quote of the day

"I JUST WANT TO PLAY BOWLING AGAIN...WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME!??!?!?"

jingle bells with candy cane (and itchy bum)

christmas in photos by elian hernandez

the haul

We had a great Christmas with the exception of a heightened anxiety attack by our little man to perhaps be detailed in a later post.

In order of appearance, here's what the little dude scored from very generous family and friends.

Gourmet-scented colored pencils and a finger-print book from Mr. and Mrs. Rodgers
A 300-piece fox puzzle and 3-in-1 Lego kit from "his Kim" (babysitter)
Chutes and Ladders from the next-door neighbors
Digital camera, camera bag, motorized truck and bulldozer, Curious George Goes to the Aquarium from Grandma and Grandpa Schulz
Giant remote-control corvette from Uncle Mike, Aunt Shannon, Lilah, Gavin and Emma
Colorful wooden letters spelling out Elian, "Magnificent Me" and little tractor from Aunt Lisa, Uncle Tom, Chloe, Matt and Sean
Fuzzy, warm polar bear pjs from Aunt Karen, Uncle Bob, Colin, Marie, Neal and Isabelle

A Winnie-the-Pooh musical ornament, Wii and collection of Wii games from Grandma and Grandpa Johnson (to be returned because mean Mama did not think he is old enough to have one yet)
Two Zen Panda books, a Cars floor puzzle, a lego kit and a HABA glass tube (for his wooden marble run to be received later at home) from Aunt Laura, Uncle Matt, Ian, Isaac and Eli
Tinker Toys (which unlike nephew Sean, he LOVES) from Aunt Kendra, Uncle Steve and Thurston
Table-top Foos Ball from Uncle Craig

A wooden starter HABA marble run with additional "which-way-it-goes" piece
Toolbox made by Papa stocked with his very own tools
A light-weight basketball
Winnie-the-Pooh playing basketball t-shirt
Zingo

In Stocking:
Stuffed Piglet (which arrived late and was intercepted and place in his stocking by the neighbor)
Chocolate Santas, Hershey Kisses, M&Ms
A Wooden Thomas the Tank Engine
Die-Cast Chick Hicks from the movie Cars
A Christmas Orange

Oh, and the best part? His birthday is less than a month away.

happy holidays!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls,

Behold! The 2008 Hernandez Family Musical Holiday Card & Revue!

(Click the link at your own peril)

a fly on the wall

Elian had his little holiday party at preschool the other day. All of the kids gave their parents a frame they had made decorated with jigsaw puzzle pieces along with a CD of pictures one of the teachers had taken in class.

I love being able to see what goes on in the little man's life when we're not around. I can only hope that his high school teachers do the same. (On second thought, maybe not.)

burning energy

with an indoor obstacle course!

the year without a santa claus

This year, Elian told me that he did not want to see Santa. As much as I love the tradition, I don't want to scar the boy if he has some sort of Santaphobia.

I'll get over it. Eventually.

the other child

Somebody needs to go on doggie Prozac.

(Note to self: So that's why my bras always smell like dog breath!)

oh, christmas tree

Cardboard Tube Castle. To be filed in the "Seemed-Like-a-Good-Idea-at-the-Time" category.

great, one more thing we have to share!

Today marked the arrival of the much-anticipated annual box of Godiva truffles from our relator.

After I opened the box and revealed its contents, Elian began jumping up and down, waving his hands in the air exclaiming, "We LIKE these!"

I've never seen a boy scarf down a lunch so quickly.

wacky week!

This week is "Wacky Week" at the little dude's playschool. Monday was Pajama Day so he got to wear his pjs to school. Wednesday was Inside-out-Day, celebrated by the whimsical wearing of his clothing inside-out.

Since he's only at playschool two afternoons a week, he was very concerned about which wacky days he'd be missing. So Super Papa suggested that we celebrate Wacky Week at home. As it turns out, I had thrown away the Wacky Week schedule, so I wasn't sure what kind of wackiness was to go on the other days (sorry, Grandma). All I could remember was Hat Day.

On Tuesday, the little man and I made hats that we wore (for about five minutes). He ate PB&J for breakfast and Super Papa had the genius idea of having waffles for dinner (why can't every week be wacky?) served on a grown-up glass plate for the little man, and a monkey and a crab plate for Mama and Papa (we won't say who got the crab). And if you don't think that's wacky enough, Papa and I slept on opposite sides of the bed!

I know, we're crazy.

P.S. Today is Stripe Day. Let the wackiness begin!

quote of the day

"Mama, can I have chocolate in the middle of the night if I have a cold?...Because chocolate is black -- and so is the night!"

hot dog

How cold and how deep does the snow have to be before Norman says, "Ah, f-it, I don't really feel like going for a walk today."

