Christmas 2012

Even with the illnesses that made it into our house, we had a lovely Christmas.  It was CeCe's first Christmas and the big kids had a blast.  They are just the right ages to get it.  They understand the Christmas story and they like spending time together. While I may gripe about the occasional hardships of a large family, days like this make it totally worth it.  Here are a few of the good ones from Christmas.



Everyone made into this picture.  I like to call it "Christmas carnage."



Will riding his new bike in the foyer.

Hello Kitty and a craft?  This is so Abby.

Harper and I played princess legos all around the house.



Baby C and me on Christmas morning.  I am still in my pajamas and my hair is not brushed, but I do have coffee.

 

Here is Cece in her Christmas outfit.  Abby has learned how to read the words on the pants.  Every time I hold Cece up, she comes by and pokes her in the butt so she can show that she is reading the words.

I am Baby C

Life is pretty good. Mom holds me all the time. I make sure it stays that way, because I scream when she puts me down. I don’t care if she puts me down in the bouncy seat or the swing or the car seat, I scream.  I scream the whole time. Then Mom picks me up and I don’t scream. Sometimes Will holds me too. That is tolerable. But I refuse to let Dad hold me. I scream.

All and all, this family thing is cool. There is usually lots of activity and places to go.  I think the other little people might be crazy.  Who am I fooling, I think the big people might be nuts too.  Look what Mom let the little people do the other day.

I have a few new tricks that Mom seems to like.  I make these cute noises that are not even words.  Mom goes nuts and smiles really big.  Then I smile because she smiles.  It is just one big smile party. 

Don't worry, I have other tricks as well.  I can blow spit bubbles. If Mom holds me just right, I can poop all over her and my clothes. Life is pretty good.

My Productive Self and Non-productive Self

My Productive Self (PS) and my non-productive self  (NPS) are at odds most days. Here is what I hear them say to one another:

PS: Hey.

NPS:Hey, good to see you (they are very cordial to one another).

PS: What did you think of dinner last night?

NPS: Some of your best work.  You were really productive.

PS: Aw, thanks.  I worked really hard. 

NPS: Too bad the kids didn't eat one bite.

PS: Typical.

NPS: What? Sorry, I was watching Good Morning America.

PS: So what are your plans today?

NPS: Plans are really more your thing. I was going sit on the couch and hold the baby. Maybe take a shower but I don’t want to set my sights too high. I am okay to go one more day without a shower.

PS: Disapproving look.

NPS: Did you want to do something?

PS: I am glad you asked. I wanted to finish the Christmas cards, clean out Abby’s drawers, go buy stamps, call about repairing the windshields on the cars, scrub the bathroom, do the dishes and review the online customer reviews about pumps. We need to check work email as well, don’t forget. If we still have extra time between baby feedings, let’s run to Martins and get something fun to make for dinner.

NPS: No. Let’s watch the whole HBO series The Girls on demand.

PS: Wait, that seems incredibly….

NPS: Incredibly what?

PS: Lazy.

NPS: I agree to a shower and I will blow dry my hair. Don't we get points for nursing the baby ALL THE TIME and for picking up the big kids off the bus on time?

PS: Lazy.

NPS: Shhh…The Girls is on. Don’t you want to see this?

While I love both my productive self and my non-productive self, the latter has been putting the better agenda forward.  This is what maternity leave is about.  It is a reward, almost a prize for having a baby. Both my productive self and my non-productive self can feel the wonderful maternity leave days slipping away and don’t want to miss their chances for greatness. NPS wins once more today; we count the shower as a great achomplishment.

Lord, please don't let this little girl get hurt again

Abby has inherited my grace and agility.  Abby, I am sorry about that.  We were working on Christmas cards on Saturday morning.  I walked over to get the waffles out of the toaster.  When I was walking back, I watched as Abby simply fell out of the chair she was sitting in.  She just hit the floor.  It was not on purpose.  It surprised her as much as it surprised me.  She came up with a huge scrape on her nose.  It joins the bruise on her forehead she got the night before while wrestling with her brother.  Dang girl, you look like you got beat up. 

