Merry Christmas!!

We went out to a local retailer to see their live Nativity yesterday. I didn't realize a camel could live outside in Canada in the winter! Jonah was impressed.


I'm not sure what happened in the posting of this picture here, but I'm not going to bother fixing it right now! It's Christmas Eve and I'm going to bed now!

Though Joseph, Mary & Baby Jesus are not real, the animals below them are.

Merry Christmas from our little Santa!

Bethlehem Skyline Tour

To see the final show of the Bethlehem Skyline Tour live, tune in...

Tonight at 7:00 PM CST

Live from Mankato, Minnesota

Downhere, Jason Gray, Daniel Kirkley,
Lanae Hale, and Jaime Jamgochian

http://www.mogulus.com/downhere

They'll be rebroadcasting this show until Christmas so if you missed it live, still check out the link!

missing out

Glenn and his band (minus the drummer who is home with his wife & new baby) are out doing a Christmas tour right now with most of their label mates. I don't often feel this way, but I just really wish I was out there with them right now. It's such a great, fun group of people and I just feel like I'm missing out. It got me thinking tonight - what exactly do I feel I'm missing out on? I came up with several things...

-the sense of community
-the feeling of connection
-good, deep conversations with people who really "get" me
-lots of laughs
-simply seeing and being with my friends (even Jess & Taya & my sister-in-law Krista are on the road with them right now!)
-and last but not least, being with my husband of course!

When Glenn is away this long (since Dec 1st) I really start to "lose steam" with home life. By 6:30pm every night I feel absolutely done and still have to get two boys bathed and in bed and get supper cleaned up. Plus prepping for the next day, like making Jonah's lunch for school, getting Bram's diaper bag replenished. I even figure out what I'll be wearing the next day to take the guess work out of the morning - otherwise I'll get Jonah to school late. Actually, I've only gotten Jonah to school on time ONCE since Glenn has left. I'll blame that on snow. However, he's never been super late - like only a minute or two. Then there's a load of laundry to finish, tidying to do, and then I've got to shower, feed Bram and get myself to bed. (And if you read my blog, you know how endless and impossible to finish the household 'maintenance' is!) This long, busy evening doesn't really allow for house guests. And I just can't afford to stay up late chatting anyway because I'll be up in the night with Bram and up by 7am at the latest. And the more sleep I have, the better Mom I am! [That said, I actually stayed up until 1:30am talking on the phone with Glenn one day this past week and did a pretty good job coping the next day.]

My social life? That consists of infrequent get-togethers during the day with other people who have kids while supervising kids. It doesn't allow for much "deep conversation". There's definitely value in that, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't quite hit the spot for me.

There are a few people who help me to keep my sanity while Glenn is away. My brother, my mother-in-law and my neighbor all occasionally pitch in so that I can get out for a run:walk (3:1 right now - I'm just getting started!) or run out to a store by myself. I even got out for a girls' night last week.

But my life right now = responsibilities. I'm SO tied down!

And so, part of me would really like to be out there on the Bethlehem Skyline Tour. If you're a mother of young children whose husband travels, I KNOW you understand and I know you won't hold it against me.

I'm a super Mom, but I'm no Supermom!

Taking back my green thumb

At MOPS a couple of weeks ago, the question was asked, "What part of yourself do you feel has been lost since you became a mother?"

I finally figured mine out. I used to have a real green thumb when it came to my indoor plants. I've never really tried an outdoor garden, although now that we actually have one, I suppose I'm getting into that as well. But I used to really enjoy my plants. One of my most prized possessions was a potting table I received via amazon.com when a bunch of family members put some money together for me!

Within months of having Jonah, all but maybe three or four of my plants died.

Finally, now that I have a place of my own, I'm going to take my green thumb back! Motherhood may steal it no longer! I have moved my potting table to my bedroom where it receives a decent amount of light and can remain uncluttered. And I'm gonna use it in the next week or two!

I researched plants that are most helpful for cleaning the air in our house, and it turns out I already have some good ones! (Spider plant and ficus benjamina.) Glenn and I bought a few more good air-cleaning plants in the last couple of weeks (some English ivies and a palm of some sort). I'm going to start re-potting all my plants plus the new ones. I already split my spider plant into four smaller ones. I repotted my norfolk pine in the hopes that it will get a lot bigger. And it feels good!

