Auld Lang Syne

I had a new lease on life for about sixteen and a half hours on January 1st, but it's gone now and I'm just doing the same stuff every day. I could wax eloquent about how much I love a new year. Just sometimes things aren't so new, now are they? At the moment, I kinda feel like the ppptttthhhhhhhh a ballon makes when you let the air out. But let me offer a little holiday recap and commentary...

One of the new things we did this year for the holidays was assemble a gingerbread house. Calvin was in love with the idea of it, but I'm not sure it was that appealing in reality, since it really isn't as delicious as it looks, and you have to actually use the frosting strategically (not for tasting) in order for the house to stand up.
And even if it was delicious, Mean Mom wanted to keep it around to look at - for decoration (eyes rolling) - until it wouldn't be delicious anymore. But...when Mean Mom went away for a few minutes after the highly structured house assemblage activity, the boys went ahead and added tasting to the steps of making gingerbread men. Check out the close-up for the true slobbery beauty of it all.

The big news, of course, is that Charlie knows the word "tongue." And he will show you. Then he will do "raspberries" without using his tongue, only his lips. It's quite entertaining.

I mentioned that Calvin was the front end of the camel for the preschool Christmas pageant? This is the only photo that turned out marginally well. Blurry, but you get the idea. It was cute.

And here's Henry being a (disinterested) mouse in the pageant. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of him squinting to find me in the crowd (for the first five whole minutes of the program) or later when he was singing,"Bleh-bleh-blee-bluch" to a song that he knows all the real words to but didn't feel like singing like everyone else. But you get the idea. Also cute. Or, if not cute, completely Henry.

If there's any advice I could give new parents, it's DON'T BUY TOYS. Babies and kids love the things you already have. Every time. They'll choose the box over the gift inside, the pans in your cupboard instead of rattles or electronic musical "learning" paraphernalia, a free Santa hat over anything he might bring. Charlie wrestled with this Santa hat for most of the holiday season. I have video which is pretty hilarious. To me. The hat almost got the best of him a couple times, but he and his open mouth conquered at last.

And Calvin and Henry made things from the Amazon.com boxes until...well, they're still doing it. Trust me. And when the boxes lose their allure, there's always sticks, teatowels, and duct tape and your little boy will amuse himself being "General Boy" for the better part of the afternoon. Sticks, boxes, household items will save you hundreds - nay, thousands - of dollars and your kids will be just fine. Adorable and smart, even.

This photo is primarily to support the case for having two boys less than two years apart. Moms of such boys live for such moments. They worked together on making the blanket cover them both and snuggled this way for almost an entire movie. Sweet.

And now that the holiday season is over, the tree is down, I'm back at school, the boys are wondering why it's 70 degrees in January, and David is back to his 9 to 5 workaday, we amuse ourselves by doing things like this:

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

All kinds of new and fun around here.

Happy 2008!