home, sweet home

it's been quite awhile since i've written.
we had a busy couple of weeks.
we spent the week before our trip getting things ready, having a holiday party, finishing up with work obligations and just generally trying to prepare for christmas.
we left monday the 22nd for wisconsin. we spent monday evening with grandma lawrence and matt, wendy, alex, andrew and addi. it was great seeing them and griffin loved spending time with his cousins.

tuesday was supposed to have been a trip to see dan's dad...but weather didn't agree with that plan. wisconsin has really gotten pummeled with snow. they have SO much more than we do.
we made our way to my parents and hunkered down for a lovely christmas. gregg, dawn, jake and sam arrived as well and we had a super time. again - griffin loved hanging with the teeter cousins.


santa was way too generous with everyone...these stockings are just a taste of it.


griffin really enjoyed everything about christmas. you could really feel the magic.

we were able to celebrate my mom's birthday with her, spend time playing piano,

playing with all the new toys, making gingerbread houses (mostly griffin ate the candy and frosting right off the house),

after a bit too much frosting...he was pretty happy.

playing a lot of hide-and-seek (griffins new favorite game) and just having a nice relaxing time.
my mom and i were able to get away and see a movie...the curious case of benjamin button. it was really good. (although it was about 3 hours long!)

we attemped to leave saturday to go see dan's dad...but again..our plan was foiled. our car wouldn't start. we had it towed and they couldn't fix it until monday...so we ended up spending a few more days with my parents. we got to see a few friends here and there, see dan's mom a few more times and extend our vacation a bit. as much as we needed to get home (jobs/house/responsibilities) it was nice to have some extra time.

we were bummed to have missed dan's dad, as well as dave, cindy and the girls. the holidays didn't seem complete without seeing all of the family. hopefully in the coming months we can see everyone we didn't get a chance to see.

on a sad note, a friend of mine passed away from complications from cancer. emilie passed away tuesday night, dec. 23. please keep her family in your thoughts...her sons ben (9 months) and daniel (2.5) will surely miss their beautiful mother. she was one of those people that was just a truly good soul. upon meetiing her, you were drawn in. she was creative, smart, witty and even in the ugly face of cancer, she found good in things. definitely a person to look up to and she has affected my life in so many positive ways by having known her. i feel lucky to have had the opportunity.

i was pretty bummed to have missed her funeral yesterday...since we were stuck in wi.

as i have mentioned before - this whole cancer bullshit is out of control. i have known too many people that have died from this.
2009 has got to a better year...there were numerous people i have known that have died this year.

On a happier positive note...it's good to be home.

here are a few more pictures from christmas
griffin really liked playing with grandma lawrence's dogs!

he LOVED his new conductor outfit from mwaaa:

and, his new big wheel from grandma and grandpa - he went around and around the house on this...

santa sucks

saturday we decided to take g downtown to macy's to see the 8th floor display (a day in the life of an elf) and then meet the big man in red. he's been talking about santa quite a bit, since his 20-day marathon of the polar express.
so...we take the light rail. griffin was excited to get on the train. here he is posing at the station.


"where is that train?", he wonders.


things were still going great as we headed downtown.


we get there and had a bit of a wait for that elf display. it was cute enough and griffin was tolerable of the wait.
after we made our way through that, we jump in line to see santa. i had high hopes for this...i had already seen photos from someone at work with the santa from macy's...and he was a good one. the real white hair and beard, big and fat, rosy cheeks and a jolly fella.
so, we proceed to wait about 40 minutes through a horrible line that doesn't really go anywhere.
what i didn't like was that you don't get to see what your in for. you have to wait and wait and finally after all that waiting, they let a few people behind the doors and you wait some more for your turn. the first time you get to see s-man is when you walk around the corner into this lame photo studio they have setup (clearly they want to make this all about having to purchase photos).

anyway, g starts losing patience about 5 minutes before we are up. he's crying and wants to go home. ummm...no. we are this close. so, we round the bend and take a look at santa and griffin loses it.

i would too. this santa SUCKED. he weighed about the same as griffin...not the fat man you would expect. he had fake hair and beard, and he didn't say one word. just sat there and stared at us. he didn't try to talk to griffin or get him to feel more comfortable. he sits there looking all meek and fake.

