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Knife in the heart

On the way home from school yesterday, Taylor was yanking at the heartstrings. At her school, the teachers give out candy for a number of things, including a piece when they go home if they've been good. We've asked that they limit the amount of candy they give Taylor, including doing away with that go-home piece. So yesterday's conversation in the car went like this:

Taylor: "Daddy, you won't let me have candy?"

Me: "No sweetie. Too much candy is bad for you."

Taylor: "OK. I don't like candy anyways."

She stops and ponders this for a minute before smacking me across the head with her next statement.

Taylor: "Daddy, I not being good enough?"

Ouch.

I proceed to take the next several minutes to assure her that she's being very good, and that too much candy is bad for you. What I really wanted to do was pull the car into a store, give her big hugs, and buy her a candy bar. This is the first time she's said something like this that really gets to you. I'm sure it won't be the last.

Not the phone call you want to get

After months of debate, discussion, planning, et al, the contractor showed up yesterday morning to start fixing the broken beams in the attic. Last night I stuck my head up in the attic, and at least for a few days, we have a tarp for a roof.

Then came the phone call you never want to get.

"A 2x4 brace slipped and went through your bedroom ceiling. Don't worry, we'll fix it."

Merry Christmas. Love, your neighborhood contractor.

Update: It's in our bedroom. Contractor called it a "minor" hole - in the grand scheme of things this is a minor hole. I guess in the world of home repair, a "major" hole would be the one that opens up in the ground and swallows the house whole.

Some people pay good money to have a skylight put in the master bedroom. My lucky day. I can wake up tomorrow morning with a beautiful view of ... an attic.

Hope these pieces don't fall on Elizabeth in the middle of the night. It is her side of the bed.

And now, some long-awaited, post-dated photo updates. They may not all show up on this page, so check the links to the left.

Taylor's school Christmas party

Tuesday was Christmas party day for Taylor's class. Elizabeth and I thankfully were able to come join in the festivities.

The class eagerly awaits the gift exchange.

Classmate Matty shows off his antlers.

All the kids were playing with their parents' cameras, and Taylor was no exception. Here is her first photograph ever (not including all the ones she's taken of the floorboard of my car using my phone camera).

Smile for the camera.

Enough cameras. Let's get with the presents! Taylor (not so) patiently awaits her turn.

First she asks me to unwrap it for her. No, no sweetie, it's time for you to learn.

It was a very short learning curve.

Piece of cake.

It's a baby! In a backpack!

Taylor gives lessons on proper hair care. First rule: don't mess with the tangles.

See Daddy? It's not hard to comb out tangles.

Pizza! Taylor likes to eat her pizza upside down. I don't understand that one.

A mouth full of green icing. These type of shots aren't planned. They just happen.

The best Christmas cookie design I have ever seen. The body is a chocolate-dipped cherry; the stem is the tail. Two almond slivers make the ears, and a Hershey's kiss makes the snout. Little drops of red icing for eyes, and an open-face double stuff Oreo for a base, and voila!

(Dinner's ready. I'll post more afterwards.)

Gardendale Christmas parade

The city of Gardendale held its annual Christmas parade the evening of Dec. 3, so of course we had to take Taylor to her first parade. We had a lot of fun, but it was a learning experience:

1. Taking pictures of a nighttime Christmas parade from point-blank range on a dark part of the street is not recommended.
2. Cover your ears well before the fire trucks pass you. Especially when the guy behind the wheel has that sadistic "I like my siren" expression on his face.
3. Get there early and find a good parking space, so you don't end up driving through a recently-bush hogged field, impaling a borrowed car on a recently-sheared tree (Sorry Mom!)
4. Bring a large bag for candy. If you think it's too big, go ahead and grab a second one. There's really that much candy.

This scene is taken from the little-known Seuss follow-up tale, "The Grinch who Stole All the Candy From Every Wal-Mart in a 50-Mile Radius"

Rednecks in Gardendale? Perish the thought.

Easily my favorite float of all time - the snow-blowing, bubble-flinging float! Who says you can't have a white Christmas in Alabama?

To our friends in the northeast: OUR snow dried up and went away before the next morning. (Plus, what little public transportation we have still runs.)

Even the Cylons and the Stormtroopers dress up for Christmas.

Who needs a sleigh and reindeer when you have a ladder truck?

The first December post?

Sorry folks, we've been slacking I guess! Here are a couple Taylor stories...

We've been having difficulty getting Taylor to leave her daycare in the evenings. Brian got her to leave one afternoon by telling her, "Taylor, we need to go home so we can hide from mama." I was in the kitchen when they came in, I heard this sweet little voice say, "Mama" and I turned around. Taylor was standing in the middle of the kitchen with her hands over her eyes. Of course, I obliged. I took a dramatic gasp and said, "Where's my Taylor? I know I just heard her! Where could she be?" She took her hands off her hands and roared. I screamed and she giggled and gave me a running hug. Ah, the little things in life...

I came home Wed night (Dec 7) to find Taylor and daddy "hiding" from me in her bed. After I found them, she started telling me about hearing a train "and it went chugga-chugga choo-choo!" Somewhere in there she mentioned Devin hitting her (boy at school who's a bully) and getting in trouble. She also mentioned Santa and that she was going to ask him something. Brian stopped her and said, "Taylor, tell mommy what you're going to ask Santa for." She said, "I gonna ask Santa for a choo-choo train!" (Oh! First she told me that she was going to ask Santa for a birthday cake. She's ready for her party and we're telling her Christmas first, then her party) Then she went back to talking non-stop. Well! It just so happens that there is a Thomas the Train set under the guest bed right now and, at the time, 3 other train cars from the show were in the trunk of my car. I think I mentioned in another post that she informed us she was getting a bike - a pink one. That was about a month ago. This past Saturday we took her to Walmart and let her pick one out. I then took her over to look at the fish and Christmas lights while Brian paid for it and put it in the trunk. She hasn't said a word about it or asked about it - Christmas should be really really fun. :)