I'm excited for Glenn to come back from the US on Tuesday because he should have with him the shears I've been wanting FOREVER.

My research tells me we need a lot more plants -- one plant for every 100 square feet of space in our home. If you're interested, check out this and this.

So, now I ask you mothers, "What part of yourself do you feel has been lost since you became a mother?" Maybe it's time to take it back!

Jonah had a haircut and other things

I cut Jonah's hair two weeks ago - really short - and it took me a full week to get used to it. He just looks SO different. SO grown up. I'll get a picture tomorrow perhaps and post it.

I met with Jonah's teacher last week for parent-teacher interviews and left feeling very proud! She had no concerns and is apparently amazed at how much he knows. She figures much of what he says to his peers goes right over their heads. He's definitely picking up on some silly phrases at school that I'd rather he not use, but alas, they are really just silly I suppose. Glenn and I are still astounded at his interest in numbers and math. He can count to 200 and likes for us to give him math problems to solve. He's always looking at the digital clocks in the house, announcing the time. "I got up at seven hundred and eleven."

Jonah has been saying some sweet AND strange things these days. He's so smart that it's hard to remember he's only 4.5 sometimes. Here's (1) a sweet conversation from today and (2) a bizarre one from yesterday...

(1)
Jonah: [said to Mommy in a very sweet voice with hand motions] My love for you and Daddy is like a circle. It goes around and around and never ends. And it's like an oval too.

(2)
Jonah was questioning me about my fears so I decided I'd eventually be honest and responded by saying, "Sometimes I'm afraid I'm not a good enough Mommy."

Jonah responded, once again in the sweetest voice possible, "You're ALWAYS a good enough Mom. And if your name was Beem and Daddy was married to another lady named Sherri, she would be a good Mom too."

Bizarre!

Jonah is back to talking about death a bunch. A day or two ago he was talking about how he would get to inherit Uncle Mark's Wii, specifically, Mario Kart, when Uncle Mark dies. Poor Mark was standing right there! (Mario Kart is Jonah's newest obsession.) Today he told me rather nonchalantly that his Nanny and Poppy were going to die soon. I disagreed of course! He also was telling me something about how I would go to heaven when I died and that when he was really old, he would die too, and come see me.

Jonah also seems to be concerned with who he can marry. He wants to pick someone now. A week or two ago I had to try to explain to him why he can't marry his Aunt Krista when he grows up. I think he was also interested in his cousin Jael. More explaining! It's nice he's trying to pick from the single girls that he really loves though! I've assured him he can wait until he's older to see who is "alone" (as he calls it) that he can choose from, suggesting that he knows plenty of girls from school and church that will grow up with him.

Finally, he laughs SO MUCH at Bram - things that don't seem funny to me at all. I can't even let them bath together anymore, because Bram gets so startled at Jonah's loud laughing at him (for touching Jonah with his hand, or kicking his leg in the water). The startle makes Bram thrash about, which Jonah finds even MORE funny, which increases Jonah's laughter volume, and the cycle goes on. He's very helpful with Bram too though. He shows him things, and talks to him, and plays in front of him. And usually Jonah is willing to go get things for me/Bram as well.

He's really getting into the Christmas thing - he seems to know more than I've ever told him, so they must be talking it up at school. Jonah couldn't think of anything he wanted for Christmas though, so we had to pull out the good ol' Sears Wish Book to stimulate some materialism.

Other Christmas-related things...

He enjoys cuddling under a blanket on the couch to look at the tree.

He was glad to help me pick a few things from the online World Vision Gift Catalogue for others in need. This year it was two hens, a rooster, textbooks, and protein-fortified foods.

We made gingerbread cookies tonight, one of the few kinds of cookies he'll actually eat. He doesn't want icing on them though. Which makes life easy.

