pa-jammy
As mentioned earlier, the boys are super into manga right now. They are also super into Funko Pop figures. So it follows that they are super-duper obsessed with manga-themed Funko Pops.
Please don’t ask which figures they’re holding. No idea. But they would be happy to tell you about them in great detail.
Oh, and I’ve updated the Monthly Photos page since at 120+ pics, it was getting a tad unwieldy. Hopefully it’s a bit more user-friendly now.
Yesterday the boys and I met up with my sister and her family at Cafe du Monde to say goodbye before they headed back to Virginia. The boys were sitting at a table with Emily, reading their library books that we’d just checked out. (They’re obsessed with manga books right now.)
The woman in line behind me pointed to them and asked, “are they yours?” I said, yes, the boys were. She said, “that’s something you never see.”
Yeah, yeah, triplets, blah blah blah.
She continued, “Boys with books! That’s wonderful!”
I have never been prouder than I was in that moment (not strictly true but you know.)
Of course, it’s not like they’re reading chapter books, but they’re reading.
As she walked out of the shop, the woman said, “keep up the great work.”
Years that end in 7s have typically been pretty eventful for me. Well, at least two of them have. I spent a good chunk of 1997 in London, which was life-changing for me. And 2007 brought a trio of little clones into our lives. So I expected 2017 to be equally eventful for me personally. I mean, hey, it was also the year I was 42, so expectations were high.
But it didn’t end up being particularly noteworthy, at least not for me. In fact, generally speaking, I’d say it was not a great year overall. But for our family, it was fine. Let’s recap. Read More
Obviously, I wrote this post last week. Oops!
I can’t believe Christmas was two days ago already! Ain’t that how it goes. The post-holiday blues are settling in a bit, so I’m glad tomorrow we’ll be heading to Baton Rouge to spend time with my sister and her family.
Anyway, we had a nice Christmas. We had steak for dinner on Christmas eve, and then the boys and I read The Night Before Christmas together (cue heart melting) and I made them take pictures with their stockings, and then I sent them to bed so Santa could come. (Not that they believe, but they like to pretend anyway.)
I spent another hour wrapping a bazillion presents and drinking my traditional eggnog daiquiri that I had procured earlier in the day. And then I put together the eggnog French toast we were going to have for breakfast. (Yeah, I like eggnog.)
We were ready!
The next morning, the boys were up before 7, but I told them they weren’t allowed to wake us up until then. But at 7 on the dot, they dragged me out of bed to open their gifts.
We had quite the pile under the tree, and we all made pretty quick work of it. Their big present was my old laptop from work (I got my new one last week) so I wrapped up the old box to remind them why they didn’t get anything huge.
They got clothes and drawing supplies and lots of Pop figures (they’re obsessed) and books and new towels. (I know, towels don’t seem super exciting for 10 year old boys, but they have been complaining about the size of our bath towels so I got them each their own bath sheet.)
I also made out like a bandit. I got a lovely necklace that the boys picked out, a bracelet with a stamped piece (101010 on one side, 42 on the other – 42 is my lucky number, and 101010 is 42 in binary, and also this year the boys are 10 and I am 42.) I also got an electric wine opener and a Tile and a new skillet from Kiki. Oh! And a case for my new laptop. And a coloring book that is for grown-up eyes only. Oh! And a macro lens and case for my phone. (Would love the telephoto lens too, thank goodness my birthday is next week, eh?) Man, I got spoiled. The boys also got me cards and Oliver wrote I was the best mom on Earth, which made me cry. (Sorry, all other moms on Earth!)
Anyway, after that excitement was over, we had breakfast and I made a salad to bring to the pub later. Yep, George’s dream came true and we got to spend Christmas at the pub. There was a huge spread of food and a bunch of our friends and thankfully a friend of the boys’ as well. It was a lovely lunch, but we did miss having family around.
Later, I brought the boys home with their friend Ethan, and they played Just Dance, which was adorbs.
And after Ethan went home, Linus and Oliver and I played Ticket to Ride, which was fun and only resulted in a few fights and tears. I also made the bittersweet discovery that they like tamales, which is bittersweet because Terry makes them only at certain times of year, and now I have to share them. Ugh. (Fortunately, I found that Costco sells decent ones that they’ll eat.)
