Christmas pics

Abner, the ultimate symbol of friendship, dolled up for the holidays. Julie, Audra and I bought him at The Christmas Store in Dallas in 1984. We grandfathered Jana in and started passing him around between us for a year each. My kids love him, but I don't let them play with him too much for fear they will break him beyond repair.

Pics taken at Chuy's in Dallas, after we had stuffed ourselves and were ready to power shop at Froggy's.

These are all from Christmas Eve, where we hosted Jav's family for the first time. We were a little sad that Jav's Dad decided he didn't feel well and couldn't join us. These pics are all a little dark because I had lots of candles and very few lights on.
Tia Sandie's boyfriend, Michael, entertaining Joel for me while I finished up dinner. They bonded immediately because they have the same haircut.

Gabriel helping his Tita open a present.

Do you see a theme here? We still are all suffering from Ranger fever! Joel's is a Michael Young shirt and mine is Elvis Andrus. Too cool!

Tia and Michael. Such a sweet couple!

Cool! A bike helmet!

Cool! A car!

The tired family pic after the festivities were over.

A VERY excited little boy on his way to bed to listen for Santa.

And Christmas morning finally arrives. This was the first year we invested in Christmas pajamas for Gabriel. Joel's is a hand-me-down, but it worked!

One of the things Gabriel really wanted was a cowbell. We need more cowbell!

Gabriel's big present from Santa. We searched and searched for the earplugs he must have left Mommy and Daddy, but sadly to no avail. Santa, what were you thinking?

This picture makes me think of the Christmas paper carnage scene in A Christmas Story. But instead of a zeppelin, Joel got a train.

Here's Gabriel and I watching A Christmas Story, a family tradition on Christmas Day.

Now fast forward two weeks to the celebration at my Mom and Dad's. My Mom got sick Christmas weekend, then Jav and I were sick New Year's. We were all a little frustrated, but then realized that it didn't matter when we got together. As long as we all were together!

Macy showing off her first tooth loss, EVER! She has a pretty Christmas dress on because she got sick and missed her Christmas concert at school and her Mom told her she could wear it to our party.

Gabriel and Uncle Dave, patiently (HA) waiting to open presents.

Philip, Cade and Macy passing out presents.

This picture makes me laugh because it looks like Philip is a priest.

And one final sad picture of Zoe wondering where all the ornaments went, just before we hauled her favorite toy out to the curb.

Welcome to 2011

In the past I've kept notes on little things that Gabriel did or said throughout the year to post at year-end. I did this for both kids for a few months, but didn't really keep it up. I think I've done a pretty good job documenting things as they happened. So instead, I will just give a snapshot of what everybody's up to as we close out one year and start another.

The holidays have been one big blur to Jav and I. Just after our fun cousin sleepover, I got sick. Then Jav got sick. We have the same thing - sinus infections and bronchitis. Big surprise! Gabriel also started coughing and had a bad runny nose all through Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. We were supposed to go to my Mom and Dad's Christmas Day, but she's been sick and we decided to postpone it a week. Because of Jav and I we now are postponing it another week. It really sucks, especially for Jav since he was sick the entire time he was off for Thanksgiving, and now the whole time he was off for Christmas. Poor guy! I can't seem to get well, or even better this time, and we think it may be because of the mountain cedar this year being REALLY bad. Now Joel either has a bad cold or bad allergies. Gabriel seemed to get better after Christmas, but is now coughing again. We have really had it with allergies, and are even starting to research where we could move one day to get away from these seasonal allergies that plague all of us now. I'm thinking Canada. But then I'd probably turn out to be allergic to snow!

Gabriel has matured into this little mini-teenager. I really don't recognize him any more. He loves to talk to people on the phone, and loves to keep Jav and I updated on every single thing he is doing or planning to do. He has elaborate conversations between matchbox cars, dinosaurs, Toy Story figures, or anything else he finds. He is VERY strong willed and has TV or playing his new drums taken away from him when he's not minding. Which is often. He and I are very alike and therefore find ourselves clashing. I have to really watch my temper and try to find patience when dealing with this smart, talking back, opinionated, know-it-all little guy.