I asked him the other day, since he was talking about Santa coming and having to put a sign on the door to tell him to come in that way, etc, if Santa was real. He said that no, he was pretend. Later conversations have definitely proven he is totally confused about it all. Cuz the Santa at the end of the parade was the real Santa, even though the sleigh couldn't fly. I really don't know what to say, cuz I'm not that interested in trying to convince him that Santa is real (lie to my child). On the other hand, I'm not that interested in having other parents angry at me when/if Jonah says something about Santa being pretend. Besides that, I'm definitely getting credit for the marble run toy WE bought him. It's a toy he LOVED at daycare and spends a lot of time using at school. Santa is NOT getting the credit for that!

babies babies babies

My newest niece, Zoë Margarita
Born today, 7lb12oz

I guess I'm just in that stage of life -- I know of SO MANY babies that have been born in the last couple of months! My sister had her 3rd baby today, pictured above. Another friend, Jen, had her son Daniel Joel today! And just five days ago my friends Jeremy & Erin had their son, Liam Jeremiah. I really like all the names chosen for Bram's newest peers! Congratulations all!

They all look so precious and I've got to say all made me shed a tear or more. And all this action kinda makes me want another already! But settle down, I think we'll wait a while. Jonah seemed to be rather pleased when I told him about his newest cousin and really liked the name because it matches a Sesame Street character. When I showed him a picture of my sister with her baby, he said so sweetly, "Aunt Carla". He also told me today that he wants another baby in the family and wants it to be a sister, because he wants to be a big brother to a brother AND a sister. And then he put the sweet, gentle voice on again to say, "And then Bram would be a big brother too!"

Bram = Three months old!

Once again, it's hard to believe how time flies! Bram was officially 3 months old last week and he's growing and changing so much. By my best guesses, he's above the 70th percentile for weight and height. I wonder how long that will last? He is so much chubbier than Jonah ever was, which is so weird because I'm doing the exact same thing, or maybe even feeding him less often? Here are some pictures Glenn took of Bram using my brother's camera around the 2.5-month mark. Isn't he just so cute??







Bram is overall a content little guy. He loves to watch Jonah play which is great. Jonah likes the company and having a listening ear. He is very responsive to my singing and if I touch is toes to his nose it makes him laugh. He will often respond vocally when I touch and label his facial features too.

In the video below you can see Bram's latest milestone. He is able to look at an object, reach for it with his hands and grasp it! He's still not rolling over but admittedly, he gets less time laying on his back and belly with one-on-one attention than Jonah did at his age.



Bram is still sleeping well at night. Most nights he sleeps nearly 12 hours with two feedings - I wake him before I go to bed. Then he wakes me at some point during the night. I am still having to avoid dairy and it seems to be helping his skin. I really miss chocolate. I cheated a few times this past week and his face is proving it!

Before I sign off here, I'd like to send a congratulations out to my friends Jeremy & Erin on the birth of their first son today - Liam Jeremiah. Born on my sister-in-law's birthday! Happy Birthday Liam & Krista!

Some peace restored, no doubt temporarily

Well, Glenn was home for a whole week and we keep ourselves very busy! Lots of tidying, organizing, playing, celebrating US Thanksgiving, shopping, the regular every day stuff for me and some practicing and downhere work stuff for Glenn. We even put up our Christmas decorations. Why so early? If we didn't do it this past week, then it would have waited until Glenn was home again next - after Dec. 16th. And let's face it, that's just a little too late. Make sure when you look at the images below, you compare them to the ones in my previous post. I find it rather impressive!

The Christmas tree was a 3-day adventure. We had totally forgotten, when we last packed up our tree and decorations in 2003, that we got rid of our old Christmas lights. Check out Glenn's blog to find out why he put the lights on the tree several times over the course of a couple of days before we finally finished it off.


Our front entrance is challenging in the winter because of winter gear. I came up with this solution -- baskets placed in the living room that we can reach from the entrance, plus a double clothes line to dry our wet mittens and hats.

An empty counter is a thing of beauty. Of course, by now, you do realize that my counter is no longer clear.

Our bedroom is getting there! We still need some curtains. And things put up on walls. If you're wondering about the miniature greenhouse -- Glenn is attempting to grow avocado trees with the pits from the last two avocados we used to make guacamole. I'll let you know how it goes!