Sturm Haus

happy thanksgiving!

Wishing you and yours a happy healthy holiday!

mid-week

Meet Legs McGee. This girl is getting SO FREAKING TALL. That coat is a handmedown from big brother, and it occurred to me today that it might not last her through the winter. It's only a 4, and I'm starting to weed her wardrobe of size 4 clothes.

She's growing out her bangs, BTW. At her last haircut she told Brandon she wanted her hair to be longer, like her friend Alayna's. Only with long bangs. We're still working on wearing barretts - her hair is super fine and straight, like mine, which means they slide out easily. But mostly she yanks them out after 15 or 20 minutes. That's the part we have to work on.

I asked Otto last night what toys he thought he might like to take with him to Iowa for our Thanksgiving break. It took him barely a split-second to decide. He ran upstairs and came thumping back down with his big box of LEGO pieces. Then he ran to get the scotch tape and proceeded to carefully tape the cover down and tape over the opening in the lid. The LEGOs are now ready to rock and roll.

He got 29 out of 30 on his reading and comprehension test this fall. Go Otto!

He's also discovered the power of on-line shopping. The past couple of weeks we've ordered little things (most recently, the latest Captain Underpants and a new LEGO: Hero Factory DVD). It's a dangerous precedent to set in one way, but in another gives us the chance to talk about needs/wants and prices/budgets without the pressure of being in a store surrounded by shelves of desirable toys. It's easier to decide what's allowance-worthy when you're not overwhelmed by choices, right?

if Thanksgiving were at my house...

 

this would be our turkey:


Inflatable Turkey - $14 at fredflare.com

Which is one reason why, I suppose, we have not been entrusted with the Thanksgiving holiday. Yet.

(We also live in entirely the wrong direction from family. Convenient, that.)

Not that I would be in charge of the turkey, should the entertaining fall to us. Jon's the cook around here, he'd have that all figured out and under control.

Me? I make the pie.

Cranberry Chess Pie, to be exact.

I made a shaker lemon pie one year. Berry berry pie with streustel topping another. I've been known to fashion realistic autumn leaves out of pie pastry to float on top of the pumpkin pie. Sometimes I experiment with different crusts.

This year I'm thinking I might make...

COOKIES

Dried Cranberry Shortbread • White Chocolate-Gingerbread Blondies • Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing

Cookies and an inflatable turkey?

Sounds good to me.

snapshots

Man, I hate daylight savings time.

Before kids, "fall back" meant an extra hour of sleep.

After kids, it means a week of sleepless nights because the children can't be convinced to go to bed on time, or stay there all night once they ARE finally in bed. If it's not Bel wanting to snuggle at 2am, it's Otto waking me at 5am because he's had a nightmare.

I said to Bel one evening, "so, are you going to stay in your bed all night tonight?"

"No," she said. "I like to come in your bed and 'nuggle with you."

Sigh.

I have been grouchy, as a result. Especially at 2 and 5am. I think they still love me, though.

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Otto came home one day last week wearing a random hoodie from the extra-jacket bin at school.

"Where's your jacket?" I asked.

"Well, it kind of flew up in the air, and it went behind the locker wall!" He laughed with a funny half anxious/half proud expression on his face.

what I was thinking: What the HELL were you doing??? Those are big lockers! How does a jacket even FIT back there? Is it lost forever? Can someone get it out? From now on I'm buying all your clothes from the resale shop!

what I said: "Huh. How did that happen?"

After a little gentle prodding he finally confessed that he was trying to see how hard he could throw his jacket. I imagine maybe he was throwing it into his locker post-recess, overshot the goal of the open door, and voila - jacket behind the locker. Like magic!

The janitor dug it out for him yesterday, and he was pretty relieved to have it back. I washed it right away (it was all dusty) and told him that if his (brand-spanking new) winter coat goes missing he'll be in BIG TROUBLE. And cold. Because I'm not buying him another winter coat this year. His winter coat last year went missing around March and has never been found. He's managed to hang onto his favorite pair of gloves for a whole year, so we'll see.

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A few weeks ago, I was driving the kids to school as usual with Bel's running commentary in the background. In the midst of her monologuing I picked out the following:

"Mom, my butt's getting big," she said with relish.

"What?" Did I really hear that?

"My butt. It's getting bigger and bigger!"

I had no idea what she was talking about. Did she need to use the bathroom? Was she getting too big for her car seat? I tried to get a good look at her in the rearview mirror, see if I could tell what was going on in the back seat. "What are you talking about?"

"Yeah!" She went on with enthusiasm. "It get bigger and bigger, and then I won't fall in the potty!"

I swerved into the turn lane for the drop-off circle, laughing like an loon and probably scaring several other parents as they exited the lot.

So there you go. There are advantages to having a big booty.

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And that's what we've been up to lately. You?

weird wednesday

Otto got sick yesterday after school.

Like, super stomach sick. Like, so sick they had to strip him and put his clothes in a bag sick (he was at day care -- poor him. Poor them!).

Jon got him home and into bed, where he slept for about an hour. Then he was up again, sick again, took a shower, we stripped his linens and remade his bed... so on and so forth. By 10pm he was settled again on clean sheets, comfortable and sipping Gatorade (or gatorale, as he calls it). Today I kept him home in case he exploded again, but he's better. He'll be back to school as usual tomorrow, toting a yogurt and very plain sandwich for lunch.

One benefit of being up between 9 and 10pm - he got to see the last bit of the Dancing with the Stars elimination show. This morning he predicted that J.R. will be the winner. In case you follow such things.

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This afternoon I let Lilly out on the deck to enjoy the last of the autumn sunshine. I was checking email when I heard a weird noise - kind of like a baby crying. It took me a few minutes to catch on, but I finally realized it was my cat making that noise. My cat and another cat - eek! I headed out on the deck, where she was telling off the neighborhood roamer, a boy cat who lives across the street when he's not nosing around everyone else's yards. He was half-over our 6-foot privacy fence, and she was holding him at bay from her spot on the deck bench. He left when I came out, and I brought her in and told her she'd done well and scared him off. She was all fluffed up and indignant. Ferocious Lilly!

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I've been feeling bad lately about how little I'm reading, and how little challenging stuff I'm reading (which means... nothing the least bit challenging). I figure this is the first step to getting back to reading some more mainstream lit things, though. Up until this month I didn't have the mental energy to even care about whether or not I was reading, let alone what I was choosing. One of the drawbacks for me of being a librarian is that I get overwhelmed by everything out there -- all those great books that I review for purchase! -- so end up going with old favorites. I downloaded The Lost Hero yesterday, and haven't yet made it through the first chapter. But I will! Later. When the kids are well, and I'm caught up at work. And then I'll pick something good to read over Thanksgiving.

Maybe. We'll see how the next few weeks go. :)