Ho ho

Catie and Nick ran up to sit on Santa's lap, then wouldn't say a word or smile for the picture. Sigh.

Oh well, at least I didn't have to be in the picture this year.

Be careful, Little Ears, what you hear

It was Thanksgiving. Brad and I were sitting on the couch in our pajamas watching the Today Show while the kids played. There was a segment about keeping the peace with the family over the holidays, and the psychologist suggested that Thanksgiving was not the time to bring up sensitive topics or come out of the closet.

At that point, Brad turned to me and said, "Erica, I have something I need to tell you. I'm a gay."

Nick, who was passing by, looked at me and said, "Mommy, I'm a gay."

...................................................................................................

We went to the dreaded rat hovel (aka Chuck E. Cheese) on Monday. After Catie ate two bites of pizza and we released her to play again, she began to arrange the chairs into a choo-choo train. (There were only about 10 people in the whole place.)

Then she said, "Mommy has a seat. Daddy has a seat. Catie has a seat. Everybody has a seat! Does that sound good?" in her best "mommy" voice.

The mommy voice shows up pretty often around here lately.

"You want a fruit snack? Okay," she says to herself as she sits down at the table.

"Oh, no! I dropped my ____________," she cries out in the car. "Oh, no. It's okay. Mommy's driving. When we stop we'll pick up your toy."

You know what I love most about the mommy voice? It's not that it's funny, but it definitely is and it makes me laugh to hear her answer her own questions. It's also not because she can calm herself down, even though that helps me immensely.

No, what I love most about it is that her mommy voice is soft and gentle and kind. I'm happy to see that (with a lot of prayer) I'm doing it right often enough to leave that kind of impression on her.

Now if I can only keep my husband from saying things we don't want repeated.... :)

Ode to a Mouse

You were so cute,
Scurrying across the garage floor,
Hiding from the light.

It was difficult to say goodbye.
In other circumstances I might have kept you
And named you Mickey.

But, if you have friends
they aren't welcome here.
So, we had to be sure you wouldn't invite them.

I'm sorry, Little Mouse.
Your life was so short.
Hope you enjoyed the peanut butter.

Look, Mommy! I dressed myself!

At first she came downstairs with a long sleeve shirt on. That didn't last long with my hot-blooded girl. She decided a tank top was much more appropriate.

Like these shoes? She's got another pair just like them.

More pics of the house

Catie has been up every night so far at least once crying about not finding her paci. Ugh. I am so poking a hole in it today.

Maybe part of my frustration comes from this:
The playroom after a full day at home.

I really should have taken a picture of this tree as soon as I finished it. It's already looking a little bedraggled.

Here are some rooms that I haven't shown you yet. Here's the dining/living room. Eventually we'll put some bookcases on the blank wall in the living room.

Here it is from the other direction.

Our guest room is ready!

I promise we'll move the pack n play out of there if you come to visit, but for now we have to separate Catie and Nick during nap time.

And here's the family room. I took a close up of the garland and tree, but you can clearly see in that picture that we haven't really taken care of the electronics under the tv yet (thus the computer sitting on the little table in front of the tree still hooked up to the internet through a wire) and nobody needs that much honesty.

So, it's coming together. The master bedroom, garage, and craft room are all disaster areas still, but I'm hoping to tackle the master today. The garage is mostly Brad's territory, and it's not his fault that there's 20 million empty boxes and 50 tons of packing paper in there. As for the craft room, it's not even on my radar yet. Maybe in January.

So far so good

I blame my last post on sleep deprivation. Catie was up several times last night upset that her paci kept falling through the slats on her crib.

Anyway, thought you might like to see some pictures. Here's the kitchen. It was difficult to fit my stuff. It wasn't as intuitive as some other kitchens we've had. There's a lot of space, but it's mostly vertical.
I love this space behind the sink. I've already filled it with plants. :) Aloe and jade in the big pots, some seasonal poinsettias, and a set of herbs that started as seeds, some of them are starting to sprout already.

I love this desk area, but I think it's going to be a chore to keep it clean, so I had to take a picture now.

This afternoon I worked on the playroom. Why are we buying more toys for Christmas? Ridiculous.

So, those are the two clean areas of the house. I'll take and post more pictures as I finish other rooms.

Just checking in

Our shipment arrived yesterday morning. I have the kitchen unpacked and put away. I'm exhausted already. The end.