last day
December 31, 2008, 10:12 am
It's the last day of a very fine year full of big deals for our little boy. First he got his own bed in his own bedroom and we all got a whole lot more sleep. Then he turned three, then he started pooping in the toilet, then he stopped using his stroller. He began writing all his letters and most of his numbers and occasionally reads words like "go" and "zoo." Mid-year he began figuring out math and recently said, "Hey! Three four times is twelve!" This means he's beginning to pass his mother's mathematical skills. And this is the year he met his true love Olive. It feels like we started 2008 with a baby and we're ending it with a high schooler.;)
As an almost four year old Huck has a big personality. He's extremely extroverted with grown-ups and kids he knows. He's very shy with those he doesn't, just like his mama. His heartbreaking new defense against disappointment is to sweetly say, "I'm kidding!" whenever he's told "no." Sadly, he says this hundreds of times a day which means he's hearing "no" hundreds of times a day. Such is the life of a 3.75 year old, I guess.
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Huck has a wonderful sense of humor and keeps us laughing all the time. For examples ... The other day he said to me, "Put some makeup on. I want you to look beautiful for me." Last week he taught us some Spanish. Apparently "osioto" spoken slowly means "I do not smell the toot," while "osioto" spoken quickly means "I do smell the toot." And recently Troy was explaining to Huck why our Christmas amaryllis had not yet bloomed (though it finally did this morning!) and he said, "Huck, your mom and dad are many things, but we are not master gardeners," to which Huck replied, "You forgot firefighters and dentists."
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It's snowing right now in New York and we're planning to go out in it soon, because you don't want to pass up a chance to play in the last snow of the year. I overheard Huck tell a friend the other day, "Winter is my best season because I always love to throw snowballs." We look forward to what the new year holds for our little family (hopefully some good packing snow), and we wish you and yours the very best, too! [ 4 comments ] ( 37 views )
three days of christmas
December 27, 2008, 7:09 pm
We hope you are enjoying the holidays as much as we three are. It’s nice to have Troy home feeling relaxed and not planning some exciting event. In fact, the most exciting event he’s planned has been trying to get through the wonderful “Wall-E” with Huck, who loves it but needs to take breaks from the sadness and occasional violence. I think they'll have finished it by New Years.Our celebration began on Christmas Eve, my personal favorite day of the year thanks to fun family traditions growing up. After an afternoon family church service downtown, we walked through the rain to have delicious Indian dinner on the lower east side before catching the subway all the way home. We began our all-evening-gift-opening extravanganza and even got to Skype with NaNa, PaPa David and Great-Grandma Gene so they could watch Huck open their gifts all the way from Kansas. Huck enjoyed playing with each gift for a while before opening the next and even requested breaks so that he could just sit still and rest. Finally we got him to bed, did our Santa magic (barely remembered to leave out cookie crumbs and an empty cup of milk), and fell fast asleep.
On Christmas morning Huck woke up “nice” and early and was pleased when we reminded him that maybe, just maybe Santa came while we were sleeping. Troy and I did some fine acting work as we discovered the art easel and a stocking filled with all kinds of things, the most memorable of which was jelly beans. In fact, throughout the day he talked more about the jelly beans than anything else. That Santa knows his Huck!
We spent the afternoon eating a progressive Christmas dinner at four different apartments. Lots of food, drink and general merriment was had by all 16 of us! I don’t think Huck stopped smiling the entire day.
The day after Christmas we went to the Bronx Zoo's Wild Winterland festivities which included a horse drawn wagon ride, looking at and learning about reindeers (Did you know that each year they shed their entire antlers and grow new ones?), caroling, making and eating s'mores, giggling over the fancy man on stilts dressed as a snowflake, and watching some impressive ice sculpting. And of course we fed a goat. Typical Christmas activity.
Now we have our good friends Mark, Sharron and Gus visiting! It's Christmas everyday around here.
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[ 2 comments ] ( 34 views )what child is this?
December 24, 2008, 10:43 am
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Merry Christmas to Huck-Heads everywhere! We're staying in New York this year, missing our family and friends far away but happy to sit around our own tree with our own DVD of eight fireplaces to choose from, which Huck rattled off in order to cousin Lauren on the phone this morning. ("Red Brick, Stone, Christmas, Close-Up, Dark Marble, Light Marble, Modern, Psychedelic.") And we have one more day to spend with our special elf friend Dixen, for tonight he leaves us to spend the rest of the year with Santa at the North Pole. Troy and I never forgot to move Dixen to a new location each night, though we came very close to running out of new locations. I wonder if we'll remember to bring him out next year ...
Santa is bringing Huck an art easel tonight (Dixen told us), even though Huck hadn't mentioned wanting one. That is, until yesterday when Huck and I had a Christmas adventure downtown. We looked at the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree and a few department store window displays before running inside to get warm. And there in a little toy store we saw an easel just like Huck is about to receive. He went crazy over it and said THAT'S what he wants from Santa. So when we got home he told Dixen the elf, who was hanging out in Max's little stocking, hoping he would relay the message to Santa. It was a Christmas miracle.
We hope you have a few of those yourselves.
