Island climbing

I'm about to remove all of the kitchen table's chairs and banish them to the basement.  We'll just eat dinner standing up - not like I actually sit for all that long when I eat my meals anyway.  They are chairs, they are not ladders for the kitchen island, they are not monkey bars, they are not step stools, they are chairs.  For behinds.  Not for feet.

Little miss monkey is giving me daily drills on how to quickly remove your hands from the raw chicken you are working with, race around the island,  and save a small human before it has a chance to use the counter top as a high dive.  I promise you, Dawn dish soap from the dispenser is not a liquid form of candy nor is it body lotion.  Leave it alone.  Get out of the sink.  Get off the counter.  Put that chair back!

Rinse. Repeat.

I'm sort of afraid to enroll her in gymnastics.  I'm afraid the climbing will be further encouraged but this time with the flair of an attempted back tuck (good ol' back flip in layman's terms).

I hope this stage passes quickly or we might be ordering a helmet.  Or perhaps a straight jacket.

Christmas 2011

Christmas was a little over 3 weeks ago and I am just now recovering!  We had so much fun with all the holiday excitement and gatherings and meals and family and friends and gifts and gifts and gifts and gifts...

This year's festivities were particularly exciting because it seemed to be the first year that Luke "got it." He was very into Santa - and very concerned about his status on Santa's list.  Each day, who am I kidding, let me rephrase, each hour we were discussing which kind of behaviors Santa liked and ways to get back on to the "good" list.  Luke was also very concerned about which list Adrienne was on and strangely enough, was always informing me that she was on the naughty list.  Hmmm.  Santa will continue to keep a close eye on Luke.

But Santa was very good to us all this year.  And aunts and uncles and grandparents and friends were very good to us this year, too.  But as sad as I am that the season is over, I sure am glad to have the space back in my living room where the tree was.  And I'm glad that I don't have to pick up the ornament fatalities anymore but I'll miss the daily homemade ones. 

Because I'd be writing forever, I won't list out all the fun things we were lucky to receive this year but look for some new photos displaying some our new toys!