Falling in Love Again

...with music, that is.

iPods are magic. I used to think, why would anyone need to carry around 1,000 (or 10,000) of their favorite songs? Well, perhaps so they can sit at work on a holiday and listen to some Spoon or Sinead or whatever else comes up on shuffle. Makes the day much better.

I've had more fun in the last 2 weeks with music than I have had in awhile. And, since I share an iTunes account with my husband, I'm finding some artists that HE knows, but I don't. Or I'm finding out the names of songs/albums that I've heard, but never had that quick, pocket-sized reference to know WHO I'm listening to. I feel like I'm rediscovering part of the old me -- the one who knew all sorts of weird "C-stack" artists (and would play them on the radio ad nauseum). The one who went to concerts. The one who looked forward to Tuesdays, because it was the day new albums came out.

So, thank you, Apple, for this wonderful invention. What boon for music.

(Though I am the only one bothered by the conundrum of whether or not to capitalize the "i" when using iPod at the beginning of the sentence? Dang journalism school!)

Christmas Past

Well, we're home. After three households and 10 hours of driving over the course of 2 days, we're home.

It's snowing here in Milwaukee, maybe 6 inches today, so we decided to make for home late last night. We arrived around 12:30 a.m. So it was a nice feeling to be where we wanted to be when it started snowing at 8:30 this morning.

We had a good trip. Some of the highlights:

One happy cat. On Christmas Day, we lost Philo. We woke up and opened presents, then were packing up the van to head up to my parents' for Christmas dinner. In the loading process, the back door was left ajar, and Philo was nowhere to be seen. We searched the house for him -- he tends to burrow into the backs of closets to sleep, but we couldn't find him. After a brief search of the neighborhood, we decided to leave the garage door ajar and set out a blanket and some food, just in case. We figured the chances were 50/50 -- he could be outside, but he just as well be hiding in the house. We knew there was no point in waiting. He's a cat, so we could sit around all day before he'd appear from his slumber. We worried a bit more when a call to our cat sitter the next day resulted in a report that she couldn't find him either. Well, since I pretty much ruined the suspense with my title, you can probably guess that Philo isn't lost or a cat-sicle. When we got home last night, he was on the couch waiting for us. Silly cat. He has no idea how worried he had us. But I sure was happy to see him.

Splish, splash. Even though we were only at the Menomonie hotel for 24 hours, we managed to go swimming three times. And by "go swimming" I mean that we followed Owen as he fluctuated between the big pool and the little pool (i.e. hot tub) and Nora clung to Jon for dear life. Owen realized he could stand up by himself in the shallow end, so he spent much of his time standing near the number "3" on the wall and splashing himself in the face.

A merry Christmas. Jon loves his Wii, which I was excited to find on a routine trip to Target. Owen played almost nonstop on his Leapster on Christmas Day and Nora was pushing around her shopping cart while it was still in the wrapping paper. We also got one extra Christmas present for ourselves. We decided to upgrade our camera and on Christmas Eve bought a Canon Rebel SLR. Man, that thing is fast. It's a big step up from our other digital and it will be fun experimenting with it. The photo of Owen sipping soda below is one of those gotta-love-natural-light shots that I think are going to make having a faster camera fun.




Into the woods. Late on Christmas afternoon at my parents' house, we loaded everyone up for a "sleigh" ride, which was really an old truck bed pulled by a tractor. We headed into the snow-covered woods as the sun was setting. It was beautiful. I had one of those moments where I look around and can't believe I'm lucky enough to be doing what I'm doing. Surrounded by family, with my daughter on my lap, cuddled in blankets and riding past these snow-decorated trees at twilight. I sure have done a lot to get away from my farm upbringing, but I do like going back for visits. There's something slightly magical in the connection with the land -- or maybe it's just the way my family celebrates it. I guess that's part of being raised by a man who's a poet at heart. I mean, we went into the woods, spread out birdseed and lit candles in jars to hang in a tree. Who else does that?!

