huck blog

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we'll be home for christmas

December 31, 2006, 2:01 pm

Today is always one of my very favorites of the whole year. I'm such a nostalgic person that I find great joy in thinking back on the past 364 days. When you take as many pictures as we do, you've got a lot to smile about as you really slowly stroll down Memory Lane. 2006 was a wonderful year for the three of us and we are so thankful to have spent so much time with you family and friends. Last night we returned from ten days in Kansas, and here are a bunch of pictures of our time with everyone. Grandpa Gaylyn made Huck an art desk that converts into a basketball goal, and so he is anxiously awaiting UPS to deliver it back to him. Thanks to everyone who took such good care of us, as always. We are once again reminded of what a wonderful life we have. Happy 2007 to Huck Heads everywhere!

(AND HAPPY 93RD BIRTHDAY, GREAT GRANDPA JOHN!)

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have yourselves a merry little christmas!

December 20, 2006, 3:49 pm

We're off to Kansas! Hundreds of thousands of pictures to follow.

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away in the strange manger

December 16, 2006, 9:18 pm

Huck’s favorite game these days (besides “basketball”) is Baby Jesus. He invented it and it goes something like this. He gets out of the bath and requests his yellow tiger hooded bath robe. Once it’s on nice and snug he announces that he’s Baby Jesus in the grass, and that’s my cue to put a towel or robe on my head and become Mommy Mary. I then pick him up lovingly and lie him in the grass, which is actually our “new rug.” Sometimes he wants to be put on the “new, new rug,” which we got about a week after our “new rug.” Once he’s in position he stares at the ceiling VERY seriously, because he’s the Baby Jesus, and begins directing the manger scene, telling us who we are and where to stand. Usually I’m Mary and Troy is Joseph, but sometimes Troy is a very ornery shepherd with a Cockney accent and occasionally I’m a very feminine Joseph. Unbeknownst to Baby Jesus, we are doing hilarious routines as we gaze upon our little boy on the rug and ask ourselves the same old question, “Where did he come from?”

A variation of the game involves Play-Doh. He gives me different colors and says things like, “Brown Mary! Green Joseph! Yellow Baby Jesus!” Once I’ve sculpted all the characters to his liking, which is not an easy task believe you me, he wants Play-Doh Mary to nurse Play-Doh Baby Jesus. After a few moments he wants Baby Jesus to switch sides, so I very carefully remove the little Play-Doh mound and reattach it to Mary’s other bosom. Then we put the two of them in our rocker where they stay for hours. All the while Mary is singing “Blue Moon.”

We don’t have any pictures of Baby Jesus, because they didn’t have cameras back then and it would really ruin the moment to whip one out, but this picture here does a good job of showing the look on Huck’s face when he's in character.

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jingle balls

December 12, 2006, 10:29 pm

Troy and I have been preparing ourselves for the fact that Huck may be an athlete. We don't know a whole lot about sports and tend to prefer sitting in a dark theatre over a crowded stadium. But Huck shows signs of being like his Grandpa Bill (known here as Big Grandma) and his Aunt Tina (known here as Aunt T), able to throw a ball like nobody's business.

Well, yesterday he suddenly became obsessed with basketball in the worst possible way. We were at the playground and he began begging to play on the court next to all these actual New York teenage basketball players. So I foolishly got out his tiny little basketball-like ball and before I knew it I was frantically obeying all of his commands to run down the court with him in my arms so he could attempt to make a basket. Of course he came no where near making a basket, and this led to horrific cries of injustice. It was awful. It was the worst playground experience ever. Finally I realized that I'm 100 pounds heavier than him and can say NO to temper tantrum sports.

Then Troy made the mistake of telling him he could play basketball in the church gym someday. It's all Huck talked about last night, and before I knew it I was the one taking him up to the gym this morning because Troy had to "work." Again: awful experience. Huck screamed at me to make a basket, cried when I failed. It brought back uncomfortable memories for me as an awkward, unathletic girl in grade school. Here I was again out of breath, trying to impress the cute guy as I ran down the court, almost falling down, trying with all my might to make a basket. After a few minutes of this nightmare I again put an end to it, carried my short little basketball player downstairs and gave him Cheerios.

On our way home I stopped by a store and accidentally found a cheapo basketball hoop thingy to hook on your door, along with a cheapo baby basketball. Turns out Troy did the very same thing, only his was two dollars cheaper than mine. So now Huck has his very own cheapo basketball court in his bed. You can see from these pictures that he's very tired from all of this physical activity and will probably soon go back to being a painter.

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it's beginning to look a lot like christmas around here

December 7, 2006, 8:25 am

Happy 21 months birthday, Huck!

Huck is a big fan of Christmas, just like his mommy. He’s quite taken by both Baby Jesus and Santa Claus, as well as jingle bells, silver bells, snowmen, Mommy Claus, Christmas lights and stars. Every morning he wakes up and shouts, “GET UP! GET UP! CHRISTMAS LIGHTS! TURN ON!” Once we plug all those lights in he wants to stand on our table and touch the ornaments with his finger while he names each and every one. All this before coffee has even been made, and we have a lot of ornaments, people.

Our church has a nativity scene set up outside and Huck loves to go there and look at Baby Jesus’ house, squatting on the ground and very seriously pointing out all the characters. Just yesterday we discovered an exciting Santa toy that does a little pelvic thrust dance in one of our neighbor’s windows. It now takes twice as long to get through our Christmas wonderland of a neighborhood, and we didn’t move all that fast before.

Here's my favorite bit of Christmas confusion Huck has come up with. When he goes down for a nap I turn on a sound machine with ocean waves, and he always puts his hand up to his ear with what I assume is an invisible seashell and says very dreamy-like, "Jingle bells ..."

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let it kind of snow

December 4, 2006, 2:21 pm

On a cold day with about two minutes of snow flurries, it's nice to have a pal like Kadin to play with inside!

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