Christmas 2012

We had Christmas at home this year and loved it.  Jack and Hazel are at a wonderful age.  We were able to soak up the magic of the season looking at lights, decorating sugar cookies and gingerbread houses, talking about Jesus, and wondering about Santa. 

 

Hazel's preschool group learned a few Christmas songs to perform at a nursing home.  They made cards to give out to the cute grandmas and grandpas we went to visit. 

 On Christmas Eve I told the kids Santa had to wait until they were asleep before he could come bring their presents.  Hazel flung herself into bed and proclaimed as her head hit the pillow, "I'm already asleep!"  And, to my amazement, she and Jack really did go right to sleep without a peep. 

The big Christmas Morning Reveal: 

I love the look on Hazel's face!

 

 Hazel got a dollhouse.  A neighbor gave the house to us a couple of years ago and it's been in our garage ever since.  It was unpainted and had marker scribbles all over it.  We spent several nights fixing it up.  Todd painted it and put in real flooring (carpet and linoleum) and I mod podged scrapbook paper on the walls. 

 Jack got a train set.  He has set it up and played with it several times every single day for the past week. 

 I made a play tent for the kids, following this tutorial.  It was harder than it sounded and didn't turn out perfectly, but it works and the kids like it.  I wish we had enough space to have it set up all the time instead of having to store it when they're not using it. 

 We have enjoyed our Tree of All Trees so much.  We are hoping we'll have another Christmas with vaulted ceilings someday so we can repeat this year's magnificence. 

 We took the tree down today.  It was bittersweet.  We knew it had to happen sometime, and better before the baby comes than after, but no one wanted to say goodbye to it.  Our living room feels so empty now.  We got creative with the ornament removal, but had to finish the job with the tree laying on the floor. 

 

Todd's birthday was the day after Christmas.  He got his grandma's raspberry dessert instead of cake. 

 

We went to the Oakland Zoo on New Year's Eve.  It was fun to show the kids real animals we've been learning about through books and videos, like lions and tigers, hyenas, elephants, cockroaches, poisonous frogs, bats, and snakes.  

  

I'll leave you with a little Bonner family treasure.  Hazel saw Jungle Book for the first time a couple of months ago, and has been obsessed since with pretending to be Mowgli.  At least once a day, she starts laughing and throws all her clothes off except her panties.  Jack has also gotten into it the past couple of weeks and now comes up to me lifting his shirt up, asking me to take his clothes off so he can be "naked" or "Mowgli" as well.  Usually, Todd and I are Baghira or Ka, or perhaps Sher Khan.  There have been a couple of times that Todd has joined in with the madness and become a third Mowgli.  I think it's gut-busting hilarious. 

This and That

Hazel is full-on riding her bike without training wheels now.  She is still wobbly, but she can start on her own and turn around and man, she is fast.  She is too fast.  She hasn't dared to coast yet, so she is always pushing the pedals if she's not breaking, and if she's on a slope, she just blows past you.   I thought I was going to have a heart attack watching her today, but part of the problem was that my heart was already bursting with pride and joy for her.  She is loving it. 

Growling up in the tree - she was being a jaguar.

 

 

 

I got a sewing machine and have been using it to prep for Halloween.  Hazel asked a month or so ago if she could have a Peter Pan dress-up, and I told her I'd make her one as a costume if she was Peter for Halloween, and she could keep it in the dress-up box after that.  She was sold.  (I love that - last year it took weeks for her to choose between Rapunzel and a bat.  It's been awesome to have a solid plan with time to get everything ready.)  Anyway, I bought her leggings and sewed the top, but I chose the wrong type of material; it's ripped already and I'm going to have to make another one in a stretchy fabric.  But she wears it, and just says her clothes of leaves are getting worn out.   

It's pretty typical to catch Peter and Smee jumping on the couch around here.  Good thing we still have ghetto newlywed furniture so they can live it up. 

 Jack's taken a few super rough spills lately.  This lovely lump was the result of getting accidentally bonked by Hazel into the outward-poking corner of the wall as he headed up the stairs.  Then not a week later he got another goose egg on the other side of his forehead when we were camping. 