so...here is our coveted santa shot we were so excited to get this year.


not unlike last year...

first attempt he was crying his eyes out.

then i had to get myself into the shot for him to even tolerate. never thought i'd have my photo with santa so many times!


next year i think i'll come prepared and actually take a shower before we head out. chances are good i'll be getting my picture taken.

faith in humanity..

i think everyone in the world reads this blog. If you don't - you should.
his latest post is absolutely amazing. it renews my faith in good people. an anonymous person donated $25,000 to a wonderful charity in matt, liz and madelines name.
matt chose to share his horrible loss with the world through his blog and we were all riveted and brought into his world through his brutal honesty through writing and photography. instead of curling up in a ball and sinking into misery (which i imagine would be very easy to do)...he has brought good to others through getting people to open their eyes to other people in need. because of him sharing his story and publicly endorsing this charity...some good soul has donated enough money to brighten many childrens lives.

anyway...some days you wonder if there are any decent folks left. and then you hear of stories like this.

it's easy to be fearful that our kids will grow up in a totally f'd up world. so many bad things going on, an economy that is going down the toilet, a war that is taking so many lives, unspeakable crimes going on every day. but things like this make you stop and think that there is hope.

anyway - i'm feeling good...went to see a holiday show last night with work friends, tomorrow night we have dan's swanky holiday party and tonight i'll spoil my baby.

griffin apparently has impressed mizz y. with his smarts. he knew all of his letters by sight except for 3. he even helped a girl that is 6 months older than him and showed her where "n" was. show off. ha.

he told me this morning to stop pushing him (i was trying to get him to stop jumping on his bed so that i could put his socks on..i slightly nudged him onto his pillow so he would sit for a minute). he said clear as day..."mommy, don't push me anymore, i not like it". i responded back, "ok...but then you need to listen to me then, deal?" he then says, "deal" and puts out his hand to shake on it. funny.
so now...whenever i want him to do something...i'll have him shake my hand to seal the deal.

oh, and in exciting news - we have finally broke him of his 20-day stretch of watching polar express every.single.night. ahhh. i was getting mighty sick of tom hanks and that whiny fricken kid.

feelin good

griffin is pretty much back to normal. the weekend was more of him waking up early and having that croup cough, but by monday things were back to normal. thank goodness.
the past weekend was pretty low-key...just hanging around the house getting our man back to full health. sunday i had a cookie exchange which was good fun.

this week has been fairly uneventful. we got some snow monday, so that ended up cancelling my plans to head to wisconsin for a press check. instead we've had a nice few evenings at home.

my friends and i started a weekly work out night at my house. we have such a big upstairs, so once a week we are getting together and doing a workout dvd together after g goes to bed. last night we did "jillians 30 day shred". it was a good one. i'm sore today.

tonight griffin had a little outing to choo choo bobs. it was a nice change of pace for him to get out of the house and he loved it. he loves all of those electric trains going around.
we are realizing that we need to find different things to keep griffin occupied. when we are at home he wants to watch movies (video clips from our digital camera, which are downloaded to our computers) all. the. time. so yeah...good to get out.

a few pictures from recently:

griffins new haircut. he looks like such a big boy!!! where did the time go?


sledding:

croupy crap

so, i stayed home from work with griffin today....he woke up with the croup cough. he was having a tough time catching an inward breath and had that barky cough.
we had him in the steam and also outside and it seemed to help. by the time dan left for work griffin was doing pretty well...but anytime he gets upset...the cough comes back. so....we do everything we can not to upset him (doctors orders).

sometimes i think he takes advantage of that. he knows on days like this we'll do what he wants to not get him riled up.
he demanded to watch the video clips on my computer about 10 times, and had me play exactly the way he wanted me to all day.

when he took a nap, i attempted to make a bunch of cookies. i have a couple of cookie exchanges coming up. i decided to try some new kinds...i don't think they turned out that awesome. the first one i made...i got distracted by something and i'm fairly certain i dumped in an extra cup of flour by accident. the second one took longer than i thought and i don't think it was worth the effort. griffin helped once he woke up and dumped sprinkles all over everything...so that adds a special touch...
oh, and he snuck dough when i wasn't looking. at least he seems to like the cookies.

