Man!

It feels like I haven't even sat down since Thanksgiving! Here's the briefest of rundowns before J wakes up.

Our trip to Memphis was great. We got to visit with my Mom, little Sister, and both grandmothers. I was worried about Jonas because he's in that stranger anxiety phase and is generally shy around people. Mix a new baby into the equation and it just reeks of disaster, doesn't it?

But J-man was surprisingly angelic. He loved his "Baby Emmy" and couldn't stand to be more than a few inches away from her at any time. Even now, almost a week after coming home, he wakes up and asks for her each morning.

He also adored his Nana (my mom) and Toot-toot (my grandmother) and now insists on looking at their pictures several times throughout the day. I think I'll make a collage of some sort to hang on the wall for him.

We wen't to my Dad's mom's house one night for a visit. She's my Mema, and as I was telling Jonas where we were going I was trying to get him excited about it because he was upset that Baby Emmy wasn't coming along. I told him that Mema had a farm and it had a tractor. He thought about this a moment and then sang for me "Mema... had farm... yo-eee-yo-eee-yo." Guess you had to be there, but it cracked me up.

So the visit was great. I really enjoyed getting to spend some one on one time with my little sister. We never get to do that! And her baby is just precious. I'm hoping that they'll be able to come down here and visit with me again in the spring. Just in time for Emily to start crawling and stuff! Yay! I'll start baby-proofing the house again now.

Jonas also enjoyed, and was remarkably good on, the plane ride. He loved the fact that the flight attendant brought him pretzels. They're one of his four major food groups right now. They also had XM radio, which he delighted in listening to and pushing the buttons on. BTW, any of you parents of fairly young children who are looking for a suggestion on a good travel toy that's cheap and not messy... I highy reccommend the Aqua Doodle products. I picked up a pack of 3 mini coloring sheets with Sponge Bob on them, and a marker for about $5 and they were a hit with Jonas, and everyone else, too. Sure, there's not a whole lot of creativity going on when you're just scribbling across the page with water, but it sure is easy to clean up, and I didn't have to worry about crayons rolling around on an airplane floor.

I'll be adding to larger mat to his wishlist for Santa.

Since we've been home, it's been non-stop. I've worked long shifts every single day, and on top of that, we ended up getting four free tickets to the theater on Monday night. Guess what we saw?!



Come on, did you really think I'd go out for a sophisticated adult evening?! Right.

My sister, nephew, Jonas, and I had a wonderful time. I think one of the reasons that Sesame Street continues to thrive the way it does is because you've now got three generations of folks out there that know and love the characters. Wendy and I sang along and danced with them just as much, possibly even more, than the kids did. My favorite part was when Cookie Monster sang "Fuzzy and Blue" cabaret style, all draped over the chair. Heh! You know, sometimes children's show writers amaze me. :)

I wanted to tell you all about all of the knitting stuff that I've finished. Sadly, there is none. With work and travel taking up most of my time I'm realizing that a lot of people who were supposed to be getting handknit goodies for Christmas are getting IOU's instead. There's no way, even if I knit my hands off for the next two weeks, that I will get it all finished. Until last night I had not even picked up a needle since before Thanksgiving. I know, I think I'll need therapy.

That said, and because I'm insane. Instead of picking up one of the two lace scarves I have on the needles, or J's little blue socks that I could finish in about 20 minutes if I'd just give them some attention, what did I do? I cast on for a christmas stocking for J! I must be insane! I went to Joann on my lunch hour yesterday for something I truly needed, and they had some yarns on sale for ridiculous cheap prices, so I couldn't resist when I saw it. My yarn cabinet overfloweth and I love it. But I don't love the fact that I didn't get the x-mas knitting done. I'm going to sneak the stockng into work today (it's my day off, but I have to go in for a 2 hour meeting) and work on it while they drone on about vaccine protocols. Yippie.

I work all day tomorrow, and then this weekend is officially "get the damn tree out of the shed" weekend. If I don't get it done this weekend, I'm just not going to do it at all.

Anyway, J's restless, the dog needs to potty, and my coffee cup is dry. Time for me to get moving and be a bit more constructive.