jennanddave.com

We're still alive. Everyone is currently not sick (knock on wood), although at this point I'm already counting the seconds until May when the cold season subsides and we can breathe easy for a few months. I'm such a complainer.

We had a nice Christmas in Boston. We hardly left my parents' place at all, choosing instead to sit on the couch, take naps, and eat all of the amazing food my mom and dad cooked up. It was hard to come back home and face having to fend for ourselves.

A couple of days before we left for Massachusetts, Henry started asking a couple of times a day if it was Christmas yet. He had picked out one little present that I had put under the tree, asked if it was his, then stuck it in his stocking. When we got to my parents we hung his stocking up with his one present in it, then hid all of the others. Everyday he said he couldn't wait to open his present. On Christmas morning the pile of stuff that had mysteriously appeared under the tree didn't even register; all he could focus on was getting at his one present. After he tore through his stocking, which had been beefed up with some other small toys, and opened his present (a slinky), he was obviously pretty pleased with his haul. Naturally, though, there were a lot of other shiny boxes under the tree with his name on them. He would open one, get totally excited about whatever was inside, insist on playing with it for a while, and then we would have to coax him to open another one. This went on for about an hour until suddenly something clicked and he just started tearing through his presents, paper and ribbons flying, stuffed animals hugged, helicopters flown, and clothes tossed over shoulder. Christmas innocence lost? The next day he asked if it was Christmas again. I told him there were only 364 more days until Christmas. That answer satisfied him, until the next day when he asked if it was Christmas again yet.

Here's a video Dave took (with one of our Christmas presents) of Henry playing with his new workbench and drill:

Posted by Jenn at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We're taking advantage of the lull between the two winter storms that are supposed to hit our area to escape to Beantown. This trip couldn't come at a better time. The house was beginning to feel as oppressing as the hotel in "The Shining" and I was starting to feel very much like Jack Torrance. Or maybe just Jack Nicholson. He seems like he probably feels pretty funky in general without the aid of a whacky Hollywood script. Henry's been continuing to bounce off the walls, trying very hard to keep complete and utter boredom at bay. He's been a trooper. He's also very excited about the prospect of getting in the car and going away. Today he asked many times if and when we were going. I think he's afraid one of us is going to turn around and say "HAHAHA! Just kidding! We're not going anywhere! Wasn't that funny?!?!" Tempting, but needlessly cruel.

Speaking of Henry, the other night we watched the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. We had just seen the scene where Charlie Brown checks his mailbox to see if he had received any Christmas cards. When he sees the mailbox is empty he says "Rats!" and closes it. Henry turned to me and said "There were pretend rats in there." It took me a second to put two and two together. "Pretend rats?" "Yes, pretend rats are in the mailbox." "Oooooohhhhh! Pretend rats! Rats! Of course. Now I get it."

Posted by Jenn at 10:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have some sort of stomach bug. And a fever. I've been in-taking and out-puting water and ginger ale all day. It's absolutely miserable. I just tried one of Henry's Pedialyte freezer pops. It was pretty decent and, happily, exquisitely cold. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it down long enough to get some of that lovely electrolyte action going in my favor. Maybe Dave, who has been chasing around Henry all day, would go to the store to get me some Gator-ade while the kiddo's napping. I feel bad asking him to do that during the one break he's gotten all day. I hope he doesn't get whatever this is.

Posted by Jenn at 02:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Henry woke up yesterday morning crying a snotty, tear-filled, fever-fueled river, a river that flowed heavily for approximately ten minutes whilst sitting on the floor of his bedroom in his daddy's lap. It was extremely sad. I happened to notice that the lymph nodes in his throat looked swollen and that they also felt swollen so we made an appointment with the pediatrician for later that evening. During the course of the day he ate a little bit, and perked up in general, and he didn't seem swollen anymore. I briefly thought about canceling the appointment, but then decided to go anyway considering how sick Dave has been with a throat thing, and how sick I was the two weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, not to mention all the holiday traveling we're about to do. The doctor did a throat culture and this morning we got a phone call saying it had tested positive for strep. So now we're onto antibiotics which caused a rash, Benadryl for the rash, and new antibiotics. I'm not thrilled with the feeling that we're filling our kid up with all sorts of medicines. I'm also not surprised he had an allergic reaction to the first antibiotic because it's the same one I'm allergic to. Fortunately his fever has pretty much left the building so I can stop giving him Tylenol, so that's one med that's off the list.

About five minutes ago Henry discovered under the tree the Christmas present that his Great-Aunt Liz sent him the other day. He showed it to me, asked if it was for him, asked if he could show it to his kitty cat, then asked if it was Christmas-time and could he open it. I explained he had to wait until Christmas day. He protested a bit, but generally took the news like a champ. He's now sitting on the couch under a blanket watching a movie, accompanied by his kitty cat, his Christmas present, and a bowl of crackers. The ultimate sick day.

Posted by Jenn at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Bright and early this morning Henry and I hopped into Kim and Elsa's Jeep sleigh and headed off to have breakfast with Santa. Both kids were into the breakfast part, but neither was enamored with the whole Santa bit. That is, until Elsa found out Santa was handing out presents. Then she made herself known to him very quickly, and then proceeded to reacquaint him with her presence often after that. Henry, however, was not to be enticed by the notion of presents at all. He chose to spend the majority of the hour and a half we were there hiding under our table. I say hiding, but really it was more along the lines of playing. I should give my kid a little more credit. I do think a little part of him was worried I'd pick him up and make him go over anyway, which I did very briefly consider, but then thought better of it.

Meanwhile, Elsa continues to push Henry's buttons (what, like it's hard?). While unpacking Christmas decorations a few weeks ago, we came across an orange cat doll that one of Dave's Aunt's gave to Henry last year. It came complete with a sweater that says "Henry", plus a Santa hat and scarf. The cat is now naked, and the only thing keeping him warm is the glow of Henry's love, not to mention the death grip he has on the cat at all times. Elsa picked up on this right away, and reveled in the sight of Henry having a complete freak out whenever she would sneak the cat away. Finally she gave up on the "sneak" part and walked up to where he was sitting and pretty much said "Hey Henry, I'm taking your cat," waited for that thought to register in his brain, then once it hit home and he got a little wide-eyed over the whole thing, she took off with cat in hand. Of course, Henry chased after her protesting loudly. At the end of breakfast, Elsa crawled under the table to hang out with Henry and he immediately started rolling around on the ground and crying "NO ELSA! DON'T TAKE MY CAT!" I had to tell him that she wasn't interested in his cat at this particular time and he calmed down. She definitely has him on the ropes.

Posted by Jenn at 04:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I just made the best salad:

Lots of lettuce, halved grape tomatoes, three slices of bacon (crumbled), shredded cheddar, crushed Red Hot Blues chips, ranch dressing.

Seriously good. Probably not extraordinarily healthy, but I also just ate more lettuce than I have in the last three months combined, so that counts for something. Go make yourself one.

I just remembered I have an avocado! That would have made it even better. Tomorrow...

Posted by Jenn at 03:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here are three little things that Henry's been saying lately that make me melt into a puddle of goo because they're so cute:

1. When he wants another one of something, he says "Uh-nudder one?" Silly, and probably not post-worthy, but honestly, he can have whatever he wants when he says it.

2. "Ta-daaaaaa!" I don't know where he picked that up. Probably pre-school. Whenever he finds something he was looking for he holds it up for me to see while saying "Ta-daaaaa!"

3. The last one is when he asks if something is his, he says "Is this mine-t?" Don't know where the t came from, but I'm glad it's there.

Posted by Jenn at 09:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yesterday we headed out to the wilds of a nearby town to go for a ride on the Holiday Express. It's a diesel train that's decked out Polar Express-style. The trip lasts about an hour and features holiday songs, a reading of the Polar Express, a visit from Santa, Rudolph, an elf, and a snowman, followed by more holiday songs. We went with our friends Kim, Jason, and the always ebullient Elsa. We told Henry we would be going for a ride on the train, and he kept asking if we were going on "the one near Grammy and Grandpa's house, the loud one with the escalator and the doors that open like this *hands held side-by-side, palms out, moving away from each other, then back again*". He was pretty disappointed that the answer was no until we pulled up to the "station" and there was the train in all its glory, decked out in icicle lights and looking resplendent. Even I started to feel pretty excited when I saw it. When we got on the train he wanted me to carry him and then he spent the rest of the walk through the many cars saying, with deep impatience, "C'mon! C'mon! Let's go! Can we sit there? Can we sit here? Can I have a blanket like one of those? C'mon! Hurry!" The train was pretty full when we got there, and we ended up in the furthest car from the entrance, which also happened to be the dining car. It was very cool. It was just past sundown so we could see the Christmas lights people had decorated their houses with, much to Henry's great joy. We noticed a couple of people peering at us from the windows of their houses and even managed to elicit a few waves. I didn't think Santa would go over very well with Henry, but since Henry and Elsa were the first kids in the car, I know Henry at least was too surprised to be nervous. He was shy though and ducked under his chair when Rudolph and the Snowman tried to high five him. Meanwhile, Elsa danced the whole second half of the trip. In the aisle. Often with Dave. If only I'd had my camera.

