After dinner dance party

This post is inspired by the wonderful dance party video that Leah posted...I thought I would share my own story. When Lenny works late, which is a lot at this job; the time between afternoon nap and bath time is full of whining and general crankiness. So I was trying to come up with a way to calm the savage beasts that my children would become. I came up with "After dinner dance party". If they eat their vegetables, and are generally not surly at the dinner table, I put on some "big people" music when they are done, and we all dance around like crazy people for a few minutes to blow off steam (in hindsight I am lucky no one has thrown up their dinner). We do a different artist and a different genre of music each night (i.e. The Clash, The Beach Boys) and Gunner tries to "find the beat" in the music...although honestly I think that Hudson is the one with the natural rhythm. So far Gunner's favorites are ABBA's "Dancing Queen", and Madonna's "Beat goes on"....yesterday I caught him singing "Come on, beep, beep, gotta get up onto your feet...on and on, on the beat goes". I guess I need to pick some masculine music for our next session! At least it works, we are all generally laughing by the end of the song.

X-mas fun

We had a busy and fun Christmas week. On Monday, December 22nd, we went to the Botanical Gardens with Gunner (my parents stayed home with Hudson) to ride the "Polar Express". First we helped him make a butterfly ornament for the tree, then we all listened to a reading of the book and then it was time for a ride on the tram through the Garden of Lights (they decorate the Gardens with a huge Christmas lights display every year that cars can drive through...buying tickets to this event gets you a special ride on the tram). When the 'teacher' told all the kids to be quiet to listen to instructions Gunner waited until everyone was quiet and yells to the teacher "I will be quiet too, ok?". Then he proceeded to keep, very loudly, reminding her about the "train ride" at every given opportunity.

Teacher: "Now it is time to put together your Christmas ornaments"

Gunner: "THEN we listen to a story, THEN we go ride on the train, RIGHT?"

Teacher "It's time for a cookie and hot chocolate"

Gunner: "THEN we listen to a story, THEN we go on the train ride RIGHT?"

Teacher: "We are going to read Polar Express now"

Gunner "THEN we go on the train ride, RIGHT?"

Finally she said "I PROMISE we will go on the train ride"

Here he is with his ornament..hard to see because of the busy table cloth.

Finally it was time for the tram / "Polar Express train ride". Naturally it was the only night that it got down below 30 degrees, luckily we came very prepared and had a really good time. Gunner loved having alone time with Mommy and Daddy and was so excited and enthralled by the lights that it put us all in the holiday spirit.

On the tram...he is in the middle of saying "NOW we go on the train ride through the Christmas lights MOMMY! Lets go!"

The next day we went to MacArthur Center Mall to visit with Santa (Gunner insisted on wearing the same outfit he wore the night before). When you go through the line to see him, you walk through the engine room of the "Polar Express" and then a giant snow globe with Polar Express scenes and a snow machine (I think the theme changes every year, but how perfect since we "rode" the Polar Express the night before. Gunner and Hudson liked standing under the "snow".

They both did great sitting on Santa's lap...

Then we blew off some steam in the play area, where they had fun going down the slide together. Luckily we had gotten to the mall to see Santa right after it opened, so it wasn't crowded, but it was crazy in there by the time we left. I was glad my parents were there to help me keep track of Gunner while making sure Hudson didn't get run over by the bigger kids! Unfortunately, we experienced the first of our Christmas time bloody noses when Hudson threw himself head first onto the bottom of one of the slides and forgot to put his hands out first...luckily it was just a little blood, but that was our cue to leave!

Christmas Eve we went to the early church service where Gunner sang "Away in a Manger" with some of the other kids from the Sunday School classes and Lenny did a reading. Here are my handsome boys, ready to go and giving Hudson a little tickle...

Gunner ready to sing...he looks terrified in this picture, but he really doesn't mind getting up in front of people, I think he was just checking out the big crowd in the sanctuary.

