It's nearly December.  There is an ornament on the kid's tree that happily ticks away the days until Christmas.  It's reading something insane like twenty-seven days. 

November was good.  There were, as usual, some blips on the radar.  But it was still good.  And I am so thankful. 

I successfully hosted thanksgiving.  As a first timer, I rather despised the frequent {eleven total} trips to the grocery store.  The food was wonderful {Mom gets credit for the dressing . . . to die}.  My dining room was so pretty, sporting it's Blue Aves china and my great-grandmother's white linens.  I completely cheated on the turkey--bought rotisserie and put it in the crock-pot.  It was amazing.  Coco & Dustin & Paigers came, too, so it was a full house.  Ben couldn't believe I didn't make corn.  He insisted corn was an integral part of any Thanksgiving feast.  Next year, Ben, I promise you corn.  I just could not go to HEB again. 

One of the aforementioned blips is that my parents have decided to move back to Midland, their former stomping ground of nearly forty years.  The two years with them here have been nothing short of magical.  As their child, I would like very much to throw myself at their feet and scream and cry until they give in and decide to stay.  As Ben & Cameron's mother, however, I must put on my brave face and set a good example and remind them that we'll visit.  Lots. 

  

Currently four little monkeys are scampering about the second floor of this happy house.  Two sweeties from next door frequent us, begging only for company & cookies.  We happily oblige. 

I am sitting in my office, the Christmas tree is completely lit up next to me, and dinner is already made.  For this, I am thankful.  For the record, we've assembled the tree this early one other time in our nearly eleven year marriage. 

There remains much to be done, from laundry to life-lessons.  Blogging is somewhere on the list.  Just quite a bit lower than laundry. 





Back soon . . .  After all, it's my list-making season, and it's cold outside.  Generates lots of hot-coffee drinking, blogging and pinning time in the study with the sparkly tree. 

Thankful, grateful, happy & blessed. 

Ben in 10

One.  Ben lost his first tooth {naturally, the real first tooth loss was trauma-induced} with the help of his teacher, Mrs. Davis!  Classic teacher moment . . . at lunch she explained perfectly how one might loosen their own tooth.  She asked Ben if he could do it, he nodded, and politely pulled out his tooth and handed it to her! 

Two.  The other day I explained some mundane fact to him.  His eyes lit up and he said, "Mom, do you know all the things?!!!!?"

Three.  This child of mine LOVES babies.  LOVES, LOVES, LOVES babies!  We went to a birthday party the other day and there was a little fifteen month old baby girl.  Ben got the biggest smiles from her--by speaking Spanish to her--which she understood perfectly!

Four.  First shiner.  Had a serious run-in with a bookcase in the classroom.  The bookcase won by a landslide.  These pictures are eight days post-injury. 

Five.  Halloween was kind of a bummer for my Benjamin.  A yucky cold {mine}, a crummy cough {Cam's} and a cold/cough combo {his} put a serious damper on Halloween festivities.  He was so happy to dress up, have his picture taken, and pass out candy to the neighborhood kids.  He answered the door like a pro, and told the sweet trick-or-treaters that he was giving them candy with red dye in it, because if he ate it it made him act crazy!  



Knight in Shining Armor {Halloween 2011}

Six.  I'm thinking about investing in a mouth-guard.  He knocked the enamel off the front of his lateral incisor by leaping from the top of a ladder when he heard the bell signalling the end of playground time.  He came home and rather proudly showed me the "new hole" in his tooth.  The nerve had already begun to die, thankfully.  No pain, no treatment needed.  The first week of school he knocked two bottom teeth lose {also on the playground}.  I'm really counting on Ben's second set of pearly whites to last. 

Seven.  Soccer.  He loves it.  Upon scoring a goal, he runs like a wild man, high-fiving anyone and everyone.  I just want him to have a mouth-guard when he plays!

Eight.  We practice some letter sounds during dinner sometimes.  One night we were working on “P”, and trying to get Ben to figure out what letter “potato” began with . . . It took him awhile, but eventually he got the hang of the game . . .  He came up with “A Princess ate sweet Potatoes that were Puffy and Pink and she Played with her Puppy until she had to go Poo-Poo and Pee-Pee on the Potty.” Then, naturally, as only a little boy could do, he literally laughed so hard he fell out of his chair.

Nine.  He is like a cat with nine lives.  He continues to run everywhere.  He runs to brush his teeth.  He runs to get a sip of water.  He runs to the restroom {I'm okay with this}.  I think this is why he looks like a string-bean.  He has bruises and cuts and scrapes all over the place.  He is TOUGH.  It takes a serious injury to bring on tears, but kisses and Angry Bird bandaids get him back in the action.   

Ten.  He's so big.  But he's still little.  Can't pronounce "L".  He wuves me.  Wuves his family, wuves his blue blanket, wuves to snuggle on the couch, wuves his widdle sister. 

More soon on the boy who holds my heart captive.

Life with boys.

It ain’t for the faint of heart.