so, tonight dan and i have the monitor cranked up to 11. i'm sure we'll be sleeping pretty light tonight. let's hope it was just a day of this and all will be better tomorrrow!! we are obviously a bit paranoid after march.

photo update from thanksgiving weekend...

griffin wearing my slippers...


my attempt at a self portrait. (sorry about that, little man)


griffin and dad at the christmas tree barn


griffin and grandma l. looking up a silo


g in his christmas (cosby) sweater


griffin and his matching sweater monkey


griffin and the polar express elf (the big smile indicates that he likes her...)


griffin and santa on the polar express (doesn't have as big of a smile as above photo...)


griffin giving his full approval of tooty fruitys cereal at my work


hollidazzle parade downtown


fireplace and christmas tree

51 facts

so, i meant to post 50 random facts about myself in honor of my 50th post on this blog. but...i just ruined that by posting about my thanksgiving update...so this post has now been changed to "51 random facts about me...)

this blog was originally started to journal about my little man, but it's evolved into more than that...so rather than gush about 50 things i love about griffin (which i'm sure i could come up with way more than that..), i'm just going to post 50 random things about myself.

maybe someday griffin will look back and understand where some of his crazy traits came from (let's just hope he doesn't follow in my footsteps on #3, 4, 5, 10 & 11....

51 random facts about me...

1. i am left-handed

2. i hate coffee

3. i used to charge the neighbor kids $1 each to look at playboy centerfolds

4. i charged the same kids .25 cents each to have a piece of my "candy" that i made. (it was really flavored chapstick that I cut into chunks and wrapped in saran wrap. i had chocolate, grape, root beer, strawberry and the kids thought it was candy, so i thought I should make some money.

5. when my parents and brother were gone one afternoon, i gathered up all of my brothers smurf collection and sold them to neighborhood kids. once they found out i had to go back and retrieve all of them and give them their money back.

6. clearly, my parents always told me i should be a sales person...i could talk people into doing anything.

7. i never could be a sales person because i'm scared of rejection.

8. i had a neurofibroma tumor wrapped around my spinal cord in high school.

9. i have no feeling in my neck, ears and head as a result. (i can still feel pressure, so dan doesn't get out of giving massages!)

10. i smoked my first cigarette in 6th grade

11. i drank alcohol for the first time in 7th grade

12. i would die if i found out griffin was drinking or smoking in the 6th or 7th grade!

13. i have lived in 5 states (indiana, virginia, illinois, wisconsin, minnesota)

14. i regret never getting a 4-year degree. i only have a 2-year associate degree. (i don't think i regret it enough to go back to school though...)

15. i love being griffins mom. it's the most rewarding feeling i've ever had.

16. i talk to myself in the car when i'm alone.

17. i also sing loudly in the car when i'm alone. but pretend i'm not singing when i pull up at a stop light next to someone.

18. i lose things easily (jewelry, sunglasses especially).

19. I NEVER take my wedding rings off, due to the above problem i have. the only time it's ever come off my finger is when it's being cleaned or when i was 8 months pregnant and it didn't fit.

20. i cry pretty easily, but don't admit it or i try and hide it.

21. i don't wash my face. never really have. but have only had the occasional zit in high school...otherwise my skin is clear and healthy!

22. i have spent thousands of dollars on products for my face...and always act like i want to try and do some great skin care regimen...but in reality...it's a waste of money, since i am fine with good old soap and water.

23. i only wear eyeliner and chapstick.

24. i hate knick-knacks. i even hate how it's spelled...

25. i love listening to the kqrs morning show.

26. i like to make up songs and sing them to griffin or dan.

27. i am a very organized person at work, but not at all at home.

28. my favorite band growing up was depeche mode. i still love them!

29. i love hollywood gossip.

30. i dream of being in a band...but have no musical talent, so that won't ever happen!

31. i want to protect my baby from mean people. i am so sad to think of how cruel kids (or people) can be to one another.

