First, this has been a very long week. Nick is out of town on business. He's been out of town before, but this time, his business took him home. He is able to take advantage of the trip to see our families...most of whom he hasn't seen in over a year. Now, most of you know this already...as this is Friday and he has already seen everybody at least once. I'm very happy for him...but I'm jealous as well. There is nothing I want more than to be able to come home and see everybody. The opportunity to go to Portland visits our door and I am left out. There is something bitterly disappointing about that. At least one of us gets to see loved ones around the holidays. With Nick being gone, it makes my time seem to expand. My days seem longer, with more to do in them. And this week seems to be the worst. Monday, I was called about 4:30pm, asking if I wanted to meet with a group of ladies at a new chocolate coffee shop to visit. That sounded great to me; adult conversation, and with other women, to boot. So after Dakota went home, I packed the boys in the car and went to spend time with grown-ups. Of course, by the time we left, it was 7pm and the kids hadn't even eaten yet. So I had to rush them home, make them something for dinner and get them to bed.
Tuesday was choir night number one. Again, I packed the boys in the car, with a diaper bag full of toys and books. The boys are very well behaved when we are at church and have become a favorite with most people. (I love that...if I can't watch my family adore my kids, at least I can still watch people at church.) We got there a little early, and for the first ten minutes, or so, Joey ran back and forth singing a song about the days of the week. Once we started singing, the boys just ran around, in and out of everybody, and generally made everyone 'ooh' and 'aah'. I was very proud of how well they listened to me and obeyed. However, it takes so much out of me having to sing AND run after the boys at the same time. I was exhausted by the end of practice. Then there is the issue of not getting home until 9pm, well past bed time.
Wednesday, I didn't have anywhere I needed to be, so we had a normal day at home. But on Thursday, it was another choir night. Having just been through one successful, but tiring, choir night, I wasn't quite ready for another. Neither were the boys. They still did very well, but the worked me a bit harder than last time. They listened a little less, and did things they shouldn't a little more. For the most part they were still really well behaved and still adored. But I was even more tired than on Tuesday. We still didn't get home until just after 9pm. So far, that makes three out of four days that the boys were up late. After I got the boys into bed, I still had to make pumpkin cheesecakes; one for the Ladies Christmas Tea, and one for Nick's Christmas potluck at work next week.
I love our oven and am so thankful that we have one. That being said, our oven doesn't seem to be as effective as it should be. The cheesecake recipe makes two cakes, and they are supposed to be baked at 400 for twenty minutes, 200 for an hour, and then cool slowly in a turned off oven for another hour to prevent cracking. With our defective oven, it took two and a half hours at 200! By the time they were done enough, it was 2:00 in the morning and I was not about to stay up until 3:00am just to let them cool for another hour. I figured, if they cracked, I could just smother them with whipped cream and no one know the difference. As it was, they didn't crack, but I was still up way too late making them.
Tonight is the Ladies Christmas Tea, which starts at 7:00pm. Of course, that is just one half hour before Nick's bedtime, so it will be yet another late night for the boys. Four out of five....not a good record. Unfortunately, the boys don't understand the concept of sleeping in (not to mention that I have Dakota during the week) so I will have no sleep again tonight. Oh well...it has still been a good week of fellowship with the ladies at church.
Baby Nick is becoming very independent. He loves to eat with a spoon, but so far, has not become very adept at it. On this particular occasion, while eating left over turkey noodle soup, he managed to get a couple bites in with his spoon! I was so proud of him. 
Joey is such a handsome boy. I realize that I don't take as many pictures of him 'just because' as I used to. So I start feeling like a bad mother, as if I love Baby Nick more because I take more pictures of him. So I wanted to have a picture of Joey 'just because' so I could show him how much I love him. (Mental, aren't I?)
Here's Baby Nick singing a duet with Frosty as he plays the piano and sings a medley of Christmas songs. This is a favorite with the boys every year.
Baby Nick is playing peek-a-boo, covering his face with an armful of clothes before dropping them with a smile and a "peek-a-boo" from Mommy. You can see in the background our beautiful tree...surrounded by the gate to keep the little kids away. Neither Baby Nick nor Dakota are of the temperament to take me seriously when I say "DON'T TOUCH THE TREE". The problem is, the gate is not quite big enough, and the boys can still reach the branches over the gate. If I'm not on top of things, I will see them shaking a couple limbs. Luckily, nothing has fallen off and broken yet. I will say, though, that the gate is at least a bit of an impediment and I am not having to constantly shoo them away. 
