Christmas Time is Here

I can't believe another Christmas has come and gone so fast. After weeks and weeks of shopping, deocrating, wrapping, parties, cantata practice out the wazzu, etc... it came and went in a flurry of tearing paper, flashing camera bulbs, and thank yous. It happens every year, yet some how it always takes me by surprise. Shouldn't the space-time-continuum somehow slow down just a bit that we might savor it all just a tiny bit longer?

Firstly, I think you are beginning to get the whole 'Santa Claus' concept for the first time this year. Now that's not to say you're ready to sit in his lap or anything (you ran in hysterical screaming terror from the one at the mall after waiting in line in excitement to meet him - ah well...you're fickle). But you did talk about writing lists to him and enjoyed watching the claymation Christmas specials about Rudolph and Santa Claus. The line we all got the biggest kick out of was when you were standing there, hands on your hips, Christmas morning serveying all of your loot and you proclaimed, "Boy...he sure is nice." Yes he is.

You were spoiled beyond measure this year. You got at least six baby dolls (one as big as you), a doll playset (including a doll playpen, swing, and stroller), a giant three story dollhouse, a my little pony carnival with a working ferris wheel, the much requested cupcake machine (which Grammy and I both agree is highly overrated), and variously little dolls, animals, candies and junk that you loved. I think the best present has been a Fisher Price Digital Camera made with toddlers in mind. It's practically indestructable and it takes real pictures. You figured it out fairly quickly and have run around taking pictures of everything and everybody. I think I'll have to make a little scrapbook of your photography. You really don't do bad for a three year old.

We're all really enjoying spending time with family....eating way too much tasty food....and just relaxing after being so stressed out and busy for weeks.

I really love Christmas.

Our Thanksgiving Weekend

We all had an especially good Thanksgiving this year. We headed down to Sanford on Wednesday morning after Daddy visited one of our church ladies who had surgery that morning. Traffic was really bad, especially through Raleigh. We were very thankful to get home, and Daddy and I both crashed at Grandma and Grandaddy's house - especially Daddy who had only gotten about three hours sleep. You were so excited about knocking on their door when we arrived - such a grown up thing to do! You played and played with Grandma while Daddy snoozed on the couch and then we went and ate Japanese food that evening for supper (you love the salad, the rice, and the little peas and carrots in the rice). After that we went to see Grammy and Grandaddy and you enjoyed playing in their shower (you call it your 'house') and unrolling a bunch of toliet paper in the bottom of it - Grandaddy will let you get away with ANYTHING!

Thanksgiving day we got up really early so we could drive to Fayettville to meet Grandpa, Uncle Jesse, Steve, Lisa, and your cousins Trinity, Katey, and Sam at the Sandpiper Restaurant. You didn't eat very much - hush puppies mostly - but you had a good time playing with Sam and Katey.

After we ate we all headed to do some Thanksgiving Day shopping in the few stores that were open. We went to KMart and Hammricks and then hit the Super Wal-Mart in Spring Lake on the way home. You are quite a trooper when it comes to shopping. When we would leave a store you would say, "Where are we going now?" You had the most fun playing with Sam. He's used to little girls since he has two sisters, and he kept you giggling the whole time we were in KMart.

After we got back to Sanford, we headed to Grammy's house. You had fallen asleep in the car on the way back so we took Grandaddy Elton's car so you could stay in your car seat and sleep a little longer. Grandaddy Ronnie had cooked steaks on the grill and Mema, Emily and Uncle Joe all came over to eat with us. You ate macaroni and cheese and salad, with ranch of course! We all got to see Uncle Joe's new car - a black 2007 Acura. Emily went ahead and gave us our Christmas gifts from her...she gave you a little pink stocking with a princess crown ornament in it. She gave Mommy penguin salt and pepper shakers (which was pretty cool since Mommy collects Christmas shakers!) and a Christmas hand towel.

