Right this minute.

That was 'right this minute' this morning. Then things got busy - knights, dancing, books, and dress-up - and now, right this minute, Gray's listening to music in a tape recorder beside me, occassionally getting up to dance, and smiling the whole time, and Hannah (the animal doctor) has set up shop upstairs while Ains brings her animals one at a time from downstairs, carrying the poor broken things on a little pillow to the doctor. There is loud cheering when they are fixed, and they're brought to me so that I'll be amazed and Ains gets a candy to pay Hannah.

They say...

After fifteen Bear Hunts, Hannah decided that we were going on a fairy hunt, we were gonna catch a miniature one, what a beautiful day, we weren't scared! When we found the toadstool ring, I pretended like she'd turned me into a newt and fell on the bed. Ainsley landed beside me with an exclamation of "She turn me into polar beer!" Then Hannah landed with a "She turned me into a coati!"

Strange little child.

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Me: (holding up a small pair of underwear) Hannah, these were in my pile, but I don't think they're mine.

H: "Why not?"

Me: Well, they're size 6. I don't wear a size 6.

H: (giggling) "No. You wear a size Weeble Wobble."

Was that strictly necessary?

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Hannah: "Ainsley, are you confused? We're not going to a costume party, we're going to a ball. And balls are not for fun, like costume parties. They're where you find your love for the rest of your life. You need to wear a fancier hat."

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To follow that last one ...

Hannah walked by me singing a song that sounded like the "Dreams are a wish your heart makes" song from Cinderella. I was just about to give up any hope of raising feminist daughters when I heard what she was singing to the tune.

"Dreams are what your heart wants, when you want something bad. If you want it, you have to dream of it, but don't forget to work and work and work hard for it. Then you'll get it. If you woooooooorrrrrrk! And dream. But mostly work."

And I was happy.

Starting the day with cuisenaire.

As soon as she woke up this morning, Hannah turned to me and said "Am I six today?"

No, sweetie, you're still five. But you're more than five-and-a-half now, you're only two months away from being six!

*blank look* "I want to be six NOW! It's taking so loooooong."

So I got out the cuisenaire rods and showed her how big twelve was and we counted out the months she's already lived since turning five.

She was excited that there were only two left to go (two looks like a very short time compared to ten). I even went for the '3/4' which got me an eye roll.

Then she started thinking of presents she wanted for her birthday and the 'It's so long until my birthday' refrain started back up.

I told her that it did, indeed, seem like a long time for her, but for me every day that she got older was a day closer to her growing up, so it seemed like time was moving very fast to me.

She got a concerned look on her face, crawled into my lap, took my face between her hands, and, looking in my eyes, said in a very calming voice, "It's not the years that I want, Mother. It's the presents."

That's all right then.

Aw, yeah.

It took all of these books to get them to sleep tonight.

Cookies and milk left out near a chair. "Cause he's so tired from lugging that big sack all night, you know."

The children are snug in their beds. (While visions of chihuahuas, little plastic princesses, and trucks dance in their heads.)

Two out of three ain't bad. No chihuahua this year.

The magic is arranged.

This is what it's all about.

Sliding into Christmas.

Solstice has passed. We did more for Solstice this year, and both girls really got into it. An awesome Solstice gift didn't hurt. During the day, we had cousins over and we ('we' being my sister and I, for the most part) made treats for the birds.



The kids did make their pinecone feeders before running off to twirl.

Quick question for you - how many kids are in this picture?

After cousins left and Daddy came home, the girls got to open their Solstice present.

It was well received.



The last few days have been spent making ornaments,



experimenting with hair,



playing games,

writing letters to friends,

asking to go outside,

going outside,

and eating lots of brownies.

That was the last few days.

Last night saw Hannah adding last minute items to her Santa List.

A chihuahua and tulip seeds.

She's highly optimistic about the chihuahua. She shouldn't be.

This morning has already seen frantic last minute gift finishing for siblings, secret wrapping, screams of 'Don't let her come in here!!!', and Smurfs.


Happy Holidays to you and yours, readers. I've enjoyed sharing the past year with you and hope that next year is filled with all that you need.

These last few days.

Full to the brim.

More cinnamon ornaments.

Crafting.

Sneaking in time to make presents for siblings.

Sword fighting.

More crafting.

More cooking.

More present making.

Practicing for a Christmas Eve talent show.

And of course more crafting.

We've put the sun to bed.

Good night all! See you on the other side.

Free time.

Not for me, although that would be so nice during this busy season. Free time at the gym after gymnastics class. After class, you can pay a few bucks and your kids get to run around in the gym for an hour. This was the first time we took advantage of it, but first we had to get through class. Both classes were .... loopy. While the classes normally run very smoothly, today all of the kids in both classes were having a difficult time concentrating. If I didn't know better, I'd swear there had been a full moon last night. (Especially after the mouse fiasco earlier this morning.)

Exhibit A: Ainsley walking on the balance beam. Look at her body language. She's just strolling along there, chatting to the teacher.

It was actually a funny conversation. The teacher had asked another student who was wandering around in a daze if she was lost. Being three years old, Ains had to tell her that *she* wasn't lost, she'd come here with her mother and her mother knew how to drive, so she knew she wasn't lost, and she'd recognized the building as soon as we'd pulled in, and then when she came in, she'd recognized the teacher, so she *knew* she wasn't lost. Ad infinitum.

Hannah's class didn't fare much better, but she and her cousin got their synchronized balance beam walking down.

What I'm trying to say is, we *needed* that gym free time to get some energy out. An added bonus was that Gray got to be on the other side of the white fence today. No more watching his sisters get to play on the equipment without him while he had to be content throwing cars through the fence.

The block pit at the end of the long trampoline was a favorite, naturally.

Keeping an eye on three kids in a crowd of thirteen wasn't easy. Gray would be on one side of the gym while Ains would be on another.

Luckily, Hannah made it easy. She and her cousins stuck together like glue. Every time I turned around, they were together - always on a different piece of equipment, but together, which meant that my sister could keep an eye on Hannah while keeping an eye on her own kids.

There they are.
And there.
And there.
And there's Gray.
There they are again.
And again.
And there's Gray.
And Ains moving so fast you can barely see her.

And Gray again.
I don't know if I'll be able to keep him on the right side of the fence at our next class. Once you get a taste of the good life ... especially if it involves a trampoline and a crawl tunnel ...