TGIF

The week is finally coming to the fun part...the weekend! Mike is on his way home from OH and we are heading right back down there to go to the Toledo Zoo to see the Christmas lights. Hopefully I can get some good shots. Drew didn't think it sounded like fun but thanks to YouTube he's changed his mind...may have already posted that. Anyway, he's excited to go down and dance to the music and the lights. It's supposed to be about 16 degrees so wish us luck. Also, I've posted a few new photos, in my web album, of Drew shaving and some of him on the phone with dad eating his fav - fish sticks and mac n cheese...woohoo!

My son, the singer!

I really need to get the video camera charging so I can grab it any time. I know, I know, I say it all the time, but really I do. The reason - my son the singer. Lately, Drew tries to sing any song on TV or the radio. It's pretty funny since 1/2 the time he has never heard the song before, but he'll get the last syllable of the last word of just about every sentence.

Along those lines, we've been watching the Grinch a lot this week and this morning we were singing Mr Grinch as we were putting on our coats.
Me: You're a mean one, Mr Grinch. You're a nasty, wasty soulllll
Drew: And - You've got garlic in your soul!!!!!
Me (no longer singing): Wha? He's got a garlic soul?
Drew: NO MOM - You've got garlic IN YOUR soul?
Me: Really, is that what they say in the song?
Drew: Yep!
Me: Huh! I didn't know that!
So of course, I think, like lots of other songs, he's making up the words and figured it sounded right. I come to work and google it and...what do ya know? He's right. Of course. he's right. why would I think any different? CUZ HE'S 3 and I'M 35, and he figured it out before I did!

Another good one - Smashing Pumpkins, The World is a Vampire. It's the theme song for WhaleWars on Animal Planet, and Drew LOVES the song. I can't really figure out what he's saying for Vampire something like, "the world is a manpar". Of course now that show is over, so I'm going to have to download the song or something so I can try to figure out what he's saying.

Great parent idea...

I found this great little tidbit from parenthacks.com. I hope they don't mind me pilfering it. The short of it - what to tell your kids if they find presents.

Here's the Christmas "story" she told her daughter to explain the presence of...the presents:
So, if your husband decided to go looking for shoe polish and pulls a bin off the way-high shelf and your kid spots the EXACT TOY she asked Santa for, here is what you say: "That's for charity. When you put that on your list I though some other little girl would want one."
If your kid is smart they will counter with "Doesn't Santa bring ALL kids presents?" And you counter with, "Of course, but you also get presents for Mom and Dad and all your grandparents, aunts and uncles and poor families can't afford extra presents for kids." If your kid is already suspicious this won't help but it saved the day at my house.

Since I don't have a basement, and have very limited room in closets since they are some of Drew's fravrit (pronounced FRAY-VER-IT) hiding spots, and not much space in the garage, I can see this happening - hopefully not this year!

You're a baby nagger mom

There's been the long standing joke in the Jackson family - ask Drew who daddy is and he'll happily reply, "Dad's the king!" Ask him who mom is and it's "Mom's a nag!" So this weekend Drew wasn't thrilled with something I said and announced he's the boss. I told him I'm the boss and he comes back with, "Actually, daddy is the boss. I'm the little boss and you are the nagger...the little nagger...no actually you are the baby nagger!" Then this morning Mike dropped Drew off at school and heard a conversation between Drew and his "future wife" Jillian. Apparently they talk about getting married a lot. And now Drew's been talking about it at home too. He's going to marry Jillian and then he's going to be a dad. Anyway, Jilli and Drew were talking about getting married and something to the affect that Mike is the king. And Jilli said her mom is the queen and told Drew that his mom is the queen too. To which Drew replies, "no Jilli, my mom is the nag!" Ahhh, it's so nice to see daddy's influence on our young man...

He's not a nice guy!

We're sitting here watching The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and Drew is giving us a play by play of all the bad things he's doing. "look what he's doing! He's taking all the candy, and all the decorations. Look it mama...I'm taking all your Christmas stuff" Oh, I forgot to mention, just about everything we watch these days we each have to take a character. He's Mr Grinch and I'm Cindy Lou Hoo. Now he's trying to sing the Grinch song. "why is he whipping the dog??!!" Oy vey! "He's not a nice guy, mama!" "Mom, is he going to be nice?" It just amazes me how much faster this show is when you are older. I remember this being a very long movie when I was a child. In reality, it's a quick 20 minutes and a "what's next" from Drew. Ahh, Christmas!!!!

You just finished decorating for Christmas, what are you going to do next? We're going to Disneyland!

That's right - with some help from Grandma & Grandpa, Northwest Frequent Flyer miles, Priority Club points and some early snow in SE Michigan we've decided to go to Disneyland for Drew's 4th birthday!!! We're really excited and are doing some research for some other activities, like the San Diego Zoo and some sightseeing in SoCal. Don't have much else to report other than it's officially booked...more to follow!

It's going to look so pretty...so pretty!

This weekend was spent decorating, cooking, lighting and relaxing. I made my first Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday for leftovers and made an AMAZING pumpkin chiffon pie. If you're looking for a twist to the traditional go to oprah.com and and give 'er a whirl...it's really, really good and pretty easy. On Sunday we put up the tree and indoor decorations and Drew was really excited to finish off the tree. He just kept saying how much Santa was going to love the tree, and love how pretty we made it. Precious!