The meaning of the word no is sinking in. This makes me very pleased because I was afraid she would laugh at me every time I said it for the rest of her life and that didn’t seem like a really good thing to have happen.

Today as I was getting ready to go outside to get the mail in, I called to her to crawl to me so I could take her with me. She crawled toward me and as she did, paused when she spotted some little piece of something on the carpet. She went to pick it up and I immediately said “uh uh” and she looked up at me and shook her head no. Then she started crawling toward me again only to be mesmerized by another small scrap of something on the floor. Only this time she didn’t try to pick it up, she just looked at it, shook her head no, and crawled the rest of the way to me.

Is my daughter brilliant or what? And please tell me this will last forever? ;-)

Okay, so technically her morning nap was about 12:30 pm, but she got a nap before lunch, so to me that counts as a morning nap. Whatever.

We only had a couple of things to get today – a “Dad” ornament from Hallmark; a super secret surprise gift for someone who might be reading this blog; and a pair of shoes and pantyhose for me to wear on Christmas Eve with my black velvet dress that fits (I tried it on to make sure) thank God. I have lovely velvet shoes to go with it, but they have high heels and I’m just not feeling that whole high heels thing – especially when I have to carry around almost 25 pounds of squirming toddler. So I found a really pretty pair of very low-heeled black velvet shoes AND they were on sale. Doubly cool. I hate pantyhose. I wear them maybe once a year at Christmas because I’m dressed up a little more than usual. HATE. THEM. But I got some. Blech.

After the shoe store we stopped in front of the pet store where there was a black lab puppy and two golden lab puppies in the window playing happily. Little Girl was entranced. And in some ways it made me feel better because even though I will miss Majerle terribly when she is gone, I know that Little Girl will love having puppies around to play with and torment…puppies who won’t get grumpy at her if she pulls on their ears or grabs their fur a little too roughly or knocks them down trying to hug them. Majerle is beyond that now. She’s just living out her days and we’re trying to make her as comfortable as we can as long as she still wants to be here with us. When the time comes all of us will know it. And it will be hard, but I saw a glimpse of the future today and it made me smile. There will be more furry friends to lavish our love upon when the time comes.

As we were exiting the elevator on the lower level of the mall on our way out, we ran into one of my favorite former students and her mom and sister getting ready to get on the elevator to go up. It’s funny how that worked out because I had thought the shoe store was on the lower level and when I found out it wasn’t had to go back up the elevator again, so had I not made that mistake, I probably wouldn’t have run into them. But she was a great parent and we still keep in touch via email. It was neat for them to finally be able to see Little Girl in person and of course I got to catch up on the juicy gossip of the school. Crazy stuff going on there, but then again, what else is new? The school I worked for has always been top notch academically, but a little nuts behind the scenes – part of the reason I don’t miss it all that much.

Now I’m home and doing dishes. Seriously. As we speak I’m doing dishes. I LOVE having a dishwasher…lol! Oh all right, I always had a dishwasher, but the last dishwasher didn’t do the dishes whenever I wanted him to…lol!

I also came up with the idea that Mike needs to start a tradition of giving Little Girl a special gift every year like my father always gave me a doll – even after I was an adult. Now he gives Little Girl a doll. I have some ideas for Mike, but I’m going to try and let him come up with his own tradition because it’s between them right? It’s just something that I always thought was special – even when I got older and rolled my eyes at my father for giving me dolls. It was still a special something between the two of us and I want them to have that as well. Nothing like giving Mike something else to do two and a half days before Christmas right? :D

Mike also decided that we were going to break out (err…not literally I hope) the glass ornaments this year because we probably won’t be able to do it again for quite awhile. Since she’s not going to be able to get to the tree and Majerle is too old to be wildly wagging her tail around it, it seems like the logical year to do it. No, the tree’s not decorated yet. It’s got lights though! Gimme a break…lol! I think it will be very pretty and if it ever gets finished? I’ll take some photos for y’all.

In the meantime, I hope your last-minute preparations are going well and you’re feeling excited and/or serene instead of stressed and strung out. :)

Yes indeed, more running around today and Little Girl can’t hardly sleep in a shopping cart now can she? So, she’s gone two days now without a morning nap. Last night she was so cranky I put her to bed early. Which did no good because she was too cranky to go to sleep. Now I have to say that her crankiness is not really that cranky, but a cranky baby is a cranky baby. I finally got her back out of bed and held her on my lap while I worked on the computer with one hand. That’s fun. At least she is finally learning what no means. I finally put her back down a little before 10 pm and she cried once and went to sleep. Whew. Of course by that time I was so tired from getting up so early to go to the mall to see Santa, that I fell asleep not long after she did. *sigh*

This morning the whole house slept in until 9 am. That was kinda nice. Then Mike went to work and Little Girl and I went on errands to Wal*cough*mart, the grocery store and Costco. And I have all but a couple of things done now. So tomorrow a couple more errands and hopefully I’m done because really I am so done with not being done.

