Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Like Father, Like Grandson

The toys were awesome, but CRB's favorite part of Christmas 2008 was fishing in the basement with his grandfather, ToolMan's dad.

Continue to pray for us and ToolMan's mom.  Tomorrow she is facing a brain biopsy. 

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Prayer Request

ToolMan's mom is not doing well. Without getting into to many details, 2 days of tests, another hospital, and several specialists cannot agree on whether this is a stroke, viral meningitis, a brain tumor, or something else. Complicating factors include she is not in her home state with her regular doctors. Thankfully ToolMan was able to fly his plane down to be with his mom and dad at this time. She is undergoing more tests this afternoon.

Please keep us in your prayers, and send us all the positive thoughts you can spare.

Sodor News

CRB has a lot of Thomas the tank engine toys, most of which where acquired within the last 2 months or so, with a noticeable surge coming from Christmas. I did not expect to be one of those train moms, but I am. The train set, err sets, are doing so much for him on so many levels that I constantly am encouraging train play and I freely buy him new additions. It's amazing to me what he learns almost every time he plays with them.

A few days ago I was speaking to one of my great neighbors about CRB and the trains and she said that she wanted to get some of her 11 year old son's (we'll call him Ripstick) old stuff out of the attic and bring it over for CRB. Yesterday during naptime, they brought us a several plastic cartons full, and I was excited to be able to loan Ripstick three fun PS3 games in return :)

When CRB awoke from his nap and came into our kitchen he was stoked to see James and his tender, Annie and Clarabel, Catherine and her truck, a useful engine shed, a rock tunnel, a suspension bridge, and another cargo box and box car. (Slyly I hid most of the stuff for another day...) We had a great time integrating all of these pieces onto the train table.

Later that evening, when MeMe and I were doing something else, CRB brought a basket of "tack to play, tack to play trains" to us. What was in the basket? Keep in mind that this was the basket that I had used to carry the trains stuff from the kitchen to his room earlier. Every single new piece that our neighbors had brought him that afternoon. Nothing else, none of the standard favorites like Salty, Duck or Diesel, but only the "new" stuff, just like we had played in the kitchen before.

I was really taken aback by his ability to sort his stuff (and it is a lot of stuff, too embarrassing to list), from Ripstick's stuff.
After seeing this, MeMe said that she had a better understanding of how important these trains were to him. To him, they aren't just another toy. It's an adventure, a story to act out, a possibility to build.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Library of Congress or Humpty Dumpty?

CRB, the only child of two only children, has a lot of books. New books, old books, and some in between. Somehow, though I had a lot of books and ToolMan had a lot of books, we have very few repeats between us. Add into the mix books bought for CRB and you would be hard pressed to be unable to find something awesome about nearly any subject appropriate for a 2 year old.

Lately I have been in a mindset to clean up and organize and today CRB's books are on the agenda. When CRB was little my books were segregated from Toolman's. Now, all the books have moved on into another category, those of CRB. I am trying to decide how to order them. Though it's tempting to leave them where they have fallen lately (i.e. the Humpty Dumpty method of organization) I am going to try to do something better, but what I don't know. True organization is not possible with a 2 year old librarian.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Champagne Wishes

Last night, ToolMan and I tried to date the bottle of champagne in the fridge. He thinks it was pre-CRB, the 2006 New Year's Eve bottle that did not seem appetizing on top of the fert. meds). I think it was post-CRB, 2007 New Year's Eve bottle bought by delusional, sleep-deprived parents of a 3 month old). Regardless, I can tell you it was good, and is still somehow bubbly for great New Year's mimosas.

Rock on 2009. 2008 was a great year, and am hopeful for a repeat.