Santas or Scrooges?

Check out the emerging dimples....

Sandi and I are working away toward Winter Wonderland (but sometimes in what feels a bit like Winter-can-I-please-get-a-Valium Land). Yesterday we went Christmas shopping with the kids (attempt number 3) and we stupidly took Ella to Toys-R-Us (also know as store of Kiddie Crack) and thought she would be okay if we let her play with just a couple of things to tide her toy hunger through the store. Then Sandi checked out (with the secretly purchased gift for Ella) and I took the crying Maya in her carrier and attempted to take Ella. In a last ditch effort to stay in what she calls "Elmo's House", she started to cry for Sandi. Now, if any of you were at the Bangor Toys-R-Us Wednesday around 11 am and heard the screams, I can now set the story straight. Taking Ella out of the store screaming "MOMMY! MOMMY!" for Sandi wasn't an attempted kidnapping on my part, it was just a mom trying to prevent her daughter from seeing her future Christmas present. So there I was, Maya's carrier in the crook of my arm, and Ella being fireman-carried out of Toys-Be-Damned and all the while I am thinking, "forget the princess computer- how about a labotomy." (Of course, in true three-year-old fashion, as soon as Sandi came out and we headed for the car she began screaming "MOMMA! I WANT MOMMA!" and proceeded to have a tantrum complete with shudder sobs, full snot and screaming in the car, "Just talk to me Momma! Talk to me!" as we ignored her antics.)

Maya is 7 weeks old now and has changed her look dramatically. She is sweet and adorable and has just started to really smile (a substantial reward for late nights and long crying jags when her tummy won't settle. Who ever thought one dimply, open mouthed grin would be enough for all the grunt work of motherhood?) If Maya had a Native name it would be Baby-Who-Needs-No-Sleep. This chick can stay awake longer than Ella- no joke. Yesterday, Maya made it a whopping 10 hours with no sleep -from 1 pm until 11 pm. It is as though she gets so overtired she cannot physically fall asleep. Ella continues to dote on her like a mother hen sometimes and other times she wants to see what Maya is really made of -there was one instance of Ella testing her bicep/forearm strength by squeezing Maya's hand until she screamed. Picture Ella with a timer, squeezing for all she's worth, and thinking, "Wow, this baby can really take it!" or "Ten more seconds 'till I break her!"

So as you might imagine, we are vacillating somewhere between bliss and misery here in this Christmas season. Luckily, it is mostly the former now that our Christmas baking and delivering is finished, presents are bought (although not wrapped) and we actually start our various Christmas celebrations this weekend. Perhaps what tipped the scales more toward the bliss end of the spectrum is that yesterday we got the best possible news we could have gotten. Now, I know you may be thinking that one of my top two current dreams had been realized- 1.) the installation of a dishwasher since I have come to despise doing the piles of dishes that mounts every second of everyday or 2.) that Mary Poppins taught me that nifty trick with the snapping of fingers and magical cleaning (I am not ashamed to admit I fantasize about having this skill often- a minimum of 10 times per day). No it wasn't one of these but we did find out that Sandi's claim for short-term disability, which she was denied, had been reconsidered and approved! This means that the unpaid portion of her leave (which we are in now) will actually be paid. What a relief for us! It just took some faith and hardcore letter writing for them to see the error of their ways (bribing and threatening would have been next.)

I will close with some of Ella's latest:

"Mommy I'm flooded." - in response to choking on her drink.

"Where am I?" - a question posed when her turtleneck was stuck over her head.

"I can't hear myself!" - this is a common one and a favorite of ours that she says when Maya cries in the car.

"Dashing through the snows..." -her rendition of jingle bells.

"I need my height shoes." - what she calls her plastic dress-up high heels.

"Watch out that the stinkin' dog doesn't get outside!" - a warning to Sandi about Mochy's constant attempt at a last minute escape as we leave the house.

"If Santa could bring me a Belle dress and a Cinderella dress, my princess clothes would be complete." - her Christmas wish list.

"I don't want to ask one more time." - a comment directed toward me as a punishment, I believe, for saying this to her.

And my personal favorite:

Me: "Ella did you poop?" (I won't get into it but potty training is non-existent)
Ella: "No."
Me: "Well I smell poop."
Ella: "Nope. That's just Mochy's breath."