32. i know all of the lyrics to "it's the end of the world as we know it"...and whenever the band i used to be a groupie of would sing it (road trip), i would act all smug and excited and sing every lyric hoping people would notice how cool i was...

33. i hate my feet. and they kinda stink too.

34. i like my eyes (trying to spin a positive for each negative....)

35. i am quite sure that i would have a unibrow if i didn't pluck my eyebrows.

36. i tend to over-commit myself. i don't like to say no...so i pretty much tell everyone yes and end up stressing myself out at times!

37. i drink everything FAST. from water, to soda to beer...i drink very quickly. Good when it comes to water...bad when it comes to everything else.

38. cooking meat grosses me out. i do it occasionally, but i still think it's nasty.

39. carbs are my weakness. pasta, potatoes, rice, bread...i could live on that alone.

40. i get sentimental quite often.

41. i am a blog lurker. I regularly check about 15 blogs...but have never once posted a comment or made my presence known.

42. i am a planner. i try to act like i'm laid-back and fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants-like...but in reality, i like to plan, like things to work out how i envision them and enjoy all that goes into executing the perfect plan. (whether it's a party, wedding, weekend, trip, exercise, etc)

43. i don't really like being alone. i know quite a few people need "me-time" or time alone...but i tend to get bored, anxious or stressed when i'm alone. i would rather be around family or friends.

44. in jr. high and high school, i racked up hundreds of dollars a month by calling my bff long-distance. my parents had to take the phones out of the house when they left (i solved that by buying a phone and plugging it in when they were gone), they had to put a long-distance block on the phone only allowing calls to be made if you knew the secret code (i spent an entire day working to crack the code and finally succeeded)

45. i love to travel.

46. i was once on a horseshoe league. (and pool too).

47. i learned to drive stick-shift before even having my license.

48. i can do the splits...but only with my right leg forward...not with the left leg forward. apparently when at parties, i like showing this party-trick. i've tamed that down in recent years though.

49. i used to be on a jump-rope team that traveled all over the country. i was really good and really enjoyed it...that is, until our coach was found guilty of child molestation...and the whole squad folded shortly thereafter.

50. i spent some time in belize for a "save the rainforest" project. and i let a tarantula crawl all over me! what was i thinking?????

51. when i was looking over this post, i probably should give my parents an apology for having to deal with me growing up...i was a big pain in the ass.

back to reality

so, after a nice long 4 day weekend, it's back to reality.
it's always so nice to be able to laze around in the mornings and not have to rush right out the door, so today was tough to switch into that mode of work and daycare.

our weekend was great though.
dan's mom came to visit and we had a great time.
thursday i ran the turkey trot 5k downtown with my friend, jessica. we did well and had a good time. and it made me feel like i deserved to eat a pound of potatoes and 1/2 of a pan of dessert later that day.
griffin didn't really participate in the eating of the thanksgiving meal itself, but the rest of us enjoyed a good meal.
we spent the rest of the day hanging out, lighting a fire and being thankful.

friday we got our christmas tree. it is nice to sit there with the lights and just stare at it. very peaceful.

that evening we went to this polar express train ride. from a childs point of view..it was probably pretty cool. santa, elves, cookies, bells, hot chocolate, being in their pjs, and a train.
from a paying adults point of view, it was a total rip off. $25 per person got you a tiny yellow ticket stub, a train that once inside you really couldn't tell you were even in a train or moving, elves that were 14 year old girls trying a bit too hard to get the group singing carols and playing games, and hot chocolate that wasn't hot.
oh well...seeing griffin excited was worth it.

over the course of the weekend we also managed to go to the hollidazzle parade, go sledding, go for some walks, go to the vikings-bears football game, have many fires in our fireplace, run about 50 loads in the dishwasher, eat an entire 9 x 13 pan of this oreo dessert and watch polar express probably 15 times. a really nice weekend overall.

griffin certainly enjoyed all the time he got to spend with his grandma. she is very sweet to him and gets down and plays with him...so he loves that.

