Theo, Boy

Making a cardboard robot with my son, and listening to him cheer me on when I did something right, such as give the robot ears. Making dinner for only me, Val (My MIL), and Theo. Theo eating dinner without complaints. My son begging to help me clean up after dinner. Sitting on the couch watching a bedtime movie with Theo, writing easy words such as A, I, It, See, In, No, Yes, Like, etc. on a magna doodle and having him read them successfully, after being sent home a list notifying me that that needs a good deal of work. Win!

Watching him brush his teeth, he manages to make it funny. Watching him kiss and hug his Grandma, they have a special thing. Lying in his bed and reading a book of numbers with him. (Small Story: He recently got bored printing numbers the correct way, so he started making them sideways and/or upside down, backwards, etc. and he forgot which way is correct. We're working like crazy, with numbers everywhere. Just to go to the bathroom he usually has to pass six number checkpoints. Anyways, lying there, seeing him so excited for the next page, next number, it was awesome.)

Settling him down and turning off the light, saying goodnight, and walking out the door of his bedroom realizing that he is not such a little boy anymore. He's grown a lot in the past six months, both physically and emotionally, and he's not a big boy yet. He's just Boy. Not little, but not big.

And the name is...

A secret. (For less than 3 months, lest you forget how fast my due date is approaching.)

Until Hammy is born. We've got tentative names, one for a boy and one for a girl, and the middle names have been set in stone from the beginning, so that's set. The first names might still change, if we get tired of them or the kids hate them, but the idea is that I can stop worrying about having nothing to call the baby. Because now I've got names. And nicknames. It's wonderful.

In other news, I've decided that Hammy is actually the perfect name for this unborn baby until it's born (we will not be naming the baby Hammy). This kid likes to kick. And flip. And twirl. And do freaking jumping jacks and full 360's all. the. time. So Hammy can theoretically be derived from Paul Hamm, Olympic Gymnast, or Mia Hamm, Soccer Player Extraordinaire. One boy, one girl, one perfect name for this fetus.

80 Acres

80 acres of paradise. Snow covered paradise. Roughly 2 to 3 feet of it. Deep green pine trees dusted with snow and frosted lightly. Bare birch trees covered in an icy glaze, frosted. A herd of about 45 bison across the road. The road with no name, just many numbers. The highway that nobody ever goes down. The national park 2 minutes away, with animals of all kinds inside. The animals on the farm. The 14 dogs, the 20+ cats and kittens, the geese, the ducks, rabbits, 5 goats, a llama, many chickens, a wild boar, 9 horses, a foal, a filly, a pony. A herd of cattle, a few pigs, and an indoor dog and cat. Coyotes in the trees in the backyard. A mountain in my backyard. And a lake. An orchard of spindly trees, frosted. A flower garden, dormant. A vegetable garden waiting for spring. Some more fruit trees. Another vegetable garden, this one huge, more than an acre. An old train stop, now a place where chickens and sometimes the ducks and geese live. An old house, long ago fallen apart, but somehow still standing. Somewhat. More trees and paths that only my father and I can follow. Somehow, my mind still remembers every path. A long driveway, up up up the hill, leading to the house. The house that my parents bought when I was three. The house I grew up in. Still a home.

I remember all of this like I am still ten years old and living here. I know this place better than the back of my hand, I could walk anywhere here blindfolded, because I just know. I thought eventually I might forget a lot of this stuff, but I haven't, and I hope I never will, because this place is my childhood.

Nick, the kids, and I. We are here for 9 days. Visiting my parents. I'm trying to show my kids all of it, it's impossible, both because I am hugely pregnant and there is so much to show. But I'm still trying. There have been snowball fights, many animals visited, and Nick is taking Sera and Theo exploring right now. When it gets cold the kids go to the basement an play hide and seek, occasionally coming upstairs with an item I treasured during childhood. It's amazing to watch them discover it all. And when they're tired for a few minutes, there's always Baba and Papa, waiting with hot chocolate and yummy food, and a bookcase full of movies that I grew up watching. I may live elsewhere, far away, and consider it home. But this is also a home. It's like I never left.

Occasional Style

This bedding.

I chose it for Nicks parents bedroom, and they love it.

My Not New Years Resolutions List Post

I read all the new years resolution posts of my favourite bloggers and start to make my own. My list begins and ends with me writing (in pretty font) New Years Resolutions 2010!

Normally my list includes generic things like exercise more, lose the baby weight/those last 10 pounds, go to sleep earlier, and organize my home. All things I've seen on my friends lists. All completely normal. Except this year.

This year I have no resolutions. Nick and I, we are throwing ourselves into the complete unknown, we are finishing our house, taking his parents into our home for good, bringing another person into our already full family, and hopefully making it through the year. Our goal this year is to make it to next year, sanity intact.

I do intend to make a Post-Partum Resolutions List come April, but at that time my life will be a chaotic mess and I will treat the list as more guidelines rather than actual regimented rules.

For now my Resolutions List happens to be one of things to accomplish before the baby gets here. The list is long, and it has finally stopped growing, but still, LONG. I hope that we can get everything done in the next three months. We should maybe get started on that nursery! You know, the one for the baby arriving in a very short four months! Don't anybody be surprised if Hammy doesn't have a nursery for the first few months.