Merry Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas and I really should be packing. But here I sit, at the computer, slacking. The stockings are hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that sleeping children will remain unaware. As we get out the presents and put them under the tree, for them to open tomorrow, brimming with glee.

OK, 'nuff of the rhyming.

We're trying something new this year. We'll actually be at home on Christmas morning before hitting the road. I honestly can't remember the last time we woke up in our own home on Christmas. It definitely made for a much more relaxing day today. I finished the wrapping while Nora napped and Owen and Jon got haircuts. We'll be spending the day with my parents, and then heading out for 2 more days of traveling to visit grandparents.

Owen is definitely excited this year. Invoking the name "Santa Claus" got him to play nicely with his sister -- unattended -- for a good 30-45 minutes tonight. He has been bouncing off the walls all evening though. I hope he sleeps.

Merry Christmas! (Or Happy Life Day!)

Time Marches On

So, I went looking in our old digital photos for a picture of Nora from last year so I could compare and see how much she has grown. Instead, I clicked on "Christmas 2005" and was surprised at how young Owen looked.

Yes, I know it was a whole 2 years ago, but still, I sometimes forget about the stumpy legs and pudgy cheeks. For comparison, here he is this Christmas in the same chair at his grandma's. I think the thing that struck me most (other than my apparent penchant for red plaid shirts for the holidays) was how in the first picture his legs stick straight out on the seat, and this year, the chair fits him just fine.

And here's Nora from last year, back when she wasn't crawling or talking or copping an attitude and subsisted entirely on breastmilk and pureed fruits and vegetables.


This year, she was Annie Oakley...on a cow.

So now I'm just another parent bemoaning how quickly the years go by. I guess this is a common refrain because kids offer such an obvious gauge to measure the passage of time -- more noticeable than creakier knees or new wrinkles. And who wouldn't rather watch kids grow than fret about crow's feet?

Here We Come a-Caroling

Yesterday morning, I attended Owen's very first Christmas choral program. They pooled together both of the K4 classes with the three K5 classes, which made for a group of about 100 4- and 5-year-olds in the front of the darkened auditorium. There was so much pride in the room, it was physically manifesting itself on the faces of every adult in the audience. And then there was the parental paparazzi, scooting down the aisle to get good shots. I'm almost not ashamed to admit I was one of them (hey, at least I had an aisle seat). Even moving closer, it was impossible to take a decent photo. But, at least you can sorta pick out the red hair. You'll also have to imagine that there were three times as many kids as I got in this frame.


You could definitely tell the 4-year-olds from the 5-year-olds. The older kids were the ones actually singing, while many of the younger set had vacant, slightly worried expressions the whole time while they somewhat mindlessly mouthed the words to Twas the Night Before Christmas and other songs. Or maybe it was just my kid with the distracted gaze -- I wouldn't really know, since he's about the only one I watched.

During Jingle Bells, he dropped his bell. And, of course, it fell to the floor, so he spent a good part of the song trying to retrieve it. Not so easy considering he was on the second riser. He finally got it back, and went right back to jingling. I look forward to reliving that on the video.

Before the concert, they had a breakfast for the kids and parents. There was Santa and face-painting and French toast and cookies. Owen willingly approached Santa Claus (proving he has overcome his crying run-in with Santa from 3 years ago).



Then he hammed it up with some of his pals. I think it's funny that in this first photo, they're posing like mini high school graduates and in the second one, they're definitely 4-year-olds with untucked shirts, tennis shoes and crazy attitudes (so, I guess, they look like college graduates, LOL).



All in all, a good way to spend the morning.

Last Things First

Got my Christmas present a bit early today...it's my very first iPod. Nano. Green. I loaded it up with a bunch of songs and decided to select shuffle to see what would play first. So, what was the first song ever to play on my iPod?

The Last. By The Replacements. I think I'm going to like this thing.

