Lindsay's Little Linus Moment

This Christmas season, Lindsay's favorite book has been The Christmas Story by Patricia Pingry. She asked for it before naptime and bedtime every day between Thanksgiving and Christmas. She started to pick up a word here and there, and before I knew it, she could practically recite the whole book! For Christmas, Santa brought our family a Flip, and it was a good thing he did! Lindsay started to tell the Christmas Story at Aunt Fern's house and Uncle Geoff was able to capture her little Linus moment.

The Sweet Smell of Santa Success

Remember last years Santa meltdown in the middle of Tyson's Galleria? Well, I certainly do. We had talked about Santa all day - what a nice man he was, how he brought presents to the nice boys and girls. I thought I was golden. I was wrong. Fast forward 11 months. This year, we started the discussions a little before Thanksgiving. We talked about how Santa was like a grandpa, which was perfect because Lindsay's friend Ben has a grandpa who often picks him up from daycare, and Lindsay likes him very much. She would say, "Like Ben's Grandpa!" Sure kid...whatever keeps you smiling. The day after Thanksgiving, Santa really came through, delivering a Little People nativity scene to Lindsay's bedside. This also went a long way. See? Santa really does bring presents! The first test was a quick shopping trip to the mall. I had no intention of standing in the 2 hour line, but thought that if she could see how much other kids liked sitting on Santa's lap, she'd warm to the idea. And she did! She wanted to get closer, so we got closer. She waved, and he waved back, God bless him! Things were really heading down a good path. The big night came. Santa was due to make a visit to Drew's office Christmas party. We donned our best reindeer jumper, and headed down. She wanted to hang back for a little while, observing from a distance. Having this little adjustment period was key. Her first concern was that he was not sitting in his green chair (see previous picture - the girl remembers everything). Once we settled that issue to her satisfaction, Drew walked her close, handed her off and backed away. Success! And all she asked for was a motorcycle!

Look Who's Coming to the Birth of Jesus!

Lindsay got her Little People out this morning.Lately, her manger scene has been the focus of her attention, but this morning, she distributed the wealth. Here's her new and improved nativity. There were the typical players: Joseph, the angel, Mary, and Jesus. Here's where she shook things up a bit. What? You didn't know a little snowman snowglobe and Mommy attended? Venturing further outside the box, she threw in a baby in a stroller, a little asian girl, some dalmation puppies and a few kittens! At least she didn't forget the wisemen!And how did they all get to that tiny stable just outside of Bethlehem, you ask? In their purple SUV of course! "Now baby, why don't you share your stroller with Jesus. And then ask your mommy to go take her SUV and pick up the shepherds. There should be plenty of room in the back for the sheep."

Boo!

Halloween was a week long event, so I figure it's okay that it took a week to post pictures. First we had pumpkin costumes at ballet. Adorable!The next week the girls were allowed to wear their own costumes! Lindsay was a bunny this year again. When MeMe makes such an amazing costume, you want to get more than one year out of it. I'm sure she was sweating under all that fur, but she never even asked to take it off! Then came the big day! The difference this year was the facepaint, otherwise known as eyeliner and lipstick. Trust me, she has never sat that still in her entire life! I think it adds a little something to the costume, don't you?

The neighborhood had a little party at the tot lot followed by a costume parade around the circle.

We went home, carved our pumpkin, ate some dinner, and headed out to collect the goods. Linds was a pro. After every house she said, "I want to go to another house," as if that wasn't a plan. Eventually it was raining just a little too hard so we made quick trips to Miss Beth's and Grammie's and headed home. We'll be eating candy for weeks, but hey, who's complaining? Holidays are so much more fun with kids around!

Goin' To Carolina In My Mind

This past weekend we packed up the car and headed down to North Carolina to visit some good friends who had the nerve to move down there a couple years ago. I suppose I'll forgive them because they're such great people. I worked with Brian for years and we became good friends, despite his sometimes brutal honesty, which eventually I grew to appreciate. Then, lucky for me, his wife Susan temped at HGS for a few months while she was pregnant. She, another girl Beckey, and I would sit for hours talking about baby stuff, much to the chagrin of the males around us. Laney was born and we all still met for lunch, again, for hours. A few years later, Brian delivered their second daughter, Lilia, on the floor of their bathroom. Yikes! Anyway, now they're far far away and they both have my dream jobs - brilliant manufacturing engineer and brilliant mom. We got there around dinnertime on Friday and the three girls became fast friends. On Saturday Brian and Susan took us to the North Carolina State Fair which, let me tell you, is a fantastic slice of fried southern life. There were pig races, tractor pulls, and more camo than should be legally allowed in such a concentrated area. Drew and Brian took charge with the strollers. Way to go dads!The girls rode ponies...and the teacups.Then we helped ourselves to a heart attack, I mean, a fried Snickers. Ugh! Believe me, it was the best of the fried options. See for yourself...I don't blame you girl! That stuff is not all it's cracked up to be! After a nap for the girls and a tour of Brian's new building, we headed out for some delicious Mexican food. Another of my good friends that used to work at HGS joined us. He and Brian are at the same company again and the work they're doing makes me terribly jealous. He was even kind enough to make Halloween goodie bags for the three girls and a road trip goodie bag for Drew and I, complete with Golf Digest and Cosmo. How thoughtful?! We left Sunday morning for the long drive home. Lindsay didn't make it out of town before asking when we were going back. It was so good to see them and we're hoping to see them all again very soon, maybe for a beer/spa weekend!

Ringing in Fall

The leaves have started to change and the weather has been cool for weeks. It was time to do something to ring in Fall. The skies looked like they could open up at any minute so we donned our best raingear and headed way out of town to go apple picking. Linds was totally into it. However, no amount of enthusiasm could make up for the tumbles over fallen apples, so we took turns holding her on our shoulders.

I know I wasn't supposed to let her climb, but I couldn't help it. Could you say no to this face?(Bird geek note: I think those holes on the tree were made by a sapsucker) She was so proud of herself everytime she'd pull one down. Drew got these cools shots towards the end of the morning.

After about an hour we had successfully filled our bag with Golden Grimmes, Honeycrisp, Macintosh, and Granny Smith.

There's no way we'll be able to eat all of these! Even if I made Nan's apple crisp we'd certainly have to eat more than the required apple a day to keep the doctor away to make use of them before they went rotten! Dispite having eaten one or two during the picking, someone still hadn't had enough!

Anyone have any good apple recipes?

Tiny Dancer

Today was one of those moments I have looked forward to since the doctor told me I had a little girl: Lindsay had her first ballet class. Whether she dances for years or takes only this class, I will be absolutely content with this single memory.