fauxmiddlechild’s Neighborhood

Hi Tim.jpg


Originally uploaded by the big chill festival

Awww.

:)

The only good thing about the snow storm is I had no plans to leave the house today.  But with my luck, it won't be sufficiently melted by Monday morning and I'll slip and slide to work . . .

Snowed in Dec 19 - Front

Snowed in Dec 19 - Back

Hi folks.  Remember how I said we had solved our bathing problems with purchasing a doll for Lou to wash (the lovely Teresa)?  Well, if you laughed at that idea you were RIGHT to do so.  She took a bath for the following four nights without complaint then stopped again.  So now we only give Lorelei a bath when she is getting a little ripe.  It's so strange.  Once she is in the tub for about a minute she calms down and enjoys the bath as usual but getting her IN the tub involves screaming, running away, hysterical crying, crumpling in a heap on the floor, thrashing about, all the toddler moves.  So we decided it's not worth the stress most nights and she probably doesn't need a daily bath in the winter, when she isn't getting muddy or dirty or sweaty.

So anyhow, how was your week?  We played the singing ornament game a thousand times.

It's pretty cute.  She is attempting to sing the chorus from Angels We Have Heard on High which she learned from the Olivia Helps with Christmas book.  The singing ornament idea is from an ornament we have that plays "I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas."

We also had a whole bunch of snow over the weekend, which has sadly melted away.

Before the snow, we had a nice visit from Auntie Tara, Uncle Mike and Cousin Spencer.  The kids had a fun time playing with Lorelei's dolls and doll stroller, and Spencer had fun freaking Lolli out.

they're cousins, not identical cousins

Next week Lorelei has vacation from school!  She is very excited.  And she is also excited to finally open all the presents under the tree that have been taunting her for weeks.

Tim Minchin's Christmas song, White Wine In The Sun, is now available for single purchase on iTunes!

Give this a watch/listen, and then go buy it!  The iTunes version has some very beautiful string accompaniment too.

So see below for kiddo's first visit with Santa.  We have been wearing the new hat every day which is good because she hates the hat I crocheted for her with a fiery passion.  She also did a little hat fashion show for us the other morning.

She has been refusing to take baths or screaming through them ever since right before Thanksgiving.  So I had the bright idea of getting in the tub with her the other day.  I used to do this when she was little, but now she is way too big.  We can't both fit in the tub anymore so that wasn't going to work.  So I asked her if she would take baths more happily if she had a baby to bathe.  She thought this was a great idea and since I had to pick up cat medicine anyhow at Walmart (yes, our cats get to have human antibiotics at $30 a pop!!) I searched for a baby for kiddo.  The babies that were made for washing in the tub were $30, which blew me away.  But I did find a solution for $5.99...

bathing beauties

Yep, I ended up buying her a Barbie.  Oh well, hopefully she won't be too warped.  I got her the Hispanic Barbie at least.  Her name is Teresa.  And ever since I got her she has bathed willingly every night.

This week we were supposed to go to her winter concert but it was cancelled due to cold weather (they had to walk over to campus to do it) so that was a bummer.  Maybe someday I'll get to see her in a concert. 

The only other news is that I gave her a haircut as you can probably see above.  Oh yeah, and Eric is introducing her to Star Wars.  She is really into Star Trek since she saw the beginning of the latest movie at Walmart in French with French subtitles (apparently our Walmart is trying to give us some culture).  We kept having to tell her the car driving sequence as a story while driving to school.  So Eric got her a Star Wars picture book and got out his toys.  He also has an Empire Strikes Back pillowcase but that is on HIS pillow.  Here they are playing with Chewy in the couch fort we made tonight.

hanging out with Chewbacca

More next week, hopefully with less Walmart.

My husband will get all huffy and say "not until the 21st!" but to me, once the temp dips 35F and below and snow/sleet/ice start blowing around, it's winter. My least favorite season (I'm not alone there, I know) because driving is stressful and just getting anything done or going anywhere is a big hassle.  Not to mention it's fucking cold, and as I get older, cold hurts more. Why can't I convince my husband to give up this farming gig so we can go move someplace warm? I don't care if we're poor, we'll be warm!