This is not Abby's first run in with injuries.  There was the infamous toenail that fell off when she hit it with a door.  Abby handled it with her own style, which eased the pain but did not stop the grossness. When her toe nail fell off, she put it in a sandwich baggy to show everyone.  We all had the same stomach churning reaction.  Then she asked me to paint her toenails, including the skin where the toe nail used to be so it would all "look good."  Yep, that was gross.  To Abby, it was awesome. 

I can't wait she will do with the headwounds.  She did ask me to write a note to her teacher this morning explaining what happened.  I asked her, why don't you just tell the teacher.  Abby let me know it would be better if there was a note.  The least I can do is give her (and her teacher a reason) to give her extra attention.

Thankful

It is hard to teach kids to be thankful. We talk about it and discuss it, but when it comes right down to it, they (we all) have it pretty good. Our house is warm and there are things we like to eat. The laundry is done and we have cable. Will did a paper at school of all the things he is grateful for. This reminds me that the basic things are good things and not to miss them.  This is so my boy:

To follow his example, here are the things I am grateful for this Thanksgiving.
1. I am thankful for 4 healthy, vivacious children that challenge and delight me.
2. I am thankful for disposable diapers.
3. I am thankful for maternity leave.
4. I am thankful that I remembered to thaw the turkey this year.
5. I am thankful for a husband who has funny stories and more patience than me.
6. I am thankful for a mom that doesn’t mind coming to my house to cook most of the thanksgiving meal.
7. I am thankful for mashed potatoes.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Christmas Card 2012

A big thank you to my friend Christy for taking pictures of us for our Christmas card.  Thanks to her, we only had to get dressed and walk down the street to take our pictures.  After  I washed everyone, (or forced people to shower...you know I am talking about you, Matt), convinced everyone that the clean matching clothes I picked out would not hurt them (this included Matt) and then squeezing my ownself into my only acceptable pair of jeans, I could not mentally be strong enough to get this whole crew out somewhere to take pictures. 

We ended up with some great pictures! These will be coming out in my Christmas cards.  But a blog is no good unless it has the outtakes. Bear with me as I must add commentary.

Matthew started the bad idea of bunny ears.  When I found out, my face changed from this happy smile to darkness so fast that I scared the kids.  Matt is used to it so it barely registered with him.

Here comes the sassy!  This is Abbys natural pose.

Oh Harper, I see you trying to get back to your old spot on my lap.  I should have told you that you would be giving it up to CC for at least a year.

I love this one!  Too bad Harper is wearing her Hello Kitty flip flops on a cold November morning.  Christy cropped those out for me for the final.

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Halloween 2012

It was a very exciting year of trick-or-treating for the Perryman family!  Matt came down with the stomach bug on Halloween day so he didn't get to go as Tiger this year.  He did offer it to me but I opted to go as a banana again (I AM ANNA BANANA!!).  Thank goodness Shay was here to help with the trick-or-treating rounds.

Our night started at 5:30 because I couldn't hold off the troops any longer. 

1. Harper went as a princess.  She had to be talked into a long sleeve shirt under her dress because it was 50 degrees.  Harper held her own at the start of the night by running after the big kids from house to house.  When it got dark, Harper began to ask the people handing out candy "are there monsters here?"  Each neighbor assured Harper there were no monsters but that didn't stop her from getting in the stroller and not getting out until we got home. 

2. Cecilia went as a skunk.  She slept the whole time. She did give up her stroller to Harper when it got dark but she continued to sleep while being held.

3. Will was a reluctant Ninja.  He let me know that I purchased his costume too big so he didn't want to wear it.  He changed his plan once the candy started flowing into his bucket.

4. Abby went as a diva.  That was the PERFECT costume for my little diva.