A Scotch Tape Christmas......

Yesterday, my mom and dad came up for a visit and to bring Christmas presents in the event the weather gets bad again. Among the gifts was one from my sister, Ann, who said Connor had to open it that day. Once we opened it, we knew why. Connor has been a bit.....obsessed......with Scotch Tape. Now, he uses it correctly most of the time. But still, he goes overboard taping stuff that probably doesn't really need taping. However, we were going through a lot of tape and he was always putting it down and forgetting where it was, driving me crazy with his "mom, where is my tape? Can you find my tape?" insistence every 10 minutes. So Ann got him the wristband tape dispenser. As you can see from the above photo, when he first put it on, he wasn't quite sure what it was.

Even after pulling out a piece of tape, he stared at it, not quite sure yet what to make of it.

Then sure enough, the little light bulb in his head went off, and he figured it out. And that was when the Great Taping Adventure began. Nothing was spared. *sigh* If only I could get him to use his new power for good.

The good news is, I did get him to stop taping long enough to take a picture with gram and pap.

Dear God

This morning, my 5 year old made me cry. Profusely. Not because he did something bad. Not because he stubbed my toe. Not because of anything negative. These were good tears. And I just have to share with you all what it was that evoked such a response from me.


Connor is at the age where he has noticed most of his friends have brothers or sisters (or both). He asks a lot of questions. We don't always have the answers. Only God knows why some kids have siblings and others don't. As part of this conversation, I always tell Connor that there are little boys and girls in the world who don't have mommies or daddies to love them, and God sometimes helps those boys and girls find new parents through something called adoption.


This morning, when he got up, he told me he wanted to type a letter to God. So we got out the laptop and he typed: "Dear God, please give mommies and daddies to the boys and girls who don't have any. Thanks, Connor." After he typed it, we printed it out and he asked me to give it to the mailman so he could deliver it to God.


I am so proud of my child for thinking about others. This time of year, it is so easy to get caught up in the rush of the holidays and spend more time thinking about ourselves than others. Sometimes it takes the wisdom of a 5 year old to get us back on track.

Snow, trees and acrobats.....

It's been awhile since I blogged. I know. I know. But with the new job and other responsibilities, I've just plain been too busy. So I'm going to update you a bit today with some photos. Earlier this week, we had the first snow of the season. It wasn't much more than a dusting, but it was still pretty. I like snow, but after last winter, I'm praying we don't get that much again this winter. Three feet of it in 12 hours is just too much. I like my snow in moderation.

We decided to put the tree up today. We've had our outside stuff up for a week, but waited until today to do the tree. Connor and daddy did most of the work, which was nice.

Here they are putting the final touches on it.

Connor has a little fiber optic tree in his room. He put some decorations on it this year. He's very proud of it.

This has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas.......but Zorro, our formerly feral kitty, has finally discovered the joy that is the heater vents. My other cat, Gabe, practically lives on those things all winter long (to the point he gets dry skin and kitty dandruff). Zorro seemed afraid of them last year, but this year, he has been hanging out near them more and more. The other day, I caught him all-out napping in front of this one in our computer room. It's taken over a year, but I think we've finally assimilated him. :)

And this last photo is a perfect example of why it's a good thing I have a strong heart. I went to the store today and when I got back, discovered daddy and Connor were working on their own version of an acrobatic act. Connor has amazing balance. He definitely doesn't get that from me.

Halloween Parade at Hance

Connor had his Halloween parade at school today. He and daddy worked hard the other day to make the costume using two cardboard boxes and some old heating ducts we had lying around after some renovations last year. All the kids seemed to love his costume. I was told he was a hit every room he visited during their parade this morning. He even did his cute little robot walk. He's excited to go trick or treating on Sunday night with daddy.

Fall fun!

It's a bird......it's a plane........it's.........it's.............

Legs? Coming out of a leaf bag? Did the leaves grow legs?

Nah. It was just Connor......having some fun in the leaf bag. :)

Who needs to go to the woods.......

.......when this is in your own back yard?

Tables and cats

It's been awhile since I blogged -- I know. Been busy. OK, been so busy I don't know what day it is.....but anyway.......


Yesterday, we got a new diningroom table and chairs. They belonged to my mom and dad. They were downsizing, so they offered them to us. They are magnificent! We've had problems with finding a nice table for our diningroom ever since we moved here. This table is not only large enough to fill the space properly, but it has chairs that don't break when we sit down on them! That was a huge issue with our last table set. Thanks mom and dad! We're excited to have this set!


And yesterday afternoon, I found the cats.....snuggling on the dryer. Now, to know why this is funny, you have to understand that my one cat, Zorro (all black in front), is a formerly feral kitty we rescued last year. He's geared to be wild, and as a result, often ends up kerfluffling with Gabriel. Sometimes, he's just playing. But most of the time, he's asserting himself. It often ends with me pulling them apart and giving Zorro a cat time out. LOL. So to find them napping together in such a peaceful way blew my socks off. It definitely was a rare moment.