BeDazzled

"Mommy, how old were you the first time you ________?"

This question, no matter what fills the blank, always results in the same answer from me:
Twenty-Eight.

However, once she saw a frightening senior picture of me in my Valley View cheerleading uniform, all decked out with mall bangs and giant sparkly earrings, she began to put the pieces together: clearly I had gotten my ears pierced as a kid.

She begged. She reasoned. She put sparkly stickers on her ears for months, pretending that they were the real thing.

So off to the mall we went—bound for the Piercing Pagoda—prepared to hear her pain-stricken wails and dramatic floor-flops.


But nothing. She was so brave, she never even flinched. And I must say that a sigh of relief crossed my lips when she picked out the pearls.



Hopefully she'll wait until she's 28 for everything else.

Christmas 2011

Having so many extensions of family is a blessing and a challenge, but every year we seem to figure out how to all pull together for a week of gatherings, celebration and fun.

It all started at Dad and Patti's with a family Christmas there...and it was no surprise that Carson was mesmerized by his Uncle Tim's antics.


Next, Christmas Eve with Derek's family, including Andrea and Chris, who were home from Nashville. Marvin did his sweet and VERY important reading of the Story of Christmas, helping the kids to remember that the meaning of Christmas is not just about Santa Claus!


That night we went home and Ella made two notes: one to Santa, asking all about his pets, and another for Carson, which she taped to his chest. My guess is that this was less of a bullying tactic and more of a ploy to persuade Santa into bringing twice the baby dolls that night.


On Christmas morning, our parents all came over to see Carson's big surprise...a new train table!


We all had a nice lunch and said our goodbyes until the next day, when we'd gather in Lexington for the big family Christmas on the 26th.

While it took us 5 hours to get to Lex that day, it was all worth it - great to see everyone, celebrate the holiday, honor Papa's 70th birthday, and pose for a shot in all our lovely Christmas sweaters, thanks Mimi :)





Hey, you can't say we didn't have the Christmas Spirit, right?
Cheers!

Little Mister

Something happend a couple of weeks ago.
Carson started sitting in a chair for longer than 30 seconds. Eating entire meals at one sitting without launching food at us. Going entire days without crying or throwing himself on the floor. Getting in his carseat without arching his back. Oh, the list goes on.



His personality is still hilarious, but the bad behaviors? Well, he's more...chill.

This makes me a little nervous. It happened overnight!
It's like some guardian angel looked down and said "yep, this one has driven his parents certifiably crazy. The trial is over...let's go ahead and show some mercy. Flip the switch."



I got these great shots of him, just hanging out. There's no theme or a big story. It's just Carson, becoming less of a tantrum-throwing toddler and more of a silly, sweet little boy...right before our eyes.



At least for now.

A Holiday Tea with Mimi

Mimi invited Ella and me to attend a Holiday Tea at the beautiful, historic Dayton Womens' Club. The theme was all about little ladies and their baby dolls, which meant Ella would get to take McKenna out for tea and scones, tiny tarts and other dainty affairs.



And as always, my favorite shots are the ones that aren't posed. Ella waited patiently for a very slow photographer to finish so she could climb into the antique sleigh with her babydoll, faux fur and all. So very fancy!

The 1st Grade Choir Concert

I would be proud at any event where Ella performed. And her singing voice is remarkably pretty. However, the thing that made me the most proud of her was this:
Each of the 1st grade teachers chose the two children in their class whom they believed could stand up in front of an audience of a hundred or so camera-weilding parents and read aloud, clearly and quickly.

Ella was chosen. She read a paragraph aloud from a small piece of paper with exactly the words that the teacher had typed out for her, while projecting into the microphone so the whole gymnasium could hear. We looked more closely to find that her paper wasn't shaking.

She's been reading to us at progressively better levels for the past year or so, but this seemed different. Ella can read, and read well...with confidence, and clarity, and inflection. I am so happy that she now has this skill—one that's so tricky to learn—which will inform her for life, unlocking truth and knowledge, adventure and discovery.

Go Ellabug!

Choo Choooo!

Oh, Christmas Tree

We ventured out to find a tree, and scored a huge Douglas Fir for the family room. We strung the lights and put hooks on the ornaments, talking about the memories attached to each one.

At some point, I bumped the coffee table where we had at least a dozen ornaments hooked and dangling from the edge, staged to be hung on the tree. They all fell down from the vibration. (Bear with me here.)

Ella stayed involved through the whole process; Carson's gaze remained where those ornaments fell. His gaze broke, and he darted to the kitchen to climb the cabinets.

He came back with a box of golden raisins and a whisk.
Huh?
I was riveted. As we all pretended to be hanging the ornaments, we were watching to see what would come next.

Step one: use tiny fingers to dig raisins out of box.
Step two: use tiny fingers to insert raisins into the middle of the whisk.



Step three: hover whisk over mouth.
Step four: tap whisk until the whole thing vibrates, thereby dumping raisins into mouth.



There really were no words. We all just sat there glancing at each other like, "did that really just happen?"

He just gobbled the raisins with a satisfied grin...then did a happy little march around the room, the whisk as his new baton.



PS: The tree looks great!