SNOW!

Yesterday, as I sat nursing Lydia, Hannah called in from the living room, "Mom! I see snow!" I thought it was something on PBS kids- the Word World episode had been a Christmas one. But she quickly let me know it was real snow and told me to look out the window. Sure enough, I peeked through the blinds to see big beautiful flurries. I could tell it was terribly cold when I took the girls to the grocery store that morning, but I had no idea I'd be seeing snow!

I get really excited when I actually get to see snow these days. Growing up in Ohio, I don't think I ever experienced a December, let alone a winter, without a nice covering of snow. We didn't always have a white Christmas, but I can remember at least one time it snowed before Halloween! I've seen snow a few times since moving to the south, but I'm pretty sure they were small dustings in January or February. There is just something special about snow that comes when Christmas is in the air. Hannah felt it too. She was jumping around, scrambling to put on her shoes, plotting to catch a flake on her tongue, and asking "Is Santa coming?!" over & over. To her, it was Christmas.

So, I bundled the girls up and took them outside- it was Lydia's first snow, after all. But we just stayed long enough to greet the flurries, catch a few, and snap some pictures. Then we hurried inside to warm up again. That's another one of those magical moments of the holidays- coming back inside and stripping off wet clothes to thaw with hot chocolate. What a nice surprise! Of course, it didn't stick, and if I were in Ohio it would not be a very meaningful snow. No schools would close, no big deal. But I'm not in Ohio. And I miss the snow at Christmastime. So to me, it was a big deal! Snow!

Hannah was so excited when we stepped out onto the porch!

Lydia's first snow took her breath away (or maybe that was the wind!)

I'm a grown up!

I did it! I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for the very first time. I was fortunate to get to try this big undertaking with just my little family, so there wasn't a bunch of pressure from extended family depending on me to get everything just right. I made a real turkey and just about everything I used to have for Thanksgiving at home. I timed everything almost perfectly too- if we hadn't stopped to document the event with pictures and figure out how to seat our little ones at the dining room table, it would have all been hot from the kitchen.

I feel this officially qualifies me for "grown-up" status. I know that since I am someone's mom (actually two someones) I should already consider myself a grown-up. There are definitely times that I realize I am a full-fledged on-my-own adult: when I pay my mortgage, when my girls are sick and I have to figure out how to best take care of them, when John & I travel on our own, when people I've never heard of sing the national anthem at major sporting events... that kind of stuff. But cooking a whole Thanksgiving dinner is another level of grown-up that I honestly didn't know I had in me. I'm proud of myself.

Now, if I can just get these silly Christmas decorations set up...

Who knows what they'll say next...

As I was tying Hannah's shoe the other day, she asked me a strange question. "Mom, what's a loadnose?" My first response was to ask her to repeat herself. Then I thought about the Spanish instruction she is getting at preschool every Thursday, combined with hundreds of episodes of Dora, and wondered if this was a matter of translation. I admitted to Hannah that I had no idea what a "loadnose" was, and asked her why she was asking. I can't remember word for word because she was explaining so quickly, but here is her response:

"You know, the other day when we were outside playing and you told me to watch where I was stepping and Sophie was eating something yucky in the grass. I said 'What is she eating?' and you said 'loadnose.' That kind of loadnose!"

I couldn't stop giggling as I tried to explain to her that what I really meant was that I had no idea what Sophie was eating, and aside from that mischevious dog only one person knew for sure: the Lord. Hannah giggled too. She's a pretty smart kid, and she's always loved vocabulary and funny phrases. I think she got it, but I can't be sure. Lord only knows.

Another Turkey Project

Today I ventured out to the grocery store with both girls. I was feeling very brave. Or stupid. I'm still not sure which. I always stop by the bank first and get a sucker to keep Big Sister occupied. Except today I left the sucker in the car in my mad dash to get Little Sister's carrier strapped on and make sure her little head was covered and her ankles weren't showing (not because of some Victorian-era purity code but because it was stinking cold!). Even without the candy entertainment, Big Sister did really well in the store. When she started to get impatient, we pretended the sucker was calling to her from the van. "Big Sister! You forgot me! I'm waiting! Only a few more aisles!" It was a silly yet effective distraction.

Aside from the milk, eggs and bread of which we were completely out at home, I had other important things on my list: ingredients to make the cutest (and tastiest) little turkey you've ever seen. So, after we made it out of the grocery store and I unloaded everything, Big Sister and I tried to put together the turkey. Okay, really, I tried while she watched. I didn't really have instructions, just a picture I had seen. I figured if it was too frustrating or a complete disaster, it was better to do a grown-up trial run first. I improvised on a few things, but it turned out pretty well. Until the head started slipping. After putting it back on about 5 times, I finally just handed it to Big Sis who had been salivating over the plateful of ingredients the whole time. She popped it into her mouth and then proceeded to dismantle and devour the rest of Mr. Turkey. It was quite a lot of sugar before naptime, but oh well. To her, this whole endeavor had been a huge success.

I am not so satisfied. I at least wanted a picture of my creation, or better yet: a plateful of cute little turkeys to put out for Thanksgiving. I don't know if it was the motion of the head slipping each time or what, but my camera simply wouldn't focus to document the creation. So I found a picture of what it might have looked like. Here it is:

And as a bonus, the site where I found this had great little tips that I missed by not having instructions. For instance, freeze the reese's cups and cut off the bottom to make it more level and (hopefully) prevent head slippage. I'll let you know if it works!