 Speaking of Jack, he is his father's son.  He lives for a reaction and is learning to be quite a pest of a little brother to get those reactions.  He totally does stuff only to bother Hazel, like drink from her water bottle when his is right next to it, or steal food off her plate and quickly stuff it in his mouth to set her off screaming when he's got the same thing on his own plate.  Hazel has no grasp of the concept of ignoring him, either.  I'm trying to teach her, but so far it only results in her covering her eyes and peeking at Jack through her fingers, while she says things like, "I am not thinking about Jack right now.  I am not talking to Jack or looking at him."  Mmm, hmm.  A couple days ago they had an awesome fight at lunch time that I so wish I had recorded.  It consisted basically of:
J: Uh-uh.
H: No, don't say uh-uh anymore. 
J: Uh-uh.
H: No more uh-uh!
J: Uh-UH!
H: Don't uh-uh anymore!!!
J: UH-UUUUHHHH!
Hazel was fully agitated, and Jack could not wipe the grin off his face.  Fun times to come, folks.  Fun times... 

 

We set up bunk beds for the kids almost two weeks ago.  That's been  ..... interesting.  I thought we'd made a deathly mistake the first couple of days and almost asked Todd to take it all apart.  Jack's been a maniac, out of bed and into everything, and doing it all (we finally realized a few days ago) just to hear Hazel saying, "No Jack, get back in bed!" for two hours every night.  There's a child lock on the door so he can't get out, and the last three or four nights we've put Hazel to bed on our bedroom floor and then put her in her bed when we go to sleep.  Parenting, it's such a cycle of re-learning concepts again and again.  Todd and I finally put two and two together and decided we needed to sleep-train Jack, so he's been solo and we've been ignoring his cries and knocks at the door, and sure enough, all it's taken was a few days and he's doing much better going to sleep in there now. 

 I was even able to put Hazel to bed with him tonight.  We've been re-reading J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan and tonight we read a part where Peter climbs onto the pirate ship making a tick-tick sound and Hook thinks Peter is the crocodile and is super scared.  After reading that, Hazel wanted to pretend to be Peter pretending to be the croc while she climbed into bed tonight, and she was brokenhearted that I wanted her to sleep on the floor in my room again.  I caved decided to just give it a go and put her back in their bedroom.  And it worked.  Just a couple bumps, but they were both asleep in half an hour or so, which is quite reasonable, so I think we're making it there with Jack-o and the Bunk Bed after all. 

Alright, one last thing.  It took a while to get a picture because I had to snag one from a friend (Todd had drill and wasn't there and I didn't bring my phone) and then I forgot I hadn't blogged about this.  I ran my 5K on September 8th! 

I was so proud of myself for accomplishing this (huge and monumental for me) goal.  I had never run a 5K before.  Heck, I had barely ever run at all before.  But I was bound and determined to do it (striving for an 8-pounder here).  I trained well: 30 minute runs three times a week for two months before the race.  It helped me gain weight more slowly than with my other two pregnancies.  Assuming I gain a pound a week from here on out, I'm on track to gain 29 or 30 lbs instead of 36 (Hazel) and 37 (Jack).  So the running did me good. 

But no, I'm not still running.  I hurt my back right before the race, and prayed fervently that I'd feel better for the race, and did.  But then the next week I went running again and threw my back out and it kept me out of commission for four or five days.  My belly's just too big, yo.  So I'm back to walking and pilates and Jane Fonda aerobics.  ;)  However, if running can melt my love handles when I'm pregnant, I'm looking forward to seeing what it can do when I'm not with child.  I will definitely be giving it another shot next year. 

Random Pictures and Silly Stories

 Summer is wrapping up.  Hazel starts twice-a-week preschool after Labor Day (a co-op with some buddies from church).  I'll start taking Jack to toddler gym class when she's gone. 

Hazel just finished eight weeks of soccer.  She liked it better than dance, but not nearly as much as gymnastics.  It was cute to see her running around in shin guards, giving the ball power kicks.  I'd like to do it again next summer. 

