some Christmas pictures

Bede and his book of fonts, Sans Serif Display Alphabets.

Faith cries because she is so happy with her new-to-us Molly.

Abby with her new-to-us Bitty Baby, Maria.

Gloria!

And finally, Trixie in her Enormous Pink Hat.

brief notes

• seeing Bede strip down and DEMAND his new Batman underwear immediately
• Faith’s tears of joy upon opening her Molly doll
• Gloria preferring the packaging to any toys
• Trixie’s love of her new pink sparkly bowler hat
• Gilbert in his new Star Wars PJs, cradling his first Webkinz ever
• Abaigeal in pony fairy heaven

Pictures to come. Merry Christmas everyone!

Gloria walks!

just shot this – she just figured out how to stand up without help tonight. She’s 11 months and 3 days.

more about "Gloria walks!", posted with vodpod

three down, three to go?

Abaigeal is the third Gleeson kid to be stricken with the mystery illness. It’s marked by a sudden high fever, complete lethargy, a sore throat, and mild nausea. But it only lasts for a day. Weird. So far it has hit Gilbert, Bede and now Abby. I expect Faith, Trixie and Gloria to succumb soon. I hope Faith lasts through til after tomorrow night though, as she has an elaborate Christmas Show planned for Christmas Eve at my parents’ house. We managed to scale her back to two songs – down from five. It has choreography and everything, and involves Faith, Abby, Gilbert and Trixie. Whew!

Anyway, my sweet Abby is sick today. She hasn’t been bringing me pictures she’s drawn all day, which is her usual pastime. Instead she has been a sad lump of girl child shivering on her bed. I miss her! I hope she feels better tomorrow.

aw, thanks

Thanks for the nice comments. I’m really glad I cut it. My only requirement was “long enough to tuck behind my ears in front.”

It was cut by a local growed-up homeschooler who is now going to hairkut skool to get her license. Thanks, Joon!

Haircut!

Before:

After:

The side view:

my weirdness, let me show you it

I’m starting calorie restriction. It increases lifespan by 30-50% in mammals. My new ticker over there isn’t quite right for my numbers, but it’ll be enough for me to keep track.

I saw a NOVA segment on it a year or so ago, but being pregnant at the time I decided it was definitely not my thing. Now, I have an (almost) eleven month old baby and no plans to get pregnant any time soon, so bring it on! Except don’t because, you know, I won’t eat any cause I’m on 2/3rds my former calories.

I used to hover at about 130 pounds with no thought at all. I know my body can easily get back to that point, and I’ll hover there again. That would give me a BMI of 18.7, which is just on the edge of underweight. Right now I’m on the other edge, at 23.5ish.

I don’t need to live forever. Just as long as I can to take care of Bede.

(I edited it because it sounded morbid before. I guess it still kind of does.)

Editing again: the ticker code is not working how I’d like, so I took it down.

meltdown

Meltdown: Informal. An emotional breakdown.

Bede had one tonight, and it was a doozy. We were getting ready to leave my parents’ house and he fell apart. Wouldn’t get dressed. Couldn’t tell me what was going on. He did manage to say “I DON’T WANT SHOES!!!” but nothing more specific. He sobbed, he wailed, he flailed, he moaned.

It was exhausting for everyone involved.

He kept scripting from his current favorite alphabet video, “Richard Scarry’s Best ABC Video Ever” “Oops, sorry Miss Honey! T is upside down! Waaah (sob!)” so maybe something was wrong like that. I don’t know.

He cried nearly all the way home. But when we got home, he was fine. He fell asleep about ten minutes later and is sleeping soundly on the futon.

I’m still a bit shaken. Whew.

Faith’s Hat

031, originally uploaded by feebeeglee.

Faith knit this herself. I helped with the very top, but she really did it all.

Have yourself a gloomy little Christmas

I found these dolls looking for “organic doll” on Amazon: Planet Pixies!

They’re cute little Groovy Girl-esque soft dolls, and I was thinking of suggesting them for out of town relations as gifts for the kids. Then I read the description:

All over the planet, Pixies are losing their homes due to pollution, deforestation, and global warming. Now these Pixies need good homes and friends that will care for them and for the environment. Together you & your Pixie can learn about the environment & what you can do to protect it to ensure no more Pixies lose their homes! Planet Pixies are made with all natural and organic cotton. Each adorable Pixie provides information about a specific endangered region of the world from which they’re from, along with tips on what you can do to help.

I get that we need to teach children to be good stewards of the Earth. I’m all for it. But I think the effect of all this crud is going to be DEAF EARS and a strong sense of futility.

Can’t we just have little chemical free pixie dolls without the guilt? Please?

the final crunch

So I’ve been knitting. I can’t say what they are because my kids have been known to read my blog, so yeah, pretty dull there.

I need to finish them up, and today may be the day! I also hope to bake.

Last year we made sugar cookies and decorated them. I think we’ll do that again, it went very well.

The wind is whistling outside, the sky is a uniform grey and it’s a genuinely cold day as well, which we haven’t had many of so far. I confess, I love it.

It reminds me of being small and anticipating Christmas. Everything I despised about school was mitigated in December by the promise of the holidays and the break from classes, and the special things we did in December also broke the monotony of the day-to-day.

Going to religious schools meant that there was no problem with honest-to-goodness religious celebrations, so our month was not watered down into a non-specific non-holiday. The school I attended from 5th through 8th grade fancied itself a little bit progressive, so a multicultural nod was given to pretty much every holiday revolving around the winter solstice. I must say, I think that’s a better way to do it than the common “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach taken in many American public schools these days.

Anyway, I won’t be blogging much but I’ll try to post a few pictures in the next weeks. Also you can catch me on facebook and I’m trying to twitter.

Gloria takes steps

Gloria is taking her first unassisted steps this evening. Her persistence is amazing. She falls down, gets up, tries again, repeat.

Gloria, atta girl!

WALL-E

New movies are tough. Bede wants them but doesn’t. But today…

Bede wanted to watch it, and is. No screaming, no crying, no flinging the box across the room. Just, watching the movie.

Way to go Bede.

The Mom Song

Shout out to all my mom homies, but most especially The Mom at Shoved To Them.

more about “The Mom Song“, posted with vodpod

winter dither

Every year I want to have a crafty Advent and Christmas season but I just barely manage to keep my head above water most days. We will make cookies, decorate and deliver them, and I signed the kids up for a holiday card swap, but other than that, hmm.

I was reading other homeschool bloggers and getting envious of their little wintry plans. I think I need to do something with that desire and make it happen, even if it’s only a little thing each week. In fact, that’s best, because then I won’t get too much planned and end up doing none of it due to ennui.

So, this week, decorating the house. Next week, card swap cards. Then, cookies and other baking. And after that it’s Christmas!

I feel much better! Yay!