If you are not too squeamish...

head on over to Marcus Weblog for a real treat ;)

Christmas comes early...

when Daddy gets to stay home and play!

So we all bundled up yesterday, grabbed the camera and headed outside.  I snapped some adorable snow pictures only to discover my CF card wasn't in! Sad day!  Oh well, we did get to throw some snowballs at our teenage neighbor as he puttered around in his riding lawn mower. I almost got him too.

As I type Bradie and Marcus are at Target picking out some snow gear for her and I will try and recapture some moments I hope.  It's not like this snow is going anywhere!

Some blogs of note:  Ryan and Melanie have some crazy snow pictures on their blog (if you want to see some REAL snow check out the accumulation in Spokane) and Christy has posted a video of her two year old singing Old McDonald...I don't know why but it gets funnier to me each time I watch it as I catch some new nuance in the vocal stylings of young Kyle.  :)

*Non-Sequiter Warning* Yesterday Bradie was watching her reflection in the TV and dancing to the music like Eddie Vedder. 

booyah

And we're back in the game! Thank you Marcus for giving the people what they want :) Check this kid out.  I don't know what possessed me to snap these in all Beau's sweet potato glory, but he was just so happy I had to.  Good toother shot there as well.  Beau is a healthy guy per the PA at his 9 month check up.  He is 22 percentile for weight, 60th for length and 42 for head circumference.  I did a little comparison and at this age, he is a 1/2 inch taller and about a pound heavier than Bradie was at nine months.  And before we left the house for the appointment, Beau climbed over half way up my stairs!  This kid is a go-getter, literally.  

The other half of our doctor extravaganza week was not so stellar...we have been assigned to 6 more weeks of sleep with the Dennis Brown bar.  Yuck.  On the bright side, Beau will not ever need any surgical intervention as he is still very flexible (and hello? climbing?!)  The doctor said another six weeks is all it should take and then we'll probably have to do some straight last shoes for walking.  Then he will attend the University of Alabama and score many touchdowns, run across the country a few times, fall into unrequited love and get shot in the butt and...wait a second...

Bradie watched an hour and twenty minutes of PBS this morning while I grabbed a much needed work out.  Its not my favorite thing but maybe in the big picture it is a nice little siesta for us all- Beau naps, I sweat, Bradie watches some educational television.  Win, win, win.

But now that I am fully immersed in the basketball season and the rigors of mostly single parenting on weekdays, I am trying to be intentional about everything.  It is exhausting to be this intentional. Of course, the real battlefield is my mind, and I wage war against the temptation of intentionality morphing into perfectionism.

So the evening TV time for Bradie is many things.  Also not my favorite thing, popping my kid down in front of the glowing babysitter, but it allows me to nurse the boy down while having some quiet time to gather my thoughts and simply let go of them.  It also is a time to gear up for the bed time battle- which, on all cylindars, is more of a bed time ballet, lots of little intricate steps, but it gets done and is done peacefully instead of any gnashing and weeping and carrying on.

Tonight was different.  Bradie is experiencing a little regression I like to call poop denial.  She knows how to go in the potty but would rather not.  And after a day and a half the poop doesn't really want to either.  It seems to be comfy in her little nethers, growing more solid each passing hour and can't seem to the hear the whining and definitely cannot feel my nerves beginning to fray.  So it sits and has every intention of becoming a diamond, I swear.

So I was not going to put this whiny, pathetic pile of a girl in front of the tube and feed her denial.  Now she is aware of the rewards (ice cream AND a movie) but will not choose to go. Now Beau is ready for bed and I tell Bradie to play quietly in her room while I feed her brother, with a promise of story time to follow.  No, she INSISTS on laying on my bed with me while I nurse Beau. I feel my blood pressure rise a bit. Fine, I resign through my teeth, but no talking.

And you know what happened? (if your still reading this sprawl of a post, thank you) After only a few little minor incidences, I look down at my daughter and she is breathing very rhythmically. She's asleep!  A few minutes after that, she twitched even! Like really, seriously asleep!

The use of exclamation is appropriate here.  The readers of this blog who have experienced the ballet/battle with Bradie know that this like never happens.  Looking down at her sweet, relaxed expression I wanted to touch her face and absorb some of that repose... but that sort of thing is along the lines of "you break it, you buy it" so I didn't dare.

I laid Beau down and went back to collect Bradie, noting how different suggly baby feels compared to warm, almost sweaty, gangly preschooler.  But she wakes and whispers something about a queen and then asks "what are you doing?"

I tell her I am putting her in bed.  The princess rolls over, clutches her stinky blanket, finds her thumb and is silent.  What a blessing.

***

I was going to post some pictures, but the card reader in the printer is being persnickety. Beau's 9 month check up (can you believe it!?) is tomorrow so I will try and post them then along with the pertinent information.  Chuck is on in 15 minutes, I must go and prepare the taping device :)