The Update

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! It's been more than a month than I've posted anything, wow!, so it makes perfect sense for this entry to be in a bulletin form.

The Visit.
My mom and my brother's visit went extremely well. We had a couple hiccups, but for the majority of the almost 3-week period, everything was smooth. My mom cooked a lot, a lot, and I cleaned even more. I realized I'm pretty anal about cleanliness and everything being in its place in my own home. We did a whole bunch of shopping, and the real winners of that were my kids. Yiayia (grandma) got them scooters, clothes, and toys. We didn't get to do anything too exciting or touristy, our furthest endeavor was to the Naples Zoo. The visit went by fast. I miss my family.

The Concert.
If that's what you call about 100 5- and 6-year olds singing Christmas (or Holiday) songs. Katerina had her Kindergarten Holiday Celebration on December 16th, where she got on stage and sang in front of around 300 people. Thankfully she wasn't doing this solo, because an entertainer she is not. There were children around her that were singing and gesturing in a much more flamboyant way, while my little girl was doing the minimum. I'm a bit conflicted about this; I always saw her as a bright and amusing child, who won't be overshadowed. She is quite shy though, not that I'm disappointed, I just don't want her to suffer from this like me. Sidetracking over, she was the star of the show for me, my beautiful and petite baby girl.

The Booboo.
Or, How My Son Totally Freaked Me Out. Andre was flopping around on Katerina's bed one evening, as I was begging him to get in his pajamas, when he lost his balance and his head banged hard on the headboard. I heard a loud thud, and immediately he started wailing. I ran to him, and saw there was a quite deep cut right over his right eye. There was tons of blood, and he was hysterical. The next half hour was chaos in here. Andre was crying, he wouldn't let me or Guy wipe off the wound, we were considering whether we should take him to get stitches, and hubby and I were arguing about applying an ointment. We didn't (I "won") since the cut was so close to his eye, only about 3/8s of an inch over it. Andre was inconsolable this whole time, until daddy brilliantly suggested Weezer, and Andre transformed into the happy little kid he usually is instantly! He even let me pat away the blood frequently, that was already clotting by then. I'm glad we didn't take him for stitches after all; his cut started healing very well by the next day, and it's barely visible now. Of course he still jumps on the bed, giving me mini heart attacks every time. Naughty little monkey!

The Present.
Imagine this: it's Christmas Eve, around dinner time, and your husband is talking with his mom on the phone. You inadvertently overhear, and find out he didn't get you a Christmas present! Not one flower, or a toaster, or a pair of socks! You bet I bitched him out! Not that I really wanted anything, but the thought dude! What did he do? He felt so bad with himself, and drove away in his truck, only to return almost an hour later, looking for the wrapping paper. I opened my little package the next morning, the last present to be unwrapped. It was a beautiful necklace with a delicate dragonfly pendant, with rubies on the tail. Rubies are also my birthstone, even though Guy didn't know that. OK, OK, I had to Google it to make sure. He did alright after all. ;-)

The Movers.
Katerina and Andre have a new favorite show. Move over Wiggles, the Imagination Movers are taking over! They are in love, I'm telling you! They constantly watch the same 7 episodes, know the songs by heart, even make up party invitations with the Movers' names on them. It was only natural then that the big present from mommy and daddy would be 4 tickets to see the Imagination Movers live. Alright, this was clearly mommy's idea, and daddy just had to go along with it since it was a done deal. The kids are excited, and bringing it up, oh, about 23 times a day. The concert is this Saturday at Clearwater, a couple hours north from here.

I guess this is pretty much it. I know I've left things out, there's more to a month than this. I'm forced to cut it relatively short, for your enjoyment and my rest. Ciao for now!