Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Christmas Time

Dear everyone,

We're in Ohio and having a great time. While busy rushing around, seeing everyone has been awesome, and the kids are having a great time. They're staying up late and sleeping in late.

Last night, Gamble passed out hard in the car. It's very rare that I manage to transfer him from the car to his bed without him freaking out, and last night we got off his coat and shoes and dropped him into bed.

Random, on the other hand, was up until midnight. She's all diaper rashy red, and has been pooing green, so she's in the Christmas spirit, too.

Just a couple more shopping days until Christmas, but I wanted to say, in case we don't see you, have a happy and safe holiday. Stay warm, and enjoy your family, the way we're enjoying ours.

Lots of love from our family to yours,

Us.

The Puck

The other night we took the kids bowling. We had a great time, and Random liked it so much that she would scream every minute it wasn't her turn. They had a little ramp for her to roll the ball down, and with the bumpers up, she beat everyone in the kids' league (lane 2).

While we were bowling, Gamble asked if I could take him to the bathroom. I happily did. I had to use the stall, since the urinal was short enough and he wanted to. Just as I got the door closed, I hear, "Hey Dad! There's a pink thing in the toilet!"

"Gamble, that's called 'the puck'. Are you peeing on it?"

"Yup!"

"Good, that's our job. All boys have to pee on the puck. You get extra points if it breaks in half or pieces come off."

"Oh! Ok."

Ah, all part of the ritual of growing up male...

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Mister Potato-face

The other day Pobbes got a set of christmas cookie cutters in different colors for one of her 12 days of Christmas gifts. Tonight after her bath, I was playing in the loft with her. Nicole said that she's been asking Random to bring her the shapes one at a time, by color.

She's getting it, kinda. She definitely loves the color purple, and brings it pretty reliably, but she's doing okay with the other colors, too.

Tonight she brought me the red heart and the green tree. I put them in my eye sockets, squinting them into place as if they were monocles.

She nearly squealed with delight. She said, "Eyes," and gently reached up and grabbed each one and dropped them to the floor.

Then she picked another one, the blue snowflake, and brought it back to me and said, "Eyes?" I squinted that one into place, and followed it with the green one on the other one. I put the red heart over my lips and squished it up against my nose. I'm sure I looked really silly, but Random loved it.

She continued this game for a few rounds, deciding which shapes and which colors went where. It was only after that I was being her Mister Potato-face.

Oh, what I do for these girls!

Monday, December 8, 2008

Xmas Letter

Gamble writes:

Dear Santa,

I have been a totally good boy. I have been good to my sis. I’ve been a good helper.

I want

· Clone wars collection

· Star wars collection

· Mario toys from burger king

· Red light saber

· V smile SpongeBob

· Christmas tree pjs

· Star wars board game

Love,

Gamble Davis


Of course, you're welcome to interpret this however you like. He says he wants everything he sees on TV, but these are the things he remembered on his own. By "collection," he said he meant action figures and vehicles to play with.

Count on Her

Random started counting.

But not like you'd think. Not counting with us. She's kinda done that when I whirl her around in the air, but no. This was honest-to-goodness counting.

Nicole was sitting upstairs working on Christmas cards or something, and Random was up there with her. Out of the blue, she pipes up, "Un, doo, dree..."

Nicole perked up. Random did it again. And kept going, saying first "4, 5, 6" and then "7, 8, 9, 10."

Astounded, Nic called out to me. I watched out for it as the night wore on, and eventually she started counting while I was changing her butt.

As she was counting to ten, I asked her, "Hey! Pabu! How high can you count?"

She just looked up at me and said, "Me?"

Forensic Poop Man

Warning: Readers with sensitive stomachs will look away now, or at least stop eating.

So Gamble has been having trouble going to the bathroom (constipation), and up till yesterday, it’s been mostly a Mommie issue. Of course, over the weekend, there’s always the possibility that Daddie will be called to the scene.

It’s my own fault. I asked him to notify us if there were any changes in color that he was worried about. So naturally, guess what happened.

Last night, he’d gone in, and after a while, I went to check on him. Through the door, “You okay?”

He responded with, “ Yeah.”

Mommie, from the loft, “You know, the other day I gave him the DS while he was waiting.”

Before I could respond, the bathroom door said, “You know, she’s right!”

Shaking my head on the way to get the DS, I mumbled to no one in particular, “When I was a boy, I had to take a book into the bathroom and read.

I take in the DS, and he stands up, points at the toilet and says, “Daddie? It’s red.”

So I’m starting to worry that he’s colorblind, too. It’s not red, but a bicolored lightbrown/green. I spend a few minutes reassuring him that everything’s ok, and that no matter what, he can always ask me. Forensic Poop Man’s on the job.

PBJBHS

Gamble is getting more creative with his sandwiches. Sure, everyone's had PBJ, or PBH (peanut butter and honey), and maybe even PBB (peanut butter and banana), but the other night, Gamble requested a PBJB, which is a PBJ add banana.

He thought it was the best sandwich ever.

So with a big win under his belt, he thought he would go for broke. Tonight he asked for a PBJBHS, a peanut butter, jelly, banana, honey sandwich.

It was really really gooey. And even I liked it...

Waiting

"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity." - attributed to Albert Einstein

In such a similar vein, Nic and I were talking about how Gamble thinks it's taking forever for Christmas to come, while it seems like it's rushing at us like high speed dirt.

My theory is that it has to do with boredom. The longer you have to sit around in a given day and wonder about the future, the longer it takes to arrive. When you're busy, you don't have time to get bored, and next thing you know, Christmas has come and gone, the new year has arrived, and you're already planning a summer birthday party.

So to any and all readers out there, Happy Holidays, before it up and arrives and we forget to say it. May lots of love light up your life, as it does to ours.