"Finally!" he huffed

It is done. The Christmas tree has now been bought, trimmed, hauled inside and been made to sit as straightly as possible (which isn't very). The lights have been strung, the ornaments hung, and the lights turned out for all to admire.

After much jumping up and down and childish haranguing, my son is thrilled to have the tree up!!! He promptly grabbed my camera and began taking pictures....



Our tree in the "peaceful" room, topped with an angel my boy made in kindergarden. How she's managed to survive two years is beyond me.

Along with all the excitement came the horrified realization that the tree and the fireplace were not in the same room. "...but Mom! How is Santa going to find where to leave presents????" Keep in mind, my son DOES know the nature of Santa, but the small child that still lives in him is ever hopeful... I told him that Santa has built-in tree radar. If there's a Christmas tree around, he'll find it. Z-boy was doubtful, but came up with his own solution:



Smart kid, huh?

And now, a little "then and now". One year ago, Yoda came to live with us.



My, how he's grown!

Using what you learn

Dragged Z-boy to KenPo tonight. He really didn't want to go, but I made him go anyway. While we were on our way to class, he mentioned that he'd been bullied today. A kid in another class had him up against the wall and was choking him in the bathroom. No apparent provocation. So I asked him if he reported it, and he said yes. I asked him if he used any of his defenses and he said no.

"Honey, that's why we take this class! So we can deal with people like that if we have to."

"But Mom, he was choking me with his arms TOGETHER." I had a hard time imagining this, but let him go on... "The front choke hold defense wouldn't have worked."

So when we got to the dojo, I took one of the instructors aside and told him about the incident. He took Z-boy aside and they practiced a new defense together that would deal with the held together arms. This is not one that Z would normally get for a while, but since the situation came up...

I also talked with the Master. A lot of times, when a kid is defending his/herself, THEY get in trouble, because THEY are the ones that actually took someone else down. Unless there's a witness to say definitively that the other guy was the aggressor, the defender often gets blamed for the encounter. I will say this... our Master is a man of integrity. If a child he has taught gets in that situation, he will come and talk to teachers involved and explain about the child's training. It is DRUMMED into them, this is a defensive art. You do not pick fights doing KenPo. All the moves are defensive and any counterstriking is used when an opponent keeps coming at you.

Z-boy and I talked again after class. I told him that he will NOT get in trouble with me if he is defending himself against a bully.

Z-Boy is very sweet and easy going. He's also a big kid and a challenge for bullies. The combination makes him a bully magnet. THAT is why he's taking this class.

On a happier, positive note, Z-boy, Darling Man and I will ALL be testing for our yellow belts a week from Saturday. Practice, practice, practice!!!!

Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

Okay! The living room is painted, but I'm leaving the ceiling until after the holidays. The boys were in just too big a rush to get a tree for me to complete this project. HOWEVER! The room is really nice. Last night as I was putting furniture back where it belongs, my son came and sat down in one of the recliners and looked around with a half-smile on his face. And said, "Mommy? This is the most peaceful room I've ever been in."

Very high praise indeed - and most unexpected out of a 7 year old boy's mouth.

My husband was picking my son up from the bus stop and called to ask if it was tree time. Yes - it's time! So they went and got a tree while I wrapped up work.

When I got home, a perfectly lovely tree was sitting in a bucket in the carport. My husband came over and told me that Z-boy had picked out the tree himself. It was quite dried out, but Z-boy wanted it because "it looked like it needed someone to care about it and it needed a lot of love." So it sits in a bucket of sugar water rehydrating so it can come inside and be our Christmas tree.

They also spent most of the afternoon putting up more lights and candy canes in the front yard. Thank goodness my husband has the eyes of an artist because that mishmash of different decorations could have looked quite garish.

Hurry, hurry, hurry!

Thursday night, my husband and I were chatting (like we sometimes do), and he mentioned that he'd cleared a space in the livingroom for the Christmas tree.

You remember my livingroom, don't you? It's the room painted a hideous garish white and full of STUFF that we don't know what to do with. Last weekend I began moving some of that stuff downstairs after cleaning down there, but there was still a lot in there to be sorted and/or tossed.

"Oh, NO! Honey, you can't!" I wailed. I have PLANS for that room. It needs to be cleared out; it needs to be painted. I don't want to spend my Christmas in that ugly, ugly room!

"So? When is all this supposed to happen?" he asked.

"This weekend! I just need you and boy to be gone."

So this morning, Darling Man got up, went to work for a few hours, came home, got ready for KenPo, went, picked up his truck (new brakes), and he and boy were out of my hair by 1pm! And I got to work! I painted the whole living room! I moved the recliners and the piano and all the junk and got the walls painted their first coat. Then I went to work on the nasty windows - got them all sparkly and their hardware works now. Then I did the second, texture-y coat, had dinner, and started the third mellow-er coat. I got about a third of the third coat done before my knees gave out. I shall arise early tomorrow, finish the third coat, paint the ceiling and the woodwork, clean the carpet, move the piano back and clean the rest of the room, hang blinds and curtains.

THEN we'll have a room for Christmas!!!!

So if you've been wondering where I've been...

Sad Realization

We have been celebrating at work... In November, we had a baby shower (then the baby, which weighed in at 9 lbs, 14 oz and 22 1/2 inches long!) and a retirement party. There are two more pregnant women, and we had one more shower today.

Of course the mama was registered, but I rarely go by that. I think about the person and come up with something on my own. As I was leaving to shop for this gift at Wal-Mart, my inspiration was this:

Fuzzy is my son's well-loved friend. He was gorgeous when we got him, with a snappy bow and soft curly fur. He's soft and squishy and perfect for hugging tightly when you're scared. My son MADE that shirt for him. He's been loved nearly bald and I don't see Fuzzy becoming a thing of the past anytime soon.

To my way of thinking, every small child NEEDS a bear-friend like that.

So I set off for Wal-Mart, thinking I'd dash in, find a new friend for the new baby and go. No such luck.

First of all, there is NO stuffed animal aisle. No central place to go for a huggable friend. And the bears that were there either glowed in the dark, smelled like bad fruit, were meant to be drawn on, or had hard bits of machinery inside that said prayers, nursery rhymes, or sang idiotic songs.

And those were the generic-sorts of bears. The other stuffed denizens of the toy aisles were CHARACTERS! They came from cartoons, movies, TV shows... No toy that didn't already have a personality attached.


And of course, there are the "specialty" bears (granted, these are NOT at Wal-Mart):


What are you supposed to do if you don't have the time or the money to go to a specialty shop?