First (and seventh) Christmas and more

Oh hi! If I only blog once a month or so, I sure do have a lot of things on my mind to say when I get to it!

First and foremost was Christmas. Azadeh is a pain in the ass about 30% of the time, but when she is sweet, she is the sweetest. She was so excited for all her presents -- she spent most of Christmas morning clutching gifts to her chest and yelling things like, "Real denim jeans!!" or "Mom, you knew exactly what I wanted!!" "Uh, you haven't opened it yet." "I know, but you wrote my name on the tag in CURSIVE!" She actually got two different Spirograph sets, and she opened the second one in front of her godmother. I knew what was coming, a duplicate gift, and I was a little nervous. "Oh my gosh, now I have TWO Spirographs! This is the best ever!!" She was an angel. Well, until later that night. Sigh.

People kept saying, "Oh, Lochlan's first Christmas. Isn't that exciting?" Uh... I don't know. He doesn't realize it's Christmas, can't open presents, and has no idea what's going on around him. So... no? But in the event, it actually was quite sweet. He loved being passed from auntie to cousin to grandparent, he adored staring at the tree-topper and the lights, and I daresay he even liked his presents. He just barely hit the milestone where he can sort of grab things and stuff them in his maw, so he has grabbed and stuffed each of his toys in turn.

Speaking of that adorable maw, he appears to be teething. I know it's early, but not outside the bounds of possibility. He has a very hard ridge where the two bottom front teeth are, he's drooling a considerable amount, and he gnaws on everything he can get hold of. So it's either that or he's part wolf.

His physical therapy is going well. He is getting stronger all the time. He's not ready to graduate yet. In fact, I think I need to get used to the idea that this is an ongoing enterprise. But he is good at his exercises and he is getting better at things like looking in both directions and at keeping his head straight up and down when looking ahead (instead of letting it wobble to his left, which is his natural inclination).

He is still the smiliest boy that ever lived. I am currently at work on sleep training. I read a bunch of stuff and am sort of smooshing together what works for me. I don't want him to cry it out, but I do want him to fall asleep in his crib without my boob in his mouth. The in-between seems to be feeding him, swaddling him and singing to him, and putting him down awake. At the moment, he is fine with this for a while, then he starts to cry, so I pick him up and nurse him again until he's calm, then put him back down, still awake, then sing him to sleep. I'm hoping this eventually translates into what I want, being able to put him down awake, sing him a song or two, and leave. But for now it works for us. And then from about 3am on, I'm his human pacifier. I've decided to leave that alone for now. I'm getting plenty of sleep, so I can't complain. I almost feel guilty for trying any sleep training at all, since he's such a marvelous sleeper compared to his sister!

The adults, you ask? We're well. Sweetie blew out his knee again and has to have surgery to reconstruct it. That's a bummer. But he is tough and mighty and prepared to recover from it and play basketball again! I'm healthy and happy, if hanging on to the baby fat (and the Thanksgiving and Christmas treats fat). It's been nice-ish to be back at work. I enjoy the kids, and the short day makes it go by quickly.

I'm looking forward to the New Year, as well as to our first year doing something on New Year's Eve in ages (well, unless you count watching Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern on the couch with Monkeygirl). Don't worry -- we'll be careful out driving! We will, in all likelihood, head home well before midnight.

The only job I'm not looking forward to is taking down all the Christmas decor, although I suspect that's coming in a day or two. Our tree is still beautiful, and has hardly dropped any needles, so it seems like a shame. Ah well.

Take care,
CM

High school kids are annoying

Oh hey -- I don't mean for this to be one of those fire-me blogs where I complain that kids are awful. I don't think they're awful. I think they're wonderful little snowflakes with endless potential who sometimes coo like pigeons.

Yeah. That's what my juniors are up to. That warbling pigeon coo, during any time of transition, or sometimes immediately after I ask for quiet. And then the freshmen started doing it, too.

And I thought it was odd, because they've never done that before. Whistled, yes. Broken each other's pencils by hitting them with other pencils. Said "skeet skeet." Played kendama under the desks. Pulled the strings of their hoodie so that only their nose was visible. Engaged in vocal fry. Broken into Eminem songs. Broken into various other songs (Rebecca Black's "Friday" was popular for a heartbreaking while). Played a game wherein they shot imaginary blowdarts at each other that caused them to freeze in place.

Look, teenagers are weird, and there is no getting around it. It just occurred to me, after a bout of cooing today, that the weird and annoying behaviors really go in cycles. There are weird and annoying trends. And right now, apparently, it's pigeon noises. How delightful.