Waiting in Line

I got stuck waiting in a super long line at Target this morning. Annoying. So much to do...so little time. This morning I also witnessed a line of my mile high neighbors that extended around a city block in East Denver. It was bitter cold. Hundreds of kids...babies...were standing there with mom and dad. Some were in bath robes and flip flops. They weren't waiting to purchase a new magnetic alphabet toy & 2T jeans like I was. They were waiting for food. And a chance to sit on Santa's lap and receive a present. For many kids, the only gift they'll receive this Christmas.

I'm paid to get publicity for Food Bank of the Rockies and educate the public about the need out there in our service area. It's my job. But days like this, I walk away wondering how I can spend a fraction of a second complaining about the hand I've been dealt. There are people who live in my city who stand in line for 3 hours in flip flops just so they can feed their families during the holidays. The 2,000 families & 5,000 kids I saw this morning aren't homeless. They all have at least one employed adult in their household and do their best to make a go of it.

Suddenly that Target line this morning feels like an incredible blessing.

Church Etiquette

It's advent. A time for lovely, peaceful church services. A time to drop your kids off in nursery so you can can sing "Joy to the World" and gaze at the advent candles. This morning proved to stray from that word picture just a tad. We were asked to light the candles and do a reading, so dude came to the service with us and had to sit there (as much as a 21 month old sits) for the first 15 minutes.

It started with him walking down a separate aisle from us to greet those at the end. When he found us he started grunting and pointing at everything in clear sight. Then the organ started. That provided the background noise so dude could start singing and talking in his own language at the loudest possible decibel. Then it started smelling like something only a 21 month old could produce with his own devices. When I went to check his "diap" as we call it, he started shouting "Poopy! Poopy! Poopy!" Yes, he's getting to the point of potty training as he announces every time he even lets one rip these days. No poop followed, so that was a blessing. Then a fun couple sat behind us who apparently looked like his Nanna, so he played hide and go seek, calling her Nanna all the while, and saying "Boo" over and over. He saw my hair as an obstacle, so he proceeded to lift my hair up and pull it so he could see the pseudo Nanna through it.

I'm happy to report that the reading and lighting of the candles was flawless. He stuck his entire fist in his mouth and stared out at the crowd without a peep. What can we say. Church etiquette will come with time.

Winter Aquatics

Dude loves to swim. Granted, he doesn't know how, but he sure thinks he does. So much so that he'll take a giant leap into 4 feet of water and assume that the forces that be will catch him. Those forces are us, his parents, whether or not we're actually in the pool or not.

Colorado doesn't exactly allow for a quick winter trip to the beach, so we're forced to improvise. Last night marked the beginning of what will have to be a new trend in our household. Our friends Eric and Megan had never taken their 6 month old squirt Jack swimming, so we all headed to a local rec center and invaded the indoor pool. This experience turned into "the most awesomest way to spend a Friday night ever imaginable" to the dude. That's what he told us. Excuse my obvious enthusiasm in the video...doesn't take much to get this momma excited!

Gettin' in the (Christmas) Mood

We're counting the days until we hop aboard Frontier (after paying hefty fees for extra present filled luggage) and head to the midwest for Christmas. In the meantime, we're trying to fit in all our Christmas cheer here in the Mile High City. The Syers clan came over for an impromtu gift exchange and Chinese cuisine. See below for evidence of the fun had that night. Hubby got a boat load of tasty beverages...we're definitely stocked up if you want to come for happy hour! Dude (mostly his dad) is finding a great deal of joy in his new remote control car. Brady will get the same thing, enabling the kids (dads) to play together. And my new "coachish" purse is treating me quite well.

That's Payton behind her new computer.

The boys got matching styraphome swords...to beat each other with.

Last night we had the rare pleasure of dining out with friends, sans child, at a fancy shmancy restaurant where you actually sit down and order from a waiter. I kinda forgot that those establishments still exist. It was pure heaven. We laughed, ate, drank and laughed a bit more. Just what the doctor ordered.

I hope your days leading up to Christmas are full of whatever makes you and the world around you happy.

Grandma & Cookies....Doesn't Get Much Better

Visits from grandparents are simply the best. For dude and for his parents. Last weekend, Mom V flew in from Chi-town on Friday morning for an action packed weekend of fun. What did we do to entertain her? Well, we started with colds (mom and dude that is) and a trip to the doctor to make sure we didn't have anything crazy contagious to gift all my guests that night. Friday night mom helped me enormously with my 4th annual cookie exchange. 15 friends arrived with holiday glee, drank, ate, visited and drank and ate some more. Oh...we exchanged cookies too. I always love that night. It's one I look forward to all year long. And the husbands love it when their wives come home with mit fulls of home made goodness.

Saturday dude and I felt better, so we made our way to the Aquarium. It was 60 degrees and sunny, so we fully enjoyed the balmy temps. We knew he would find the house of fish interesting, but we had no idea how much he would LOVE his 2 hours there. He and Grandma had a real hoot walking around, popping bubbles, imitating the fish, growling at the tigers and splashing in the sting ray pool. That was definitely the highlight of our weekend together.