Baby, it's cold inside

We currently have no heat upstairs. Unless, of course you count the little heater/fan that I keep moving from room to room throughout the day. The other day, Big Sister wanted to play in her room while I got dressed. Since I am excited about any opportunity to get ready without company, I agreed and began the task of bundling her up to play in her room. Here is what we ended up with:

It started with a robe and warm socks, and then she found her hat & gloves. I'm not really sure how the lei or balloon scepter factored in, but did I mention I was really looking forward to getting dressed by myself? I let the eccentric accessories slide.

But then I stepped back and looked. Change that heater into a trash can bonfire, and cut the fingers off her little pink gloves, and Big Sister would pretty much fit the picture most of us have in our head of homeless people. What's even scarier, regardless of her clothing, Big Sis does look like many homeless people in the real world. Check out this statistic:

• The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty states that each year approximately 3.5 million unique individuals experience homelessness in America. 1.35 million, or 39%, of them are children. 45% of those children are under the age of 5.

Do the math really quickly and that means there are more than 607,000 homeless babies, toddlers and preschoolers. I think about how cold it is in the girl's room in the morning, and how much it concerns me as her mother to keep her warm and healthy. At least we have a roof over our head and a working heat unit downstairs. At least there is a part on its way that will help us to have heat once again. Others are not so fortunate.

We hear it all around us this time of year- calls for warm coats, space heaters, extra clothing, canned goods for a holiday meal, even toys for Christmas. I suspect most of us heed the call. But hearing it now, as a mommy trying to keep her own little ones warm, even temporarily, it's louder than ever. Here are some of my favorite links for collecting and offering assistance to the homeless. The first is local, the source of my statistic. The other two may be more familiar and are nationwide. Check them out:

Chattanooga Community Kitchen
Salvation Army
Goodwill

Regardless of how you feel about homelessness, joblessness, welfare or other economic issues in our country, children are innocent victims in all of this. I hope you'll join me in helping the least of these. After all, how can you say no to a face like this?

Crazy for Candy Corn

When I was little, the only reason I liked Candy Corn was to make goofy looking teeth. As an adult I like it, but I think that is due in part to my anticipation for all things autumn. And the fact that if you mix it with peanuts, it tastes just like a pay day. It's true.

Big Sister LOVES candy corn. Then again, she is not your typical kid when it comes to candy. Whenever people let her pick her own candy on Halloween she picked two things: tootsie rolls and smarties. You know, the cheap candy that's usually left over after the Snickers and other good stuff is gone. (I can't judge her too much, I actually picked those black & orange peanut butter kisses when I was a kid. I'm told now that NOBODY likes them.) Yesterday I was a part of two very entertaining scenes involving candy corn:

Act 1

Mom is nursing Little Sister, Big Sister comes in from the living room.

Big Sis: Mom, come on! It's Dora's birthday. Bring a present.
Mom: I'll be there in a second, after I finish nursing Little Sis

(Sound familiar? See previous blog entry "Wheels on the bus")

A few minutes later, mom scrambles for a gift for a doll, grabs something, comes in.

Mom: Happy birthday, Dora! I brought you some candy corn!
Big Sis: (grabbing it and stuffing it in her mouth) I'll eat that.
Mom: but it is Dora's present!
Big Sis: Yeah, but she doesn't have any teeth.
Mom: Oh, okay. Well, what did you get her?
Big Sis: Coasters.

Act II
Later in the day. Mom is once again nursing Little Sister. No, that is not all she does...

Big Sis: Mom, can I have some candy corn?
Mom: Yes, in a few minutes. Wait for me-
Big Sis: (pushing a chair over to the counter to help herself) Oh. I got it.
Mom: How did you get up there? Don't take too many.
Big Sis: (comes in the room with a mouthful, speaking muffly) I didn't. I'm just going to get five more. (starts to return to the kitchen)
Mom: No! You can have ONE more.

Big Sis returns with yet another mouthful of candy corn.

Big Sis: I got three more.
Mom: (beginning to have mean Mommy voice) [Big Sister!] I said you could have ONE more!
Big Sis: Ok! (returning to the kitchen to have just one more...)

As you can see, the girl is pretty serious about her candy corn. I think the relationship started out of curiosity from one of our favorite songs from Nick jr. last year. I know Halloween is over, but this is just for fun:

An elephant with more talent than me...

A friend of mine posted a video of an elephant painting. It sounds silly, like a circus act. But it isn't silly at all when you watch it. It's beautiful. The elephants at this center are rescue animals, lovingly trained to paint pictures that are then sold to help the rescue efforts. I have to admit, dork that I am, when I first watched it, I thought that the elephant was actually creating the picture, like trying to communicate... it made it a little cooler that way. But it is still pretty amazing to see that cute little trunk wielding a paint brush. If you have hundreds of dollars to invest in art and a good cause, one of these prints can be yours. Really. They are sold online at a fair trade store called Exotic World Gifts. Our little town has its own fair trade store, World Next Door, which is a fantastic place to shop for Christmas gifts. They have hundreds of other amazing products (including a small selection of cloth diapers, just had to throw that in) that are made and bought ethically in poor developing countries. I'm not sure if they have elephant paintings, but they do have paper made out of elephant poop! Seriously, they do.

Back to the painting. You have to click here to watch the video. It is amazing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He7Ge7Sogrk