Christmas through the eyes of the Nuggets!

5 Things About Cogalicious

Callie is such a genuinely sweet and easy kid. She is so affectionate and is constantly passing out hugs, kisses, and I love yous to all three of us. She is a little shy but will talk to you for hours if you lend her an ear. Nothing makes my heart happier than laying next to that baby at night and listening to her chat away. When it's just the twinados playing together, she is generally the director. She has always been the more dominant (but much less stubborn) twin. Here are a few of her daily traits.


1.) She plays dress up morning, noon, and night. The first thing she does when she comes downstairs in the morning, is change into a princess gown. She won't even wear her pajamas or clothes under her dresses (aside from a plain white tee when it's cold - and that was a huge battle!) because it makes her feel more like a legitimate princess. Also, she constantly talks about getting married and wearing my "married dress" on her wedding day.

2.) Cal uses her middle finger to point instead of her index finger like the rest of the human world. It's hilarious but can be totally embarrassing in public. I keep asking myself when I should start discouraging her from regularly flipping the bird, but I don't have the heart to explain it to her yet. I'm considering picking up the habit myself. Ha!

3.) Aside from coloring, her favorite thing to do is set up "tea parties". She sets up huge tea parties throughout the day and invites us to see them. She also loves setting up mini tea parties for us on our nightstands almost every evening. It's so cute to walk into the bedroom and find one of her mini offerings waiting for us.


Almost a year ago, I unkindly threw away most of her fake food (when she wasn't looking) because most of it was crushed or smashed beyond recognition. She never said anything until the other night, when she told me that her tea parties look weird because she has to use blocks for food. I felt terrible about my obliviousness, but it was kinda funny too because she was so right. I hadn't even noticed and I'm sure it had been bothering her for awhile. Bless her little heart. I felt even crappier when I sat down with her the next night for a tea party and she offered me a piece of broccoli:



4.) Callie claps her hands to determine if she has grown or not. She gets so excited when her claps seem louder because to her, it means she is growing up. It's her personal growth meter and she checks it regularly (especially after eating vegetables). Also, if you tell her that she looks taller, she'll clap her hands to see if you're right.

5.) A few weeks ago at the playground, I watched a lady walk up to Callie and ask her what her name was. She answered "Caroline." I wasn't shocked since she asks us to call her that from time to time. A couple days later, a woman at the store asked her what her name was and she said, "Elisabeth." Uhhh. Wtf. When I told the lady that wasn't really her name, she looked at me awkwardly probably wondering whether or not she needed to call the Amber alert hotline.

One Minute in the Life of a Clingon

There are no words...


I am also at a loss.

Present for Callie

This year we decided that the kids were old enough to pick out presents for each other. Since Brent took the day off, we decided to split up - him with Callie and me with Wyatt. I tried talking to Wyatt before we left so I could get an idea of what he wanted to get her, but all he knew was that he was getting her "A TOY!"

So, off we headed to Target to peruse the toy aisles. Two steps inside, he was immediately drawn to the $1.00 section and started grabbing at everything and dumping it in the basket. This definitely wasn't going to be as easy as I thought.

I put the buggy back thinking we could casually shop around to see what he would gravitate towards. Right behind the dollar section though, he hit up the jewelry counter, grabbing a necklace and exclaiming that he wanted it. Two seconds later, he dropped it when a rack of sunglasses caught his eye instead. Of course, he wanted those too.

I explained to him that we should at least go look at the toy aisle before picking out a present. He continuously protested, "I want to buy her 1-2-3-4-5 presents!", as I dragged him across the store. He spent a good hour mashing buttons, pulling levers, and jumping in front of the motion sensor baby dolls to make them cry. He wanted to buy her everything and I was getting exhausted.

This little dude was like a hunting dog in a sea of squirrels.

I devised a plan and walked him into a very boring bedding aisle and asked him, "Buddy, out of all the things you just saw, which toy would you like to give Callie?" No joke, he started grabbing for blankets and screaming, "I want to give her this!". At that point, I pretty much surrendered and decided we needed to break and eat lunch. He was still focused on buying her "1-2-3-4-5 presents".

I let him pick whatever he wanted for lunch, and after a big pancake breakfast this morning, he decided that sausage and pancakes for lunch too was the way to go. Whateva.

While we were eating, he decided he wanted to get a Rapunzel braiding hair doll thing. Unfortunately, Santa already bought that a long time ago. Still, I was impressed that he settled on something he knew Callie really wanted. I encouraged him to pick something else and again he came at me with the "1-2-3-4-5 presents!" thing.

So back to Target we went. This time, I handed him a basket and let him fill it up with all the dollar shit he wanted. He was very poignant about what he chose including a bag of Disney Princess ring pops, Princess lip gloss, Hello Kitty nail polish, Princess sticker earrings, a pink jelly ball thing, and a pink sparkly makeup brush set.

The kid knows his sister.

Finally, we headed home so he could wrap up the loot. On the way back, he wanted to look at some Christmas decorations in the neighborhood even though he knew the lights weren't lit yet. Thoughtfully he asked me, "Who's birthday is it again, Mom? Ethan's? We are celebrating Ethan's birthday?" I reminded him that people celebrate Jesus' birthday during Christmas to which he replied, "Oh yeah! I agot (forgot)!" Ethan's birthday. Heh. Cute nugget.

At home, Wyatt decorated a Christmas bag for Callie with markers and stickers. I fell in love with him all over again watching his deliberate color and sticker placement choices. He drew four alligators on her bag (each with a multitude of legs) and a red snake who he assured me was a nice snake when he placed a bird sticker by it's mouth. The kid is just too cute. He made sure that each sticker had a sticker friend so they wouldn't be lonely. It was, by far and away, my favorite part of the whole day.