The kids love riding their bikes.  I finally came up with the genius idea of having them ride back and forth on the sidewalk between our stairs and our garage, instead of making Hazel stop at check points along the way to the park while Jack slowly caught up.  It's been much better.  No more worrying about cars.  They're actually playing together (usually Hazel pretends they're Peter Pan and Tink, dodging cannonballs).  Jack's only made one escape attempt so far (on the stair end where I couldn't see them), and Hazel alerted me to it in time. 

 Climbing trees has been a big deal this summer.  I'm glad.  I was always too scared to climb trees.  I love how brave and adventurous Hazel is. 

 Jack's been using the play kitchen a lot.  He makes things that are "hah, hah" (hot) and sticks them in the fridge to cool off before giving everyone a taste.  His vocabulary is starting to take off.  He says mama, da for Dad and helicopter, Ja for Jack, bluh for balloon, puh for poop, uh-uh, uh-oh, and has his own words for dog, truck, bye bye, night night, blanket, Hazel, outside, bath, ball, van, car, book, and a few others.  He is also starting to make animal sounds.  My favorite is a growl for jaguars and other wild cats. 

 Hazel is suddenly quite taken with coloring and will invest a lot of time in it.  Right now she's getting better at staying in the lines, and is far more interested in making her pictures colorful than making them look realistic.  Here is a sample of her current style:

 She's also starting to free-style draw a bit.  She likes it best when Todd draws with her, teamwork style.  The other night they drew a leopard and a cheetah together.  It was cute to hear them talking about how to shape the tail and what the pattern on the fur ought to look like. 

Hazel's still fascinated with getting tied up in our pretend play, but she's finally starting to expand beyond that plot-line on occasion.  Here she is being Tiger Lily tied up at Skull Rock:

 

 It's kind of boring for me when she plays Tiger Lily, because I have to hold up all the dialogue.  She's really good at staying silent and looking away from Captain Hook (me) just like in the movie, but she says almost nothing and expects me to continue to beg her to tell me where Peter Pan's hideout is. 

My mom and sister Kathryn came to visit last week.  My poor mom spent a ton of time trying to get this ancient sewing machine an old co-worker gave me to work.  No dice.  But it made me realize how much I want one, and ordered a machine on Amazon.  I can't wait for it to get here! 

I love this picture.  Mom impressed me with how patient she was, trying to figure this thing out while my kids were all over her.  She just lovingly showed Jack what she was doing and chattered right along with Hazel's make-believe.  I always feel like I can't get any "real" work done while the kids are awake, but obviously, that's not a problem for my mom!  With six kids, she probably had no other choice but to develop that skill. 

 Todd went boating with the Scouts and sprained his ankle doing a wakeboard flip.  Now he's on a serious evening routine of elevating, icing, and making me do his bidding.  Notice that impressive snack platter he's sporting?  Yeah, I'm a good wife.  I even napped on the floor on Sunday and let him monopolize the couch.  (Hazel uses our room for quiet time.) I expect a full return on my investment when I'm in my third trimester!

 Speaking of quiet time, it is going magnificently.  Hazel loves it.  I take a nap almost every day. 

 

On laundry days, the kids love to commandeer the laundry baskets.  This week, they were puppy crates.  Arf!  

That same day, I woke up groggy from a too-long nap.  Usually, Hazel wakes me up by about 3:30 as she decides she's done with quiet time.  This time, I wandered back to peek in at her and this is what I found:

 She swears she wasn't really asleep, just pretending to be the sleeping puppy, but she was out cold for half an hour after I took this picture.  I had to wake her up.  That looks so uncomfortable!

Hazel thinks she doesn't have enough coins in her collection of special things, so she's been doing a few odd jobs around the house to earn more.  She's dusted, cleaned the toilet, and washed the sliding class door.  I could get used to this!  

 So, her special things... Hazel's got this ongoing collection of small toys, shiny ribbons, jewelry, and other odds and ends that she guards possessively.  Todd finally bought her a little stationary chest with a code lock, so she can stop hoarding her stuff in all the high places in the house and FREAKING OUT any time Jack comes close to her stash.  It is a serious obsession.  She asked if she'd be able to have her special things in heaven, and I was torn between lying so she'd still think heaven was a great place, and telling her the truth so she'd start to learn that possessions aren't the most important things in life.  Now she says she's scared to die, because she figured out she might not have them with her up there. 

