Christine is keeping an eye on him. No reason to worry yet. He even seems to be feeling better.

Hmm. Seems I'm back to taking baths with the kids - but now one at a time. I don't mind. It's actually a decent way to spend time with them individually. Last night Wil opted not to take a shower with me. He just wanted to stay in the tub and play. Since this does not require my presence, and I don't want to sit in there all night, I closed the curtain and rinsed off in the shower while he sat there and played. Then I got out and he kept playing in the tub. Fine by me.

It's suppose to snow tonight. We got a sled. It's orange. Elizabeth wanted purple but there wasn't one. Wil already has a plan for us to reenact part of VeggieTales' "The Toy That Saved Christmas." He's going to play Junior, Sean is Larry, and I get to be Bob. Elizabeth could be Buzzsaw Louie, but she is still pouting about not getting a purple sled. It's just as well. There's no way we're all going to fit in the sled anyway.

I was going to post yesterday that we seem to be in a season of lost things. Elizabeth thought she lost Laylee's headband at Target yesterday. She was so certain, I took them back into the store and we retraced our every step. No luck. Of course it was in the living room with her blanket when we got home.

For some reason, after working out pretty hard last night after work, I had a lot of energy. I was running around with the kids and hid and said Boo and scared them. They thought that was awesome and we took turns hiding and saying Boo until dinner, and then they played afterward while I did some dishes and let Christine go to the library (where did all of this energy and good will come from? I don't know.). They went to bed pretty well. Another decent day. Two in a row. Look out.

More sleep notes: Wil came crying down the hallway last night around 2(?) 'You are supposed to lay with me!'. OK I said and went back to sleep with him. At that point Elizabeth started crying for Christine. On our way by I told her she could go sleep in the big bed. When Wil and I got to his bed he said he wanted his doggie that he took to the big bed. So I went to look. Christine and Elizabeth were both still awake. I didn't find the dog. I said, sarcastically 'Let's just all get up and have a bowl of cereal.'. I had trouble falling back asleep after that. Wil got up to pee a little before 8 and we were off.

As I got dressed, after Christine got up, Elizabeth was still sleeping in our bed. She started to wake up. I have learned not to speak to her first because it often makes her contrary gear kick out crabbiness. She rolled around a little and looked and I just smiled. Her first words were 'nanny, nanny' [as in 'blanket']. We had fun talking with almost only the word 'nanny' for a while. At one point she said 'My nanny' and I said 'Bethy's nanny' and she thought that was pretty funny. She said 'Can you say Bethy's nanny again?'

Bedtime went pretty well last night, too. In fact, yesterday went pretty well. They didn't nap so we got to put them to bed early.

nb: 'Bethy' is my new dear-name for Elizabeth. It's said usually in response to 'Daddy' so it has the same amount of syllables and the diminutive. She's growing to like it pretty well.

Wil's Veggies are missing. Remember that box of packing peanuts from Wednesday? We think Wil hid his Veggies in it. The box went out with the trash on Wednesday morning. We noticed the Veggies were lost on Wednesday night but figured they'd turn up somewhere. The probability of their being in the box didn't dawn on me until this afternoon. When I asked Wil if he put his Veggies in the box, he cheerfully said, "I think so." We haven't told him the rest of the story yet. I've got a lump in my throat and a knot in my belly just thinking about it.

What would happen if Wil was left alone with a ball of string? It happened yesterday, unintentionally, and he wrapped string around every chair between the breakfast nook and living room. It was an impressive mess. Thankfully he mostly wraps instead of ties so it wasn't too hard to simply rewind the string onto the ball. Clean up still took a lot more time than I anticipated and he was no help.

Now can you guess what would happen if he was left with a box of packing peanuts? Clean up was easier. We played 'Scoop' and 'Muck' and had so much fun, they wanted to do it again. Especially Elizabeth. With a little direction, she's generally very good about cleaning up.

I better log something good.

Bathtime went ok. The other night Elizabeth wanted to take a shower with me. She did and it went fine and then, since I was in, Wil chose to take a bath with me and that went fine.

So, last night, Elizabeth chose a bath with me. Well, if I'm going to take a bath with her, I'm going to wear my swimming suit. First she wondered why, which I didn't explain. Then, she wanted to wear her suit. We compromised: she could put her suit on after I washed her body and before I washed her hair. 'This is going to be fun!' she said. And it was fine.

And then it was Wil's turn. So I washed him and then it was time for my shower and I asked him if he wanted to shower with me and he said yes. That went fine, too. When we do that I let him help me wash my hair. I'd say 'Are we done yet?' and he'd say 'No, not yet.'. So bathtime was pretty good.

Should I change the title to 'twin-sleep-log'?

Elizabeth asked if she could sleep with us last night. I told her no and she took it ok. I also told her we'd do it again some other time.

Wil, however, who didn't nap much yesterday, pulled out his 'little monster' act for bedtime. Christine had to ride herd on him from his room. I finally took pity on him and went in and laid down with him. At first he said 'God took everything away from me.'. Wholey mackerel! That's one of the last things I want my son to feel. He said God took away his family and his sister. First, I tried to reason with him - 'No, you have your family and your blanket...' To no avail. Then I just decided to divert. I asked him if he wanted to talk about a story. Of course he said yes. I forget which one. And I slept there with him all night.

What was my reward? Him waking up from a dream saying 'I don't want that little girl to hit me.'. Then 'I want pajamas without socks.', which I was not about to do for him first thing - little arbitrary whim demands. So he said he wanted Momma to sleep with him - thinking he'd get different pajamas - and that's a fine howdoyoudo after I'm the one who slept with him all night. Finally he said 'I want to go talk to Momma' and I said Fine! and left the bed and went and laid down with Momma and let her deal with him. Of course, he laid on my side and put his feet all over me, but it was tolerable. As usual, the thing that got me up was him starting to kick his legs. I said 'Do you have to pee?' and he said yes and off we went.

It was a crappy way to wake up this morning. I did not want to be the daddy.

Well, we caved on the new protocol: Elizabeth slept in our bed the whole night last night. Wil was already asleep. It was 10:30, and we were both too tired to want to go through the bedtime ritual with her.

She was sweet about it, in an innocent, sad sort of way. I asked her if she'd like to lay down with us and she said 'Yes, but only for a little while because you don't want me to sleep in your bed.'

That was so hard for me. In a way, I do want her to sleep in our bed. That time can be really sweet. It was last night. We snuggled. But it's not good for my sleep, and it's really not good for Christine's sleep, and, on a nightly basis it would be bad for our marriage.

So, we might have to fight the battle again to keep her out tonight. But that's ok. There are rules, and it's ok to have exceptions. She has to learn that, too. She can even ask for exceptions. But we get the final ruling.

Wil has developed a very-spotty, very-strange ... accent. I hesitate to type 'southern' accent, though that's what it sounds like. The word I know the best is 'mah' in the place of 'my', eg 'Where are mah covers?'. It makes me laugh out loud every time, of course, though it is very alarming. Where would he get such a thing? We don't even really know anyone who talks like that!