Holidays, Holidays

Somewhere, I have pictures from Christmas.... other than those that I took with the awesome new camera I got for Christmas (and therefore are mostly after Christmas).  So, I'll find those sometime, post them, and write about Christmas.  It'll be a wonderful post.

Sometime, I'll write about 125 page tenure dossiers, cancelled winterim classes, anemic activity reports, and the fact that my salary was published on the newspaper's website.  Maybe after a few bottles of wine, which I could clearly afford more of if I worked for the technical college system teaching truck driving.

Somehow, we made it through a late night New Year's Eve party with our children and - even more amazingly - people later stopped me in the hallway to say how nice and well-behaved our children were.  This was clearly linked to the very serious directive I gave them that went something like "you guys don't usually get invited to the adult's party - so you'd better be on your best behavior or else."  Without the Santa's naughty/nice list to lord over them, I'm surprised they listened to me.  I've probably gone and used the annual "Ok, I guess I'll listen to mom" instance, and I used it on the first day of the year.

Ah, but it's time for me to go be an honorary "Whoever is Playing the Packers" fan - in this case, the Vikings.  Because last week, I actually rooted for the Packers, and they sucked.  So, that was a bust and won't happen again. 

Trip to Madison

Yesterday was Allison's 6-month check-in with the endocrinologist (wow - first time I spelled that correctly without spell-check) in Madison.  She briefly begged me to reschedule because it was pajama day at school (as if I knew that when making the appointment in JUNE). 

She continues to grow, albeit slowly.  Things they look for - BMI over 10th percentile (check), weight up (check - closing in of 50 lbs!), height up (check), growth velocity on par with the "late-bloomer" trendline (almost check).  She didn't grow as fast in the second half of the year as she did in the first.  She's still growing about 1 and a half inches per year. 

In the next few years, even if she continues to grow, her percentile will drop because her peers will hit puberty and shoot up.  We are going to stay in watch and wait mode for another 6 months (when they may repeat the bloodwork and x-rays).

Lots of fire!

 I already posted about Allison's birthday party.  On her birthday - we took cookies to school.  She wanted cookies, not the "healthy snack" options that the school recommends.  "Everybody else brings cookies, mom!" so cookies it was.  And then we made a ton of them because they were small (pillsbury take-n-bake being the only cookies I could find, other than oreos, that aren't processed on equipment that also processes nuts) and there are 34 kids in her class.  Ack.

For her birthday dinner, she shockingly chose the Japanese hibachi grill.  Onion volcano:

 She ate very well!!  Grandpa Jim and Grandma Darleen were visiting, so they enjoyed the meal along with us (and this odd group of three people who shared our hibachi table).  I spent most of the night trying to figure out their exact relationship and several minutes near the end convincing their 3-yr old that stabbing at the koi in the little tank with a fork (borrowed and then replaced from the adjoining table) wasn't a good plan.

Then it was home for cake and presents!  Allison enjoyed all her birthday gifts - dresses, caramel apples, a suitcase, a puzzle, and a button factory.

Happy birthday to the girl who is now in double digits!  That's a lot of candles!

How to bring your child to tears...

Jacob has a loose tooth (actually, several).  At Thansgiving, he lost one of his front teeth, and the loss of that tooth caused the other front tooth to migrate into the smack center of his mouth - like some crazy cyclops tooth.  Also, it hangs at kindof a goofy angle, thus giving it a very snaggle-toothed appearance.  Once the tooth found it's new home - it seemed to grow roots again and for two weeks or so got considerably LESS loose.  Totally weird.

Well, it's now getting wiggly again, and I've been trying to encourage Jacob to loosen it up and lose it - if only so that I can force him to sing the "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" song.  So, last night we decided to show Dad how wiggly the tooth was, which prompted this exchange (not the exact wording - but close):

Brian: Did you know the tooth fairy is paying double for teeth lost tonight?
Jacob: No, you're kidding
Brian: Yes, it was in the newpaper.
Jacob: Mom, is that true?
Me: (feeling at this point that this had the potential to go south - I think I nodded in agreement anyway)
Jacob: I want to see it.
Brian: No
Jacob: I want to see the newspaper where it says the toothfairy will bring double tonight!!
Brian: No
Jacob (now in tears/meltdown mode): But Daddy!!!! I want to see where it says that!!!

I settled it by telling Jacob that if he lost the tooth and the toothfairy DIDN'T leave double - that Dad would pay him instead.  Ha.

The tooth did not come out - though Jacob did allow us two chances to try and yank it.  He likes them to fall out on their own - this is probably why he's swallowed two already.

Basketball

After the birthday party yesterday, we were off to basketball.  The rules are slightly different from last year (for example, last year had no stealing at all, but this year they can intercept a pass).  However, there is still quite a bit of structure: they are assigned their "man" at the start of the quarter, and any change in possession sortof stops play for a minute while they reconfigure.... all probably typical of a developmental basketball league.  The boys are surprisingly accurate if they get a shot off.

A birthday party - Age 10!

 So - what do you do for a 10-yr old's birthday party that's NOT a sleepover??  This year - it was makeovers.  We started at the salon.

 They did hair and nails - then we went to a cafe for lunch (an inadvertently got in the middle of a piano recital - totally not our fault).

 All the girls after brunch:

 Then back to our house for presents, cupcakes, and some play time.

Allison had a blast.  Ten years.... a decade.  Wow.

Oh what a (Thursday) night!

(no, our schedules aren't all in Excel..... I'm not THAT big of a nerd.)