Thanks to this viewer email recently sent to the entire newsroom, I am closing out another year of blogging with a smile:
Tara Thomas really needs a hair cut the length does not look good on her.

I know others agree with that please see what can be done about this

Thanks,

She did include her name, which I would not post here.  You will find it interesting to know I searched and located her profile picture on Facebook.  No comment on my suggestions for her hair.  The best part, perhaps, is that she sent the email with a red exclamation point which means High Importance!

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 54

A week away from work for me is a long time.  I get 15 vacation days a year, so to take one-third of that time in one shot feels like I’m off a month.  It’s nice to have a hair and make-up break.  Even though it can scare the neighbors.  One of my friends, who lives up the street and around the corner, came over with her daughter today.  She was dropping her off to play with Charlotte but stayed a while.  The more I walked and talked around her (in my new pajamas) about how I had three projects going–sorting through basement toys for garage sale, taking down Christmas decorations and putting away gifts–the more she insisted on helping.  Eventually I accepted her offer.  She rolled up ribbon from the tree, packed away the Christmas village above our kitchen cabinets, hung a picture over our bed and cut off tags on the new master bedroom comforter and decorative pillow set.  She stopped short of rotating our pillow-top mattress.  I wonder if she’ll come back tomorrow when I vacuum  and dust?

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 54

Leave it to Santa to bring Charlotte an Easy Bake Oven.  Helping her try to make too-small-to-even-be-worth-the-effort cupcakes was a disaster this afternoon.  I managed to get the tray stuck inside the thing and had to get Daddy to help fish it out.  Not before I slopped cake batter all over the little metal doors inside that have to be closed on both sides to indicate the baked good is cooking.  Well thanks to an impossible oven exit strategy Charlotte’s first creation was overcooked.  And I misread the frosting mix directions to add one tablespoon of water instead of one teaspoon.  It looked like cold pink soup.  My mom used to add powdered sugar to thicken up her frosting–I actually retained that one.  Of course I poured in too much and a few stirs rendered it somewhere between thick paste and cement.  I suck at cooking with real ovens and little kid ones.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 54

Really enjoying so much time with Dave and the kids, despite the unavoidable moments of annoyance when we’re together for days versus hours.  Christmas Eve was special even though Charlotte had a high fever that meant we left the house only for a trip to the walk-in clinic instead of church.  We watched The Sound of Music.  Love that movie and the songs–and I’m not a huge fan of musicals as movies.  Except for Grease, of course.  I spent half of Sunday putting together a 518-piece Power Rangers Super Samurai house.  As I posted on  Facebook, no way should the kit be for ages 5 & up unless you got an engineering degree in kindergarten!

Santa did not disappoint.  Bitty Twins were a hit and it was suggested by Charlotte that the real diapers left for them could be given to Aunt Bird for her new baby–very sweet.  A new Power Rangers mask meant Thomas could summon their power when playing a game on my smart phone.

Of course the eating has been out of control–as you know is my norm during the holidays.  So each bite of sweets and leftovers is bittersweet in that it’s tinged with guilt knowing another year of dieting and exercising looms.  I just can’t embrace the concept of starting the healthier approach before New Year’s Day so as not to do more damage.  I still have a few days to do some more damage and I plan to maximize the gluttony!

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 54

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 54

I’m all for teachable moments.  And some are happening for my kids courtesy of TV shows.  Yesterday Thomas asked for a napkin then proceeded to unfold it and put it on his lap before eating.  I was shocked, naturally.  “I am doing table manners,” he explained.  Of course I wanted to know where he got this lesson in etiquette-assuming he would say preschool.  “From Special Agent Oso,” he said.  That’s the chubby bear who helps kids solve problems on Disney Jr.  Wow, let’s hope another episode will address not picking your nose and brushing your teeth for longer than two seconds!

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 54

Too bad Santa doesn’t assemble the toys for you.  I spent two hours today putting together Rock’em Sock’em Robots for Thomas and a twin doll stroller and twin doll double-decker bed/feeding station for Charlotte.  The latter being quite complex.  My 6-year-old is getting the American Girl Bitty Twins that resemble my two when they were little.  Thankfully I found the stroller and bed contraption for $40 together.  One of the stroller wheels is sticking.  I told Daddy he’ll have to put some WD-40 on it.  Hopefully that’ll work since we bought the doll stuff in Iowa City months ago.  So far, so good hiding everything.  I don’t know how parents do it with kids who are old enough to figure out the pre-Christmas buying or who like to snoop around.  At this point mine are oblivious to the pile in a dark space of the basement storage room with a blanket over it.  Let’s just hope I remember to get it all out for the big reveal!

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 54

It’s a tough job being a shelf elf.  All that flying back and forth to the North Pole.  And being the bad guy in the house when kids are acting up.  Ernie initially took away two of my kids’ presents under the tree, but they got them back for improved behavior.  I stepped in and took two of Charlotte’s presents away yesterday then a third by nightfall and Thomas lost two this morning for rudely talking back to his Mommy.  So it was no surprise Ernie was suspended from the top of the cabinets, hanging on to the gifts as a stark reminder they could be shipped out if my two don’t shape up.  Guess Ernie’s warning was not heeded:

Yet he smiles and acts like nothing’s wrong.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 54

After learning the details of Friday’s horrific school shooting in Connecticut on top of reporting the latest tragic chapter in the story of the missing Evansdale cousins, I embraced as much normalcy as possible this weekend.  To be able to sit down in the living room and hear my children playing nearby sounded wonderful.  To know no matter how crabby and over-tired and stressed we all are at times during the hectic weekdays that often lead up to activity-filled weekends, we are together and we’re okay.  The loss of innocent children, in an instant, reminds me that little in life as a parent matters beyond some core basics.  Do your kids know you love them?  Do you navigate through work and school schedules with patience and admission of your mistakes?  Are you doing what you can to be a better person?  Then praying your kids will follow your actions more than hollow words?  Yes to all four is my goal.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 54

Volunteering in Charlotte’s first grade class is always entertaining.  Not just because I get to see my 6-year-old in action; I get to watch all the kids’ interaction.  Which is hilarious at this age.  Case in point today’s math lesson.   My daughter was one of two elf helpers for the day so the pair led the class problems on the interactive Mimeo board.  I was allowed to stay and watch.  Amazing how technology has changed instruction with movable graphics and sound effects.  The funny part was listening to the children “correct” other students when they questioned things.  “You were gone that day, (insert name),” someone said to explain why the student was off a column in the tens category when another row of blocks had been added in their workbooks.  The debating was spirited but respectful.  And in the end everyone remained friends.  Perhaps politicians in Washington should visit an elementary school to pick up some pointers on fair play.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 54