Italian Friends

We were lucky enough to see my girlfriend, Carlotta, and her family while they are in the States for the holidays. Italian holidays are much longer than ours in the U.S., so they are here for a month. Can you imagine?! Lucky guys. Carlotta, Lee (her Georgia born husband), Camilla (4 yr) and Francesco (2 1/2 yr) met us in Warner Robbins at the Museum of Aviation. They are staying at Lee's parents in Sandersville (never heard of this place before they came), but it's close to Macon and Warner Robbins none the less. Dave finds these out of way places to visit with the kids and it's always fun. Zach loved all the aircraft - ranging from WWII, Vietnam, Iraq wars and more. Carlotta and I had a grand time catching up. It took the kids a while - say, 3 hours, before they actually started acknowledging each other. Oh, but when they did, it was fun and silliness. Imagine a little English speaking girl and an Italian speaking girl having fun. Not to mention, they both share the same personality (a tough one). Camilla doesn't speak around English speaking adults, but it was funny how she opened up to Olivia. If Olivia will not speak Spanish, then maybe Italian is open for discussion.

More Zach...isms

Zach was playing on my computer, which is almost his computer now, and starting talking like he always does around me. Lucky me :-) He came out with this...."Coach, let Rudolph join the reindeer games. He has 'magnificent flying". How can I keep a straight face around this kid? He also decided that he wants to "visit Mt. Everest". "It's the highest mountain, you know"? I guess it does pay to have the Discovery Channel. I think my dad needs to seriously consider what he watches around Zach - no more war movies. Oh, on that topic, you probably would not take your kids to see this anyway, but DO NOT let them watch Igor, the movie. We thought a cheap movie at The Picture Show would be fun, but Igor was not for the small set. Very dark, yes, I seem to remember that about prior Igor films, but why make a cartoon that is so dark and evil. It was funny for the adults, but not for the preschoolers. We made it through one night and no nightmares surfaced, but I still have my fingers crossed.

Warm winds blow in December

This entire week we enjoyed warm weather breaking 70 degrees. The sun did not shine much, but we decided to just go and play on Friday. Hey, it was fun Friday! Plus, we didn't get out of the house until 3:30 pm anyway. Fun Friday can include staying in your pj's for most of the day. Instead of going to see the mouse movie, The Tales of..... my kids opted to go to the playground. What a nice surprise. They played their hearts out and we all soaked up some much needed warmth. Oh, and Olivia and Zach had different scenery to play cheetas. Hey, at least they are not playing the common house cat! It's a step up.

Out of the mouths of babes

On a daily basis, my kids come up with the cutest sayings. This age is the best for the thought process to really make their comments entertaining. Zach woke me up early (very early) one morning at 5:45 am and he was playing with the washer and dryer. I told him to be careful with the knobs. There is always the "WHY" question with both kids. I said the units were expensive..."how expensive"? Over a $1,000. "Well, you know mom, these are available in stores"......and that is how my day began. Welcome to the world of advertising via Zach Pryor. At the ripe, old age of 3, this kid may just one-up his dad in the marketing world. He went on to tell me a few nights later (hey, at least it wasn't 5:45 am!), that the movie "Olive, the Other Reindeer", was 'A Classic DVD'. I promise they do not watch t.v. 24/7, but he does pick up very quickly. Although, I do not believe Olive the Other Reindeer is a classic DVD, it was cute none the less. He also told me on a car ride home one day that he would like to travel and see the Northern Lights - "you know, up in the Artic". This is in addition to him quizzing me on all the planets in the solar system. Guess who got them correct and who had to rack their brain for the answers?? Mommy needs to pull the cobwebs out.

Last night, Zach and Olivia were playing with toys in front of our Christmas tree, which is also next to the fireplace. He was very thoughtful and then said "Mom, you are going to need to move those logs before Santa comes. He cannot come down the chimney". I was trying to think of something fast so as to not commit myself or Dave to moving those things on Christmas Eve. I said, "you know, Santa can get around them, he can do lots of things. He used to get around them at Mimi and Papa's house all the time". He paused for a moment and said "Yeah, you are going to need to move those." End of story. Oh, I could just eat him up!

Olivia has been singing lots and lots of songs, mostly Holiday songs. She is totally coming out of her shell, so she'll sing in front of me now. I love the words to one of our Music Class songs: the real version - Cookabura sits in the old gum tree, merry merry king of the bush is he.... Olivia's version - Cookabura sits in the oh-old tree, merry merry Christmas to me..... Another favorite - Feliz Navidad; this is from the girl who told me last year "she hates Spanish and she will not speak Spanish ever". Nice, welcome to the age of five. I like it.

Lights, Magical Lights!

