A little hut in the woods....

For about the past year, Theo has periodically declared that when he grows up he is going to live in a little hut in the woods. There will be no girls there. Just the dragons he trains. He has put some serious thought into how this is all going to work out. Anyway- yesterday we had the boys out to Battle Creek Park to ski. It was an absolutely gorgeous day- pretty warm, the trees decorated with frosty snow, and two lovely sets of ski tracks leading off into the woods. Eli and I set off and I immediately realized that I was dressed too warmly, so I left him on his own as I dashed back to the car to change coats. On the way I passed Jon and Theo crawling down the path at Theo's none-too-blistering pace. I told Jon that Eli was off ahead, heading out on his own and I would catch up to him. Apparently Jon decided to catch up to Eli, figuring I would come across Theo quickly because he is so not-fast. I did. He was skiing down the path, entirely alone, with a blissful smile on his face. When I caught up to him he said, "Mom, this is what it's going to be like!!! This is what it will be like when I live alone in my hut in the woods. Just me. And all the animals I've trained, of course, so I won't be alone. And I'll get them all little booties so they can run through the snowy woods with me!!" He was in heaven. I felt very un-needed, but I couldn't help gettting caught up in Theo's excitement and his love of being in the woods. I'm starting to think that he really is going to go through with this hut plan of his. Maybe much sooner than I orginally thought. The only problem I can foresee, is that he will have to learn how to pick up his skiing pace, or his hut is going to have to be real close to all the commodities he needs. The kid has a wonderful time out on his skies, and has no worries that he only goes about .5 mile per hour.

Cool Down

I'm up here typing, hoping it will help me cool down from the ferocious air hockey tournament I just participated in. Gripping on to that little puck-pusher thing can make your fingers seize right up. Yep, we got the boys a gigantic air hockey table and it has taken over our basement. To my complete surprise, I have discovered that Eli has really mastered the refined art of trash-talking. I don't know where he could have picked that up.
Overall, our compact-ed christmas was a success. I think we'll try it again next year.

Theo's love declarations

The kid declares his love for me and his dad about every 10 minutes these days. I don't know what's going on, but when I pointed out that he sure was chock full of love and declaring it often, he said, "Oh Mom, I can't help it, it just bubbles out..."
And later, "Sometimes Mom, I just love you so much my eyes get all teary." Right now as I am typing this, Theo just jumped on my lap and told me how much he loved me. Then he segued right into a description of a battle scene between enemy forces that is forever playing in his head.

Christmas on the compact

As we've been approaching Christmas, I've been a little nervous about 'keeping the compact'. We have worked hard to simplify the holiday, so we never go hog wild. But I do want that the present under the tree from us is one that has a little bit of a wow factor. I had this nagging feeling that we might have to bend the rules a bit. But then Mary Beth, the compact instigator, arranged a meeting of compactees late one evening at a local coffee shop. We swapped ideas and I left more confident that we were going to be able to pull this off. And I think we have. Of course the jury is still out, and we will find out for sure on Tuesday morning, but I'm feeling good. I did lose about one whole day of my life to craigslist, scanning the metro area listings for kid stuff. In the end, both the purchases I made were within one mile of my house and I was able to walk to make my deals. I liked that. The kids have gotten into the game and we've put together some great gifts for their cousins from local re-use gems like ArtStart and Practical Goods. I think we ended up getting all of our gifts (with one notable exception from Woodbury- which will be revealed on Tuesday) from within 2 miles of our house, and everything was from either a regular old citizen, or a locally owned store. It feels good. We just realized today that we only have four more months 'on the compact'. Over all, I think it's doing it's job. We definitely buy less in general and I haven't been to Target for 8 months, so right there it is all worthwhile.

Keeping it real

Theo was very feverish yesterday evening. When he gets ill he becomes extremely loving and I, for one, can do no wrong in his eyes. Last night I was sitting on one end of the couch and Theo was on the other murmuring, "Mom, I love you, I love you sooo much." Then he kind of squirmed around in discomfort and ended up with his nose right by my feet. He made some comment and I said, "Oh Theo, do my feet smell? Should I move them?" "No Mom, they smell like roses..." Eli happened to be walking by right then and he snidely remarked, "Oh please Theo, even if you love someone, you have to admit that their feet will smell every now and then."

Soft

No, not Lucy..... The snow! I went down to Hidden Falls to ski today. Today. December 4. That shouldn't be so surprising, but I just read somewhere that this is the earliest skiing we have had in 16 years! So as I was skiing I was trying to figure out what felt so different about it. Then it hit me, it was soft snow. I was cutting tracks through fresh virgin snow- even when I turned around to follow my tracks back to my car, they were already recovered and I had to break trail once again. Last year, one of the only skies I had was up at Telemark. The snow was so hardpacked and icy that Jackie, our Peruvian houseguest, on skies for the first time, fell and busted her tailbone. I have real serious high hopes for this winter.

The Wonder

This fall Eli has been trying to teach Theo to read. Just the other night he was using the ketchup bottle as his teaching tool. Theo seemed to be making the barest hint of progress. Eli looked over at me, sighed and said, “Oh Mom, isn’t it just a wonder how the whole world just opens up to you once you learn to read?” I agreed. Later, when they had moved out of the kitchen I took a close look at the ketchup bottle. Sadly, no secrets of the world were revealed to me. Maybe tomorrow I should try the mustard container.

Oh boy...

Mary, Theo's teacher came over laughing when I picked Theo up from school yesterday. She explained that they had been talking about royalty and she had said, 'Zachary, we could call you the King of Cardboard.' Then she mentioned that Etta could be the Queen of Art Projects. Then, from the back of the room, Theo shouted, "Well, Lucy sure is the Queen of Cuteness!"