At some point while I was busy breaking up fights a thing happened. A thing I’ve been hoping would happen for about 2 1/2 years now. Can you guess? As if by some Christmas miracle, Christopher has made great strides in not finding Andrew completely, totally, absolutely detestable! Are they best friends? No. Did I catch them playing together more than once? Yes. Has Christopher stopped whine/yelling any time Andrew is within 10 paces? Yes. They’re small steps but I’ll take what I can get.
As of my last post, we were preparing for Halloween and a visit from my parents. (Haha, it’s been awhile!). The visit from my parents was fun as usual. We went to the Halloween dance production “Thriller”, went to see the witches at Gardner Village, spent a day visiting in Logan and had dinner with Jason’s folks. We also (as usual) completed some projects, the best of which by far was installing a BUILT IN DISHWASHER. We spent 6 years with a sub-par portable dishwasher and upgraded to a built in Bosch 300 Series, we seriously give it nothing but rave reviews so far. We also installed 2 ceiling fans and upgraded the a new kitchen cart where the old portable dishwasher used to sit. The kitchen still needs a major remodel but gets a little more functional all the time.
The boys had a fun Halloween. This year we had a storm-trooper, Superman, and a cute-as-heck, although very reluctant, firefighter. Jason’s work put on a big fall festival we ran the boys through in their costumes. Halloween night Andrew was still content to be done fairly early, and Jason and the 2 older boys were done before 8pm.
In November we were reminded of to be thankful for our health as a series of germs made their way though our house. It started with a stomach bug that picked us off one at a time over the course of a week. Everyone got it except for Jason. In case I have not mentioned it previously, Jason does not puke. Ever. Not in the 13 years I’ve known him at least, so I wasn’t particularly surprised. We then shared a round of nuisance colds around Thanksgiving before making it into December mostly healthy.
In December the boys started their annual countdown and I started my Christmas shopping in earnest. Online of course. Every time I set foot in a store between mid-November and mid-January I almost always regret it. Shopping at the mall is for people who like people more than I do. So much of our holiday shopping is done online that I even put out treats for our FedEx, UPS, USPS, etc drivers. They are wearing a path from the street to my porch.
In rather disappointing news, my dental cleaning this week revealed I’ve cracked another tooth. That’s 4 teeth in 5 years for various reasons. I think I’m going to start wearing a night guard because the only thing I can assume is that I’m clenching my teeth at night. The dentist asked me if I was stressed….only about going to the dentist! A little of my dental anxiety is unfortunately back after the crowns and root canal of summer, and now I have another partial crown to look forward to. It’s a full blown case of white coat syndrome, as every time they take my blood pressure at the dentist office it is sky high. (In the last 6 months) During my summer dental work 160/105, before my cleaning this week 160/105…during a trip to instacare for strep, NORMAL, before my first ever mammogram NORMAL, before my annual physical and pap, NORMAL, before blood work to sign up for life insurance NORMAL. I expressed concern to my GP about high blood pressure readings at the dentist and we had a good laugh about it. I’ve learned that most of my chronic anxiety is somewhat hormonal, but man oh man, then there’s the dentist. I’ll have the Valium with a side of Xanax please, let’s throw on the laughing gas too and really make it a party.
Updates on the boys:
William seems to be enjoying first grade. I recently checked out the first few books of the graphic novel series “Amulet” from the public library and he seems to be enjoying them. He isn’t buried in a book as I’d hope, but it makes him complain less about daily reading time. His current favorite phrase is “Aye yi yi”. No idea where he picked that one up. He’s pretty obsessed with Minecraft and really likes to play it with Jason. He seems to be friends with everyone in the class, at least from the number of kids he yells goodbye to as we walk home from school.
Christopher is enjoying preschool. Even though he’s not much of an early riser, the morning session has not been too much of a problem for him. He reports playing firefighter and detective with Penelope and Adamaree. He says he doesn’t have a lot of friends because he “hasn’t asked anyone to be his friend yet”, but according to his teachers he gets along great with everyone. It’s funny what the rules are for making friends when you’re 4 years old. Christopher has the longest Christmas list of all the boys this year. We’ll see how that works out.
Andrew. 2 1/2 year old boy + noise * energy ^mischievous – naps = Andrew. Something like that. He’s wild and loud and unruly and still the cutest sweetest thing you’ve ever seen. Smart as a whip and goofy. Frequently utters, “What dat mom?”, “Hold me”, “I so hot”, “I so tired”. Obsessed with firetrucks. Loves to run around wearing his favorite blanket as a cape. Loves stuffed animals and spends way too much time tucking them in and arranging his blankets into a nest each night. Quite the little dude.
Jason is generally enjoying work and had another really good year with Fidelity. This time of year I am thankful for his Christmas bonus for without it I fear our credit card would just up and light on fire from overuse. I do all the magic Christmas shopping and he provides most of the funding, then he gets to sit back and see what he bought each of us on Christmas morning 😉
Everything for me has been going ok. I think this season brings out the introvert in me. I tend to shun the hustle and bustle and multitude of plans and activities that come with this time of the year and prefer to be a homebody in my sweats in front of our fireplace. Working from home doing transcription has been going really well for me and I love the flexibility it gives me. I did some additional training about a month ago so now I can work on ‘volunteer only’ days and take more types of calls. Some of them are very entertaining. I’ve found working from home also has its perks like mid-day laundry, weekday lunch dates, the ability to cook/clean/run the dishwasher at my leisure, walking the boys to/from school, and of course spending time with that aforementioned fireplace. The other house-member who really seems to appreciate my being home is Kiki. I have a bit of a desk/office cat which is a mix of good and bad, but she seems to really enjoy having someone to hang out with.
I hope this update finds each of you doing well. I apologize, as I did not get Christmas cards put together this year, but if I can talk Jason into writing a Christmas letter I will post it here as usual.
Take Care! S.~
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