On our way home from the lake today, we planned to stop at Callaway Gardens to view the Fantasy in Lights. I've heard great things about this light show, but could not manage to get there years past due to having small children who were asleep when it was dark. This year, we were on! These kids can last longer than the energizer bunny, especially this weekend. Call me lunar crazy, but these kids were acting like they were from another planet on Saturday during the full moon. You could have replaced Dave and my eyes with the round likeness of the moon yesterday - we were in shock and needed reinforcements. I almost made a call to Dottie (Mimi) if my cell phone would have worked at the lake! Ha! on me. Seriously, they had a bit of energy, that's all :-) We hit Callaway mid-afternoon since our tickets enabled us to visit Callaway, along with the lights. The Birds of Prey show was amazing - for all of us! You know WHO absolutely loved it because it was about animals. We had a falcon, owl (200 lbs of force in each claw) and a vulture flying over our heads throughout this show. Well, 'over our heads' was more like, 'clipping our head with its claw/wing' and 'our' was more like 'me'! The show was held in a small amphitheater. These animals were huge and could carry off a small child or animal. We were warned and you could hear the fear in presenter's voice. So, needless to say, it was memorable (and scary)!
The Butterfly House was open as well and it was such a lovely (WARM) place to be. It was cold as a winter's day - oh yes, it is winter - and the butterflies were enjoying their huge, greenhouse full of flowers. They also had a tarantula, and two species of cockroaches. What is it about cockroaches? This is our second viewing of hissing cockroaches in a month (the first being at Bear Hollow in Athens). As long as they are in their cages and not in our house, I think I'll be fine. Olivia petted one (in Athens). Yuck!
On to the Fantasy in Lights... it was all it was cracked up to be! I was mesmerized along with the other little ones in my car and the driver (daddy) who had to be reminded of his car etiquette during the holidays. People do go slow while viewing light shows (he he). I had a smile on my face for the entire hour we drove through the lights. Music was synced to the displays and the displays were linked to the garden (flower shows, butterflies, birds, seasons, etc.). Truly amazing and delightful. Cotton candy was just icing on the cake - more like...sugar in our mouths. Brush your teeth before you go to bed and Happy Holidays!

Olivia's First Nutcracker

I did it; I waited five years to do it and it was..... almost a success. I took my little princess to see The Nutcracker this holiday. Many people take their children when they are tiny, wee ones, but I thought it best to wait and let her really enjoy it. Being the "I don't ever want to take ballet, mommy"!! type, Olivia was game for this outing. Poor girl had to be dressed by Daddy since I had been rushing from birthday party to party with one kid here, one kid there (you know the Saturday birthday story). I have to admit, he did a decent job :-) Dress on, tights on, and her hair pulled back. As Zach would say, "dress - check, tights - check, bow - check, NOW can we go to Barnes and Noble?". He runs through the list like I do (yes, sometimes I may say these these out loud and he doesn't miss a beat)! Check! Back to The Nutcracker....Olivia and I were both engrossed in the ballet, but when the Russian man in white tights appeared, I have to say we were a bit 'grossed out'. Man, it was a bit much for me to handle and I love ballets. Olivia was great through the First Act seeing that the children were on stage. By the Second Act, she was asking to go, bouncing in her chair, in my lap, etc.. The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and the sound of familar music (aka Publix holiday commercial music) made her take notice. She was a trooper for hanging in there and I'm so happy with my decision to go to the Georgia Ballet instead of the Fox this year. We have time to work our way up...

Meanwhile, as you can see, Zach enjoyed his pizza and cupcake at the Young Chef's Academy birthday party. Eat up, skinny boy :-)

My Birthday, Creepy Santa & Sumo

I celebrated my 36th birthday on Dec. 5th with great friends and family. It turned out to be
'fun Friday' for us (as we all like to refer to it). We love Fun Friday, so real school, you'll have to wait. My girlfriend, Kaci, lives in Jacksonville, AL, so she sent me a beautiful boutquet for my birthday. Flowers are rare in my household, so these really brightened the day. They'll brighten all week long! My neighbor, Jill, also gave me roses for my birthday. She was sick all week, but still managed to drop off a vase of roses and a handmade card. Eat your heart out, Martha Stewart! Liz was gracious enough to invite us over. On our way, Amy, who gave me a great new bracelet, stopped by Starbucks. Turns out, Santa was there. Creepy Santa, that is.... The Starbucks drive-thru guy talked us into coming inside to see the big guy in red. Oh, it was a bad mistake. This Santa was of dark haired descent and looked like he had a rough night out with the elves and the coffee wasn't helping! The kids smiled for the camera, grabbed their cookie and ran for it. Oh, making memories daily around here. On to Liz's where I promptly had another gift to open (seriously, what would I do without my girlfriends)? It may sound corny, but I have been wanting a popcorn maker for some time, and she knew it (maybe because I spend WAY too much time with her - talking her ears off). The kids loved playing together for most of the day - they were angels. They were able to torment Quincy, the cat, and we ate, talked and ate some more. Thank you, Liz, for not kicking us out of your house, as we stayed all day.

Then on to dinner with Karen, Mike and Gavin at the Japanese Steakhouse. Our kids (including Gavin) thought this was the greatest thing ever. Food and entertainment all wrapped into one. Watch your knives when you get home, Karen. Gavin had that twinkle in his eye. He he he. At the end of dinner, you can see that I was the proud birthday Sumo girl. Hey, whatever it takes to get a gluten-free dessert!