The next morning Mommy and Daddy got up at 4:30 a.m. so they could be at Super Wal-Mart when the big sales started. It was INSANE!! People putting two 50-inch flat-screen plasma televisions in their cart at a time....lines a hundred people long for an XBox 360 game system....the whole store so packed that at times no one could even move in the aisles....We managed to get quite a few good deals though. The cupcake maker you have asked for constantly for Christmas was on sale for $20.00 and Mommy managed to get the very last one. We went to a few more stores after we got everything we wanted at Wal-mart. We actually got to see the sun rise for the first time in a long time - Mommy and Daddy are NOT morning people! - while Mommy ate a McGriddle Sausage Sandwich from McDonalds and Daddy stood in line at Game Stop.

We got a lot of great deals....probably saved nearly $200 all total. We went back to Grandma and Grandaddy's house and you were still asleep, so we went back to bed too! That night we went to Mema's house and had Thanksgiving Dinner with all of Mommy's family. There were 23 of us in that little house, but I think there was enough food to feed 60 people! We all ate until we thought we would explode and Mema still said, "Ya'll just don't eat like you used to....look at all this leftover food!" It felt really good to be with all my family. Everyone actually took time to stick around and spend time together after we ate. Grammy brought a bunch of old pictures from when Mommy was little and we all spent a lot of time reminiscing. Mommy helped Jason tune his new guitar and played a little and showed him a few chords. You played with "Little Boy Cameron" and Aleigha and Drew in front of Mema's Christmas tree most of the evening. Jason and I talked about how all of us had grown up spending so much time together as kids and how we wished the next generation of cousins could actually see each other more than a couple of times a year. Maybe someday...

Happily it will only be a few more weeks before we get to head back down that long road to Sanford once again and spend some more time with the family we love.

Haul Out the Holly

We've been putting up our Christmas decorations this week and you've been totally enthralled with everything. This is the first year you've really been a part of the decorating process, and you've really enjoyed every minute. Utterances of "Oooooh...", "Wow!", and "Oh Mommy, it's SOOO pretty!" have been frequent. The tree seems to have a bit more decorations on the bottom half than the top, and I've tried my best to curb my perfectionist tendencies and have only moved a few of your interesting ornament placements. Some ornaments didn't make it to the tree - the 'Sleeping Beauty' ornament that plays Once Upon a Dream would be one of those for obvious reasons. I have to keep reminding you that ornaments belong on the tree, and you need to leave them alone.

This morning you put on your pouty face and I asked you what was wrong. You said, "We didn't decorate my room!" So we picked out a few decorations - a snowman family, a christmas bell, and the singing Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Oscar the Grouch on a sled - and decorated you room. You seem satisfied with the results.

We're really getting in the Christmas spirit around here. Between all the holiday displays at the different stores, to practicing for the Christmas Cantata (we've sung those songs so much you are learning to sing them!) we can't help ourselves. I've bought a few gifts already, and even wore my candy cane shirt once. We've watched the DVD of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer several times, and of course, Daddy insisted on playing all the Christmas music CDs while we were decorating. A lot of folks can't believe we're already doing all this, but we've always had a tradition of putting up our Christmas decorations as early as possible. Daddy and I actually went out and bought a Christmas tree on Halloween night the first year we were married and put it up that very night....the tradidtion has continued ever since. We always try to put up the tree and decorations as early in November as possible. Of course, with being in the pastorate now, it seems a little harder to get the time to "haul out the holly" as the song goes. Daddy hasn't gotten to the yard decorations yet, and the angel still needs to be put on the tree. Maybe tomorrow night.

Jesus With a Sword

This was your funny/sweet story tonight as we were getting ready for bed.

Petra: I don't like yellow, Mommy. (said in reference to your yellow Dora the Explorer pajamas)

Me: You don't like yellow, huh?

Petra: Nope. Do you like yellow, Mommy?

Me: Yes, I like yellow. It's like a sunshine.

Petra: Oh. (pause) Belle (from 'Beauty and the Beast') wears yellow.

Me: Yes, she does.

Petra: Why does Belle have the Beast and not the prince like Cinderella?

Me: Well, the Beast is a prince, but an evil witch turned him into a beast....

Petra: OHHHH! What happened next?