Sunday morning greeted us with another silly eye for our little man. The same eye as last time. A medical mystery. Our doctor met us that day and gave us more antibiotics...although they're not sure what's going on. It's better now, as is his cold. I'm still trying to get over that hump! Old Man Winter sure does bring on nasty stuff.

Thanks Grandma for making a special trip out to see us. And THANK YOU for all your help with everything. Dude definitely was spoiled and misses you!

The Most Perfect Unperfect Christmas Tree

To most, our Charlie Brown tree wouldn't necessarily be considered "perfect." But to us, she's a gem and we're happy to spend the month of December admiring her. We comb the mountain forest for a good hour before we decide on the perfect tree, so we take pride in our final choice. I'm lucky there's always a group of us or I would still be trying to find my way back to the car.

Dude has already fallen in love with our little Charlie. It's the 3rd beauty we've cut down, strapped to the roof of our car and hauled down the mountain to our home (3 different homes to be exact). We look forward to many years of Christmas tree hunting adventures to come!

Chicken Nuggets & Floss

I sat down the night before Thanksgiving and started a list of everything that I'm thankful for. Forty five minutes later I was still writing, so you can imagine I came up with quite a list. Bottom line...God is incredibly good to us. We have so much more than what we could ever possibly need and then some. Below is just a sampling of some of the things (aside from the obvious most important things like loving parents, family, friends, health, a house etc) I say thanks for.

*The Light & Fan Department at Home Depot (dude and I can spend half hour there grunting at the beauty of it all)

*TJ Max/Homegoods...I am my mother's daughter

*Floss (oral hygiene is a good thing)

*Contentment (Tim and I just had a conversation of how amazing it is to not feel like we're wanting for anything)

*Dude's big blue eyes (no matter how much I want to take a long break from motherhood, those eyes bring me right back in)

*Chicken nuggets, turkey dogs, yogurt, raisin bread etc. (the staple of dude's finicky diet)

*Communication in my marriage (I can't image where we'd be without being able to tell each other anything and everything and know that it'll be okay)

*Grace....boy do I need that

*All dude's little friends and friends to be

*Model upbringings which have grounded Tim and I to provide the same for dude

*The sounds of dude talking and singing in his crib in the morning through the monitor

I won't continue on. If you're reading this, I'm thankful for you too! Hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving. We spent the day with our Denver family and had a wonderful time, as usual. We don't know what we'd do without all of them. They complete the circle of home for us here in the Mile High City. Below are some shots from our day o fun & incredible eats!

Who Said Kids Gymnastics Open Gym is Just for Kids?

Aunt Cara found the open gym session to be just as exhilarating as the children did.

We rolled PR around in this huge spongy ball with a hole in the middle.

Dude then insisted on rolling the ball around the entire gym.

We call these "hats"...apparently Dude thought Brady needed a couple of them. On his face.

He might have been a bit scared, but the kid hung on for like a minute!

Don't be fooled. There's no grip there. Not even a slight inclination to hold on.

"Wow. We wish we could do that awesome rope swing. And that girl's not wearing any pants!"

Life. It doesn't get much better than this.

An Assortment of Fun

We haven't updated ya'll on our fun factor for a while. Last weekend we dined with our buds, the Tebbens. We made nice with them in our last neighborhood and then ditched them shortly after to move further west. Luckily they've decided that we're still cool enough to hang. Their daughter Emma is one of dude's most favorite little people. Every little girl he sees in a catalog is "Emma." Dude had a blast jumping on their couch and on Mike and Emma. See evidence below.

Another new and innovative treat is our outdoor plastic pool filled with balls. Dad and dude spend loads of quality time throwing balls at each other and off the walls while the little man sits in the midst of all the colorful circles of endless fun. At the moment, the duo are upstairs watching "Cars" together for the first time. I hear constant grunting and "vrooms" which brings joy to my heart.

Today we invited our bestest buds, PR & Brady, to our gymnastics open gym time. Boy was that a hit for all! I'll do the next post on that hour of glee. We're excited for Thanksgiving tomorrow! Have a great Turkey, ham, whatever suits your fancy, day!

Friday Night with Fresh Prince

Ok, so really it was like 15 minutes with the Fresh Prince, but who's counting. I didn't expect to find myself jamming a camera in Will Smith's face on Friday night, but I'll take it! Will and Sony Pictures came to town for the red carpet premier of his new movie "Seven Pounds" and decided to donate a slew of turkeys and a bunch of food to my work. SO....we were invited to the festivities, which meant Tim, Dude and I got to stand in the "VIP" area and take pictures of the man. He really does love his fans. He spent at least 45 minutes taking pictures with everyone who wanted one.

Of course, my boss, who had to ask us who Ben Affleck was when he came to our warehouse, got to accept the check from Mr. Smith, shake his hand and do whatever else he could fit in while being 2 inches from him. Oh well. I'll accept my role as the food bank paparazzi any ole' day. Dude however, could have cared less about the star appearances but LOVED the big speakers and flashing lights.