BUT we had a great Mommy and Gabriel only morning this past week. We started out at the library, where he loves to go. Then I decided to hunt up and down Lancaster for Sword's Music, which was around when I was young. I thought I remembered seeing it a year or two ago, and sure enough, it's still there! One of the few buildings that hasn't been either boarded up or turned into a liquor or pawn shop. (How sad.) They sell all kinds of instruments and offer lessons, which I didn't know about. I had been promising to take Gabriel if it was still there, and he was SO excited to find out it was! We just hung out in there for about 45 minutes looking over and over again at all of the instruments. He wanted to try to play all of them, but I wouldn't let him touch anything, and many of the instruments were behind cases anyway. I found out they will give drum lessons to four-year olds, but when I told Gabriel about them he said he already knew how to play. I guess he's still a little young for lessons. Then we went to Taco Bueno for lunch. It was great, because he looked at me like he used to when he was smaller, like I was his hero instead of that mean person who is constantly riding him about something. By the afternoon all was back to normal and he was not liking me very much again. I know it's because I still spend most of my free time with Joel, and I don't sit and play with him for long periods of time like Daddy does. Sigh. But the thing I am most proud of about Gabriel right now is that he is such a loving, sweet older brother. He dotes on Joel. If he does feel jealousy towards him, he takes it out on me, never on his brother. It is so sweet to see the two of them playing together.

Joel is also maturing into toddlerville at a very rapid rate, although still not walking. He loves to just stand places for a long time, but then is content to drop and crawl to the next place he's after. Which is all the places he's not supposed to go, like the toilet, the big glass doors on our entertainment center, the pet water bowl, Gabriel's tiny cars, Molly's bed (while Molly is in it), etc... etc... You can't leave him alone for a minute. If I have to get ready to go somewhere or load up the car, I put him in his room and lock the storm door (the best and smartest thing we ever installed in this house), because it's virtually baby proof. The only thing that still might happen is a bad fall, which does occasionally. On grocery store days he's in there on and off all day. I HATE grocery store days these days. It takes us 2 hours at the store and then it's such a pain to put everything away when we get home. It usually takes me all day to get it done.

Anyway, Joel is verbalizing like crazy and has no shyness about letting you know when he's mad about something. He is so dang loud! But so dang cute. He loves for me to carry him around the house and look at our family pictures. He has this cute move where he'll swing his head way out to look at my face when it's a picture of he and I. Then he smiles and kicks his excited legs. Another cute thing he's doing now is from Jav's mom. She has "blown on" the lights with both boys. She blows in the direction of the light while turning it on and off. Then she tries to get them to blow by saying it in Spanish ("sopra le", which means "blow it" from the verb soplar -to blow). Gabriel would never actually blow, just be delighted that you could do it. Joel blows, though, especially when he's on the changing table and bored. The light goes on and off about 5 times during one diaper change, if I'm quick. And he still loves to put food in his hair, which makes for cheap entertainment during meal times.

Our pets are all sick of winter and of us being sick. We haven't been able to walk Molly (who will turn 9 in February) in two weeks, and I have lots of guilt about that. I figure the more we get her moving with her arthritis, the longer she's going to live. The cats are pouty about us not ever going outside lately. All the pets are at their happiest when me and the boys go out to play. They just love to hang out in the yard with us. So this is a tough time of year for them. Zoe (who is 9) continues to amaze us with her socialness, for lack of a better word. When Cade and Macy were over she was right in the middle of all of us, and actually let both of them pet her as long as I was there to supervise. Who is this friendly cat? But she's still Zoe, because Gabriel has gotten a scratch and and light bite from her recently. both of which were mostly Gabriel's fault. Bones is still Bones, and will turn 14 this year. If he's in the mood, he's a friendly guy. If not, watch out. He is still in great shape, jumping fences and prowling around, as long as it's not too cold outside. He loves to sleep at the end of Gabriel's bed on his soft Lightning McQueen blanket. He wants to spend his late nights/early mornings in the garage, and gets very bratty if he doesn't get to go. But when we have really cold nights, like last night (24 degree low), I try to wait until as late as possible, and he tears around the house doing his mad "Meow" and a combination hop and run. Then he starts stalking Zoe, something that is happening way too much now. They get into fights about once or twice a week.