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[ 3 comments ] ( 37 views )winter in new york part II
December 22, 2008, 1:43 pm
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[ 4 comments ] ( 38 views )winter in new york
December 21, 2008, 4:34 pm
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[ 2 comments ] ( 36 views )angel
December 20, 2008, 2:12 pm
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[ 17 comments ] ( 72 views )christmas time pictures that make me giggle
December 19, 2008, 2:45 pm
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[ 3 comments ] ( 44 views )huck stories
December 17, 2008, 2:07 pm
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The other week we were in line for the bathroom at Borders having the age old conversation: “But I don’t have to go to the bathroom.” “But just try since we’re here.” “But I really don’t have to go.” “Let’s just both try since we’re here.” After a brief pause Huck said, “Oh, yeah. You’re right. I do have to go. I just tested not holding it in and a little pee-pee came out. Yeah, you’re right.” I smiled at the other ladies as I encouraged him to stop testing it.
We've been making magical videos starring Shannon and Huck the Great. First he "disappeared" Winnie the Pooh, then himself, and most recently nine party guests. Now he attempts to use his magic to change our rules and moods. We tell him not to do something, he asks the age old “why not?”, we give the age old "because," and then with an extremely serious look on his face he does an aggressive magical gesture towards our face and says, “Now I can.” The other day I was very frustrated over a health insurance mix up and as I stormed around the place sighing and muttering he said, “Chill out, Mommy!” followed by the serious magical gesture and “Now it’s all better.”
At his Monday play school we were talking about oak leaves and he articulately explained to the other children that oat leaves come from oat trees and oat trees grow oatmeal.
Lately Huck’s been interested in hearing stories about me as a little girl, especially if it has to do with Grandma and Grandpa’s back yard. I came across a picture of me in a ballerina tutu and had it sitting on the desk for several days, finally putting it in an album. The next day Huck asked where the picture was and said with a kind smile, “I was so impressed with it.”
After a particularly long day I told Huck I was pooped. He agreed and said, “The doctor told me I needed to poop twice a day and I did.” And then he imitated my tired looking face and let out an empathetic sigh.
It's nice to be understood. [ 20 comments ] ( 78 views )
merry cookies to all
December 14, 2008, 3:32 pm
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‘Tis the season when all kinds of fun activities are packed into one weekend, making mommies and daddies everywhere long for a nap. Yesterday Troy threw the neighborhood a Christmas party at the church where we decorated cookies, ate cookies, went ice fishin' for prizes, made ornaments, hung them on a tree, sang songs with Daddy on guitar and visited with the real Santa Claus. He and Huck had a conversation consisting of St. Nick listing every possible toy ever made while Huck nodded, thereby giving the big man permission to get him anything. (Much better than last year's demand for an "old toy ship" which Santa did not get right, as Huck awkwardly told us a few months later.)
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After all that fun we headed down the street with Huck’s girl-friends Addie and Keira (visiting from Connecticut) to our neighborhood Christmas cookie contest party. There we ate more cookies, had some holiday libations, talked to grown ups and played with children. I think our family consumed a few pounds of cookies by the end of the day.
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This morning Huck joined a handful of brave young children (several backed out at the last minute) and sang “Joy to the World” for the congregation. Huck was quite gracious with all the compliments he received throughout the morning. I was the assistant in his “Children and Worship” class for 3-5 year olds and got to observe his personality with the teacher and classmates. He’s smiley, a little talkative, and very funny. After church he joined a larger group to rehearse next week’s telling of the Christmas story, and while he’s the littlest of them all, he takes his job very seriously. (And I watched him smile as several older girls went on about how he looks like a little man.)
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This week we have our last Music Together class, a couple more Christmas parties, neighborhood caroling, a trip to the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, another visit to the Botanical Gardens Holiday Train Show, some final Christmas shopping, more cookies and some naps. Oh, please, let there be some naps.[ 3 comments ] ( 34 views )
best friend day
December 10, 2008, 8:13 pm
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glad tidings we bring
December 7, 2008, 2:29 pm
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The last time I checked it was just becoming fall outside and we were figuring out our Halloween costumes, but now it appears to be Christmas. I know this because our little home has a huge and beautiful tree standing in it with a whole lot of candy canes hung with care all along the bottom branches. Thanks to a DVD sent by Grandma and Grandpa Hottman in Kansas, we have a crackling fireplace always playing on our TV, and if for some reason it's not on Huck reminds us to "light the fire." We also have a little elf friend living with us whom Huck named Dixen. Every night while we sleep he goes to the North Pole and fills Santa in on how we're all treating each other. Then he somehow sneaks back into our apartment and finds a new place to rest. Oh, Dixen, you're so much fun! (This might be a long month.)
Huck is totally confused by this whole Christmas time/Christmas season business. He asks several times a day, "So is this Christmas or not?" He wants to open that present under the tree SO BAD. In an attempt to have some control he's wrapped two of his own toys and literally thrown them behind the tree. One is his toy frying pan (for Daddy) and the other is his sunglasses (for me). I think he takes after his father in the gift wrapping department, if you know what I mean.
Yesterday we baked thousands of sugar cookies and had to really watch Huck for fear that he would use up all the frosting on one cookie. We were down to two when I finally told him he could use all the frosting he wanted. He thanked me as I left the room to clean the kitchen and when I returned I discovered him eating the frosting right out of the bowl. A simple misunderstanding which led to a tummy ache ... again reminding me of another certain person who lives here. And I'm not talking about Dixen.
Yep, it's Christmas.
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[ 5 comments ] ( 50 views )