Nine times out of ten, Baby Nick will let us lay him down and cover him up, but sit up to play before we are even out the door. So when we come to check on him before turning in ourselves, nine times out of ten, we will find him at the very end of his crib, near the door, laying horizontally in the crib. Here's proof. His poor head is smashed against the rails on one side, and his feet are sticking out the other. It makes me think of the Dr. Seuss book, I believe it is "One Fish, Two Fish" where the bed is too small for the creature and either his head sticks out one end or his feet the other. It makes me laugh to see him, so when I went to wake him up from a long nap, I couldn't resist taking the picture.Baby Nick is in one of my favorite 'stages' of backing up to sit on my lap. When I sit on the floor, Baby Nick will turn from wherever he is in the room and start backing up to sit in my lap. It is too cute. He also backs up to go down the stairs, as he should, but he will drop down to his knees all the over at our bedroom door and crawl backwards several feet before finally reaching the stairs. I was showing him how to scrunch his nose up the other day. He made an immediate attempt...although he either open and closes his mouth, or blinks his eyes trying to copy the nose scrunch. He loves to 'sing' "If You're Happy and You Know It". He claps his hands along with the song. And just yesterday he started something new. On the part that says, "if you're happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it", you are supposed to put your fingers on your cheeks and twist your hands. Baby Nick gets his fingers up on his temples and scratches! Oh, can he get any cuter!
When Baby Nick has "done his duty", so to say, you know it right away. This kid packs a wallop! The funny thing is, you get ready to change him, expecting a big mess to go with the big smell and find the teeniest, tiniest turd. (Sorry for the TMI, but I am leading up to something.) When I start smelling him, I'll ask him, "Are you stinky?" He'll give me a big smile and wave his hand in front of his nose. So then I will tell him it is time to change his diaper, so he will walk a small circle around the rug and find a place to lay down! It is so darling! (I had to find a new word other than 'cute' and 'adorable')
Joey has such a vocabulary and repertoire of phrases. The other day, he saw me crying (probably over a sad movie...or a Hallmark commercial) and he came up and gave me a big hug and said, "It's okay, Mommy. I won't let anything happen to you." He's so protective. Whenever Baby Nick gets in trouble and starts crying, Joey comes over holding his hand out, wanting to comfort and protect his brother from getting hurt. Or he'll ask me something like, "Do you want to play with me? Say sure." How can I resist that? The other day, I was in the kitchen getting lunch or dinner, or doing the dishes....Joey came in and said, "T O Y spells toy." I was shocked. This year, when talking about Christmas presents, we have to spell things out, but now we have to be careful about that as well. Joey knows that Daddy's favorite color is blue and Mommy's is green. His changes everyday. He'll say, "My favorite color is pink today." The other day, he was reading my library book, "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe". This is how the story went while he was reading, while moving his finger left and right over the pages, "Happy Birthday to Grandma Mary and Aunt Angie are my friends and I'm going to the beach." Not everything he says is cute. Well, maybe cute, but not acceptable. When he is mad at the injustice of the world around him, (you know, like not getting his way all the time) he will mumble something and then say, "My entire life!" With his attitude and the way he says it, you can just tell he is saying something like, "This is the most horrible day in my entire life." or "I have never met such an awful Mom in my entire life!" Or, when he is getting in trouble, and Mommy is not being as controlled as she should be, he'll yell out at me, "I'm stake of your ploblem!" (Translation: I'm sick of your problem) It is so completely disrespectful that I don't laugh....in front of him, at least.
Joey was sitting on my lap at the desk the other day and was playing with a paper clip. He asked me if it was okay to play with it and I told him he could as long as he stayed in my lap. Then he asked if he could put it in his pocket. Again, I told him that would be okay as long as he was in my lap. Then he said, "You can say that again!" Oh, I laughed so hard. I'd never heard him say that before.
Well, I'm sure this post has taken well over an hour to complete (along with all the interruptions) and the boys are falling to pieces. There has been no morning nap for the little ones, and Joey is effected most when Daddy is gone...so he is being a bit difficult. Have a good day.
Hurry home, Daddy! We love and miss you sooooo much.
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