A few days ago, we read a book about a family whose house caught fire and they had to save money to buy a new chair because all their possessions were burned up.  It really got the wheels turning in Hazel's head.  Later that day, she announced that if our house caught on fire, she would run and save her special things, and not Jack.  She specifically said that!  So we had a couple big talks about how Jack is our family and our family (and people in general) are far more important than any of our stuff, even our special things.  Finally, we got her to say she'd grab Jack AND her special things at the same time to save them in the fire.  And the next day, she'd figured out a better answer: she'd save Jack first, carry him under his arms to me, and then run back real fast to get her special things before they burned up.  We're getting there... ;) 

 

Jack's had a wart on his foot.  His pediatrician said to cover it with duct tape.  It's actually worked, but the funny thing is how hard I've had to work to keep the tape on Jacks' foot.  It got to the point where it was only worth the effort after Jack was asleep.  Well, that only worked for a few weeks.  Jack has now trained himself to half wake up when he hears us come in to check on them at night, and pull the tape off right after I put it on, without even opening his eyes!  It's hilarious.  Now I'm taking a break for a week or two to get him out of the cycle before starting up again.  Funny boy.  

 Sorry for how long this post is!  Apparently, I need to blog more frequently. Kudos to anyone who read the whole thing! 

Santa Cruz Sillies

Todd and I had a great date night on Saturday. We drove down to Santa Cruz for dinner to check out a fun restaurant Todd heard about from a coworker. It's called Bocce's Cellar and has an actual bocce ball court for you to play on while you eat. Todd even looked up the official rules and made us play by them. We've got a bocce set and love to play with it at the park, but it was a whole different ball game on the court! Todd kicked my trash. (Surprise, surprise.)

I've been needing a swim skirt and thought we might find one there, since it's a beach town and all, so we headed into downtown to peek into a few stores. As we were looking for a place to park, we spotted quite a gem strolling down the lane. I kinda panicked about getting a picture, chasing her down from the opposite side of the street. I was so afraid she'd get away. But fear not - here she is!What in the world? I know, right? And then, bam, right after that, here comes this lady, long dreadlocks, pushing her dog in a bike stroller:And then across the street, there was this band playing music, so we stopped to listen and it turned into this massive people-watching expedition. (They're playing marimbas from Zimbabwee. It was a visual and an auditory feast. You should have seen the dancing in the crowd!)I kept my phone poised and ready and stole snapshots on the sly every couple of minutes. Santa Cruz is a landmine.

Baggy purple pants and purple hat to match:
Lovely white socks peeking out of the shoes. (And she was a great dancer, too.)
If only I could pull this one off. It looks so comfy:
Amazing mohawk, tight cut-off jean shorts, leather jacket. Welcome back, 1986!
I don't even know where to begin:
All of a sudden this monstrosity comes barreling down the street, and Todd was totally like, "Ang, run out there and get a good picture!" so I totally did. And what I saw made me laugh so hard I cried. Truly.
The guy driving this thing had muppets or stuffed animals or something sitting right up in the front of the truck with him. And they were dancing to the music!
Such as fun, fun date. PS I got bangs. The jury's still out on them. I think they look cute when my hair's pulled back, but not when it's all down, and they're hard to get used to, having the hair in my face and all.

"I don't see anything wrong with it," Todd said.

I went to a baby shower this morning. When I got home, Todd was playing with the kids at the park next door. I came over to hang out with them, and was more than a little flabbergasted when I saw what Todd had dressed Hazel in. A shirt and tights. That's it."That dress is getting too short," Todd said. "I was ready to throw it out."
"It's a 3T shirt, not a dress."
"Then why does it have ruffles on it?"
"Just for decoration. I can't believe you took Hazel out of the house dressed like that. I'm kind of embarrassed to be in public right now."

Todd wasn't. And Hazel wasn't. So we stayed and played and I got over my mortification by laughing at how funny Hazel looked running around in those things. But I may have to lay out clothes for Hazel the next time I expect Todd to get her dressed.