That is a picture of our life at this moment. By tomorrow, it will be different!

Another new holiday tradition

I was determined this year to have my niece and nephew over to do some fun stuff for the holidays. Last year we had just had Joel, and the years before that Macy was too small to come. But now they are getting older so fast, and with Cade turning nine this year I wonder how many years I'll have left with him wanting to come hang out with us. So I planned an entire day and evening of fun and couldn't believe that we got it to happen on short notice.

The only problem was that it was the Tuesday before Christmas. You know, that time when you still have about a billion things to do and aren't quite sure how you're going to manage all of them? Well, I just didn't want that to stop this. Isn't hanging out with family what Christmas and the holidays are all about? Not getting stuff done.

We met them on the west side of town Tuesday morning so that I could switch cars with April. She drives a giant Durango, and we can't fit more than two car seats in our car. We headed back home amidst much excited talking. The kids played for awhile while Joel took a nap, then we had lunch. My plan was for my Mom to go to the zoo with all of us, since I was a little nervous about taking all four kids by myself. But my Mom got sick and had to bow out, so I asked if my dad, also knows as Poppy, would come. He agreed. Everyone was so excited about this zoo trip it was ridiculous! Even me!

We had such a good time. The weather cooperated a little too much and we found ourselves getting sweaty and hot in the sunnier places. Cade is old enough to help us with Macy and Gabriel, who held hands with each other or me the whole trip. My Dad and I took turns holding Joel up to see things, since one of the only flaws I find with the Ft. Worth zoo is that babies in strollers really can't see much. Everybody got to see their favorites, and we ended the day as we always do with the apes and monkeys. The gorillas were very accessible which made everyone happy. The last time we went I forgot to post about the second biggest male gorilla suddenly charging the glass and hitting it with all of his might, scattering the crowd and leaving us all really nervous and trying not to think about what happened at the Dallas zoo. Luckily that didn't happen this trip since Cade and Gabriel were literally inches from him sitting right next to the glass. He would look at them occasionally, but I'm trying to teach Gabriel to not stare right into their eyes because I think it's rude.

We all came home to have some much needed quiet time. But instead we headed to the back yard, because it was 85 degrees outside! Then Jav got home early, which was great because that meant we could go look at Christmas lights. We picked the Diamond Loch neighborhood over Interlochen, which I think takes too long and eventually becomes too much of a good thing. Diamond Loch is always really pretty, not too long and not too crowded. And our expectations were met. The kids all loved it. One of my neatest memories from the day will be driving back home from the lights, all of us (except Joel who had graciously fallen asleep minutes from the house), singing Feliz Navidad at the top of our lungs. It made me think of "A Christmas Story" when the Mom and kids are singing Jingle Bells together after picking out a Christmas tree.

Bedtime was a little chaotic, as we knew it would be. Joel got to bed just a little late, but everyone else was an hour later than usual. And then Cade kept trying to scare Macy, who is not used to sleeping away from home. She didn't really need help, because lots of things make her nervous, like the thought of one of our cats plodding over her air mattress on the floor of our living room. Which I never thought one of them would do, but of course, they both did. After all the initial hoopla, the kids both managed to get to sleep and did really well the rest of the night. The next day was low-key. Just breakfast and playing until they went home around lunchtime. But great memories were made that I hope the kids will keep with them for a long time. I know I will.

The forgotten birthday

My sweet one-year-old boy.

Little Joel turned one amidst the post-Thanksgiving and pre-Christmas hoopla, as he will every year seeing that his birthday is December 1st. And it kind of got lost in the shuffle, as it probably will every year. We are going to try to fight that, though.

