Wordless Wednesday

Channeling his inner Tai Chi

Sunday Styles

Down To The Wire

Everything this month has embraced that mantra. Projects for work, plans for celebrations, preparations for travels, projects at home, and even just the day-to-day seem to have only found successful completion at the very last possible moment. No complaining here though, as they all did eventually find successful completion, they all just came right down to the wire to do it. I dream of a day when everything that needs to be done is done a whole week or even a day in advance. But again, no complaints here, just maybe a slightly increased blood pressure and nervous twitch every now and then.

But the most fabulous of fabulous news is yet to come! News that in my industry about 99.999% of our clients absolutely shut down for the period between Christmas Eve and New Years, which if you've checked your calendar lately is TOMORROW, or if you're on most public school schedules starts at approximately 3PM TODAY! Sure there will be lingering projects and ongoing to-do's, but the bulk of the "this needs to be done by 9AM YESTERDAY" kind of projects will wrap sometime later this evening only to be resurrected in 2010 (when once again, they'll assume their down to the wire positioning). But for one glorious week, one relaxing sun-drenched sandcastle building week, the only thing that will come down to the wire will be whether the programmable coffee maker can figure out how to pour Baily's into my morning cuppa joe and somehow deliver it to the balcony for me. Oh holy sweetness.

So to everyone from us, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, a slightly belated Hanukkah, and three big cheers to a very Happy New Year!

Before, During, After, And Rockefeller Center

They Look Just Like Each Other!

I had heard that many times while strolling the village with Ash, from strangers, shop owners, random Starbucks crazy ladies, you name it. We kept hearing about this other village family who had also adopted from Ethiopia, and who's son "looks exactly like Ashton". You should really meet! they would say. They look exactly alike! One of the local shop owners even mistakenly called the other boy by Ash's name because, well, clearly they must be long lost twins. And then we met the boy and his family. If by "look exactly alike" they intended to say that they're both African American boys with similar chocolate skin then I suppose they would've be spot on.

Let's look past the fact that the boys differ in age by 3 years (um, hello Mr. shop owner...) and actually notice features that make us appear similar to others. Same shape nose, lips, bone structure, hair color/texture/style, their eyes, ears, hell ANYTHING other than just the color of their skin! Honestly, had it been one individual perhaps I wouldn't be so perplexed but it's been many many individuals approaching both mothers for multiple months feeling obligated to tell us about our son's "twin" in the village that we simply must meet. Really? I wish I had the moment when we met the other boy and his mother on camera. Our eyes met, went quickly to our sons, then back to each other with this I just sucked on 3 lemons look of perplexity. Both black? Yes. Both boys? Yes. Both Ethiopian? Yup. But wait, don't all white New Yorkers with Italian heritage look EXACTLY ALIKE? Didn't think so.

So, we welcomed the meeting as the first of many. In fact, the meeting was the first of a new local village adoption group that we're hanging out with. And lucky for us Ash's "twin" (I cringe even writing that, yes the other boy is adorable but seriously, beyond skin color the only similarity was the green frosting staining their lips from the cookie they shared), has quite a few Ethiopian family friends in the area who we'll hopefully get to meet sometime soon. Super cheers to that!

Wordless Wednesday

Friday Snapshot

Shark Butt Pinchers

That was the incredibly creative name daddy applied to the little pinch he'd give to Ash's bottom if he tried to get out of his seat during dinner time. Not a real pinch, just a small nibble to persuade the tot to stay in his seat and finish his darn chicken. I think what he had in mind was a comical "look at my fingers in the shape of a shark mouth coming to bite your bottom, ha ha ha, look at my hand swimming around the kitchen just waiting to cutely bite the bottom of any little tot who tries to escape before finishing dinner!" When in reality this is what Ash heard, "there is a shark in the kitchen and he is going to bite my bottom and maybe even daddy's hands. YIKES!" And as you can imagine, he was quite freaked out. I happily played ZERO roll in the brilliant invention of the frightening shark butt pincher rather quickly stepped in to replace the word pinch with the word beep, and tried to make the slow yet steady transition from daddy's hands resembling a biting shark to something more along the lines of a silly beeping finger poke. It took a while, but Ash finally attempted to get out of his seat (very slowly, making sure that darn shark was nowhere to be seen) and spent the remainder of the night informing us that he had caught both the pinching shark and the beeping fingers and both were safely caged in his pockets.

