Someday I'll look back at this and laugh.

This summer during the break between summer school and regular school, Peanut had a hard time. He expressed this hard time by smearing poop over every surface in his bedroom everyday for 21 days straight. It was not fun. As a result, we took the carpet out of the boys room. This meant we needed some other sort of flooring in there. Filbert has had this idea for quite a while now to take the laminate flooring from the living room and put it into the boys' room and then get new flooring for the living room. We also thought that, if we were going to it, we should rip out the carpet in our bedroom and continue the flooring into there. Filbert thought it would be a good idea to knock down my closet since it is poorly designed and has some functional obsolescence. (there's my effort at pretension for today.) Walnut and Peanut had the whole week of Thanksgiving of off school, so I packed the two of them plus Cashew up to my parents (the Grandnut C's) on Sunday, giving Filbert three and a half uninterrupted days to work on this grand project. His dad and mom (they prefer not to think of themselves as nuts) were enlisted to help.

Remember that three and a half uninterrupted days? It turns out, not so much. I was under the impression that since Filbert had this huge project to do, he was taking Monday through Wednesday off to work on it, until he came to join us in Iowa for Thanksgiving. I should have known better. He took Monday off and really only had half of Monday because since I was in Iowa with the kids, he had to go to the boys' parent teacher conferences that afternoon and go bowling that evening. (Bowling is sacred, don't even suggest that he take a night off.) I discovered through phone conversations the misunderstanding regarding the work schedule and then lived in fear for the rest of the trip. (Bonus: Cashew potty-trained while we were there. Yay. (Peanut is still not trained, but he no longer plays Picasso with his poop, either. Yay.)) We still managed to have a lovely Thanksgiving and Filbert returned home early to continue work on the closet.

I arrived home to see my lovely new floors and my missing closet. I still don't have a closet. I haven't been able to put the house back together after moving the furniture out of three different rooms. Chaos reigns (remember in Get Smart the evil agency was called Kaos?). And that chaos led us into the Christmas season and prevented any sign of Christmas from appearing in our house. We did get the small tree put up, but the cats keep knocking it over and chewed through one of the light strings. (Oh, by the way, this summer we got 2 kittens. They are named Lavender and Fairbanks. The kids love them.) So anyway, I was feeling kinda bummed about the lack of Christmas cheer in the house, but I have resolved to do better next year and also, Filbert is not allowed to start any new projects until all the projects he has started are completed. Oh, that's right, I forgot, part of the reason we chose the timing of Thanksgiving to do this project was because Filbert thought the bunk beds that he is building would be finished by then. Unfortunately, the work of getting three rooms ready for new flooring delayed the completion of the bunk beds. They're still not done, either. (Filbert is not a loser. I told him I would say that, because he was concerned that people might think he was a loser. He's not a loser, though.)

So anyway, we muddled toward Christmas and tried to look forward time with family and friends instead of focusing on the chaos. We've also had to deal with the escalation of Peanut's PWS related food-seeking behaviors and our fridge has a shiny new padlock on it. Peanut has been getting up early in the morning before anyone wakes and has delighted in finding many ways to strike fear into our hearts. He's really too smart for his own good.

On the 23rd, Filbert and I and his sister, Lisa, and her husband took their grandparents out for a special Christmas breakfast. While there, we got a hugely unexpected (and generous!!!) wad of cash from the Greats to spend on Christmas. Later that day, Lisa and I thought it would be a fabulous idea to go shopping with the money to get stuff for the kids that they could open in front of the Greats on Christmas. (Really, we just wanted to get away from the kids, between us we have a 7 year old, a 6 year old, a 5 year old, a 4 year old, a 3 year old and a 2 year old, and one of us is pregnant, and I'll give you a hint, it's not me.) I asked the kids what they wanted and got various answers, but Peanut was quite emphatic about wanting a "blue guy". I didn't know what this was. I got him a light saber, instead.

On the 24th, we opened presents with the family and Peanut again expressed his wish for a "blue guy" and we finally figured out that he wanted a Perry the Platypus toy. Since Filbert had to go out and exchange the two seated bicycle VCR we had gotten for his parents, he told Peanut that if he could find one, he would get him a "blue guy." We also didn't have any tape to finish wrapping presents. It turns out everyone closes at 8:00 PM on Christmas Eve and the only thing Filbert was able to get from our list of last minute stuff was some tape from Walgreens that cost about a thousand dollars. I finished wrapping everything up, put it on the card table in the middle of the family room, hung some stockings and went to bed.

At 6:30 this morning, Walnut came into our bedroom and said Peanut's up and I think he's opening presents. We rushed to the family room and every stinking, last present was unwrapped. When asked why he did this, Peanut just replied, I can't find the blue guy, where's the blue guy?

A Perfect Party

As you know, String Bean turned two this week. Today she had her birthday party. Had we invited all her friends and fans our house never would have held everyone, so we had to limit it to family and babysitters.

The morning started out with String Bean taking Pop (grandpa) to her favorite park. With the two distractions gone, Mr. Bean, my mom (Nana) and I were able to set up for the party and cook lunch for everyone. Mr. Bean assembled his famous homemade lasagna the evening before and prepared most of the green bean casserole. Mr. Bean also put together an awesome slide show of String Bean's Second Year. He got the garlic bread ready while my mom and I spot cleaned, moved furniture, set the table, laid out the buffet, and decorated with photos of String Bean.

String Bean and Pop arrived home from the park and while Pop took a bath, String Bean took a (very brief) nap. When she awoke, Nana gave her a bath while Mr. Bean and I took care of last minute details.

Auntie Carolyn showed up early to the party since today was String Bean's fitting for her flower girl dress for the wedding. My mom made the dress and had to do some last minute hemming, but wanted to be sure the length was correct first.

Guests began to arrive at 11:30 and lunch was served at noon. Just prior to eating and saying the blessing, String Bean lead the group in singing the "Choo-Choo Song" which introduces everyone in the room. String Bean was the perfect hostess.

Following lunch, we watched the slide show Mr. Bean had made. It was a hit. By demand of the cousins, presents were opened immediately following. Ama and Grandpa tuned in for the present opening via Skype and enjoyed seeing everyone and everything String Bean got. String Bean enjoyed opening the gifts and loved everything she got (which was evidenced by her playing with every toy this afternoon).

We ate ice cream and cupcakes while String Bean made a mess.

It was the perfect party and we are happy that String Bean is loved by so many!

Scary Toys

I fully expect any kid to be afraid of Darth Vader's mask or some of those action figures fashioned after alien movies. What I didn't expect was String Bean's reaction to some of her Christmas presents. Elmo Live was under our tree. At first, he was funny. Then he came closer to her. Forget it. She cowers when he gets too close or when he starts laughing. You'd think he was a monster. Oh, wait...he is.

String Bean also got a book about farm animals. (For the life of me, I can't find you a link to the product to see it.) It is called the Push and Pop Farm Book. It has a little wheel you spin on the edge of each page and a cardboard photo of an animal pops up from between the pages. All it takes is catching sight of that book, and a look of disapproval shows on String Bean's face. If she can get her hands on it, she hands it to whoever is the closest and shakes her head "no." Forget about opening it, or even worse, popping up the photos. She loses all her composure and tears start falling.

I don't see what is so scary about these toys. After all, they don't make that horrible sound the vacuum cleaner makes!