Our Christmas tree

On Saturday, we went to a tree farm and cut down our tree. Daddy held Ro at the top of the tree so he could look like an angel tree topper. Ro saw Grandpa do this to Sim, so he wanted to try it too. We set the tree up on Sunday afternoon and Ro started decorating it by setting all of his and Sim's toys on the limbs. Sim's rubber teething butterfly is currently our star. Then, he positioned his toys all around the tree to be presents. We spent a lot of time Sunday and Monday pretending to be presents ourselves, by wrapping up in blankets.

On Monday, Ro and I started decorating the tree for real. I made a bunch of abstract felt ornaments with Ro so we hung those and he loved it. I haven't made a star or angel for the top yet so the teething toy is still up there. Tomorrow, I think we're going to make some felt snowmen and maybe I'll get to the angel.

Speaking of snowmen, Ro has been reading lots of Calvin & Hobbes. I have no idea what he gets out of it, but he especially loves all the strips where Calvin has the snowmen doing something far out.

Scarred for life

Well -- the Xmas play occurred this weekend. I'm hoping Ro will recover from it. The kids performed twice. Once at a nursing home and once at church. Ro was on stage approximately one minute in both plays. For the first play, he was so uncomfortable in the nursring home that he refused to be in it at all until he watched the other kids singing for a bit. Then, he decided he wanted to be an angel too but not very long. He flat out refused to be a wiseman. He just wanted to be with his Daddy, which ended up making some of the old ladies happy because Daddy happened to be in the back of the room and some of those old ladies couldn't see the stage that well so they got a little angel to hang out near them, which they seemed to enjoy.

The following night, the play was at church. I thought he would do better but he didn't really. I gave him one of my favorite vases to carry as a wiseman because it looks kind of like the genie lamp in our nativity set, so Ro was excited about it. He dressed as an angel and stood up on the stage for the initial song but he kept pointing out the people he knew in the audience. He pointed out Mommy and Daddy and shouted our names instead of singing. Then he saw Grandma and he gave her a huge shout out and ran off stage to sit with her which was the end of his angel perfomance.

After sitting for a bit, he realized there were plates and plates of cookies in the foryer, so he started complaining about being hungry until I took him back to the nursery to have juice and crackers. I didn't let him have cookies. Then, it was time for his wiseman scene, so I took him back to the changing room. He wouldn't wear the wiseman costume, so we put the angel outfit on him again. I handed him the vase and he stood with the other wiseman and the star. Just as they were about to go out on stage, Ro dropped the vase; it shattered and he burst into to tears. We tried giving him a different vase but he didn't want it. He just couldn't stop crying and staying "Broken, Broken. I broke it" over and over again. I picked him up to console him and in doing so one of his angel wings brushed the second vase and knocked it to the floor and it shattered too, which just made everything worse even though that one was my fault. I felt soooooooooooo bad. I didn't think he'd take it so hard. They tried to give him stuffed animals and even an offering tray to take out to baby jesus but he'd have no part of it. He was so grief stricken. For the next hour, all he would say was "I broke it, I broke it". I ended up taking him to the nursery again to read him books and calm him down but that was sort of futile as well. He kept pointing out things in books that looked like they might be broken. When the play was over, he just wanted to go stare at the trash can where they'd put all the vase pieces. I had to drag him away from it. It was like he had the same morbid fascination people have with car accidents, just on a different scale. Hopefully, he'll do better next year and not be traumatised. geez.

Festival of Sneezes (and lights)

I was the parent assistant at nursery school today and the theme was Hanukkah. The teacher is valiantly trying to cover all possible religious celebrations including Solstice and Kwanza, with a focus on how light functions in each celebration. The teacher pulled out a book about menorahs and the candles and asked the class, "Can you say Hanukkah?" Ro, who doesn't typically say much, popped up with "Bless you! Ha-chooo!!!" While stifling laughter, I told Roey that the teacher didn't sneeze. She said new word. It's Hanukkah. It just sounds a little bit like a sneeze at the beginning (at least the way the teacher said it). Other kids started "sneezing" and then the whole day seemed to get pretty sneezy. It was amusing because kids seem to find sneezing inherently funny but now they associate with Hanukkah because of my kid. Heeeeeee..... All the kids liked the dreidles and making paper menorahs -- though one kid had a massive big sneeze for real and that set off a number of kids to start the play sneezing again. Not exactly what the teacher intended I'm sure.

Update: There have been a lot of menorahs around on account of it being Hanukkah. He now calls them Roey's Candles.

Xmas means Queens bring baby jesus a cup of tea

Because we're religious, we've been trying to teach Ro about praying and the true meaning of Christmas. So, I recently broke out the nativity set so he could see the wise men and baby jesus, etc. I really want him to get it because he's going to be a wise man in the church Xmas play and therefore should have some concept of what he's doing.


As soon as he saw the wise men, he said "Oooh look! Queens!" (ha ha) I had to explain they were in fact Kings, which got all garbled so he still probably has no clue. My explanation was something like "No, They're Kings which are similar to Queens. They're boy queens .... uuuh that's not right. They're royalty. No, you don't know what that means. If Daddy had a crown -- he'd be a king. See, these guys have all beards like Daddy. Queens wouldn't have beards because they're girls like Mommy." Sigh. No wonder he's confused. I can't even explain kings and queens. Anyhow, he's got queens down better than kings because Queen is the typical Q word in alphabet books. Anyhow, one of the kings, has a genie lamp looking thing which Ro thinks is a teapot. So, he keeps pouring imaginary tea all over the scene and saying things like "cup of tea, baby jesus?" It's pretty funny but we still have yet to get the story across.

Praying is going better. We're mostly focusing on thankfulness right now. I try to get him to understand that many people in the world don't have the family and things that he has - so he should be grateful and express his gratitude. So, he thanks God for Mommy, Daddy, Sim, Grandparents, etc. Then, it usually gets interesting. Sometimes, he's thankful for Babar the elephant. (He loves those stories.) Other times he is thankful for every train in the Thomas sheds and he lists them all until he drifts into unconsciousness. He's also frequently thankful for chocolate. Amen. We're all thankful for that. :)

Sicky family

Little Miss Sim is sick. We're all sick but she's currently the sickest. She was up ALL night last night. I'm not exaggerating. I pretty much held her and rocked her and nursed her off and on for 10 hours straight. She slept a little but only in 15 to 30 minute intervals and then she'd wake up screaming because she can't breathe or she'd have a coughing fit. She won't take medicine. She throws up everything I've tried giving her. She doesn't throw up breast milk so I can only think she's barfing the meds because she doesn't like them. Her fever was 102 this morning and then down to 99.5 at noon today and back up to 101 tonight. Husband took a sick day to stay home with me today because I was such a basketcase.


I don't know if anything is worse than a sick baby. I fret constantly. Even though she's still feverish and coughing I feel like the worst is over. She's slept two hours straight so far, so I'm off to bed myself.