his new trick for the weekend was having us all sit in tiny chairs in the basement and pretending he was the conductor and we were his passengers on the train. he would get out a flashlight and put on this cute striped hat (his engineer hat, he said), and then blow this train whistle and make us sit there until we arrived at the north pole. he would then make us all get out, only to have us get back in seconds later. this went on for quite awhile. of course dan and i kinda quit obeying his rules after a few rounds of this ("no, we are going to sit in this luxurious sleeping car here - a.k.a - the couch - we can't get on your chair train") but grandma probably went to the north pole 100 times this weekend via the little chair train.

week of thanks

before i talk about the coming week...i will recap the weekend:

we spent a nice relaxiing night at home on friday..just chillin out. saturday we ran a bunch of errands...met our friends beau and amy and their daughter vinetta for lunch. v turned 1 on friday..time flies.
that night we babysit for our friends beth and jason. they went to dinner and we watched george, jimmy and g. they were all well behaved and fun to hang with. griffin and jimmy were playing together and it was super cute to see.
they got home and we stayed and had a few drinks with them before heading home.
sunday i went for a run, then we spent the day hanging out.

griffin's new excitement for the weekend was watching the polar express movie. he LOVES it! trains, christmas, santa...what else in life is there??

so, this week is the week of thanksgiving. i used to write letters to people telling them why i was thankful for them...i need to get back into that.
i am thankful for many, many things. our health, wonderful friends and family, jobs that are stable and we enjoy that help us afford our great house and many of the things we want or need. it's this time of year that i try to not take things and people for granted. i need to do that all year around! we have so many luxuries in life and it's easy to lose sight of how lucky we are.

the other thing i'm thankful for is having known a wonderful woman. my grandma died 6 years ago. i miss her and think about her often. i wish griffin had the chance to meet her. we were lucky and got to see her about a month before she passed away. this photo was from then.

we are so thankful that we are all healthy. not everyone is that lucky. my friend is still battling more crap from complications with her cancer. and our neighbor was just diagnosed last week as well..in his colon and spread to his liver. one of my best friends from childhood just lost a baby, some other good friends lost their twins at 18 weeks, and a co-worker lost her father-in-law to a brain hemmerage. ugh. you feel so helpless when these things happen all around you.

onto HAPPIER news...we have a short week of work, and dan's mom is coming for a visit. we are looking forward to having a low-key weekend and being thankful!
here is a photo of griffin's first thanksgiving - nov. 06. we spent it in denver with our favorite peeps...melissa, martin, chloe, laura and lee. (nickels and baby mal weren't here quite yet at that time!) we rented a cabin in the mountains and enjoyed friends. (and laura - we totally have to have a redo of that trip so you can thoroughly enjoy it this time....)


i've been working on a photo organization project this past week and found some photos that made me smile, so thought i'd post them here. man - our little bird has grown so much. i am definitely thankful for my boys.

wicked

i went to see wicked last night. it was great! i loved wizard of oz as a kid and this was a fantastic untold story of the witches. the singing and the sets were great!
my department at work went as a holiday gathering. we had dinner beforehand, then went to the show. it was a late evening, but fun. i'm not feeling that great today though. my cold has kicked in a bit more, along with an upset stomach that i've had since dinner last night.

in other news, an amazing woman that I know has wound up in the hospital with complications from cancer. as i've said before on this blog...it's just so heartbreaking the number of people i know who have been affected by this disease! she's had fluid build up in her lungs and a blood clot as well. my most sincere thoughts are with her and her family and hope that she'll feel better soon and be able to get home to be with her family.
my grandma is also in the hospital...also due to fluid being built up and causing major swelling. i spoke with her on the phone the other night and she sounded to be feeling better, but they are still keeping her in the ICU to keep an eye on her.

griffin continues to amaze us with his vocabulary. he is a little sponge and seems to remember the things he learns and uses it correctly. they are working on body parts, shapes and writing their names at school. he's also getting better with coloring time. he used to only draw 1 line on the paper and then wouldn't want to do it anymore...and wanted mizz y. or the other kids to draw for him. now, he's participating more, and this morning when i dropped him off, he showed me a picture he colored yesterday. very sweet.