We resisted putting up Christmas decorations inside until after his birthday. We wanted him to be the star, at least this year. He, however, in typical Joel fashion, was very nonchalant about the whole thing.

All he really wanted to do was pull out all the videos and DVDs. We say he's taking inventory. He started out just pulling them out. Then he started trying to put them back. Now he looks and them and decides if it's one he likes or not.

We decided to just have family, and we just had a small afternoon party instead of a big meal like we always tried to do with Gabriel. This is his cake. I don't mean THE cake, I mean HIS cake. The corner of ours is in the background of the picture. The bakery his Tia found will make a smaller version for the kid to tear into.

Only it's not so small, and he didn't quite know what to do with it.

It took a lot of time and a lot of coaxing to get him to dig in.

But then he got a little better at it, and before long he was stuffing big hunks of icing into his mouth like an old pro. All I could do was sit back and wait for the tummy ache, which woke him up from his post-party nap causing big giant screams. Sigh.

But he enjoyed himself, as did all of us, so it was a success. He got some cool new toys, and some new PJ's, the really warm footie kind that he really needed. And some other clothes and a bath toy. All he wanted to do was crawl around after his brother and stare up at Cade and Macy, who he loves having at our house.

Tonight Jav and I noticed that he is getting better at punching buttons and purposefully playing with toys instead of randomly like before. He's also much more thoughtful these last few days. I'll catch him just staring into space thinking about something. But then he'll see me and flash that Joel smile and start moving his happy legs.

I have a bad cough again and couldn't sing to him tonight, so I decided to try whistling O Holy Night. It's not easy to do! But it got him really soundly to sleep.

Love him so, so much.

Old holiday memories and making new ones

Gabriel has been infatuated with Christmas lights this year. He gets so excited driving through the neighborhood after dark. We've driven the neighborhood twice, and then we went with Cade and Macy to Diamond Loch. I thought Gabriel's head was going to explode he was so excited.

It made me remember sitting in the back seat when we would drive back and forth from my grandparents or wherever during the Christmas season, and my goal was to look down every street, in both directions, and make sure I saw every single house that had lights. Once we had done this a couple of times, I would rate the decorating jobs based on color choice and how neatly the job was done. My absolute favorite was all blue lights. Not the weird part-blue, part-white fluorescent looking lights they make now. But a deep blue that would make me feel peaceful and calm.

Of course, back then no one had anything inflatable in their yards. I don't like the blow-up things, but Gabriel loves them. I vowed we would never have them in our yard, but who knows how much those big brown eyes will sway me one day. I think our yard looks really pretty this year. All we added was some sparkly things and lights to our little tree. They shine in the sun during the day and look really pretty with the lights at night. One day we WILL win or place in the neighborhood decorating contest. I already have some ideas for next year.

Another tradition from the past that we are now continuing is an advent calendar. I absolutely loved my advent calendar growing up. It was made out of white felt, and the tree that you hung the ornaments on was pink felt. There were 25 little pockets with different baubles attached to straight pins (!). You pinned a new ornament to the tree every day up until the 25th. I guess they weren't as concerned about safety issues as we are today. I think my brother and I may have stuck ourselves (or each other) with those pins a couple of times, but nothing serious.

My mom bought Gabriel an advent calendar this year. It's Fisher Price, and really cute. Every day he pulls out another character for the nativity scene and velcros it wherever he wants to put it. The only one I made him put in a certain place was the baby Jesus, in the center yesterday. He's really been excited every day to move his little footstool under it and see what's in that day's pocket. I'm all for anything that reminds him that this holiday is about much more than Santa and getting stuff, stuff, and more stuff.

Next post, pictures of the stuff, stuff and more stuff.