Snow Day

Today was our first official snow day as the parents of a school-aged kid. Forecasts of freezing rain by mid-day led almost all the area schools to close, even the always-open MPS. I'm home with both kids, even though day care was open. I don't know how those women always get there, but they do. (Seriously, in 4 years, they've never closed due to weather. Must be because a lot of the staff from the hospital across the street take their kids there -- and you know nurses don't get to call in for a snow day.)

So, this is what a snow day looks like at our house.



We've spent the day so far watching videos, coloring and we even did a brief stint outside. Owen, though reluctant, was excited as soon as I mentioned "snowman." Nora was less thrilled. After a few minutes playing with a shovel and some trips down the driveway in the sled, she retired to the porch to watch the activity and enjoy a delicious snowball. She's still at the age when the cold of snow overrides the fun of snow. Next year.

Right now, it looks like the freezing rain will miss us (knock on wood), instead hitting the counties to the south. The air definitely is damp, though, and the snow is falling in these ginormous clumps. I tried to capture it, but you know that a camera in an amateur's hands can't possibly do justice to the beauty of falling snow. It's seriously gorgeous right now (said the woman who's snug at home).

It's Christmas After All

Wow. I sure do get lazy about writing without a post-a-day challenge to meet.

Christmas has officially hit our household. We went and picked out a tree on Saturday. That part of the day went fine. What preceded it was one of those yelling, crying trips to the store...at a really crowded Fleet Farm, a store that is A) far away and B) really cramped and C) a place I don't know my way around at all. At one point, while Jon was trying on snow pants (the whole reason for our trip) I was looking for some spare boots for Nora with both kids in my cart...and they were BOTH crying. Sigh. Luckily, everyone there was super-nice. We got wished a happy holidays by two separate people (one, a fellow redhead who stopped to comment on the kids' hair). But, those kinds of days happen. Jon got his snow pants, which kept him nice and toasty today while sitting at a Packers game in 15-degree weather.

So yes, the whole point of that story was that we got our tree, which I -- once again -- thought was too small and too short as Jon loaded it onto the van, but -- once again -- was just perfect and not too small at all once it standing in our tiny little living room. Owen had remembered that last year we put the lights on the tree while he was napping and he woke up to a lit tree. So this year, he ASKED to take a nap. That lasted about 45 minutes, and then he was antsy and ready to come downstairs. Nora woke up, too, since she'd cat-napped in the van. She was enthralled with the tree when she first saw it, and stared at it like she couldn't figure out what to make of it, and Owen just giddily ran up to it, and then proceeded to ask me which ornaments he could remove.

Today, since Jon was at the game, I decorated the rest of the house while Nora napped, and added a bit to the outdoor decorations, too. I do like getting out all the decorations. Somehow it makes the place feel all warm and cozy. It also means I have to get rid of all the clutter, so everything that's out suddenly feels purposeful. Owen "decorated," too, by putting up new things on his bulletin board in the kitchen. We wore the funny Christmas headbands my mom got one year. After Nora woke up, we ate snack in the living room and cuddled up on the couch to watch Shrek the Halls. AND the Packers won. So all in all, it was a nice afternoon.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Last night, Jon and I went to go see No Country for Old Men. Our friends Steph and Nate came over to watch the kids. Before they left, Steph told us about something funny Owen said. I guess at bedtime, he told them that they could sleep in our bed -- because they're married -- but when we come home, they'd have to move over. Seems logical, right?

It reminded me of something funny he said a couple weeks ago. We'd lit a candle on the dinner table and he was insistent that we not blow it out. The next morning, he was disappointed that it was out. I told him that we can't leave them on all night because that's dangerous. To which he responded, "but they leave them on at the eyebrow store."
The eyebrow store...ie the salon where I go to get, er, slightly uneyebrowed. He accompanied me once and was pretty enthralled by the place -- candles everywhere, mommy laying on a couch...

Good movie, by the way. Beautifully shot. I'd only heard some of the audio book while Jon was listening to it. So there were some surprises in it for me.