the hold steady/DBTs

this weekend was great. friday we just hung out at home.
saturday we ran some errands, then worked outside to clean up the leaves.
that night we went with some friends to see the hold steady and the drive by truckers at first ave. it was AWESOME. we got there early enough to get right out on the floor and be super close for the hold steady. the show was amazing.
half way through the truckers i had to go to the loo and didnt want to fight the crowd to get back to the floor, so i just hung out upstairs and watched from above. i wasn't feeling that hot either...my cold was getting the best of me.
after taking about 45 minutes to get out of the damn parking garage, we swung by phil and jes' house for a beer and taco bell and then i wanted to get going to try and sleep off my cold.
griffin had a swell night with laura. he really enjoyed playing with her. he was going to have a sleep-over at their house, but baby mal wasn't feeling good and we all decided it may be best if g was just at his own house and laura came over. they had a good time and he was a great boy. he's quite comfortable with her, so we knew all would be super.

sunday we pretty much hung around the house all day. griffin got some new fake food for his kitchen...so he liked making us cake, ice cream and pasta. it's funny how he totally avoided all the plastic vegetables...just like he avoids the real-live ones.
I went for a run around the lake, then hit the grocery store...but otherwise it was a nice lazy day at home.

random updates

well, my back is back to normal. just a day of stiffness and now i'm back in business.

so, i realized last night that i've signed up for the turkey trot 5k on thanksgiving morning. ummm. right. i haven't done a lick of running since the iron girl in september. this will be fun.
i guess in my goals to get in shape i've committed to these things and i need to stick with it. but, it would be great to have to head out of town at the last minute, so i can get out of it..


this week has gone by quickly. probably not for dan, who has worked till about 1-2 a.m. each night for a project due today. i'm sure he's looking forward to the weekend off!

griffin has been really getting into pretending he's a lion lately. every morning he wants to go under the covers in our bed and call it the cave. then he'll call out to dan and say "lion! come here lion!" then dan will growl and find him in the cave and then griffin will do it and pretend he's the baby lion. it's cute. he will mostly say he's a nice lion..but occasionally he'll say, i'm mean...i bite you!"

he also has been getting into dancing around in a mosh pit lately. "mama mosh with me?" and he'll run around and bump into various things like he's moshing. i haven't actually BEEN in a mosh pit to verify these things happen, but dan's probably been in plenty....so he can teach griffin the technical ins and outs of moshing properly.

anyway, griffin will ASK dan to put in "cookie monster", so he can mosh.

i think it all started when dan would listen to some of his metal music upstairs in our room while working or cleaning. griffin kinda seemed to like it. so, dan told him the guy sounded like cookie monster, and ever since griffin wants to hear cookie sing.

we'll have some nice wholesome music playing and griffin will demand cookie monster...so in goes the death metal. i think griffins current favorite is "neckrofagious" or something like that. i'm sure dan will correct me on the spelling of that one.

clearly as he gets older we'll be more particular with the lyrics...but with this death metal...you can't even understand the lyrics anyway...so if griffin thinks its cookie monster singing...then hey, that's cool.

hide & seek and down for the count

so, i already didn't feel like going to yoga tonight. none of my friends were going to be there and i was just feeling lazy. add to that the fact that dan's been working a lot of OT this week for a project due friday, and he needed to be at work tonight, thus needing the car.

after dinner we decide to play a little hide & seek. griffin is funny with that...he will hide and we'll be saying "is griffin under the couch..no, is griffin behind the door...no"..and he'll be screaming "here's griffin, i'm here! right here!" i don't think he gets the whole keeping quiet aspect of it. he also hides in the exact spots that he has just found dan or i in.
anyway, it's my turn to hide...so i decide to hide on the stairway landing. i am running over to the stairs before g counts to 10. i turn around to see if he's peeking (which he is notorious for doing), and i proceed to fall down the stairs. shit. that hurt. i fell down about 4 stairs and landed right smack on my shoulder/back with a big, fat thud. damn slippery dress socks. so, yeah..i guess my going to yoga decision was kinda made for me. serves me right for being wishy washy about it in the first place.

it didn't hurt too bad after i finally peeled myself off the floor, but now it's starting to hurt a bit.
the bright side is that griffin came running over asking if i was ok. he sat down next to me and kept saying, "it's ok mama, it's ok. my turn to hide now?"