All kinds of stuff

We have a possum that's eating birdseed spillage from the feeder late nights. We've never seen another possum with his coloring before. His fur is a dark gray, but it's kind of silvery in the lights of the backyard. Jav has taken to this little guy for some reason. Any time I mentioned anything about feeding one before now he would scowl and protest. But he doesn't say a word when I say maybe I should throw a handful of trail mix out there every evening. The problem is he doesn't grace us with his presence every night. So if I throw food out there and he doesn't come, Molly gets an unintentional snack. One night he was out there grazing for quite awhile, and I needed to let Molly out for the last time before bedtime. So I went out on the porch and started making noise, and he slowly sauntered to the back corner of the yard and crawled up on top of the fence. I came in to get Jav to try to scare him on over, because Molly will charge a fence and possibly could have knocked him off of there. But even though Jav was only about 3 feet away, the possum just sat and stared at him when he tried to shoo him away. Before last night we hadn't seen him for about 5 days and were starting to think something happened to him. But I noticed Zoe with her nose pressed against the French doors and there he was. I went to tell Jav, who was about to take a shower. He came almost running out of the bathroom to get to the window so he could see for himself. He's named him Pepe, even though I told him that was silly. Everyone knows that's a skunk name.

Joel is doing so many wonderful things right now, and has started playing while on his knees, which I think is so cute. He's also sitting still much more to play with things, and he has the best posture. I guess babies haven't been beaten down by life stress yet. I used to stand pretty straight, but for the last 3-4 years my posture has really slipped. Joel is inspiring me to try and stand straighter. He's still not walking yet, but I'm in no hurry. He loves to open and close drawers and cabinets and hide toys in them. I could watch him play all day. He still has crazy happy legs when something delights him, but now he's added a fake laugh for effect. It's hilarious.

And then there's Gabriel. We have a new "Elf on the Shelf", a gift from our neighbor. It is a little elf that supposed to sit high up in different rooms to watch what's happening all day, then flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa each night. According to the book, he will land in different places around the house when he comes back, and it's supposed to be a game to try and find him. At least that's how it's supposed to work. Our son does not like Dipsy (Gabriel got to name him.) We're not sure if it's because he's not supposed to touch him (according to the book, it could take away the elf's magic), or if it's because Gabriel's planning to be bad and doesn't want anyone to report that to Santa, or if he's genuinely afraid of the little guy. Even I have to admit that he looks a tiny bit creepy, kind of like pinocchio with a red suit on. The last few days Gabriel seems to be accepting him a little more, but maybe he's just a little young for the concept.

We're watching Scrooged. I love Buster Poindexter as the ghost of Christmas past. "It's a bone!" Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !

New traditions

We have decided that if we don't go to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving (which we won't be able to afford for many years, probably), then we're going to the zoo on Thanksgiving. From now on. We have tried hitting my family one year, then Jav's the next, and we invariably end up feeling like we're hurting someone's feelings no matter what. So when I found out the zoo was open from 12 - 5 on Thanksgiving Day, this idea popped into my head. We will go to the zoo no matter what the weather. If it's nice we'll stay outside. If it's cold we'll go to the awesome new snake/fish/lizard, etc.. building (I think they call it the Living Museum or something like that). And then we'll eat a huge meal at Grandy's. No cooking or dishes. No fuss. Just fun.

We couldn't go on Thanksgiving day this year since Jav and I were under the weather, but we ended up going on Sunday once we were all feeling better. It was a beautiful day. There was a cold wind blowing walking in from the parking lot, but once we got inside zoo grounds it was nice. We didn't go until 2, which is the latest in the day I've ever been there. We had a blast! There were lots of active animals (maybe looking for their dinners?), and there were hardly any people. The highlight this trip were the cats. The white tigers actually started wrestling while we were watching. The cheetah was playful and pouncing in and out of the bushes. And the lions just seemed to be staring back at the crowd staring at them. They were so majestic and breathtaking! I think our membership purchase was one the the best buys we've ever made when I realize that it paid for itself in two trips to the zoo, and when I think about how much happiness it has given to all of us!