Doing the hand motions for "little lord Jesus"...he was a little late with his motions, the older kids had moved on to "no crying he makes", but he did every motion right, and sang all the words, I was really proud of him!

Unfortunately, the evening ended with our second bloody nose of the week...I hope this isn't a tradition. We went to pick up Hudson from the nursery and Gunner was pushing a toy mower when he tripped and smashed his nose into a plastic Elmo. Fortunately I had seen him with a bad bloody nose before, so I grabbed his arms (his first instinct is to start rubbing at his nose) while Lenny ran for towels. The other parents picking up their infants clearly had never dealt with a bloody nose of those proportions before, and looked horrified by all the blood...and by how matter-of-fact we handled it I think....the one Mom is looking at me like I am crazy while I am asking Gunner what Santa is bringing him for X-mas (to distract him) while blood is pouring out of both his nostrils. Anyway, once we calmed him down, we were ready to go home and leave out the milk & cookies for Santa.

Christmas morning was really funny...I still don't think Gunner quite understood the whole thing. He talked about Santa coming (although he informed me that "Santa can't fit down the chimney Mom, he lands on the roof and uses a ladder"), but in the morning he said "first I eat my breakfast, THEN I open my presents, ok?" He is a lot more disciplined than I am! He also didn't want to rip the paper on the presents...this is an ongoing quirk...you have to start opening the present for him and then he will finish, otherwise he carries it around and says "see my present", but never actually unwraps it. He was pretty excited about his talking / walking Lightning McQueen car and Buzz Lightyear doll but his favorite gift was his Dinosaur costume, which he didn't take off except to take his pajamas off...even though, unfortunately, it is a little tight!

Hudson was not all that interested in any of his presents, but would not put down the little die cast cars I put in Gunner's stocking. He kept pushing them around the floor going "ZZZZZMMMM" (translation-Zoom).

His other favorite gift was the piano that my sister delivered to us. They bought an antique baby grand and gave us their old one...now one of us HAS to take lessons! My family joined us for Christmas dinner, which turned out pretty well if I do say so myself! All in all we had a really fun Christmas this year!

Santa...

I took the boys to see Santa this morning in Norfolk, pictures and details will be posted later because I also have a "Polar Express" event tonight w/ Gunner at the Botanical Gardens that I have to start packing snacks for (who has a children's event 4:30 - 7:00 and only offers cookies and hot chocolate?). Anyway, when my parents and I asked Gunner whether Santa would say he had been naughty or nice this year, he said "I think Santa is going to be GRUMPY"....and no matter how many times we asked him if Santa would think he was naughty or nice, that is the answer we got. I think he was hedging his bets, so if Santa thought he was naughty then he could blame it on him being grumpy. It made us laugh...that and hearing him ask for "Lightning McQueen and a Tyrannosaurus Rex" for X-mas....luckily I already got him a toy Lightning McQueen and a stuffed T-rex...hope they are big enough for him!

Tis the Season for being busy!

I know I am seriously behind on my blogging! My only excuse is that we have been crazy busy!

I will start with the latest news, because it is the biggest and I am so proud of my hubby! He screened for command..yeah!!! That means he gets to be the CO (Commanding Officer) of his own EOD mobile unit, which also means that it is basically guaranteed that he will make Captain as long as his Command tour goes smoothly (no question of that, his boss said that he had one of the strongest records and everyone seems to think he is really ready for the challenge). The best part is that they have told him he is getting the unit here in Norfolk...yeah again!

Unfortunately, it isn't all good news, because what this also means is that he will be deploying for 6 months to Iraq in April. Anyway, I am trying not to think about him being on the ground over there, commanding a unit that is responsible for clearing mines and IEDs and diving in the Persian Gulf. The good news is that he will be the CO; so he won't be the one actually cutting the wires, but I still don't like it. On the bright side, he won't miss the holidays next year!


