Monthly Archives: December 2005

Our 1st child was a teaser baby……our 2nd child has kept us busy doing damage control! At least we will never be short of blackmail stories when he is a teenager!

Middle Son (5yrs)
Middle son spent the night for the 1st time at his grandma’s house. After playing video games, eating ice cream, and going to Macdonald’s, he was playing in the hot tub with his aunt and Brahma. His aunt commented to Brahma to fix her eyeliner….”it was running and making her wrinkles show.” With mock outrage, g’ma turns to our son and says, “Grandma doesn’t have lines and wrinkles, do I honey?” With the honesty of a child, our son smiles, “Yes you do Brahma, but if you open your eyes REAL BIG, like you’re surprized, no one will notice them.” (I believe a lesson in tact will be coming shortly.)

Middle Son (6yrs)
The children have been playing Lord of the Rings. They have been coming and showing me updates in costumes, props, and weapon sequences. Darling daughter came out and showed me her peasant dress and announced she was the princess Eowyn. Oldest son came out cloaked in a black blanket and armed to the teeth with a crossbow and swords to be Strider. Middle son came out and asked if he could be naked, so he could be Gollum. (I see a dancer in our future!)

This weekend Hubby and I were waking up reluctantly with all three children bouncing on our bed and chattering. (This phenomenon happens any time Hubby is home from work and trying to sleep in.) The oldest disappeared for a few moments and then came in and hushed the other two. He had gone to get his Bible and then he proceeded to read us the Christmas passage from Luke 2. He has been learning that God wants our “firsts”, our first hours in the day, the first 10% of our money, etc… He decided that he would help us all refocus our first waking moments on God and remembering why we celebrate Christmas before we all rushed off and got involved in the various projects and preparations that go along with the week before Christmas. What a special time of family snuggling and turning our thoughts toward God. Priceless!

Middle Son (around 3yrs old)
When my middle son was around 3yrs, my cousin Sean brought his new girlfriend to the Christmas gathering. She was very pretty, very tall, and very leggy. She wore a cute glittery sweater and a very short plaid skirt. My son was smitten from the first time he saw her, and she fell right into his little boy charms. She payed lots of attention to him, playing with him and listening to his stories all night. He invited her to come sit on the floor (in her short skirt) to play video games with him. He sat very close to her and just beamed all night. Whenever she would wander off with Sean, darling son would go looking for the “Sparkly Girl” through out the house. Apparently they were all standing around the kitchen chatting, and Sean had his arm around her rubbing her back. Gabe came up and listened for a while quietly. Next thing we know, the girlfriend gasps and jumps a mile. They turned to our son, who is about eye level with her skirt, and ask what he was doing. He said very innocently, “Patting her bum.” Sean teased him and told him not to mess with his girl, and later relayed the story to us with a smile. (We are pleased to announce that she is now engaged to Sean, despite our son’s best efforts to steal her away! LOL)

We went as a family to see “Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” tonight. Very well done. It helps to read the book 1st, as that will fill in the gaps where time does not permit characters or symbolism to be fully developed. Definitely not for very young viewers or ones disturbed by war violence and sudden surprises. We had read the book, discussed the symbolism and parallels to scripture, and gone over some of the finer aspects of Christ’s motives, methods, and results, which paid off since all three children loved it and were able to discuss the parallels! (C.S. Lewis wrote the book to help children understand the nature of Christ and to better grasp the sacrifice of His death for our sake. The movie presentation laid it out so that the children were encouraged to look beyond mere mechanics of salvation, and actually personalize and internalize that a blameless and all powerful Christ, laid down His life and power willingly, to accept the punishment in our place.) Overall content was good. To gain the most out of Spiritual content and teachable moments preparation and reading the book before hand is a must. Intense chases and violence are appropriate. The witch is bad, her magic is bad, she is tricky and bad…..no confusing “bad is sometimes good” messages here. No blood or gore shown when things die. As a mom looking for teachable moments, this one has lots! (Forgiveness, choices and consequences, standing up for what’s right, treatment of others, how lying and anger are just outward signs of bigger character issues, and that evil seeks an audience with half truths and flattery.) There are more, but those were the ones I pulled at 1st viewing! Again, read the book to the little darlings and discuss FIRST! That will give you a better idea if junior will be in tears and howling throughout most of the movie, or if he is ready for anything deeper than the surface story.

Darling Daughter (Age: 3yrs)
We ran to the grocery store to pick up food coloring. As it happened, we ran into a dear old woman and her husband from our church, in the store. She recognized us and came over to talk to the children and visit. Darling daughter noticed her floppy hat right away and asked her if she was a witch. A little shaken, she brushed it off and continued to try to speak to the children. Then darling daughter asked if the man she was with was her grandpa. The lady took it to mean that he was too old for her. I tried to get out of there fast! Perhaps we should avoid all public places until she is 18!

Update: Dec 2/605pm – Animal control just called and racoon is clean. God is good! Thank you for all your prayers!

Darling Husband (dh) called from work the other day to ask when his last tetanus shot happened. (Mind you, he works at a desk, not a high risk for injury.) Apparently, the guy that captures the local wildlife and relocates them was catching a raccoon. He had the critter in a dog-catcher’s noose and was trying to get him into a cage. The little bloke was all squirmy and mad, so the guy asked someone to hold the cage steady. Hubby was bitten, his finger was punctured and torn by the raccoon. They cleaned out the bite, but advised against stitches since it has a high risk for infection. Dh is now on antibiotics and is awaiting test results to see if he needs to begin Rabies shots. Bite site is currently red and sore but very clean.

Animal Control was in charge of sending the animal in for testing after all the proper agencies did their thing. Somewhere along the line they lost the animal. No one could find it and phone calls were not being returned from the responsible agency. Finally, Animal Control called us late last night to advise that the coon had been shipped to a vet for testing, they don’t know when it will get there, or if vet is even open on weekends. Hubby’s work has decided that they will begin Rabies treatment on Monday if we do not have the test results (just in case they “lose” it again). If the animal does not have rabies, he will be able to stop after 5 shots. If it was infected, he will be well into a series of 28 treatments. Either way, Hubby should be good. Praise God!

Dh is in good spirits. The guys at work left a stuffed raccoon and cage on his computer monitor and are teasing good naturedly. It will be awhile before he lives this one down. Pray the tests come out negative and that the tests come back before Monday so he doesn’t have to start treatments at all!