It never really stops

I have been anticipating the first birthday of Joel with much trepidation. Thinking of this child leaving babyhood has been tough for me, for there are no more to follow now. No joy mixed with fear at the finding of a new pregnancy. No wonder over the feel of a new life growing inside of me. No excitement mixed with anxiety over labor and delivery. No marvel at a new baby's face, as they morph from resembling one side of the family to the other each morning. It literally makes me ache with sadness.

But then something happened last week that has made the coming event a little easier. I got sick. With a 24-hour bug that packed a punch. Friday afternoon I was supposed to take the boys to pick up Molly at the vet. That was all we had on our plate. By 3:30 or so I was so chilled and my energy level so low that I started to wonder if I could even get them both in the car. My temperature dropped to 96.2, and even with layers of clothes and blankets I could not get warm. Luckily I managed to get both boys asleep, which is almost impossible to do at the same time these days. I consider that happening Divine Intervention. I started trying to call Jav, but he was having serious goings-on at work and couldn't get away. I then called my Dad to see if he would pick up Molly on his way home from work. He said he could and would. One issue taken care of. After he dropped her off, the virus really kicked in and I will spare you the details.

I knew I could maybe handle taking care of Gabriel, but not Joel. It's too physical, and I had nothing. Zip. Nada. No energy to even lift my head off the pillow. Tia Sandie came to get Gabriel to go see a basketball game. I'm glad because I know he was worried when he saw my crumpled body on the couch, even though he is too much of a big boy to admit it. So what do you do when you are that sick? You call your Mama. That's what I did. She came, gatorade and Sprite bottles in hand, and took over Joel for me. By then my fever had risen to 102.5. I don't really remember the two hours she was here, other than hearing Joel laugh, and her face in my bedroom doorway to ask a question now and then. She was here until Jav finally made it home sometime around 8 pm.

It made me think of almost a year ago, when my father not only drove me to the hospital the night before I was induced to have Joel, but then stayed with me when Jav couldn't get away from work that night either. I was having strong contractions, timed far enough apart that I didn't think anything would happen. But my dear Dad insisted on staying with me just in case. He seemed nervous while we waited, though, and I now realize it was because he is old school. I think the thought of being present when I had the baby really terrified him! Or maybe it was more about having to see me be in that much pain and be helpless to really do anything. But the thing is, just by being there, even in the same hospital, he was helping.

When you decide to become a parent, at least a GOOD parent, you do so for life. No matter if your child is 3 months, 3 years, 23 years, or 43 years. If they need you, you respond in the same way. You get there. It made me realize that my job truly is just beginning. I will hopefully have many more years of being there for them when they need me. The only difference is that there will be periods where they don't appreciate it as much as Joel does now. Gabriel has entered one of those periods, unless he needs me in the middle of the night. But Joel seems so thankful all day long just because I'm here. Just as I was thankful to have my Mom Friday night. And just as my parents have passed on their parenting skills and dedication to me, I will try to pass on that thankfulness to my boys.

Ah-tya

...which is Joel's favorite "word" right now. We're not sure what it means, but he says it while crawling and playing, mostly when he's busy. Gabriel claims he's trying to say "hat". He also loves to squeal really high and end up lower. He'll do it back to me if I start it. We have entire conversations making this noise. Other than those two noises, he says "mama, mama, mama," and "dada, dada, dada" pretty evenly now. He's speed crawling now, and crawling over things that aren't really meant to be crawled over. He loves to crawl on top of our footstools and get his belly over them, hang his head off one side and let his feet dangle off the floor on the other. I am sure he will end up falling on his head when he does this, but the one time he let that big 'ole head hang too far he got his arms out lightning fast to catch himself. He chases Zoe, which has made her even more nervous if one of the kids starts petting her. She gave Gabriel a mean scratch just under his eye the other day to prove her point.

Joel has the funniest habit of taking different things, like blocks or little pieces of food, and holding them way up in the air, then slowly moving them down across his hair and then face. All the while he stares at you as if he is just daring you to make him stop, or maybe he's just very proud of whatever it is he's showcasing. This gets really funny when it's food, because it invariably ends up stuck to his hair and face.

He's such a big boy, but not chubby like Gabriel. He has some mean thighs, but he's just solid up and down. He's VERY strong too, and likes to pound Mommy while I'm holding him with one fist in the chest and one fist on the back when he gets excited about something. He's always shown his excitement in those legs, though, and now wiggles them like crazy while in a sitting position when he's happy. It cracks me up.

He is the absolute best hugger in the entire world. He puts his whole body into hugs. He loves to fake laugh just to get me to laugh. I finally have succeeded in getting him on somewhat of a schedule, and he will take a long nap in the morning and a short one in the afternoon. My neighbor, Helen, kept him last week while I went to the dentist and she got him take a nap without being fed first. She is SO wonderful and Joel loves her.

I'm trying to get him interested in books. He has a tendency to get impatient halfway through even the shortest ones and knock them aside. The other day I was reading a book to him about colors, and I could swear that he was saying the words for some of the colors. He made an "re" noise for red, a "bu" noise for blue, and "pu-pu" for purple. I kept thinking to myself at the time that it must just be a weird coincidence, but my gut is telling me that he is already starting to talk. I dried him off after bath time with a shark towel, and showed him what he looked like in the mirror while singing the Jaws music. He started making the same noise and would laugh when I lunged towards the mirror. I'm beginning to think that he is scary smart like his brother. I'm not sure if we can handle two of them in the house, trying to confound and confuse us 24/7. At our age we're pretty easily confused.

He's just at that age where it seems like he's constantly doing something cute or amazing, or both.

Only a boy would think this way

I took both boys to the doctor yesterday with horrible hacking coughs. Their pediatrician always says that he's going to check their ears for bunny rabbits, which Gabriel loves. Yesterday the doctor said, "You know what we should look for instead of bunny rabbits this time of year, Gabriel? Turkeys. They are hiding from us because you know what happens to turkeys on Thanksgiving? We eat them!"

Gabriel kind of giggled, but then looked really thoughtful and I thought, "Oh boy. Now I'm going to have to explain to him about eating animals. What am I going to say?"

But it didn't come up all the way home.

Later, after I got Joel down for a nap, I was trying to figure out what to make for lunch since Gabriel has had little or no appetite lately. He had already turned down several suggestions, then asked if he could watch the rest of "Finding Nemo", a movie I've still not seen from start to finish, until it was time for lunch. I sat down with him to watch the last 45 minutes or so, and teared up a little at the end when Nemo swims back from school to hug his Dad.

At that moment, my son said to me, "Mommy, I want to eat that for lunch" while pointing at the television. I wrinkled my brow and said, "What?" He said, while still pointing, "That". I said, a little kiddingly, "You want to eat Nemo for lunch?" And he unflinchingly said, "Yes, but without the eyes and fins and tail."

So, instead of trying to explain where our food comes from and why we eat animals, I found myself (in a slightly horrified voice) telling him that I couldn't believe he would want to eat such a cute little guy as Nemo, and told him we were out of fish in the house at the moment, thank God.

Love, love, love this.

Not just that he memorized a pretty long poem, but that he seems to "get" it. I've loved Billy Collins for a while now, and his words give me goose bumps. The good kind.

Halloween!

On one of our many trips to the scary guy store during October.

BOO!

The very scary and laughing big bat and the pudgy cute little bat.

First trick or treat stop: Uncle Dave's.

And then off to Mamaw and Poppy's.

And finally to Tita and Tito's

Next we ate dinner and then headed out to the neighbors'. Then Jav took Gabriel to the neighborhood haunted house. Which last year paid attention to whether or not the kid walking through was smallish. But not this year. Jav said it was loud and screamy and not just scary but a little violent. Not good. We will not be taking him back there next year.