The Cat Lady

We live on the back corner of our apartment complex, facing the wall that divides us from a large city park. An anonymous individual leaves cat food and water in tupperware on the grounds near the park fence for stray cats to eat. The HOA has made mention on several occasions that they wish this person would discontinue this practice. The warnings have been unheeded.

Living so near the food drop location, I have had two exciting opportunities where I glimpsed the person I believe to be feeding the cats. Both were last fall, when I was pregnant with Jack.

1. I was bringing Hazel home from the park. Sitting on the steps just past our stairway, with her back to me, was a woman I'd never seen before. Long, wavy, waist-length blond hair. I'd place her in her mid-40's. Stroking a collarless cat I'd frequently seen nibbling at the afore-mentioned food! She did not turn around as I and my chatty child neared, which I found suspicious. For reasons I now cannot remember and do regret, I took Hazel inside the house and then came back out to look at the Cat Lady again. Alas, she was gone.

2. Mere days later, I was at my garage and spotted a lady with long, wavy blond hair driving an older car past me on the way out of the complex. I immediately called Todd to report another sighting of the Cat Lady. Because of the direction she was driving from, my best guess is that she lives in the building perpendicular to ours.

Jokes about the Cat Lady have been made in our house on a fairly regular basis over time.

Our rental company representative called me about two months ago to ask if I or any of my neighbors were the one leaving the cat food, as it is right in front of my building. I laughed, and told her I wasn't the Cat Lady and that she didn't live in my building. She asked me to confront CL if I ever saw her again.

It's all been very amusing and casual and just something to laugh about. Until...

Just before Labor Day, Todd discovered a pack of four raccoons nibbling at the cat food at night. He didn't think much of it at the time. But a few days later, he and Hazel were coming home from the park and spotted the pack running along our sidewalk in broad daylight! They headed straight for the cat food. Todd threw a few rocks at them to try to scare them away. Quite the contrary. They hissed at Todd and continued on with their feast, acting all hostile and making Todd worry for Hazel's safety.

The third sighting occurred as an entire family unit, in the early evening. I held Jack and Hazel at a safe viewing distance while Todd climbed the wall and vigorously chucked rocks at the raccoons for several minutes. After quite a long battle, they retreated far enough away for me to make a run for it and grab the cat food.

At that point, Todd declared war on the Cat Lady. Homeless cats or no, we can't sit back and let the Raccoon Gang invade our territory, acting all hostile and making us worry about the safety of our children.

For the past month, the entire Bonner clan has been keeping a constant eye out for cat food. Whenever we see it, we dispense of it. Hazel asks about the Cat Lady every time we walk past the drop spot. I've stuck to straight-up dumpster drops, but Todd's been working hard to send a clear message by rendering CL's tupperware useless.Cat Lady switched to paper bowls and started leaving the food on the park side of the fence. Usually it's just barely close enough that I can still reach it if I strain, but Todd has quite frequently had to jump the fence to gather food and containers. One day she got aggressive and dumped the food in a pile on the ground and left the empty bowl next to it. She's got her own ways of sending messages.

Todd and I took a walk past the building I suspect CL lives in, and I think we may have found her unit. Behold, the porch:We thought about dumping a bag or two of cat food on her porch, but decided that's like funding her project.

Frustrated with how this war has seemed to have no end, Todd took it to the next level and wrote Cat Lady a note, which he taped to the fence next to the remnants of her latest water bowl."Dear CAT LADY
I understand your concern for the cats and desire to feed them. However I have now joined the side of the HOA and am requesting you cease feeding the cats over here immediately.
There is now a family of 4 raccoons living here and eating your cat food. These raccoon have hissed at and threatened me and my kids not just at night but at 4 pm in the afternoon. This is unacceptable. I suggest you invite the raccoons over to your house for dinner as it is obvious you don't live in this area.
Putting food on the other side of the wall is still unacceptable. I can easily jump the wall and throw that away too."

Since then, the feedings have slowed down. She might just be out of town for a few days. If not, Todd admitted he's a little disappointed the Cat Lady might be done, as his next step was to add rat poison to the food. He said, "I can't throw all the food away, so I'll just make the food worthless. She's a sneaky little devil."