the ironic thing was dan and i just talked 5 minutes earlier about how we need to pull ourselves together and get in shape. i say this like every. single. day. but dammit, i'm serious. so i had just talked about how i was going to spend the evening doing the exercise ball and treadmill. and now i have a frozen bag of edamame on my back, while watching some E story about a woman that is about 600 lbs. and can't get out of her bed. a real feel-good story...er, yeah.

lets go to chrismas

it's interesting to try and teach a child about time. they can't really grasp the concept of time and it's hard to explain to them that this WEEKEND we will go to the mall, or the park or whatever it is.

when my parents were visiting he was waving at them as they were leaving and he said, "see grandma and grandpa again?" i told him that we would see them again at christmas and we would be going to their house to stay with them then.
i then proceeded to explain what christmas was to him. i tried hard not to tell him he'll get all kinds of presents...i don't want him to ever expect that. anyway, he seemed satisfied with my christmas explaination and he proceeded to run and get his coat and said, "lets go to christmas now?"
so, i had to explain that it wasn't quite christmas yet. we had to get past thanksgiving first..where he would get to see grandma lawrence (grandma precious as he calls her), and then we had to wait a bit longer..maybe have some snow first, and then it would be christmas. (so then we went through the same bit with him wanting to go to thanksgiving now).

anyway, it snowed this past friday. when we looked out the window in the morning he said, "go to christmas now?".

i think we'll get him one of those advent calendars or whatever they are called where there is a piece of chocolate every day. then when all the chocolate is gone...it'll be christmas!!! now that is probably something he'll be able to understand.

in other news, griffin is learning to write letters at school. he apparently doesn't want to do it, and would rather other people write for him. he does that at home too...he wants dan or i to color a picture of something, or write his name, or whatever it is...but when you ask him to do it, he'll say, "i don't want to...momma do it".
we are trying to get better with having him do things on his own. taking his clothes on and off, putting shoes on and off, pulling pants on/off for the bathroom, etc.
maybe we coddle him...we're trying to get better with it all.

apparently at school his little girlfriend kendall does everything for him. according to mizz y, she even wipes his bootie and pulls his pants up for him. so, he always turns to her to have things done for him.
i guess mizz y has banned kendall from going to the can with g because she wants him to start doing it on his own.
see - she thinks he's being lazy...we think he's being a total genius! why do something if someone is going to do it for you??? :)

weekend

friday we had a pretty low-key evening. after g went to bed, dan and i lit our first ever fire in our fireplace. a success.

saturday dan worked around the house getting some things winterized, while g and i met friends laura, mallory and her nephew jamie for the choo-choo bobs/riverview theater train movies. griffin enjoyed eating a bucket of popcorn and watching a bunch of cute train clips. some of them went on just a little too long, but overall it was a good time.

saturday evening dan went out with some friends to go to an art showing at our friends studio. while they were out, a couple friends came over for dinner, wine and a spa night! very relaxing and great convo. my bunioned feet are still feeling nice and soft from the magarita foot scrub.

today has been a lazy sunday. none of us got out of our pjs for the entire day. we played around, i prepared a bunch of meals for the week, and we watched football.

our fridge and freezer is stocked with lots of healthy food food, including a bunch of soups from my soup exchange the other night. it was fun and there were some great soups. dan did some kind of magicians act to our house and it was amazingly clean. i've never seen our bedroom looking so clean. if you open the closet or storage areas...i'm guessing things will come tumbling out...but it's all about the surface, baby.

today a co-worker came by to pickup a bunch of donations for a family in need that she knows. an unbelievably abusive relationship led a woman and her 2 kids to being homeless with nothing but their clothing on their back. we were able to donate quite a bit, and i'm grateful that our things will go to someone truly in need. my co-workers determination to help this family is very inspiring.

well, this sweet little bird is wanting me to get off the computer now so he can cuddle a bit. he still says, "hold you" when he wants to be cuddled. tonight he said to dan and i "both hold you together?" cuz he wanted us both to cuddle with him.

photo update

here are some picts i've been meaning to upload.

our ohio trip and halloween/parents visit: