Just a little late...Merry Christmas!!!

With lots of love and wishes of peace and joy
from the Dragonfly house

Decorating Ornaments, aka Messy Craft Time

*for Wordless Wednesday*

Life

note: There's no specific badness going on, this is an old poem. I wasn't feeling a poetry vibe today but I couldn't resist the Monday Mission call for a poetry post; I looked through some of my old poems and this one just sort of spoke to me. So...

I want to understand, but the question is too big.

It's so strange
that the world and everyone
goes on when I feel stopped.
The sky is heavy.
There's a weight on my chest
that has nothing to do with anything
I can touch. My mortality screams
in my ears today, tells me
nothing is forever.

I think I am immune to life,
but I am fooling myself.

I want to put my fist
through a window,
to watch my knuckles bleed,
to feel pain,
to feel something.

I am cold inside.
Even my tears are cold.

I smile, say No, don't worry
about me. I'm fine, but I'm not
fine at all. I feel like throwing up,
like maybe if I empty my stomach
I can get rid of yesterday
and start over.

april 2000

I wrote this the day after I found out my grandpa had an inoperable brain tumor. He died a few weeks later. Thankfully all of his kids and all of his grandkids were able to make the trip from Michigan to Florida to see him before he died. It was an overwhelming whirlwind of sickness, travel, sadness, tears, and death.

Been thinking a lot about mortality lately. We get these emails called Red Messages - after the family is notified (in person, of course), a message is sent to the rest of the unit to let them know when a soldier has been killed. The messages always include the "survivors"...and the Little Mister gets so many extra hugs when there are kids! I worry about the Sergeant, of course, but not as much as many spouses. He never leaves the base, he's relatively safe. My best friend's husband, though...he's being deployed to the Middle East for the third time next month, and he's infantry, so he'll be in danger pretty much every day. No wonder this poem jumped out at me.

But, on the flip side, there is joy. Life. Live it! Live every single day. It's something I need to remember. At the moment I'm drowning in Christmas cards (40 down, 26 to go) and I've been so focused on them the past few days that I've been doing less fun stuff with the Little Mister. We play, but I haven't made an effort to get out paint, or markers or other Messy Stuff (which he loves, of course). So tomorrow (he's in bed now) my goal is to have fun with my son. And if someone's Christmas card is late...well, that's life.

1.5

The Little Mister is 18 months old now.

How does this happen?

Today (well, yesterday now, I guess) my once-tiny little boy held my hand and walked up the stairs with me.

And since it was also St. Nicholas Day there were a few little presents in his boots this morning; he is now the proud owner of his very own markers, which, as you can see, he loves.

I don't think I can deny it anymore...he really is a toddler.

Trimming the Tree

*for Wordless Wednesday*

The Christmas Story??

Did you know that Mary was a pilot? When it was time to go she and Joseph rented a plane and flew to Bethlehem.


The inn was full when they arrived, so Mary had to give birth to her baby in a stable. She named him Jesus. They were watched over by a guardian sheep.

Three wise men and a young Hawaiian girl traveled from afar to bring gifts to the newborn king...

...but suddenly they were trampled by a giant!!!

The Hawaiian girl was the lone survivor, arriving in Bethlehem to present the young Jesus with a small blue cell phone.

Watch out, guardian sheep! The giant is back!

This post is brought to you with lots of help from the Little Mister for Painted Maypole's Monday Mission - to write a post as a children's story. This is a nostalgic Monday Mission...I did it last January too. Fun! :)

New Stuff

• Lately my son seems to think he should call me by my given name instead of calling me Mamma. Hmm.
• The Little Mister seems to have begun "playing pretend". I asked him to hold a package of fruit snacks while I finished up what I was doing; I told him I'd open them when I was done. After a minute, when I glanced up, he was pretending to pull a snack out of the bag, put it in his mouth, chew, and swallow. When he caught me looking at him, he grinned. So cute!
• A HUGE step in the right direction: the Little Mister is starting to put his toys away when I ask. And sometimes even when I don't ask. Wow. I LOVE IT!!
• A couple weeks ago, for a reason I still can't put my finger on, I started a page on Facebook. I've already been in touch with several friends I hadn't talked to in over ten years!
• I bought plane tickets this week; the Little Mister and I will be in the States for pretty much the month of January. I don't look forward to the l-o-n-g flights with a toddler, but it'll be great to see family and friends. The Little Mister even (finally!!!) gets to meet Painted Maypole and the May Queen!!!
• And...oh yeah...it's SNOWING outside right now. It's pretty much a mini blizzard! Yuck.

Christmas card update: 16 down, 49 to go. I think I need to work faster.
And yes, eventually I'll post a picture. :)

Two down, sixty-three to go.

Christmas cards, that is.

Yup, I'm making my Christmas cards again this year. It seems a rather late start and a rather large undertaking considering the colds and infections making the rounds in our house lately, plus the normal busyness of the holiday season and also having a seventeen month old, especially since they really should be out by around the first of December to make sure they're delivered on time...but I enjoy making cards, and my friend and I are working on them together, so it should be fun. We started last night, the kids watched Annie (well, we had the table set up so we could watch Annie too, and sing along, of course!) while we worked.

So...you're probably thinking something along the lines of, "Dragonfly, if you worked last night, why do you only have two cards done? If you're making sixty-five cards, you might want to make a few more than just two a night."

But I did work hard last night. I made over half of my envelopes!

Yeah..not only am I making 65 cards, I'm making 65 envelopes too!!!

I'm a new kind of super hero! You can call me..

[cue trumpets]

Insano-Girl!

I think I'm going to go take a nap...

Baby Hugs

*for Wordless Wednesday*

Three cheers from the sick house!

Okay, this is actually us watching the Bills game tonight. And it's blurry because I had to use the timer. And right now there isn't much to cheer about, because it's 10-3, New England. But unlike my dad (the pessimistic lifetime Lions fan, who has faith during every game that they'll find a way to lose) I have hope that my boys can find a win. And, if not, we'll be cheering again next week. (Probably not watching though. It's a Monday night game, which means it starts here at 2:30 Tuesday morning. So cheering in our dreams, I guess.)

But this really is a sick house. This week has been rough. Monday I went to the clinic...I have a sinus infection. I'm feeling much better, almost back to normal. Still headachey, but that's not so bad.

The Little Mister, though...wow. This is really the first time he's ever been sick, and I guess he figured he'd do it right the first time. Remember the picture I posted Tuesday, of him crying and encouraging everyone to vote? Apparently those tears weren't just from his incoming molar (which popped through Tuesday evening, by the way). Wednesday morning he wouldn't eat or drink, so I took him to the clinic in the early afternoon.

He has two ear infections.

He has a minor bacterial infection in his eyes.

He has bronchitis.

My poor baby! After 24 hours on medicine he was mostly back to himself. Now his eyes look fine, and his breathing sounds normal most of the time. He's still more cranky than usual, but I'm hoping my happy baby will come back when the pain in his ears goes away. And I'm really hoping that's soon...

I don't like living in a sick house!

Go me!

I finally did it.

I washed the dirty clothes he left on the floor.

It only took three months and four days.

And I only cried a little.


I am feeling very silly right now.

And also embarrassed.

It's Election Day!

Please vote!

If you don't, I might cry!

These tears have been brought to you by incoming molar number four

This public service announcement has been brought to you by the Little Mister and by the letter V

Mickey has nothing on *my* little mouse.

p.s. Look...now he does have a tail! *hee hee*

What's the difference between boys and girls?

According to my three year old neighbor, who took a bath with the Little Mister last night, my son has a "tail".

*giggle*

Random Topics of the Day

Syrup

Okay, I know syrup absolutely does not qualify as a blog topic. Please bear with me while I try to justify it.

The Little Mister has a waffle for breakfast nearly every morning. Usually with fruit, and sometimes with cheese, but almost always a waffle. What can I say, the kid likes his waffles...and I don't mind so much, because at least I buy the whole grain kind, right?

Anyway, this morning I was trying to stay on my feet while waiting for the waffle to pop from the toaster (both the Little Mister and I have nasty colds going on, so staying on my feet is actually a rather difficult task) and while I stood and swayed I distracted myself by looking at the nutrition info on the back of the syrup bottle.

I have to say I was a bit surprised when I saw that there are 31 grams of sugar in a serving of syrup. I mean, okay, I know syrup is basically sugar, but still. But then I looked at the serving size. A quarter of a cup.

A quarter of a cup??

Does anyone put that much syrup on a waffle? Six pancakes, perhaps. But a waffle?? I've never actually measured, but my guess is the Little Mister gets about a teaspoon (or less) of syrup on his daily waffle. I feel quite a bit better about his sugar intake now.

And me? Even when I have two or three pancakes, I'd guess I use about two tablespoons of syrup. Am I in the minority? Is a quarter of a cup a normal serving size? (note: 4 tablespoons = 1/4 cup)


My Polite Little Boy

I realized something yesterday: the Little Mister says thank you! When I give him something - especially food, but also things like books and toys - he says "tay-tay". Now that I recognize the word as thank you I always say "you're welcome" back to him, and he smiles so proudly every time I do. I just love it! Now if only I could teach his daddy to say thank you...

(Just kidding, honey. I love you!!!) ;)


Little Bills Fan

Look what the Sergent sent for the Little Mister! (translation: Look what the Sergeant sent for ME!!!!) Right now, of course, he's only a Bills fan 'cause his mommy's a Bills fan (and, believe it or not, his daddy doesn't like football!)...but soon enough I'll brainwash him teach him all about football and about the Buffalo Bills and he'll cheer for them on his own. ;)

Oops

forgot my haiku
left at the checkout counter
I'm sorry, Friday.

* * * * *

Yesterday was a pretty normal, busy day (aside from a very VERY V-E-R-Y big and disgusting mess the Little Mister made that I will not explain because I never ever want to think about it again and I didn't even have the proper cleaning materials to clean it up so we had to go shopping and then I had to burn candles to get the smell of disinfectant out my living room and that didn't even work so it still smells but I don't want to talk about it) (*deep breath*) in the Dragonfly household. I did laundry, cleaned in the kitchen, cuddled with my boy, and, after the boy went to bed, I watched a bit of How I Met Your Mother. I was debating between a haiku about chocolate milk (the Little Mister had his first taste this week, and he sure did love it!) and kittens (for three days this week our neighbors were out of town so we were on kitten-sitting duty, and for some reason those kittens let him do whatever they want to them. He carries them around by whatever body part he can catch...and they don't care at all!). But somewhere in the normal craziness of the day I forgot all about my haiku.

So..this is my very own edition of Haiku Saturday.

:)

For Haiku Friday...click here. :)

Autumn Adventure

*for Wordless Wednesday*

Gearing Up for Winter

Ohhh...what is my husband going to say?

But honestly, doesn't the Little Mister look adorable? Okay, I know he's wearing a hat and mittens with his pjs, but still...he's precious in his new puppy dog hat, right??

A couple days ago, when I took the trash out in the early morning fog, there was frost on the cars. Eek! Didn't autumn start just a few days ago? Alright, it was actually a month, but still. Frost??! *sigh* So I went in search of something to keep my boy's ears warm, and I couldn't resist the little velcro ear flaps with floppy ears on top. I might not be mentally ready for winter, but at least the Little Mister will be warm! :)


p.s.

What I wanted to write in this post but was too tired to figure out how to write in haiku:

Thanks. To all of you who read my blog, no matter how long you've been reading...thanks. You're the ones who make this place what it is. It would be no fun at all without you!! :)

One

'Twas a year ago
a little blog came to be.
Where did the time go??

I wrote of blankness
and why I love Halloween...
Wow, so much has changed!

October 2007:

October 2008:

For more haiku fun, click here!

I'm surrounded by GIRLS!!!

...and this is what they do to me. *sigh*

*by the Little Mister, for Wordless Wednesday*

Haiku Friday - My Blue Ribbon Day

An autumn evening,
games and candy, crafts and fun:
smiles on every face.

It's a "county fair,"
with music, cotton candy,
and plenty of food!

And then a contest.
Some made soup, chili, or cake.
I made apple pie.

for more haiku fun, click here!! :)

Wordless Wednesday: (Little) Mr. Cool

Period of Adjustment

The Good News:

Saturday I started a new medication for my migraines. It's something I've taken before, and it's nearly miraculous; I take it twice a day and my migraines go from 5-7 a week to 1-2 a month!!!*

The Bad News:

While I adjust to the meds, I get dizzy just sitting on the couch.

So...I can't drive, I can't read, I can barely walk from one end of the apartment to the other without running into something. I'm thankful that the Little Mister can walk on his own in the house as much as possible.. I'm not going to be online much because it's hard to focus on the monitor. I call myself the space cadet. :) Thankfully this only lasts a week or two, if I remember correctly. But even two weeks of dizziness is worth no more migraines!!!!!

*I had to stop taking it when I wanted to get pregnant, and now that I for sure can't get pregnant it's a safe time to take it again. :)

I shed some "Mommy Tears" today.

Snuggling with the Little Mister in the quiet of the morning, smelling the soft baby scent of his hair, thinking about how fast he's growing, I whispered, "Will you be my boy forever?"

He put his hands on my cheeks, looked right into my eyes, and kissed me.

Wordless Wednesday: Follow the (Yellow) Brick Road

Yesterday by the Numbers

in the afternoon...

trips to the park: 1
moms on the trip: 2
kids on the trip: 4
directions four kids can go all at once: approximately 27

slides slid by the Little Mister: 2
slides slid without crying: 1
slides enjoyed: 0

steps the Little Mister climbed: 8
picnic tables he climbed: 4
fallen logs he climbed: 2
people he climbed: 3

hours spent at the park: 2.5
distance walked/crawled/climbed/slid: far enough that we were all exhausted when we left!

pictures taken: 150 (and no, that is no exaggeration..)

and then after dinner...

trips to the movies: 1
people I took with me to see The Dark Knight: ZERO!!

(Oh the joy of being able to see a movie that isn't made for kids! To spend a few hours with no responsibilities!)

times I thanked my friend and her kids for watching the Little Mister for me: too many to count

and later last night...

football games watched: 1
points scored by the Bills: 31
points scored by the Rams: 14
times I cheered out loud for the Bills: again, too many to count
time I finally got to bed: 2:00 am

and today's big number...

new molars poking through: TWO!!

Life Happens

My break from the internet wasn't planned.

The Little Mister learned how to climb onto the couch, and now it's his favorite place. He also learned how to turn off Mommy's computer, and that seems to be his new favorite game.

So...the computer is mostly put away these days, and turned off. And when I do get a little time to myself, I've been a bit busy, a bit distracted. Here's what's been going on in the Dragonfly house:

• I've been finding lots of great books at the library, and today I got FIVE new books in the mail! (Ahh, the joy of Amazon, bringing books right to me even in Germany..) Lots of reading happening; it's lovely to just lose myself in a good book for a few hours.
  
• The Little Mister is more mobile, so the mess in the house is suddenly more widespread. Cleaning abounds.
• My migraines are suddenly almost under control (woo hoo!) so I can cross-stitch again. I'm working on two big products, and in the past week I've made considerable progress.
• Our upstairs neighbors have TWO new kittens! The Little Mister and I like to go up and visit..he plays with the little girl and the kitten, and I get to have adult conversation with my friend. :)
  
• My newest obsession: Heroes. I got the first two seasons on dvd for my birthday, and before this I'd only seen the first few episodes (I moved here to Germany just after the first season started and I never got the chance to catch up). So far I've watched the first season and the first two episodes of the second season, and I've been completely sucked in. I like that some of the characters are so hard to figure out...good guy, bad guy, victim of circumstance.... I'm fascinated by Sylar. And I'm quite jealous of all you in the States who can watch new episodes..who knows when I'll get to see season three.
• And when the Little Mister is awake, we've had some excellent play time. Just a few days ago he learned where his nose is! (Okay, perhaps I'm a bit too excited about that, but I'm entitled, right?)

So...the blogging break was unexpected...but good.

What's been taking up your time these days?

Wordless Wednesday: Mardi Gras in September?

Thanks a bunch, Painted Maypole!! He loves them! (and we enjoyed the rest of the package too..)

:)

Words I haven't written

Hello to everyone out there in blogland. Have you missed me? I've been thinking about things I want to write (thoughts on 9/11 and other thoughts on turning thirty, to name a few) but I'm being held in the tight grip of a cold that refuses to let go. Argh. The good news is I haven't had a migraine since last weekend! I can't remember the last time I went a week without a migraine...isn't modern medicine wonderful?

Since I can't straighten out my brain enough to write anything that makes sense, let me to direct you to something that touched me this past week. Mary Alice at From the Frontlines wrote a heart-wrenching post on her experience of 9/11 as part of a military family. The Sergeant and I weren't a military family on 9/11 - we weren't even married yet, although the wedding was planned - but Mary Alice's story makes me wonder what memories my son will have of his daddy the soldier..

Haiku Friday: Thirty

There was chocolate cake,
my baby boy, and some friends:
my happy birthday.

For more haiku fun, click here.

It's Fun to be One! - Fall Class List

Hi there! Little Mister here. I know it's been awhile since you heard from me, but Mommy told me about this week's Monday Mission and I knew it was time to put my plan into action. I've been learning so much lately, and discovering new things, that I've decided to share some of my wisdom with other kids my age. Brilliant, right? So here is the fall class list for my new school, It's Fun to be One!

Walking 101 Are your knees getting sore? Or your hands? Crawling might get you around, but there's a better way. Walking! In this class we'll cover such topics as Balance, Cruising, and How to Take a Fall.

On the Go Fun with wheels! We'll play with trains, cars, airplanes - big ones, little ones, some to push, some to ride. Advanced topics include Keeping the Train on the Tracks and Making Car Noises.

Chatterbox Do you love telephones? I do! In this class we'll learn words to use on the phone, starting with "hi" and "bye-bye." And, of course, we'll push buttons and talk on the phones. My favorite lesson is Ways to Make Your Grandparents Make Funny Noises on the Phone.

Music Lots of noise! We'll make music in every class, with drums, xylophones, maracas, our voices, and whatever else we can find. There will be a special lesson on How to Make Your Pets Run and Hide.

Drama In this course we'll play with props and costumes and our imaginations...and learn how to make grown-ups laugh.

Art A fun class with lots of hands-on activities. Most lessons use paper and crayons, but we may get to finger paints. Be prepared to get messy! At the end of every lesson you'll have a gift for your mom or dad or someone else special.

Catch Those Cats! This is an advanced course, only for serious students who want a challenge. Topics include Sneaking, Quiet, and Waving Ribbons or Other Cat Toys. We'll possibly spend a few minutes talking about catching dogs, but since they usually want to be caught there isn't much to learn.

Every class meets every day - we keep busy, 'cause It's Fun to be One!