Also,

Hear ye! Hear ye! we can now add, cross-country skiers to the list of oddly-mobile pedestrians (skateboarders, scooterers, roller-skaters) that Norman wants to eat.

meow

Remember the kitty-cat house I told you about? You wouldn't believe the mileage the kid's gotten out of that thing. Looks like somebody's getting cardboard boxes for Christmas!

And speaking of Christmas, the other day Elian says to me with great hesitation, "Mama, I saw Hotwheels in the closet." Looks like Santa's going to have to find a new hiding spot.

we like to bake, we like to bake

What do you do when Jack Frost is nipping at your nose? You make giant soft pretzels that's what you do!






Please note Papa's poop pretzel in the bottom left hand corner.



Out of the oven! But the trusty Hernan-dos photographer couldn't get there before some mice came and snatched a few (including the poop pretzel).


And who could forget, Elian's famous BALL SOUP!?!

quote of the day

"I want to watch something and have some cheese."

(Not sure if this is QOTD-worthy, but for some reason, it made me laugh.)

fish story

Looking at Tilapia fish swimming around in a tank at the Midtown Global Market.

ELIAN: What are those fish doing in there?

PAPA: They're swimming around. People can buy those fish to eat.

ELIAN: (BLINK. BLINK. BLINK. AWKWARD SMILE. LOOKS AT MAMA. LOOKS AT PAPA.)

MAMA: (BRACING HERSELF. STILL PRETTY SURE THE BOY DOESN'T REALIZE THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE CHICKEN WE EAT AND THE CHICKEN THAT LIVES ON A FARM AND SHE HASN'T HAD THE HEART TO BREAK IT TO HIM.)

ELIAN: Is that true?

PAPA: Yes. You know when you went fishing at Leech Lake? Some people fish and then eat the fish they catch.

ELIAN: (SILENCE.)

Then we slowly walk away, making our way to a happy place.

quote of the day

We pass a grave yard on our way to the No Coast Craftorama.

ELIAN: What is that?

PAPA: It's a graveyard. When people die, they put up a stone that says when they are born and the year that they die to honor them. LONG PAUSE. Then, they usually bury the bodies in the ground.

ELIAN: Dying isn't very good is it?

MAMA & PAPA: (BIG LAUGHS.)

(You might start to notice a trend that whenever a heavy topic comes up, I'm going to let Papa take it if he's with us. I'm whimpie that way.)

i think all of the crazy christmas shoppers must be getting to her

Check out this creeptastically awesome video Aunt Karen sent us.

I showed it to the little man. I pointed to the elves and asked him if he could identify them. He could. And still, as he sat and watched the video, he barely cracked a smile. He is SO his father's child.

the disney dilemma

Ed's been collecting Pixar and Disney animated movies for a while now, so we had quite the stash even before the little man was born. It's been a while since I've seen many of them with the exception of some of the recent Pixar movies.

Up until a short while ago, Elian couldn't really make it past a half-hour show. Gradually, we starting easing him into a few movies. I think Lady and the Tramp may have been the first one. Followed by 101 Dalmatians. Then Cars. Or something like that. All very innocuous movies (save the fact that Cruella Deville wants to skin the puppies for fur coats which luckily went over his head). All was well.

It used to be that he wanted to watch the same movie 1400 times. Now when he wants to watch a movie, he'll dig through the drawer, pulling them out one-by-one to find one he hasn't seen yet. Recently we watched "The Lion King." He sat very still and watched as Simba's father Mustafa was killed, while I secretly blubbered away behind him, thinking that just moments ago, he had no concept of what "killing" was.

The other day he wanted to watch Pinocchio. Have you seen that movie lately? There's a scene in Gepetto's woodshop when all of the coo coo clocks go off -- one un-PC clock at a time -- the drunk guy, the man chopping off the turkey head, the dude shooting at a bird, the woman spanking the bare bottom her kid -- one after the other. We didn't make it all the way through Pinocchio. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to explain all of the kids getting drunk and smoking cigars.

So then yesterday, he's rifling through the DVDs. I brace myself. It's the motherload. He says he wants to watch Bambi. BAMBI!!! Before we start the movie, I explain what hunters are -- how they kill animals to eat -- and that something very sad happens in the movie. Maybe I'm flattering myself, but I thought it could be quite devastating to the kid. So we get to the part when Bambi's mother is shot and he doesn't even flinch. Seems very non-plussed by the whole thing.

So what exactly is an appropriate age for a child to start watching these movies? And why does every Disney movie have to have guns in it? I must say I do like the length and the pace of the older movies. They feel a lot slower and will spend about 5 minutes on animals just doing animal things in the forrest -- not trying to pack every joke in a minute that they can (no wonder so many people have ADD). Also, they're a more reasonable length for kids. I think Bambi was like an hour long.

And this concludes Amy blabberfest.