We came home and ate lunch and she took a nice long nap and I wrapped presents (so not my favorite thing to do) and straightened up a tiny bit before the choir came over at 5 pm for Christmas Eve rehearsal. After rehearsal Little Girl and I went out to dinner with Marlene and The Social Butterfly and The Princess which was lots of fun and which I hope we get to do more often now that Little Girl can eat “real” food…lol!

Now I’m home waiting for Mike to finish midnight mass rehearsal at the church so we can have some family time. And I also have some blog designing that needs to be finished because I have a deadline people! And it’s fast approaching. *sigh* A blogger’s work is never done. ;)

I just checked the weather forecast for Christmas here in Phoenix and it’s going to be 80 degrees. Eighty. Not very Christmassy huh?

The old saying goes “a picture is worth a thousand words” and that’s the truth isn’t it? I think you can learn so much about a person from a snapshot of a moment in their life. So, as an occasional series I’m going to post a photo of a moment frozen in time. Here’s the first one:

Once in awhile I actually use the brain God gave me, and today was one of those days. Besides the fact that school isn’t out for most people around here yet, going to the mall first thing in the morning and getting there 15 minutes before Santa even gets in the chair was a smart thing to do. I think there were maybe 6 people ahead of us. By the time we left, the line was starting to get pretty long, but we were able to do a lot of shopping in a nice non-crowded mall. And we managed not to run down the mall walkers with the stroller either!

I still remember the anticipation I felt whenever I would go see Santa as a little girl. I would be so nervous that I would forget something and I wanted to make sure he knew exactly what I wanted! For Little Girl, obviously, there was no such anticipation today. She was just having a good time flirting with the cute little blonde boy in line in front of us. But at least she wasn’t scared or angry or otherwise upset that her mother handed her to some strange man in a red suit and a funny white thing on his face and walked away while girls dressed in elf attire waved bells and made funny sounds at her and called her name to get her to look at them instead of at Santa with whom she was having a very lively conversation. I have no idea what she told him, but she was certainly chatting him up. That’s my girl. And I hope you get everything you want for Christmas sweetie cuz we have all we need with you around. :)

I used to have this habit where whenever I would be embarrassed or feel caught out in some way, I would nervously giggle and say “Hi!” to whomever I was talking to (usually my husband because who else catches you out but your beloved spouse right?). A friend of mine pointed it out to me and I broke myself of the habit which is good and maybe bad because it was a funny little habit, unlike the one where I bite my fingernails (which I have mostly broken myself of too but comes back every once in awhile).

Anyway, the other day I was sitting on the sofa and had the closed laptop sitting on the sofa with me but shoved as far from the edge of the sofa as I could get it while I played with her and talked to Mike. I became engrossed in whatever conversation we were having and stopped paying attention to what she was doing until I heard this clunk (a soft clunk thank God) and turned around to see the laptop on the carpet. But it was closed. And there was carpet. And it was a soft clunk.

Normally when I tell her “No!” she just laughs at me because apparently even though I think I’m being firm, I am merely amusing her. However, this time having messed with Mommy’s precious laptop, Mommy’s “NO!” must have been much MUCH firmer because she actually cried. (And no I so do not feel guilty for making her cry. She needs to learn that some things do not belong to her and she is not allowed to touch them for a reason.) She cried for a minute while I told her that was Mommy’s toy not hers and she was not allowed to touch it. Then she stopped because crying does not tend to amuse her for more than 5 minutes or so at a time. (Thank God.) In the meantime, Mike and I went back to our conversation, but this time kept a really close eye on her. Every time she started creeping toward the laptop or reaching her hand out for the laptop, we would say “No!” or “Uh Uh Uh!” and she would immediately stop the forward progress she was making toward my second third most loved thing in the world (okay fourth, Mike can be ahead of the laptop with the kid and the dog…sheesh).

Finally, at one point she reached for the laptop and before we could even say anything to stop her, she pulled her hand back, smiled at us and said “Hi!”

So. Totally. My. Kid.

Baby crying.

Dog barking.

TV on some annoying lameass stupid mind-numbing brain-cell-killing entertaining Disney show to keep baby from crying so I can finish the $&^$#^%& lovely Christmas cards.

Dog still barking.

Since I did promise I would tell you which picture we were using for the Christmas cards we are sending out, and I’m finally getting around to mailing them today (don’t ask)… (Read on …)

So, I just got the news that the lameass liturgical dance with the lameass song has been CANCELLED!

YES!

There is a God. And He loves me. ;-)

This morning I got up and cleaned up all the baking stuff that hadn’t been cleaned up yet due to lack of time and being too tired last night when I got home from the family party. Then Mike and I worked on some music we were doing for mass tonight including a psalm response that I actually mostly wrote the melody for. Woohoo for me! To be fair, though, a melody is no good if there isn’t a lovely accompaniment and arrangement and that’s, of course, where Mike comes in. I think we kinda make a good team that way. (Except for when Mike hits a wrong note on the piano during my solo making me screw up a phrase and freaking me out because I can’t figure how on earth I made up those notes since I’d never made up notes like that in that song before. Ahem.)