Me: Well....Belle met the Beast and fell in love with him and kissed him and he turned back into the handsome prince.

Petra: And then what?

Me: Well...um....they got married and lived happily ever after in the castle.

Petra: That's a good story, Mommy. The witch tried to get me too.

Me: Oh, don't you worry, sweetheart. No witch can get you because Jesus keeps you safe.

Petra: Yeah. (pause) Jesus has a long sharp thing?

Me: A sword?

Petra: Yeah! A sword. Jesus use the sword to fight the witch.

Me: I guess that's one way of putting it.

Petra: Okay, Mommy. Maybe we can see Jesus in the morning.

Me: Sounds good to me.

Sometimes You Scare Me!

You know, it wouldn't exactly be an accurate story if I only talked about your sweet moments, or cute mannerisms... Sometimes, little girl of mine, you scare the bejeezus out of me!

Take this weekend for example. First you started having a fever on Thursday - 101 degrees...not TOO serious, but enough to make me take notice. You were acting pitiful - not playing, sitting in my lap a lot, even falling asleep in Daddy's lap when he was holding you in the recliner. We gave you infant tylenol (which you didn't like much, but you took it better than you did the 'pink stuff' - a.k.a. amoxacylin) and the fever went away the next day.

Then you get this rash all over your body. Little pink spots on your arms, face, legs, butt.... Daddy immediately says "chicken pox" but I've had chicken pox, he hasn't and I don't think that's what it is. Plus you aren't scratching them, and they don't look as awful as chicken pox. I went through a gambit of possibilities. Measles? But your fever had gone away... Heat rash? But it didn't go away like heat rash normally would. I wondered if it was some of your umpteen-million new clothes that Grammy had bought you causing an allergic reaction of some sort because your bad mommy hadn't washed everything first (I ususally do, but there were just SO many new outfits!) before letting you wear it.

So we went to church Sunday night and you were walking around in the sanctuary like you always do when I'm tuning the guitars for praise and worship before service starts. And I look up, and you've vanished. I didn't really panic at first. After all, the church is like a second home to you and you often go get a toy from the nursery and come right back. But you weren't in the nursery or children's church or the fellowship hall, or Daddy's office or any place else that I could find. Cue panic....

After frantically searching every hiding place I could think of and enlisting some help from your adopted grandpa Monte.... we finally found you. One of the children's staff had taken you and a couple other kids out to the playground without bothering to tell me!! Needless to say, they were very apologetic, (especially after I told them if they ever did that again, I'd kill them!) and you were fine. I think I have a few more gray hairs after that and it took my heart a little while to get back in a normal rhythm again.

After church that night, one of the church ladies who is a nurse told me your rash was most likely just the residual effects of a minor viral infection - which was probably what had caused your fever a few days prior. She said her son had had something very similar before. That relieved my mind and we went home a little more at ease.

Of course, you had to pull one more heart stopping stunt before the day was through. After laying you down for the night, Daddy and I stayed up a little longer to have some time to ourselves to play on the internet and such. We were heading down the hall to go to bed ourselves when we heard you screaming. We both dashed into your room and you were crying and calling for me saying your head hurt. You said you had bumped it. Well, you had bumped it slightly several hours before when you were playing with Daddy, but not enough to cause this kind of hysteria. There wasn't even a mark on you. We soothed you and rocked you for a bit and you feel back to sleep, so we put you back to bed.

Not even an hour later it happened again - you crying out for us saying your head hurt. And of course, my 'mommy brain' starts running through scenerios....what if Jennifer was wrong and the rash and fever were something serious? What if you hit your head harder than we thought and you have a concussion and we let you go to sleep?!?!

We put you in the bed with us to observe you - something we never do - and you contentedly went right back to sleep. Eventually we got you back in your own bed and you slept the rest of the night, waking up this morning perky and cheerful and apparently having no rememberence of anything that had occured. Your head is fine and you act fine. All that scaring for nothing!

I know you can't help any of these things. But the saying is true, "Having children is like ripping your heart out of your body and letting it walk around in this dangerous world on tiny little legs."

