Becks Gives Santa 2 Thumbs Up!

Christmas morning. Who has time to put on pants?!

No one would ever guess that this was Beck's first Christmas! He spent the entire Christmas Eve day asking me, "Santa come?". In the middle of our Christmas eve party with family, he eagerly went to bed all by himself while his sister kept a watchful eye on the radar online noting Santa's latest global position. When he turned south from New Brunswick, she made a hurried bee-line to bed, terrified that he'd get to our house quicker than she could fall asleep.

Lucky for her, Santa's arrival was not hinder by any conscious children. Morgan woke us up first at 6am, when she was warily informed that she needed to return to bed or face to very over tired and cranky parents. She quickly obliged and returned an hour later to much more awake parental units. Beck quickly followed Morgan down stairs where the house was filled with squeals and laughter and speculation of what lie beneath the wrapping paper.
Our tradition is to first open the gifts found in the stockings. At first Beck opened his gifts, reluctant to move onto the next surprise due to his interest to just open and play with the first gift. But with the expert example of his older sister, Beck was soon ripping through gift after gift at breakneck speed. Hey, I know we should savor the moment and really take in each gift, but who am I kidding, I remember very clearly that childhood wave of excitement of Christmas morning, when you find yourself tearing through wrapping paper as if your life depended on it. I can't think of anything in my adult life that compares to that feeling... except watching my kids experience it, especially for the first time.
Once all the gifts were opened here, we went to my Dad's house, where the fun started all over again. Word must have gotten out that Beck has a fondness for all things cars and trucks. It is safe to say, Joe may need to build Beck his own garage just to accommodate all his new vehicles. But the day wasn't all just new gifts, Beck also got to meet some more family members and as always he warmed up to them quickly and was soon playing with them and giving them kisses and hugs. By 3pm, with no nap and a belly full of sugar-rific confections, Beck laid in my arms and went to sleep; only the 2nd time he's fallen asleep in my arms. It was a great feeling and reminded me of how wonderfully lucky we are and how amazing it is that he is here with us.

Wishing you all a very happy holiday season and the very best for 2008!


"You'll shoot your eye out, kid."

I've been tagged!

Fellow blogger-momma Lori at Picking up the pieces tagged me, which means I am supposed to list 8 interesting/unknown to others/special things about myself. Apparently when I get to 100 posts on my blog, I will need to list 100 other facts about myself.
1. At 16 years old I worked for a traveling carnival. Yes, I was a carnie. There, I said it! But hey, the money was really good!
2. I played a classmate of Denise Richardson and Neve Campbell's in the movie "Wild Things"
3. In high school I was voted most likely to be found on a runway(still not sure what they meant by that).
4. I once had a lovely dinner with Eric Burdon and I had no idea who he was. My husband is still furious (and totally jealous) with me for being so naive and having no clue I was dining with a Rock Legend.
5. I recently got my first stunt double job for an upcoming film. My husband isn't thrilled.
6. I met my husband when I was 15 and he was 28. Don't worry, we didn't start dating until I was 20.
7. I've hung up the phone on Emilio Estefan several times.
8. I had an internship working for Jesse Briggs, who, among other oddities, made the news when he purchased THE famous dress from Monica Luinsky.

Well that's 8. I now tag Marnie and Sloan,

News from the Frosty NorthEast!

We've been busy with everything Christmas lately (although don't even ask me if I've finished my gift shopping... groan). Beck is very excited about Christmas but I'm pretty sure he has no idea why.

The day after Thanksgiving we went out and cut a beautiful Blue Spruce for our Christmas tree. I think the kids' favorite part was getting pulled around in the sled (sans snow, mind you).

That night we all had fun decorating the tree. Beck took care of placing many ornaments on the very bottom of the tree. The kids did a great job despite the fact the Blue Spruces are known for their ability to fight back and this tree was no different. It was like decorating a big tree of hypodermic needles, but on the upside, we really haven't had to remind Beck to not play with the tree.. OUCH!

We were hit with a pretty good snow storm last week and the kids took full advantage.

Last week we took a horse drawn sleigh ride to go visit Santa. At first Beck wasn't sure he liked this jolly, rotund, fleece-wearing guy with the odd facial hair. When Beck started to cry Santa sat down beside him and comforted him, spending the majority of the party at Beck's side. It was a super sweet gesture, however, Beck's cries seemed to summon the attention of every character at the party and all of a sudden 8 grown adults donning big stuffed furry costumes were staggering towards Beck like a freakish scene from 'Night of the Living Dead', this of course didn't help the situation at all. But then Beck spotted Frosty the Snowman and some other non-descript character having a moment of PDA and he jumped up yelling "huggie, huggie", obviously wanting a peice of the action, and from that point on everyone was a-okay in Beck's book. Santa even sat with Beck and Morgan on the way back to the farm.

Beck busting up some PDA between Frosty and.... who ever that thing is.

And I had to share this picture. Beck's hair really has grown and he's currently rockin' a faux-hawk!

Smarty Pants

For the past month Beck has been enjoying visits from an Early Intervention PT who comes to our home and works on Beck's lagging muscle development in his abs, neck and mouth - which was due to a simple lack of stimulation during his orphanage years. He has improved by leaps and bounds and generally loves 'playing' with the therapist and showing her all the wonderful things he can do. Due to policy, they can only help Beck until his 3rd birthday (which is only 1 month away!) so we've already begun the process to transition to the local SAU, which is protocol. This week a rep from the SAU went to Beck's school to observe him and the following day I had a meeting with the entire 'team' to discuss the plan for Beck's continued early intervention. To make a long story short, they spent the meeting 'wow-ing' over how well he has adjusted, how good his English is coming along and how incredibly well he comprehends anything they tell him. They could not believe he's only been home 100 short days. Of course, this is a double-edged sword and they told me he was not eligible for continued services. Yup, the kid is too smart. But I knew that already.

RIP Susie Sunshine

Today is a very sad day as I learned that one of my all time favorite bloggers is hanging up her keyboard. Seriously, you need to check this woman out. I admit, I can truly relate to her snarky, foul-mouthed, but-oh-so-accurate take on life and motherhood. I can't say I have ever felt like I've fit in with the "Mother crowd". I have no interest in swapping recipes or getting good hints on how to remove that mystery stain, and I couldn't care less if your child is solely on a soy-based, totally organic, no transfat, no sugar, no preservative diet while my kids' wolf down their 2nd McMeal of the day. Yes, at just about any mother-ly setting or gathering, I definitely feel like the odd square peg. Reading Susie's curse-filled antidotes made me smile daily and reassured me that there are more than one standard of a 'good Mother'.

Yes, my internal monologue often reads much like her posts, but not quite as poetic, and maybe a few more superfluous curse words.

OUCH!!!!......... again

For anyone who is keeping count, Beck's current running total for stitches is now at 7. Yup, we had to make another trip to the ER. It all started when Beck and Morgan were joyfully playing and Beck decided to vault onto his sister's back while she crawled on the floor. This action unfortunately resulted in Beck immediately vaulting off of Morgan's back landing head first into the corner of a wood plant table. After 40 seconds of screaming and blood-letting, it was over and Beck was ready to continue playing... until I examined the gash on the side of his head. He handled the stitches well and the doctor was amazed at how unphased he was about the whole thing. After the stitches were finished he even got up and took of running, crashing into a chair and falling flat on the ground. Sigh. Maybe the ER would consider a punch card program so my 10th visit is free.