Right, now I've got that whining out of the way - who's ready for Christmas?  Another thing I'm grateful for as I get older - Christmas/Holidays is FAR less of a big deal than it used to be.  I do enjoy buying gifts for people, but no longer am I all excited/concerned about what I'll be getting back.  Some might say the loss of that excitement is a bad thing - to me it just means I'm more self-sufficient, and that's a good thing!  (If I really want/need something, I just go buy it now.  Anything extra is nice but nothing to get all worked up over!)

I also gave up (pretty much before I ever started) the stress of holiday cards, decorating, and all that extra jazz.  I send cards to the people closest to me (and the in-laws because they'll get huffy if I don't!) but we don't bother with decorations or parties or anything like that anymore. YAY.  True, I'm still forced to do the holiday parties at work, but even those are low key and require very little from me.  I show up with food, and all is well.

Speaking of food - damn I do hate this section of the year because no matter how hard I try to keep it from happening, the pounds pile on.  That's what New Year's is for though of course, and like billions of people I'll be making that resolution to "get back to a healthy weight".  If only just so my pants fit comfortably again.  I'm annoyed that my favorite trousers are currently all too tight!

Sooooo.  There we go, that's my boring update. Hope your lives are all well.

Missoula, MT
Tuesday Morning, 9:14 A.M.

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Not enough time for a long post, but SkyWalker had to talk at morning program this morning at school. The video for those of you logged in and in my neighborhood:

This was just too awesome to wait until next weekend. I convinced Sam to take Lorelei to see Santa today at the annual "Santa Express," where Santa parks his train at the Mall and gives out free hats and gloves. It was very cold and the wait was long (80 minutes, with about 70 of that outside), but in the end it was worth it. Lorelei got to see Santa and got a free Dora hat. The best part was when Santa, who was very smooth and managed to get Lou on his lap even though she was really tired and cranky, asked her what she wanted for Christmas. She didn't even skip a beat and said, "I want a Hippopotamus." Sam was very pleased.

"I want a Hippopotamus"

Sorry about the lack of posts last week.  We were having a very nice Thanksgiving in Spokane.  A few days prior to going over to Spokane we stopped by the new Birth Center in Missoula for its open house.  It is just as nice if somewhat smaller than the one Lorelei was born at (which closed about a year ago), and Eric pointed out it is within walking distance so if I have another one I could just walk over when I go into labor and back once it's born.  Lorelei was disappointed that there were no actual babies being born at the time as she wanted to hold them and also feed them. 

Over the holiday we got to see Uncle Travis, Tori and her two boys, Great Grandma Wells and of course Grandma and Grandpa.  On the drive over she only slept for an hour (!) but she was good company while she was awake, talking with us about what she saw out the windows and telling us stories.  We had a nice visit as usual but she was starting to get a little run down and crabby by the end of it.  I thought maybe it was just that she wasn't sleeping as well or as long, but when we got home after a very whiny car ride we found she had a fever of 102.  So she got an extra day of vacation which Eric and I divided up. 

Grandma and Grandpa have the best toys!  We had lots of tea parties with Piglet and Uncle Max, and Lorelei enjoyed her new shopping cart and groceries. 

This week we had the extra 'vacation' day, on which we entertained Lorelei by putting up our Christmas tree, bought on clearance last year.  We have never had a big xmas tree before, only the Charlie Brown version, so that was fun for all.

This weekend we may go check out Santa's train at the mall and perhaps the xmas parade downtown if it is not too terribly cold.  I must be getting old; I can't stand the cold so well anymore.  We are going to have to save our money this winter as the cats went to the vet yesterday and ended up costing us almost $800 between their various ailments.  Gabers is now missing 8 teeth and Lolli is on antibiotics for two weeks.  Good thing we already bought Lorelei's presents!  The rest of you are probably not getting anything now! Just kidding.