Things I love about you, Petra Sky....

Your vivid imagination..

Your funny facial expressions...

The way you call Daddy a "prince" and me and you, "princesses"....

Your lengthy explanations of things...

Your announcements of "I can do it myself" about the funniest things...

You love Mexican Food like me....

Your tenderheartedness....

Your singing....

Your spontaneous outbursts of "I love you, Mommy"....

The way you clean up your own spills....

Your love of all things 'girlie' while at the same time being such a risk-taking tomboy....

Your sweet tooth.... (M&Ms for breakfast? I think not!)

Your cuddliness....and the fact you say I'm "cuddlyful" too....

Your big blue eyes....

Your gorgeous hair that always seems to curl just so...

That you miss me when I'm away from you...

That you love me so....

Almost Three

I can hardly believe you are about to turn three.... you should still be my baby! But you are growing up so fast. Everyone says it goes by faster than you can blink - and it's really true. You amaze me, your Daddy, and your grandparents with your vocabulary and the concepts you seem to grasp at such a young age. Some of your phrases that either astonish or set us to peals of laughter (or both) include:

"Oh, yes, mommy, that's a really good idea."

"Look both ways, mommy!"

"Don't tell me that..." (that one gets you in trouble every time)

"Oh mommy, you're a good finder."

"Just a little bit, Mommy, just a little bit more?"
(said with your fingers pinched together to illustrate how much a little bit is...)

"I know, Mommy, I know..." (Then follows a long drawn out explanation of your 'master plan')

"Mommy, I will never use the potty, never ever. I like my diapers. I will wear them forever."

"No, Mommy! No helping....I will do it myself!"


You are so polite! You nearly always say "please" and "thank you". You will say "excuse me" if you're trying to get by. You're still working on sharing....but I've read in different books that your brain hasn't completely developed the 'sharing synapses' yet....so I'll cut you some slack on that one.

You are very obsessed with Strawberry Shortcake (the updated version, not the ones that were around when I was a kid!) at the moment - it has taken first place in your loves. Just the other day you insisted I buy you a Strawberry Shortcake balloon you saw in the grocery store. I'm afraid I'm pretty much a pushover when it comes to buying you little nonsensical things like balloons or stickers or such. So I'm staring at it now as it floats above my head in the living room. You watch the Strawberry Shortcake videos over and over again on your DVD player in the car, and can sing a lot of the songs by heart. You also play with the Strawberry Shortcake dolls a lot. Of course, their clothes don't stay on for very long. You're in that "naked baby doll" stage right now. Between your 'oh-okay' Mommy and your spoiling Grammy and Grandma, you've got about every Strawberry Shortcake figure that has been released in NC (and VA for that matter!). I think Grammy is going on Ebay hunting for the elusive 'Blueberrry Muffin'. You said you want a Strawberry Shortcake birthday party this year, and I think Grammy is going to make sure that happens.

You still love Mickey Mouse and all the Clubhouse figures, and you watch it first thing when you get up every morning while you're eating breakfast (a strawberry-bannana cereal bar and chocolate milk every morning!). You still love to play with the Clubhouse we got you for your birthday last year. You've started really loving tools - which we attribute to one of your other favorite shows Handy Manny. It's about a Spanish-speaking handyman and his talking tools who live in 'Sheetrock Hills' and fix things for their neighbors. You have three tool sets now - a wooden one, and a "baby" set (small Handy Manny tools that go with the Handy Manny talking doll!) and a "mommy" set (bigger tools made for your size). So you go around the house "fixing" things all day. It's very cute.

You are also into the Disney princesses some. We haven't really let you watch the videos other than Cinderellla....most of them have such scary elements in them (i.e. the dragon in Sleeping Beauty, the wicked queen in Snow White...). Someone brought Snow White to church, of all things, and was playing it in the nursery. You've since said you had 'bad dreams' about a witch trying to steal your birthday cake. I don't know if the two things are connected or if you've been influenced by the in-your-face Halloween aisle at Wal-Mart.....either way, Mommy is not pleased. But you did decide on being Sleeping Beauty for Hallelujah Night at church this year. You have the dress, the crown, and Grammy bought you a matching pink princess pumpkin to put all your Trunk-or-Treat loot in. I can't wait to see you in the costume - neither can you, for that matter. You've asked over and over if you could wear it. Finally we hid it in the back of your closet - 'out of sight, out of mind' still seems to work for the most part right now.