The boy knows how to play the game. And, daddy may have learned a lesson or two about the literal minds of toddlers. Maybe this evening we'll just duct tape him to his chair until his belly is full.

Wordless Wednesday

Discovery

So it's bath time circa Dec 7th 2009 when Ash decides tonight's bath should get a little crazy. "DADDY! GET IN WITH ME!" And bath night quickly turns into an Ash/Daddy splash fest. Until they both stand up and Ash GASPS and points "at" Daddy and says:

"DADDY! WE HAVE TWOOOOO!"

All while making sure daddy knew exactly what two he was talking about. He has one, daddy has one, and he thinks its so cool that together they have two. And there you have it, my son's killer counting skills.

Santa Fear No More

So apparently we're over the "Santa is scary don't you dare make me sit on that man's lap" phase. It might be the daily advent gifts from Grandma Santa, or possibly the consistent reminders from every media source everywhere that Santa = presents that turned his opinion of the man in red from frightening to really super cool, or maybe he just picked up a new affinity to the color red and big bushy beards, know knows. One thing is certain though, he officially and 100% digs Santa.

OK fine, I'll sit on his lap but you know I'm only doing this because I know that bag over there is filled with candy canes, right?

So about that candy cane...

What's that? You want to know what I want for Christmas? Well then I suppose I can spare a few more moments of my time. Hmmm, I'd like a Buzz Lightyear, Lightning McQueen, a visit to the Mickey Mouse Club House with Owen again and also I'd like it if Bret Favre would lead the Vikings to the playoffs only to throw 27 interceptions and be forced to retire for real and pick up golf, and then suck at it. And world peace.

Dude, are we about done?

Fine, I'll hug you, but you had better come through with that Favre request.

He even said "Merry Christmas Santa, I love you" after he got off Santa's lap. OK maybe it was more like "Merry I want a candy cane Christmas I want a candy cane Santa I want a candy cane I love you and I want a candy cane" but all the words were definitely there. The fear of Santa is definitely long gone and an Innocent candy cane filled belief in St Nick is solidly in place, hopefully for a long long time.

It's December And We're Not Wearing Coats

Ellow Subarine

Ash came home from school this week completely obsessed with all things Rudolph and Santa. Granted he's had some exposure to these things in the past thanks to mommy's slight (heh) holiday obsession but I swear I haven't intentionally forced this on him, I mean it's not like I strapped him to the couch in July and forced him to watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation or anything. No no no, that's the kind of event best saved for his middle school years. So I was quite surprised when after our mother/son sushi date night out we came home and he went straight to the DVD's and grabbed Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, a DVD he's probably never even seen before much less watched. Yet he knew Rudolph was one of Santa's reindeer, that he had a red nose, and that Santa goes HO HO HO. He told me all of this before putting the movie in, then sat absolutely still (not common) for a full 45 minutes watching the 1964 claymation classic. I melted just a little bit.

He wanted to know anything about everything. Who's that? What's that? What they doin? Where they goin? He's never been so intently interested in a movie ever. My guess is that there has been a lot of talk about all things Santa at school recently which must be where his interest was originally sparked, and then of course there are all of the influencers we've introduced at home like the tree and books and advent gifts and holiday music blasting from every speaker in every room, so I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that he now has his own slight obsession about the holiday season. And we hope to keep it to just that, a simple love of all things holidays, a special enjoyment of music and decorations and general good spirit.

So when I woke up the next morning I fully expected to hear his little voice humming to the tune of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer from his bed but I could not have possibly been more off. The next morning, after an evening of Rudolph and Santa and carols and all things holidays, I heard him singing this:

We all live ina ellow subarine
ellow subarine
ellow subarine
We all live ina ellow subarine
ellow subarine
ellow subarine

Apparently he's moved on from Santa to The Beatles. I miss so much between the hours of 9PM and 7AM in his little mind...

Wordless Wednesday

Photos courtesy of Ash's aunt, mom to his cousin Jess, aka Miss Bingo. Thank you!

The Fish N Flush