Be free, have fun, ask why">

As with most mornings I woke up sandwiched between Cashel and Riesling.  I drifted back to sleep and vaguely heard them wake and begin to play doctor.  Very soon I was their patient.  The diagnoses was an injured foot.  Treatment: apply a wrist splint onto the ball of my foot.

Today was to be our cleaning day and we were going to attend The Nutcracker performed this time by Shenandoah Civic Dance Company.  We are constantly on the look out for a more organized and communicative place for Riesling to take dance.

The kids played and danced (I saw and heard quite a few scenes from the Nutcracker), using the blankets in Cashel’s room for costumes.

I dove head first into Riesling’s room, the worst room in this disaster area house of ours.  I made great headway while Joe made smoothies and eggs and they sat down to eat.  Then Cashel threw up.  I don’t think he’s sick or anything.  He was a puker as a baby and has gradually decreased the frequency of his upheavals.  But if anything even makes him gag that’s the end of him keeping it down.  So I had to switch gears to scrub down his booster seat in the tub.  Oh well, it’s shiny clean now.

Around 11 or so we both decided to scrap The Nutcracker (we hadn’t told Riesling yet or there would have been no option to bail) and instead try to get a great Christmassy picture of the kids after lunch.

We headed down to the Grand Caverns park where Joe found a little niche in between a bush and a tree that looked lovely.  We shot about 50 pictures before Riesling got too cold in her short sleeve dress to take it any more.  So we went inside the little gift shop to warm up and scope out the fireplace for a possible photo or two.  The kids explored every rock, piece of candy and some helmets.  While Cashel was trying to put a giant lollipop back into a huge Styrofoam ball, the ball tipped over and knocked a framed picture off the shelf, cracking the glass.  The clerk came over and Joe insisted we pay for the damage while I helped Cashel find a place for the lollipop.  We tried to get a photo of the kids in front of the fireplace, but they would have NONE of it.

So we went back outside.

There were some little Charlie Brown looking trees on one side of the parking lot.  We went over and the kids hung the ornaments that they brought along with them on the tree as we snapped a couple of pictures.

Back home we had sninner (snack/dinner).  Cashel was carb loading today.  For lunch he would only eat his pita bread and for sninner only the homemade tortilla chips.  If it wasn’t for the smoothies, I’m convinced that kid would be having some serious constipation and growth issues.

I got them both into the tub, closed the curtain and let them splash and play until they were good and wrinkled.  They got out and wrapped up in their towels.  I had to go out of the bathroom to get something.  When I returned all I saw were their towels on the floor;)

A couple of items I really need to mention:  Cashel has been consistently calling Riesling, Ree-ling, instead of DD.  We have never told him not to call her DD, but we have also never referred to her as DD either.  Cashel also has taken to saying, “I love you Mom.”  Too sweet!

I offered them a snack of the leftover Gingerbread from the Farmer’s Market yesterday, before we brushed their teeth and read to them.

Joe looked at Scholastic’s Ultimate Interactive Atlas of the World with Riesling.  She wanted to find something, so he directed her to the Index.  After she tired of the limited Index offered there, they went to Archer Allaby’s earth, A Visual Guide, where they looked up volcano and a few other words.  She suggested that they check out The Star Wars, The Ultimate Visual Guide; Special 30th Anniversary Edition book, because that had an Index in it too.  She seemed very excited about indexes!

Cashel and I went through The Amazing I Spy ABC book by Ken Laidlaw and then I read Dump Trucks and Diggers by Robert Crowther while he lifted the flaps and pulled the tabs.  He was exhausted and fell asleep around 7:45.  His sister was still up at 8:30, but finally gave it up a few minutes later.

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