You've really started making deeper friendships with the kids at church. Your "best" friend is Cameron (not to be confused with "Little Boy Cameron - your cousin) but you also love Destiny, Courtney, Haley and Joeb very much. In one of your little children's books there is a picture of a group of children on a beach and whenever we get to that page you name off who everyone is: "That's me, and Courtney, and Destiny, and Cameron, and Joeb, and Little Boy Cameron, and Baby Gabby, and Haley!" you say with confidence.

You are starting to grow a little in the foundations of your faith too, and that is a very exciting thing to behold. You not only say your prayers at night and meals, but you remind others if they forget, and you're starting to put some crucial concepts together - God as creator, Jesus loves us all, and stuff like that. The other day you were making waves in the bathtub and I said "You're making some big waves there." You replied, "Like the ocean." So I asked you who makes the waves in the ocean. And without hesitation you said, "Jesus." It was a thrilling moment for me, even if you did have that 'duh, mommy' expression on your face.

Almost three....where did the time go?

Christmas 2007

We just celebrated your third Christmas with us and your little two-year-old personality really shone through this year. Despite some health problems threatening to keep your Mommy out of commission, the Lord came through and we were able to enjoy all the festivities with our family.

On Christmas Eve we went to your Great-grandma's (MeMa's) house to open presents with all your cousins. Your favorite presents that evening were a stuffed Daisy Duck (from Mommy and Daddy), a toy guitar and Thomas Train from Aunt Joy Joy, and a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse activity pad from MeMa. You had a great time playing with your cousin Cameron and your Daddy got some great footage of you two playing and dancing with your guitars. I think the most special moment for me had to be when you sat in my lap and listened to MeMa sing "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" like she has done for all the children every year as long as I can remember. That is a tradition I hope you can enjoy for many more years yet...

After we left MeMa's house we went to your Grammy's house and opened more presents. Your Uncle Joe and his girlfriend Emily gave you a book that was very special to her when she was a child: The Very Hungry Caterpillar. She and Uncle Joe also gave you a stuffed caterpillar toy that matched the book (thus far you've liked the toy better than the book, but I think you'll like the book more when you get older.) Your Daddy and I gave you your stuffed Goofy which you really loved. Now your collection is complete, well almost. We got all the 'Mickey Mouse Clubhouse' characters except Pluto. We'll have to get him later.... funny you, you asked about Pluto as soon as you realized it was the only one you didn't have. Grammy gave me, Daddy, and Uncle Joe all of our presents next....lots of new clothes for Mommy! Yay! Video games and other neat things for Daddy! Finally we all went to sleep....you didn't want to, of course, but you were really tired so it didn't take too long.

The next morning, we celebrated Christmas Day first at Grammy's house where Santa brought you TONS more toys - way too many to list. I'm not sure who was more overwhelmed you or us! After getting ready as fast as we could, we headed over to Grandma and Grandaddy's house where we opened even more presents! I got a Christmas Cookie Yankee Candle from your Grandma and Grandaddy, and an ornament, and some more clothes. Daddy got lots of clothes from them, and Mommy and Daddy gave each other mostly toys! GI Joes...Video Games and such... :-) We're still kids at heart!

Uncle Jesse came over and we all ate lunch together. Your Grandma is one amazing cook. I always say she would put Betty Crocker to shame! She fixes everything from scratch - and I do mean everything! Your Grandaddy fixed his famous chocolate eclair - oh it was SOOO yummy. Even though I still wasn't feeling great and didn't have much of an appetite, I managed to eat a small bowl of eclair - some things are too good to pass up!

Christmas is full of so many wonderful traditions. I can't wait to see all the new ones that develop as you grow older.