Special Surprises

Claudia is just full of the Christmas-giving spirit. They have been making special Christmas gifts to give away to family members at her school. She brought home a bag with a couple of wrapped gifts yesterday. I asked her if she wanted to put them under the tree, but she said, "Mom, I need to find a place to hide it in my room. I don't want Wilson to find it!" (pesky brothers!)

She then started to say, "Mom, you can't open this until Christmas! No peeking. It is so special! You are going to love it! I can't tell you what it is... it's got something really special in it. Oh! I can't say that! You can't open it until Christmas! It really special! Oh! I can't say that!"

I think that teachers at school must have drilled it into them that they can't tell anyone at home what the present is. I can't imagine how many times you have to tell a four or five-year-old not to give away a surprise for it to actually stick with them. My guess would be at least 1,000 times.

Now, she is finding other "gifts" to wrap and put under the tree. This morning she found "something really special to wrap up with used wrapping paper she found and put it under the tree for me. I have a feeling I am going to be missing a mascara or a sock or something for the next week until we open gifts on Christmas morning. I am sure there are going to be many "treasures" under the tree this year.

Letters to Santa

The other day Claudia walked up to me and said that she wanted "such and such" for Christmas. I told her that that sounded "good." She said, "Mom!! I need to tell him that!" My immediate thought was, "oh no! I need to get these kids to a Santa ASAP! Christmas is coming!" Later I thought perhaps I could avoid the long lines and tormenting Wilson with a sure-to-be scary man in a red suit by having her write her letter to Santa.

So Claudia is at this moment sitting at our kitchen table and writing her letter to Santa. She is writing it (with Scott spelling the words). Wow, what a difference a year can make. Last year she was still working on singing her ABCs. Next year is Kindergarten! I can't believe it!

Here is her letter:

Dear Santa,
(She is cutting to the chase, no pleasantries. The man is busy!)
Barbie
Pillow Pet
Easy Bake Oven
kitchen set

She is also writing Wilson's letter for him:
blue mack (this is a semi-truck)
fire truck
cars

love
Claudia Wilson

Christmas Can't Come Soon Enough

Poor Wilson! I think that he needs some new toys from Santa. (Sorry about the picture quality-it's from my cell phone.)

Broke-down Bunny

I think that this may go down as one of Scott's favorite Claudie stories.

One lovely Sunday afternoon while Scott was mowing the yard, Claudia ran up to him breathless holding a plastic bag. She exclaimed in a panicked voice, "Daddy, I need your help! There is a broke-down bunny! Come on!"

She grabbed Scott's hand and led him across the street from our house and urgently pointed to a dead bunny on the side of the road. She had been biking and come upon this sad scene. She handed the bag to Scott and told him that he needed to take care of the bunny. (She did not like the way the bunny looked at her.) Scott scooped up the bunny and bought it to the garbage can.

Claudia was genuinely sad for the bunny and asked Scott if it was going to be lonely in the garbage can without any of its bunny friends and she thought maybe she could put some toys in the can with it. Scott explained that we throw away a lot of "interesting" things and the bunny would find things to play with in the can. She seemed satisfied with that.

Scott has asked Claudia a number of times to repeat the story of the broke-down bunny and when she is asked what it means to be a "broke-down" bunny, she will say that the bunny "died-ed."

It is sort of a sad and gross story if you think about it, but the part that I like best is that she really did feel for the little bunny and wanted to make sure that it was entertained while awaiting the trip to the dump. (Of course she doesn't really realize where the garbage ends up. I know that we should tell her about landfills and whatnot in order to give her some "green education," but that sure wasn't the time!)

Fall

All I can say is, "Oh my!" We are a busy family here in Chanhassen (or as my sister refers to it "Chan-happin'). We returned from our wonderful trip to The Shore to a very new Fall routine. Claudia started school, soccer and gymnastics the first week that we returned.

Claudia is greatly enjoying school. I think that she is just mostly happy that she isn't relying solely on me for her entertainment. I think that my company grew rather tiresome for her by the end of the summer. She has made a lot of new friends. We are still working on names. I asked her for the first 3 weeks if she played with any friends and she said that she did and when I asked for their names she did not have a clue.

Soccer is fairly hysterical. I don't know if Claudia had ever really kicked a ball before she started that first night. She has improved and is really having fun. She has a particular way of kicking the ball-very danceline-esque with a straight leg that gets pretty high up in the air. She is certainly the only member of her team to skip to the ball while she is playing. She is a great "social ambassador" for her team as well. At the last game, her coach was told by a little girl on the opposing team that "Claudia can't play right now because we are making friends." Claudia did not see any problems with that.

All and all things are going very well. The kids are tired as are Scott and I. I think that I am getting a good glimpse into what the next 15 years are going to be like--CRAZY and BUSY!

See some photos from our great trip and Claudia's soccer in the upper-right corner.

I hope I can get my GTL done by Saturday...

because we are off to visit "The Shore" on Saturday!

Wilson has been working on his "blow out" so that he is ready to "creep" on the ladies at the beach. He has been practicing his "fist pump" in the hopes of attracting a sweet girl with a great "pouf." Scott and Uncle Bret will be on "grenade watch" for him because they are totally "juiced."

If you have no idea what I am talking about I am so very proud of you! (If you would like to know, check it out here.)

This one's for you, Dad

Yes, I made it back! My sister and I had a wonderful time visiting my mom. Her new adopted country is more beautiful than I had imagined. Truly, I don't think I could see a more picturesque place. I would LOVE to show you some photos (and I will) but I did not bring my camera with me and I am waiting for my sister to send me hers (this is a not so very subtle hint, Sarah).

So, not wanting to try to tell you about my trip without providing illustrations, I, however, apparently still need to update my blog--this according to my dad. I have to tell you that I find it just a little funny to receive a text message from my dad stating, "you can call tonight or update your blog." First, the reason why I find it funny is that my dad is texting me. He recently got an I-Phone and has started to text, many texts complete with an "OMG" or a "TTFN," which I find charming to say the least. The second reason why I find this funny is that he really does read my blog. I would never have guessed that he would have adopted this form of media. I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised, it is a great way to know what's going on with the grandkids (and you don't have to change diapers to learn about it).

So, not wanting to disappoint my dear ol' dad, I would like to update my blog with some of my favorite and often repeatedly-heard sayings from my childhood a la dad: (I should add that most of these were then followed with a "Rachael Anne"

1.) "You are skating on thin ice." (I actually said this to Claudia a couple of weeks ago! I couldn't believe it. I don't think that she has learned the laws of physics yet, so I don't think this saying made too much of an impression. Do you think that only parents in the Northern climates can say this?)

2)"It's no skin off my nose." ("teeth" was sometimes used in place of nose.) This one actually always grossed me out just thinking about skin off of a nose. Yuck.

3)"You are cruisin' for a bruisin'" I should clarify that the bruising did not really ever come into being. I think that I can only attribute that to some infinite patience on my dad's part. I was a bit of a, oh let's just say, "handful."

4)"You're just cutting off your nose to spite your face." Again, really, really grossed me out, but made an impression.

I certainly don't want to give the impression that my dad only had things like this to say, that is certainly not the case, but these are phrases that instantly spring to mind when I am dealing with my own "handfuls." Which times, of course, are so exceedingly rare because my children are angels.

So, thank you Dad for many useful and strangely gross saying to use with my children. And thank you as well for being a super, duper fantastic dad and grandpa! We love you!