A germy Christmas

Well, apparently the cold, which started with Riley and then passed to Robbie, has made its way to me. Didn't I just have a cold? I'm not sure if you just get the same cold again and again, or if it's a different strain, but regardless of the details, I have another cold. I'd ordinarily not really care, since it's at worst a nuisance, but we're going to be seeing Robbie's family both tonight and tomorrow, and with his dad's recent lung transplant, exposure to a virus could jeopardize his health greatly. I may be either lurking way in the background or staying home all together. 

But no matter--it's Christmas and we've got the Christmas spirit here at the McFamily house. The little fella is aware of it being Christmas eve, but as of yet he hasn't put it together that tonight is the night that Santa comes and in the morning we'll find all the presents under the tree!! I'm listening to a broadcast of the Nine Lessons and Carols sung by angelic youngsters in England and baking bread to make the breakfast casserole for tomorrow morning. 

Robbie and I discovered that we still have a couple of packages we need to wrap for the lad, one of which is a 1/16th size violin sent to him by a friend in Atlanta whose kids used to play it. The violin Riley currently has is quite a bit too large for him still and he can not reach the end of the neck to press the strings, which he finds it exceedingly frustrating. He wants to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and now he'll be able to reach to make the notes! :-)

I went to Whole Foods yesterday and found some little natural candies to put in his stocking, including a package of Glee Gum and some chocolate coins. 

The washer calls...

Weekend pix

This last Saturday we attended the Hinkle (Robbie's maternal) family Christmas celebration at his folks house. Lots of good food and visiting ensued! In lieu of giving gifts the family agreed that everyone would bring non-perishable food to give to families in need. All told we were able to assemble enough to make up four generously sized gift baskets. :-) 

Hey, wow! Some photos that have me in them! Thanks to my beloved for taking over the camera for a while during the party.

Can you tell he was getting sick? He's got a doozy of a cold now.

Hello! 

A quiet morning

We've been busy here, but this morning it was quiet and sunny in our living room and Riley enjoyed playing with his pegboard while all of his friends watched. 

Hmmmm?

Riley's first ear infection? Maybe

Riley hasn't been himself today and we have wondered what was going on under the surface with him. We had to go out and about a bit this afternoon and I could see that he was really low-energy, so we kept it simple and came straight home once we were done. Once we got back he kind of sighed and said "Momma I can't really hear out of this ear" and pointed to his left ear. I asked him if it hurts and he said yes, but not emphatically, so hopefully if it's an infection it's a mild one. I'm in new territory though, because he's never had an ear infection, so I gave him some Tylenol and set him up a cozy nest on the couch and now I guess we'll just see what happens. :-/ 

Save the homemade toy!

Apparently some well-intentioned but poorly worded legislation has created a problem for small, mom-and-pop toy makers.

Here's the low-down from the Eco Child's Play site.

Yikes!

Last night Riley had a bad dream in which he thought I had gotten in the car and driven to the post office without taking him along. He woke up crying and went out to the living room where he attempted to go out the front door to follow me. YIKES!!!
Robbie was able to intercept him and get him back into bed, but it was really scary to imagine Riley outside solo in the middle of the night. :-/ A double deadbolt lock is in the stars for our front door.

What a fresh perspective

This morning Robbie and I were talking about the attic and Riley got very interested in the subject of pull-down stairs, which we've long discussed installing in our hall. He was rambling on at length about the pull-down stairs, but then he got the concept mixed up with the blow-in insulation that Robbie and I were talking about and voila! A new concept was born: Blow-Down Stairs! Within minutes he'd developed a specific plan where you could pull a cord which would cause a compressor to shoot air through a hose and the stairs would come blasting down like an air bag! He adding that other air bags would inflate on the sides and bottom in the event that someone should trip and fall down the stairs. Genius! :-) 

He was all set to go get the saws-all to begin construction when Robbie told him that we couldn't just start building without a plan, so he drew a very elaborate picture, including the compressor, hose and stairs. This age is really, really fun! 

School party

Riley's class celebrated his birthday yesterday in a small ceremony that was absolutely precious. They told a story, sang a song and even gave Riley four hip-hip-hooray cheers! Very sweet.

They had special chairs decorated with play silks for Robbie, Riley and me. Here's little R unwrapping his gift, a knitted cat. 

Admiring his little cat

Look at how beautiful his classroom looks--they still had the greenery, lights and hollowed out apple candle holders left out from the circle of light ceremony they held that morning. 

School party

Sweet little four year old person

Well, sadly we had to postpone the party. After school yesterday we began noticing an abundance of sneezing and a sniffly nose on the little guy. Then came the coughing. By bedtime a question hung in the air: will he be well enough to have a houseful of guests come over? This morning it was clear that the child was ill and we decided that even if he might feel up to it, it's not cool to send all our friends home with a cold, so we set a rain date for his party for next Friday. As a consolation for nixing the party, we held a low-key celebration today with just us and our little sick boy.

I'm not feeling well. 

It was necessary to have many, many balloons blown up in the living room this morning. 

Happy birthday dear Riley, happy birthday to you!!! 

Holiday cheer!

Riley has been ALL about decorating the tree this year, and as opposed to previous years, when that has also been the case, we've been pretty much fine with that. One ornament has been broken, but that's actually fewer than I usually break myself, so he's proving to be quite a steady hand at the task.

Steady and gentle

The tree has received a generous number of ornaments...on the bottom half.

Wow! What an arrangement!

This is by far the highlight of the tree. Riley repurposed a miniature wreath to serve as a nest for these two birds. They're sitting on miniature ornament 'eggs'. Adorable. 

Riley buckled Big Monkey into his carseat yesterday. Safety first, Big Monkey!

We're able to display the angel chimes for the first time since he's been mobile. It's as entrancing for him as I remember it being for me when I was young. Or even now, for that matter. 

Good grief!

This is totally insane. 

Yummmmmmmy!!

Wow, we're definitely having this for dinner. Can you even believe how delicious this looks?!

More pix

I've been a bit remiss on the ol' photos, so here's a fresh batch, hot off the iPhoto:

Muffins! 

Quiet reverie

Scrambling up the climbing wall at the Redmont holiday fair

And, of course, riding a pony

Holiday decorating

Are we the only ones who have not yet decorated for Christmas? We've stayed so busy lately that I just haven't gotten around to it, and now it feels like we're cutting it pretty close. We have Riley's birthday party this weekend though, so we're getting cracking. I've got the space cleared in our dining room and now all I have to do is set up the tree! Too bad I don't have a magic wand for that... 

It makes too much sense--they'll never go for it.

Michael Moore has an excellent essay in response to the the Big Three auto makers current financial pickle. 

Did you miss us?

Man, we've been busy! 

Robbie was out of town most of this week, so little R and I were solo. I finished up some Christmas gifts and some of the things I made to sell at the Redmont school holiday fair. Then this morning, after I dropped Riley off at Redmont, I came home and did some serious speed baking. I volunteered to bring gluten-free baked goods to the holiday fair, so I baked up some snickerdoodles and molasses-ginger cookies and they turned out really great! 

We're glad it's the weekend, daddy's home and we have a fun event to attend tomorrow. :-)

A pair of the slippers I made to sell at the Holiday Fair. 

Warm, wooly and elf-like! :-)

Feeling better

Well, it looks like the worst of the cold is past and now it's just the lingering congestion. Robbie and I fared pretty well during this round--Robbie showing basically no symptoms, despite the copious sneezing done here, and I got by with a mild version. Riley's had your garden variety cold with a croupy cough, but he's definitely the mend. First cold of the winter: Check.