Eating

Since I've been nursing Joel for the last year, I have never eaten so healthy. Originally it was just to make sure he wasn't getting junk food from me, and was getting all the nutrients I could eat. I've been eating more fruits and veggies than ever before. I have not been eating too many sweets, especially chocolate. If I wanted to eat something that wasn't too healthy, I made sure to only eat a little of it (like the Rotel we always consume tons of on our Girls' Weekends!) But Joel ended up being very sensitive to everything I eat, so a big list started growing of things I flat out have to stay away from as long as I am nursing. I'm not sure how much longer we will go. I'm hoping for at least six more months, but he is really slowing down now.

Whenever the day comes that he is completely weaned. I have compiled a list of foods that I have denied myself all this time. This doesn't include things that I couldn't eat because of possible food dangers, like goat cheese or sushi, even though I will enjoy those as well. These are things that I really wanted to eat, but couldn't because I would have been up all night with Joel. I will start tackling my list, and probably only get to one every two months or so since every thing on the list except one is NOT very good for you. And I will savor every single bite. Then I need to get back to trying to eat healthy. And start trying to consume much less than I have been for the last five years. Yikes, that's a long time to develop some bad habits!!

10. My homemade cole slaw, the only healthy thing you will find on this list.

9. Movie popcorn, slathered in butter

8. Pepperoni pizza

7. Jason's Deli muffaletta sandwich

6. Chopped BBQ sandwich, piled high with tons of pickles

5. Mexican Inn chips and salsa

4. Sonic coney and tots

3. Chicken fried steak

2. Fried catfish and hush puppies

And the number one thing?

Kincaid's onion rings. The biggest size they come in, with a Shiner Boch on the side.

Oh God how my mouth is watering right now.

Finishing up September

Every year we try to visit Haydee, an old friend of Jav's family and godmother of Jav's sister. She has been a cloistered nun for 25 years now, and her "nun" name is Sister Maria Rosario. She is Cuban and quite a character. Her home for the past five years or so is the Monastery of the Infant Jesus in Lufkin, Texas. Even though she is Tia Sandie's godmother, she is a little closer to Jav. She was thrilled when she found out we were going to be parents and made us promise to raise them right and be sure and visit her often. This trip is old hat now to Gabriel, who was a bit freaked out by the nuns the first couple of times we visited. I was concerned about how Joel would react, but in typical laid-back Joel style, he just accepted everyone with a big toothless grin. We complain about the trip every year, because it takes all day to go there an back, sometimes into evening, and it's just tough to do car trips with little ones. But we invariably end up having a really nice time. The drive there is very pretty, and the convent itself is absolutely beautiful, surrounded by huge East Texas pine trees. It's so quiet all you hear is birds singing. And the nuns are ever so sweet. They love it when kids visit and several always drop by to say hello. Most of them have great senses of humor, which for some reason surprised me at first. They have to stay behind the railing seen above, but can hug over it. They also let the kids be behind it some too. I still need to find out exactly what "cloistered" means one day.

Here is the third walking stick we saw this year. I think they are so cool.

Joel talking to me from inside. Notice Zoe looking at me too.

Really pretty almost full harvest moon. It was supposed to be one of the brightest moons we've had in a long time, and it was beautiful. My picture doesn't do it justice.

My sweeties having a blast in the backyard. Our grass always gets really thick and pretty this time of year, but this year it's even better. It's like walking on a really cushy wall-to-wall carpet. In a vibrant shade of green!

Gabriel in his Beatles cartoon tee he got for his birthday, which has caught the attention of lots of people every time he wears it!

The almost-perfect (Joel looks sad, but he's just not liking the bright sun in his face) end of summer picture, with my lantana in full bloom. We had tons of butterflies, bees, and even hummingbirds eating and pollinating it all summer.

My cultured son

Yesterday Gabriel was playing with his cars on the floor and humming Beethoven's 9th Symphony. I'm not making this up.

He knows it because of A) His little brother's Baby Einstein DVD and 2) the Beatles movie Help, because there's a huge tiger that's got Ringo trapped and the only way to calm him down is to sing that song ("He was raised on the classics.") That movie cracks me up.

Who says you can't learn culture from TV?