So what else have we been up to....first there was Thanksgiving at my sisters farmhouse about two hours from us, here in Virginia. They have put a lot of blood sweat and tears into the old house and it is looking great. The boys love running around the grounds, getting rides on the "tractor" mower, playing their piano and terrorizing the local cat and my sister's mother-in-law's little yippy dogs. She always feeds us well, to the point where my pants no longer fit, and I couldn't possibly shovel in another piece of her epic cheesecake with chocolate ganache...who am I kidding, I manage to find the room! Here are some pics from our turkey day...

My brother-in-law takes all my boys for a ride...


A very rare photo of me with my sweet baby...doing what we all do best at my sister's, eat sweets!

Both boys love banging on the piano...Hudson gets a hand balancing on the bench from my nephew Jon.

Since Thanksgiving we have been to a flurry of X-mas parties...I had one with my book club, then we had Lenny's EOD / Navy X-mas party, then we had a X-mas party with a group of new friends I have made through a girl at my church. Lenny and I affectionately call them the "Wisteria Lane" crowd, because they all live on one street in these brand new, gorgeous craftsman homes. We decided that the builders must have had some rule that only attractive couples in their 30's & 40's with small children could move in. The only down side for them is that they are all so close together that every one knows every one's business, so it is pretty entertaining in a "Desperate Housewives" kind of way. It is just nice to be around people who are intelligent about something other than the military, worldly and don't act like martyrs about leaving their kids with a sitter for an evening! That is not always easy to find in Virginia or amongst the Navy wives & officers in general, so Lenny and I are having fun with it.

This is a rare picture of Lenny & I dressed up for an adult evening out.

And this was what the picture actually looked like because Gunner wouldn't let us get a picture without him (thank goodness for the zoom feature). By the way, we have the X-mas tree behind the couch so that Hudson won't climb it!

On the kid front, we had Marley's B-day party, which I realize I have no pictures of; and a X-mas party for the kids at my friend Alicia's house. They always have fun together, no matter the occasion, and Gunner at least had two other boys show up to the party so it wasn't just him and the ladies like it usually is. They had a lot of fun making gingerbread houses. Everyone except Gunner had fun eating theirs, but Gunner just kept taking it apart and putting it back together. When I told him that he should eat it he said "NOOO, I can't EAT it Mommy" as if I was totally insane for suggesting such a thing.


This was Gunner's gingerbread "house", when I asked him if he wanted a roof on it he said "There isn't a roof on a castle!"...well DUH!

Hudson also enjoying the X-mas party, with his puppy blanket. (Leah, you sent him that when he was born! He sleeps with that thing and carries it around rubbing it against his cheek and sucking his thumb...I better get another one!)

We also had Gunner's first school performance with his preschool class...a night that could only be enjoyable for the parents of the children there....it was hilarious. The kids either yelled the words or didn't sing at all...Gunner did a little of both, and everyone spent 1/2 the performance waving at their parents. My favorite was when they were singing a song about the things you do to prepare for Christmas and Gunner yelled "DADDY, don't forget to put the lights on the tree!" and then "HI MOMMY".

This is the pic of his grand entrance, right before he tried to come sit down with us in the audience.

Gunner would never look when I took a picture, in this one he was watching the kids in the back waving at their parents.Well, those are most of the highlights of our life since Turkey Day. I also joined my hubby on business for 3 days this week up in D.C. while my parents stayed here with the kids, but I don't have pics and it was pretty uneventful. I slept in and took the metro to Alexandria to window shop one of the days Lenny was at work; and the other day my nephew took me to lunch in Georgetown. I did not know what to do with myself without any of my boys...spending a whole day by myself was really pretty bizarre! Missing them makes me appreciate every moment I get to spend with them as a stay-at-home mom!

I will end with some pictures of Gunner doing his new favorite pastime, squeezing himself into the smallest containers he can...sometimes in costume. of course! And on one last random note, my favorite Gunner quote of the week "Mommy, when can we go back and stay in the cabinet?" This is what he calls our cabin...I mean I know it's small, but.....