ABCZ

On Christmas Eve, after we got home from church, we had our little 'tradition' (borrowed from our good friends the Bells) of opening one gift - of new PJs to sleep in that night. So, we took the opportunity to review some 'gift opening' ettiquette with Anna. I told her, "When you open a gift, be sure to say how much you love it, and say thank you. And if you open a gift that you already HAVE, don't say anything about that, because it might hurt their feelings. Just say that you love it and say thank you. We'll take care of it later."

So, on Christmas morning, Anna cheerfully parroted "Thank you! I love it SO much!" verbatim after opening each gift. We were chuckling about that, when Curtis opened a board game from Mom & Alisa. Anna rushed over to him and got right in his face so she could look him in the eye and said in a very loud stage whisper, "Daddy! Just say 'Thank you, I love it so much!' so they won't know we already have that one."

Click on the picture to see a larger version so that you can read it easier.

Anna has been interested in sign language for some time now. She used to just make gestures up and say, "That's sign language for...". And she'd give you that "it's painfully hard to deal with someone as dumb as a rock, but I am trying" look if you didn't get it.

So, I told her that there was a real language of sign language, and we bought her a kids sign language book, that we have been learning from - a little here are there. So, this week, she pointed to a sign and wanted me to teach it to her. I told her that was the sign for the word "louder".

She said, "No it's not, SILLY!!!"
I maintained that it WAS the sign for loud.
She replied, "But Mommy (yeah - I was getting that dumb as a rock look again) why would they need a sign for 'louder' if they can't HEAR anything?!"

1 Point to Anna. She wins this round.

...that she WROTE, anyway. As read and illustrated by the author. Enjoy!

"Obstructed View" tickets to see Van Halen's reunion concert, that they actually stayed together long enough to do .........$50 each.

Anna has been sleeping in our bed for a few nights, while she was pretty sick. I stayed up to get some stuff done the other night, and when I finally came to bed, this is what I saw. It made me smile to see them lying there in perfectly mirrored sleeping positions, all snuggled up. So sweet, my loves...

Only, it was ANNA giving the lecture to us. And it was hilarious...

I've probably noted on here, more that once, that my mom does a TON of stuff to help us out (and Alisa too). Sometimes, if they are using our van to go do stuff while they are watching Anna, they decide that can't stand the clutter one more second and go clean our van out for us. Sooo sweet of them...really. Well, keeping that in mind, enjoy the following conversation that Anna, Curtis and I had while driving the other night:

A: Why do you sometimes let Grandma clean your van?
{B&C exchange shoulder shrugs, wondering where this is going...}
B: Well, sometimes she just helps us out, like we help her out.
A: [In a totally indignant tone of voice] But cleaning the van is YOUR responsibility! Not Grandma's!
{B&C cracking up now...}
C: You're right. That IS our responsibility. We should do it more often, but it is nice of Grandma to help us sometimes.
A: Then why do you let Grandma do it? It is NOT her responsibility!
B: Well, cleaning your room is YOUR responsibility, but you always have help from me to clean your room, right?
{Flustered pause...}
A: OK, listen. We are not talking about MY responsibilities here. We are talking about YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES. THAT is what we are talking about!

I felt so chastised.... What a crack up.

Ahh shhhhhmitt. Remember the fire sprinkler drama here? Or maybe I was so swamped and stressed by that that I didn't post much about it back then. Anyway - we had a HUGE pain in the ass trying to get our new water meter installed and passed on the inspection, as required for our fire sprinklers in the house. It was FINALLY done a few months ago, and we had a HUGE sigh or relief.

Well.....fast forward to yesterday. I got a letter from the city asking us to have a free 'water saver' inspection, due to a large increase in our water consumption this month. We went from our average of 8k gallons per month, to 24k in September. I went out and checked the water meter box, and it is full of water. We're going to have to tear up the entire sidewalk, have it fixed and repoured. Freaking SPRINKLERS!!!!

Yeah!!! This has been such a long time coming. About 15 months 25 days and 9 hours....roughly. We are finally getting the new flooring put in. They started today. This is so exciting. No more cutting our feet on sub floor, staples, nails, etc. No more paint splatters and blobs of drywall littering the floor. No more living in ONE room at a time. YIPEE!!!!

We decided on a commercial grade laminate product, in a mahogany stained maple tone. It has a handscraped finish, with grain texture, and is designed for commercial/retail use, so hopefully it will hold up well. Here are a few pics from the first day of installation.

BEFORE: The appliances don't actually go on that wall - they are just moved out of the way for the flooring. The dishwasher goes to the left of the sink, and the fridge and stove go on the opposite side of the room, just before the pantry.

IN PROGRESS:


END OF DAY ONE:

In our devotional last night, there were pictures of several kinds of birds. Anna proudly informed us that she could tell us where each of them lives.

The flamingo lives near the water.
The owl lives in a tree.
The parrot...he lives with a pirate.