Then Rochelle came over to pick me up so we could drive downtown to one of the lovely theaters in the downtown area of Phoenix to see Marlene’s eldest daughter (The Social Butterfly) dance in a production of The Snow Queen. She did a great job and I loved the copper glitter on her eyebrows even though Marlene said it was pain in the butt to get off of the poor kid. The production is really really wonderful. I had never seen it all the way through as the last time I saw it – it was on a 2nd grade field trip with my students a few years ago and they don’t do the whole production for the field trips. But it’s beautifully danced and choreographed, and also the lighting design is really superb. Lighting can make or break a show, all other things being equal, and the lighting on this one is really wonderful.

Then Rochelle and I took our own sweet time getting back booked it back to the north side of town in time for church rehearsal. Mike had been left in charge of feeding Little Girl lunch and getting her dressed for church on top of all the preparation he had to do for the choir. Rochelle and Marlene and I were taking bets on how late he would be and whether or not Rochelle and I would actually beat him to church. But we were shocked pleasantly surprised to find that he had actually managed to get to church on time, so I guess the nagging reminders I gave him that he had to prepare TWO people for church paid off. Of course it helps when your daughter chooses to take an hour and a half nap so that you can take a shower and load choir folders with no interruptions. SO. NOT. FAIR! (Although I have to mention that I had to tell him what to feed her and lay out her church clothes before I left because we wouldn’t want him to have to THINK or anything would we?)

After mass Mike had planned a trumpet rehearsal of Christmas music at the church, but then he decided that we would have it at our house instead. Did I mention that the house looks like a tornado ripped through it because I have been so busy and dealing with a sick kid/arthritic dog the last week? Yeah. Thanks Mike. :P

But even so, it was a really great day and that’s always a good thing.

What a day. We did indeed get everything done that we had to get done and got to the in-laws house by 3:40 and amazingly we were the first ones there. That NEVER happens. So that was cool.

We had the traditional Italian Christmas dinner of pasta (in this case Ravioli) with meatballs, sausage and garlic bread. Yum! And lots of sweet treats as well. Strangely enough, I didn’t eat anything sweet until I was getting ready to leave. I can’t imagine why can you?

After dinner we played “The Game” as we call it. Everyone who wants to participate brings a $20 gift and then we draw numbers to see the order in which we get to choose our gifts. You can either open a new gift or steal someone else’s gift but each gift can only be stolen three times total. Some years the gifts are really good and there is much stealing. This year, the gifts were not as exciting and so not so much stealing. We came away with one really cute gift and one gift that I may regift so I’m not telling what it is…LOL! I’m usually not a regifter, but I think in this case it’s almost the same as buying a gift since it was actually a gift swap. Right? LOL! The cute gift though was a Santa and a Snowman and if I’m really good I’ll take a picture of them tomorrow along with some of the yummies I made.

In Mike’s family we all get gifts for the kids, so they got to open their presents next and let me tell you, the kids come away with some loot! Little Girl got some cool books (including a BIG Mother Goose board book that she can sit on the floor and turn the pages of and not manage to get into her mouth to eat) some jammies, a cute outfit and some cool toys. Now I can go shopping for her since I know what not to get her!

The adults in the family (as in Mike’s siblings, their spouses, his parents and one of the cousins) draw names and get a gift from one other person – with a pretty nice price range limit – and send out lists so we actually get something we want. I got some scrapbooking equipment from Creative Memories (including the cutting system with the oval templates if you are familiar with that). Mike, who is the worst one in the family about sending out a list, didn’t get the one thing he had on his list because they couldn’t find him what he wanted for $100. However, they got him all kinds of gift certificates for fast food (which he eats all the time for lunch when he’s doing his handyman work) and also one for Olive Garden which we will probably use on our anniversary next month.

Mike had to take off for work (weekends almost always mean band gigs) but I stayed and enjoyed some family time with my daughter.

It was a good night and I surely appreciate Mike’s family even more since my mom has been gone.

Now I’ve got a bit more shopping to do – mostly for kiddos and I’m done! Hurray!

And a dvd to make of Little Girl’s first year of life for her father’s Christmas present. Yeah, like that’s going to happen in one week…lol!

It is all but gone this morning just as friend from church said it would be. I don’t believe it was an allergic reaction, so I think all the Benadryl was really good for was sedating her for awhile so I could get something done…HA! I think it was Roseola and it’s run its course and we’re back to normal.

I finished all the baking I’m going to do today. I might make fudge as I had planned later this week, but I can’t find the candy thermometer and so that is a slight problem.

Mike has to wrap the family gifts. I have to put together the goodie plates and then we have to get ourselves ready and over to the in-laws by 4 pm. It’s after 12 pm right now. So yeah, that should be fun. We can do it right?

Have a great weekend and I’ll try to update about the party later.

Okay not of eating it, just of cooking with it. I didn’t even get done with my baking. Hopefully I can finish tomorrow morning. Bleh. At least I had a little company to help distract the child and keep me on track.

So today went something like this: (Read on …)