On the ride home, every time we passed any Christmas lights anywhere, Henry would say that he had seen them earlier on the train. This was especially amusing when we drove down Main Street where the street lamps are individually decorated, because then it was a mad rush of pointing at each one and saying "IsawthoseChristmaslightsonthetrain... IsawthoseChristmaslightsonthetrain... IsawthoseChristmaslightsonthetrain..." Needless to say, it was a *very* good evening.

Posted by Jenn at 08:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I'm thirsty. Really thirsty. Nothing is doing it for me either. I've tried everything. Water, root beer, coke icee (yum!), more water, sparkling grape juice, fizzy water. Still thirsty. Now also sloshing.

2. Henry's played with the sprayer on our kitchen sink so much lately that it now has the unfortunate habit of staying on. The only way to get it to unstick is to let the water run for a little bit. The current score: sprayer 4, Jenn 0. And I didn't even know it was a competition.

3. We are now in hour seven of getting the Christmas tree up, and that doesn't include the time we spent trekking through the freezing cold to pick it out, chop it down, and haul it back to the car, Griswold-style of course. After all of that tree-centric time, all we have to show for our efforts is a tree that's in its stand and decorated with newly purchased, lead-frosted, energy-saver LED lights, plus two strands of garland, one of which ends in a massive tangled knot that Henry and I finally gave up on and just tossed into the lower branches. Tomorrow will be a better day. Hopefully with fewer commas.

4. Both men in the house have been gnoshing on veggie chips that have been seasoned with, among other things, garlic. Then they've spent time in my face, breathing on me. There's nothing quite like seeing an angelic three-year old giving you Bambi eyes, only to be greeted by the green stink of doom when he opens his mouth. Dave I expect it from, but not dear, sweet Henry...

Posted by Jenn at 08:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I finally found the fourth book in the Twilight series on Wednesday at, of all places, the local bookstore downtown. It was the last copy. In fact, it was the last copy of any of the books in the series, so, as Megan just said on the phone, it was fate.

I was extremely excited to dive in, but by the time I got halfway into the Jacob section, my eyes were starting to glaze over. I find now that with every paragraph I think to myself "Okay, we get it." Plus, characters who were previously insightful are now portrayed as a bit dopey, seemingly for the sake of not moving the plot along in an effort to create tension. I'm a little disappointed, and unlike the first three, don't feel as compelled to pick it up. Perhaps it's just the particular section I'm reading and it will get better once the plot actually does move forward.

The other thing that's grating about this book, which is something that started picking at me during the third one, is the continuation of all of the emotional "I can barely bring myself to say this because I'm so afraid to hurt you" whispering that goes on. I hope I don't have to read ..."she/he/Jacob/Bella/Edward whispered," too many more times. Mumble, confide, murmur, mutter...

Posted by Jenn at 09:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is it possible for Leo to look any happier than he does at that moment?

Posted by Jenn at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Dave asked me to get him a vest for Christmas this year. I think this one just screams "Dave". It's very science-y. Don't you think he'd love it? Maybe so much that he'd never ever take it off, ever again?

Posted by Jenn at 03:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I finished the third book last night. It took me slightly longer to read it. I managed to stretch it out over five days. It was a little easier to put this book down for the night, unlike the first two, which I think is good because there's only one left and I'd hate to reach the end of the series wanting more, although I suppose that's still possible. Fortunately, the main character is starting to get a little ridiculous, so that should help make it easier to leave it behind. Anyway, I assumed that since I wasn't all fired up over it like I was with the first two, I'd be inclined to let a little more time pass between that one and the fourth in the series. I was wrong. While out on some business today, I snuck into Walmart to pick it up. They didn't have it. Then after dinner I packed the family up in the car and we went to Target, Giant, and Waldenbooks. All of them were sold out. I'm trying not to panic. Also, who are all of these people buying books? I mean, really now! And another thing, if they're gifts, are they really going to make the recipients wait until Christmas to open it, especially if they've already read the first three, because that's asking a lot of a person. Unless, of course, they're giving the whole series. That's a lot more civilized. I'm going to just pretend that's what's going on. La-la-la-la-laaaaaa!

Posted by Jenn at 09:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)