I wonder how long they can keep a secret.

Christmas Lists

Interpretive dancing? 80's breakdancing? I couldn't decide.


I sat down with the kids a few weeks ago and helped them write their Christmas lists. (The red part is where they filled in the blanks.) The first one is Cal's and the second one belongs to my favorite clingon.

Dear Santa,
I tried to be a good girl this year by helping everybody. I hope that you are proud of me for taking care of everybody. This is what I would like for Christmas:

1.) Rapunzel brushing hair
2.) Rapunzel shoes and Rapunzel hair and Rapunzel dress
3.) Princess and the Frog dress
4.) Big Foot
5.) Magic fairy wand for lighting wings

Love, Callie
P.S. - I love you.
_____________________________________

Dear Santa,
I tried to be a good boy this year by being a sooo sooo big boy. I hope you are proud of me for (insert mini-tantrum here because he said he couldn't remember.)

I miss you.

This is what I would like for Christmas:
1.) Gorilla (Big Foot)
2.) Stinky the Garbage Truck
3.) Remote control Buzz Lightyear
4.) Moon dough
5.) Buzz Lightyear lipstick (Ha!)

Love, Wyatt
____________________________________

Obviously, Callie had been pretty anxious to see Tangled for quite awhile and the movie definitely didn't disappoint! (She won't even let me put her hair up at all anymore.)

Santa's gonna go ahead and lift his leg all over the 'Stinky the Garbage Truck' dream though. It's just not gonna happen. Incase you are out of the sticky-fingered loop, Stinky says about 5 things and burps and farts like a mother trucker. It is a vile hunk of plastic. Please believe that it is already like miracle work to convince a toddler boy that farting and burping is not funny and unacceptable in public situations.

Honestly though, I probably need someone to convince me of the same.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving was fun and low key. It was just at my parents house with my little sweet, ornery grandma and the urchins. Everything was yummy including the poor little turk that gave it's life to be on our table. We saw an egret and half a dozen of our favorite trashpicker birds having their Thanksgiving too. (Trashpickers flock plentifully in my happy place.)


And although the kids did spend the night again with my mom and dad, Brent and I did not take Black Friday by storm. Instead, we snoozed our wine-tingled faces away and made it out by 8am to be entertained by the invasion of shoppers. We had a little too much fun being idiotic through the storm of crowds.

We also let the kiddos decorate their little rainbow tree together. They were loving every minute of hanging the ornaments and I was loving every second of watching them. Oh, do these babies ooze with cuteness around the holidays! I can't even handle how sweet they are, and sometimes just have to pin one down to take a tiny bite! Christmas nuggets with cinnamon.


The next day, we met friends down on River Street in Savannah to see the Boat Parade of Lights. It was super dinky even though the crowd was huge but the kids loved every second of seeing the Christmas lights and Santas on all the sailboats and yachts. They had a pretty big firework display too which was nice to watch over the river. We had a great weekend, although it ended abruptly on Sunday when the invasion of microbes pulled out the big guns and started firing nuclear bombs. Strep sucks.

The Weekend Before Last

If someone were to ask me when Halloween was, I'm pretty sure my answer would be, "About a week ago." Seriously. Where the heck did November go?! Time has been flying by so insanely fast.

Our Thanksgiving was great but ended with a big dump when strep invaded. Brent and Wyatt are both so sick and it is not letting up. Callie and I are still okay, but she struck up a fever today and my throat feels iffy so I'm cringing at the idea of what I'm going to wake up to tomorrow.

Anyway, I need to post about turkey day and all that, but I really want to back up and blog about the weekend before that because it was so perfect. I had a fun girlie day with Callie while Brent and Wyatt did the boy thing together. We even got to sneak out on a date!

Callie and I went to see Princesses on Ice with some friends. She absolutely loved it and sat like a statue for the full two hours. I got antsy at halftime but miss thing could have sat through an encore presentation. She's been begging to go again and is totally enthralled with the whole ice skating thing.

Brent and Wyatt went fishing together. They didn't catch anything but Wyatt loved eating his lunch on the dock and tending to the pole and crab pot. Then, Wyatt picked to go eat chips and cheese dip at a restaurant. So cute. He loved having all the attention and not having to share the spotlight with Callie. He's a completely different kid when he's one-on-one.

We dropped the little monsters off at the grandparent's house and went out to dinner. We got pretty tipsy at the cutest wine bar ever and started heading home but u-turned it on a spur of the moment spicy tuna hand roll dare at this Japanese place. So fun!

I cringed to have to pick up the kids in the morning because we were having way too much fun together (although I did kinda feel like I was having a hard time breathing without them). It's been terrible how badly Brent and I have neglected each other and I hope that we don't wait too long before we sneak out alone again.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This morning, my Cal said she is thankful for God and Wyatt. The Poods is thankful for his Opa. Precious nuggets. We are spending the morning cooking, watching the Macy's day parade, and online Christmas shopping. We are headed over to the parentos this afternoon to spend Thanksgiving with them and my grandmother and the kids are spending the night over there while Brent and I take Black Friday by storm! (Insert evil laugh here.)

Yesterday, we took the kiddos to see Tangled which was super cute! On the way home, I had to stop to let a flock of wild turkeys cross the street! It was a perfect start to this fabulicious Thanksgiving weekend! We are so thankful for all our friends and family and hope you have a wonderful holiday too!