Wendy cut her first tooth today. It was her upper left front. She will be 18 months on January first.

Dr. Cole connects the ankle bone to the knee bone. $200.

The paternal grandparents are here for a post Christmas visit. Bradley accompanied Poppa Dave to get an oil change and on a stop to the grocery store. Upon arrival home, Bradley entered the house with a sad, pouty, tear drippy face. While trying to explain the inducer of his sadness to his Daddy, Poppa Dave walked in and said, "He's not a happy boy. He was asking for a turkey the whole time while at the grocery store. I told him that we had sandwich meat at home. But he still kept crying for a turkey." Overhearing the conversation while playing Littlest Pet Shop with Sarah I chimed in, "I think he wanted a cookie. We get a free cookie every time we go to the grocery store." Ahhh! Now that makes more sense.

Merry Christmas Eve!

(There is a Christmas tree in back of us)

Back Row: Cindy, Tom, Papa, Nana, Nay Nay, Sarah (sleeping)
Middle Row: Steven, Tommy, Nani, Jason (on lap), Emily, Bradley
Kneeling: David, Melinda, Wendy (on lap)

The kids were role playing this afternoon and Bradley said, "Emily you be the sweetie pie mommy, I'll be the daddy and Sarah will be the Christmas tree."

Bradley demonstrated his art knowledge when he and Emily were discussing what foods they resembled in relation to their color of clothing. Emily originally determined she was a banana with her brightly colored yellow shirt. Bradley disagreed. He thought since Emily was wearing blue jeans she should declare herself a pickle because yellow and blue make green and pickles are green.

We went to see Christmas lights. The kids got cotton candy. When David gave Bradley a piece of the delightful treat, Bradley asked with a grimaced face, "Why is it furry?" I can't believe my kids don't like cotton candy. I thought that it was a childhood staple.

I saw a bumper sticker tonight that said "Keep the Earth clean. It's not Uranus."

Milk bubbles are normally a no-no, but apparently Auntie Nay Nay encouraged it for a photo op.

I called the cable company today to troubleshoot a problem with my DVR. The rep could hear Jason and she asked how old he is and I said, "He's two months." Later in the conversation Sarah was sitting beside me reaching for the remote and repeatedly asking, "I do it? I do it?" in her deep, husky voice. The rep then asked me, "You have two little boys?" Poor Sarah! David optimistically says she's going to have the sultry singing voice.

Sarah was playing with the Christmas Little People this afternoon and I heard the following conversation:
"Don't kill my friend."
"Why?'
"She's my friend!"

Today a friend of mine who lives nearby called to borrow 2 cans of evaporated milk. Confident I had some, I looked in my cupboards and found 30 cans of tuna, 20 cans of pineapple, 3 bags of chocolate chips, a dozen cans each of carrots, green beans, corn, mixed veggies, beets, spinach, tomatoes and peas, 10 cans of baked beans, 26 cans spaghetti sauce, 4 cans Spaghettios, 4 cans each of garbanzo beans and black beans, 11 boxes of cake mix, 5 boxes muffin mix, 20 cans of expired creamed soup (that I promptly discarded), but only one can of evaporated milk. I guess I should put it on my grocery list.

Jason went to the doctor today. He weighed 10lb. 12 oz., was 23 1/2 in., head circumference was 15 3/4 in.

Bradley let out a loud, resonating, innocent belch during a very reverent segment of church this morning. It turned several heads but thankfully he redeemed himself with a loud "Excuse me."

I was on the computer this afternoon when I heard the kids playing near and around the Christmas tree. They were taking the candy canes off the tree. I told them not to play with them. Disobeying my command they continued to do so and then I heard a jingling noise and crash. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the tree shaking and Bradley jumping off a tall stool bouncing kind of into the tree and onto the floor. The crash I heard was a glass ornament shattered on the floor. I was furious at the result of their disobedience and trying to maintain my patience I grabbed the handful of 8 or so candy canes from Emily's hand, held them up with my own two hands and dramatically cracked them all in half. Emily was devastated.

Tonight I took Bradley and Jason shopping. Bradley is a shopping trooper. He seldom complains and he always finds something to occupy him as I browse the aisles. We were out until about 10PM, much past his bedtime. When we got home he cheerfully got himself ready for bed and came downstairs to show David and I his Blue's Clues pajamas and shiny, clean teeth. David then asked him who he wanted to take him to bed, Daddy or Mommy. Bradley looked back and forth between his two parents for several moments thinking. Meanwhile, David and I were both touched that he loved both of us so much that he had difficulty deciding. However, it became evident by his response that he was actually thinking of how to kindly break the news when he so tactfully replied with a nervous smile, "Uh, I can do it myself."

We got our Christmas tree last night and the kids and I decorated it today. I was pretty much the referee as the kids went crazy putting on the ornaments. Emily begged me last year to put colored lights on the tree this year. I bought some colored lights last year on clearance after Christmas so her plea could be granted. We only had two ornament casualites. One was a gold cheapo glass ball. No big deal. The other was a small glass angel. We salvaged her head and it remains on the tree.

Mmmm. Yummy. I found this under a bookshelf this evening. Yes, that is mold.

Our toothless Wendy - 17 months old

(She's cuter in person.)

Bradley has a toy R2D2 and C3PO. When David realized that these characters were foreign to our children, he briefly cultured them in Star Wars by showing them the first few minutes of Episode IV. The kids were amused and delighted to stay up several minutes past their bedtime. Later when it was my turn to tuck them into bed, Bradley held up his golden robot and said, "Mommy, his name is Steve 3PO!"

Tonight Bradley unscrewed a brand new bottle of baby wash, the pump wasn't even popped up yet, and dumped it in the bath tub. I was so frustrated that he did that. It's not that I cared about the soap or anything because it only cost 99 cents. It's the fact that now I have to remember to get some the next time I go to the store. However, they did have fun with their bubble bath. They put the bubbles on their face and pretended they were Santa.

You know how when you get around to cleaning under the couch cushions you find all sorts of stuff such as coins, pencils, combs, cheerios, dried up Play-doh, M&Ms, checkers, barrettes, rubberbands, the 2 of clubs, calculators, Barbie shoes? Today I found a can of green beans.