My Kids Say the Funniest Things

Last week, we were getting ready to leave the house for an outing, and the three of us were probably engaged in three separate, animated conversations with one another. The two boys probably had five more private and equally fascinating conversations overflowing in their own heads. At that moment, we were discussing how much the world has changed since their 81 year-old Great-Nana Burdorf (she doesn't look a day over fifty!) was little like them. "When we're adults, I can't imagine how technology will grow. Maybe they'll invent a jet pack by then," Max said to me in a very grown-up way about himself and his brother. Then remembering a long-ago visit to one of his favorite websites, http://www.howstuffworks.com, he added, "Oh, actually, they alreay have."

On My Bookshelf

Here are the books -- gifts from a friend, discounted overstocks at Barnes and Noble Booksellers, a late-night order from Amazon.com, and a couple of regular-priced purchases -- that are stacked up on my bookshelf, ready for reading for the rest of this cold and beautiful winter of 2008:



The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory
Me and Emma by Elizabeth Flock
Thirteen Moons Charles Frazier



Here are the books I have been working on for awhile but I had set aside temporarily because they were hard to read late at night:


The Case for Christ
Gang of One by Fan Shen
The Ocean in the Closet Tuko Taniguchi
Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka
Driven to Distraction



Here are the books I am currently reading:


True Believer by Nicholas Sparks
The Vaccine Book by Dr. Bob Sears
The Seat of the Mind by Gary Zukav and Linda Francis

On My Bookshelf: 2007 Good Reads

RECENT READS FOR 2007
12/07 The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
11/07 Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
6/24/07 A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseni
6/6/07 A Year By the Sea by Joan Anderson
6/3/07 Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin
5/27/07 Dear John by Nicholas Sparks
5/27/07 For One More Day by Mitch Albom
4/21/07 A Wedding in December by Anita Shreve
4/20/07 Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
4/10/07 Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts
3/31/07 The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
3/2/07 The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
2/23/07 The Last Time They Met by Anita Shreve
2/22/07 The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult
1/29/07 Sam's Letters to Jennifer by James Patterson
1/28/07 My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
1/11/07 The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
1/9/07 Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik
1/6/07 The Most Wanted by Jacquelyn Mitchard

My favorite "great escape" for 2007 was The Time Traveler's Wife. I loved that book. The book that most expanded my view of the world was Three Cups of Tea. Author Greg Mortensen is coming to Rochester on February 11 in honor of the annual Rochester Reads program. I am excited to meet him. The biggest "wow" ending happened in The Last Time They Met. You have to read it yourself! The book that left me feeling sad was The Glass Castle but I'm so glad I read it so I can understand humanity better. The book I loved but didn't think I would was Water for Elephants. Thanks to my parents and teachers for helping me love reading, and thanks to my book club for choosing such outstanding selections (and for serving such yummy drinks, delicious food, and fantastic girl talk!).

Christmas Card Promise

If you are here looking for those great stories from last year that didn't fit ;) in the annual 16-page Christmas card, please check back again. The stories and the pictures are ready; my body and mind are not! Happy New Year! And wait until you hear what happened with Gumdrop in 2007 ...

New Year, New Clothes

Last night I had to get out of the house for a little while. Fresh air and 2008 calendars and clothes for Max Who Grows Like Bamboo.

Last fall, he decided to try an experiment on himself. I read him a newspaper article about a mother who bought 14 gallons of milk a week for her three young triplets. He thought that amount of milk was huge, and suddendly he began drinking unbelievable amounts of Silk Vanilla Soy Milk. I thought he wanted to top that woman's weekly milk bill. After each meal, he would weigh himself on the scale, so proud each time he gained several ounces. During the course of about three weeks, he gained about four pounds. Finally, he confessed. "I'm trying to outgrow my car seat." He was hoping to reach the doctor-recommended 80-pound threshold so he could enjoy the seat warmers in Daddy's car. That part of his plan didn't work, but he quickly outgrew the pants and underwear and snowpants I thought he would easily wear all winter.

So last night I bought ... gasp ... size ten pants for my eight year-old who used to be peanut, peanut, peanut. The lady at Gymboree -- earn your Gymbucks now, Moms -- said to me, "Do you have a little boy at home?" and I replied, "He's not so little anymore. I can't believe I am buying SIZE TEN!" The same "little" boy who wore size two, size four, size six forever. The same boy who was on the zero percentile chart for height and weight for the first five years of his life. (Yes, I know the flaws of the percentile charts.) The same boy who needed bone age scans and blood tests to make sure he was growing properly. The same boy who took almost three years to triple his birth weight, a feat most babies accomplish by their first birthday.

This morning he tried on the pants -- five pairs -- and the shirts -- three, with long sleeves -- and when he got to the pair of navy blue sweatpants, he said, "Oh, Heavenly. Now these are the ones I like." It was like listening to a chocolate lover enjoy a towering piece of rich chocolate cake. He sighed deeply, closed his eyes, and told me again, "Heavenly. What do they put in these? Cotton?"

This is it!

Okay, now the Christmas card and mail merge are really done ... again!

Hurray!

Christmas card and mail merge are finally finished and ready for printing!

The Best Advent Ideas

Happy Holidays! Advent, the holy season we celebrate in the weeks before Christmas in prepration for the birth of Christ is almost over. We attended our first advent worship service last night. Max sang in the annual Children's Christmas Pageant at our church. Both boys had been practicing their songs at home almost every day. He looked so cute, standing at the front of church with his friends and peers, singing songs in his bright red Christmas vest. Mitchell looked so cute, too, in his matching outfit, but he decided not to join his classmates at the altar this year. The loud music and hundreds of faces, most of them unfamiliar, in the rows and rows of pews were sensations that he was not ready to experience. As one Sunday School teacher reassuringly reminded me, "Someday you won't be able to get him to come and sit on your lap." My favorite part of the evening was watching the other littlest ones grab their jingle bells and ring them proudly all through Away in a Manager, as their teachers and parents silently implored them to set the bells down and save them for the next song.

This year, we are adding a special touch to Advent with two inexpensive candy-filled Advent calendars. We bought them at Trader Joe's for our boys and our nieces. Each day of December is represented with a punch-out door, and inside each door is a holiday-shaped chocolate.

In previous years, we have also used a wooden heirloom advent calendar, a gift for Max from his grandma and grandpa in California, with 24 doors containing a miniature wooden ornament to decorate on the attached wooden tree. Max also has a talking Christmas tree to help him count down the days until Christmas. I ordered it from Avon when he was a baby. When you turn on the toy, a talking snowman says grandly, "Each day, place an ornament on the tree, and you will know how many days there are left until Christmas." And, magically, the snowman would tell us today, "There are only *five* more days until Christmas is here."

There are other advent traditions I would like to try with my family. Here are some of my favorite possibilities that you might like to try for next year. Purchase supplies at after-Christmas clearance sales to save money and time next year. One idea, gathered from an old edition of Family Fun magazine, suggests wrapping up 25 Christmas books -- old or new -- in Christmas paper, and opening and reading one story each day.

Two years ago, I purchased beautiful red stain cord and several types of Christmas plaid fabric, with the good intentions of sewing an advent garland of tiny Christmas mittens. Cut out 25 mittens (actually 50 pieces) from your choice of fabric, sew, whipstitch, or glue the sides together, and attach them to the satin cord with yarn, ribbon, or clothespins. Then fill each mitten with a coin, chocolate, trinket, or Bible verse, for each day of December until Christmas.

I finished our Christmas card yesterday, and this weekend I will print the cards and envelopes. Last year we gave over one hundred cards to family and friends. Check your mailboxes!