The end!
I’ve been waiting for this for four years. This is what we get when we’ve been at Automattic for that long. A customized MacBook Pro. Ain’t she beautiful?
Subtitle: Proudest mama in the whole wide world
A couple of weeks ago, the boys performed in their first recital. They started lessons back in April at a local school for performing arts, and they have performances twice a year – at Christmas and in the spring. The school is pretty big – there were several “concerts” throughout the day, two hours each, and there were 43 performances in this particular block. So yeah, a lot.
Fortunately, each kid (or group) only performed for a minute or two each, so it went by pretty quickly. Thank goodness because the boys were slated to go 41st.
And now the video! Don’t worry, it’s only a minute long. I pretty much wept through the whole thing, so it’s a good thing we were able to get the professional video so you don’t hear me sniffling.
A few pics:
I really have no excuse, but I just didn’t get it together in time to order nice photo cards for the holidays. Well, I nearly did, but then CVS screwed them up, and I didn’t have it in me to try again, and they’d have barely been here in time to mail, so I just bought some cute old-school cards, had some photos printed, and put them inside, just like in the olden days. (And I only sent out like six, but I’d have sent out a bunch more if I’d gotten photo cards.)
Anyway, so then I decided since I’m not actually buying the cards, I can go on the card websites I like and fantasize about the cards I would order! And heck, since I’m not actually buying them, I’m going all out with fancy corners!
From Minted:
Oh of course, I have to have this one.
But these are cute too:
OH BUT NO.
Next year FOR SURE.
From Paper Culture:
That’s cute. I came really close to ordering that one.
From Tiny Prints:
Since we’re fantasizing, I’m going FULL GLITTER.
Or, why not scalloped edges?
So, there you have it. Your choice of holiday cards to print out and stick to your fridge.
Some outtakes from the photo session:
Individual pics:
Special thanks to the Hawkins for the amazing Christmas jumpers they gave the boys last year when we visited!
Last year, we spent the holidays in the UK, and it was magical and wonderful and fantastic and everything else positive (minus of course the last day when Miles barfed everywhere and I got to put one of those tiny washer/dryer combos to the test) (and why did I have to ruin that sentence with barf talk? Just Keeping It Real, folks.) but this year, we’re staying home. Which is fine, I guess (kicks the dirt sadly) but I reasoned if we were going to be in stinky old Louisiana for Christmas, I’d better decorate the house so we’d feel more festive.
So I turned my attention to the mantle. I started buying garlands to hang over it when they appeared at Michael’s last month. I dug out the boys’ stockings (though I still need to fix the one Ziggy chewed up two years ago.) But I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do on the mantle itself.
Then I remembered my mom’s Christmas village set that she didn’t really use anymore. But then I was reminded she’d asked me years ago if I wanted it, and I said no, and so she sent it to my sister. Okay, plan B.
I was perusing Facebook one day and came across a papercraft village that I could make with my Silhouette. Not too hard, and since it was mostly made of cardstock, cheap! (Just the way I like it.) I bought the templates and started cutting. And gluing. And folding. And after a few nights of watching movies over Thanksgiving break, it was done!
If you plan to create your own cardstock village, I have some advice.
Wait, but that’s not all! The pièce de résistance is my autographed It’s a Wonderful Life poster.
Yes, that’s right! I said AUTOGRAPHED.
Next year, expect to see MORE GARLANDS and MORE TINY BUILDINGS! Wooooo!
I was poking around my blog entries from December 2009, trying to find my favorite Santa picture (this one, in case you were wondering) and came across this post, where I predicted what the boys would be when they grow up.
Well, I mean, it’s not like they’re grown up or anything, but I was eerily right about what they want to be at this stage, anyway.
Linus
What I said then: I’m going to go with something like engineering or medicine.
Now, I’d say programmer or something scienceish.
Oliver
What I said then: let’s say…tortured artist?
Sure enough, he wants to be an artist.
Miles
What I said then: I’m thinking….actor?
Okay, I mean, I wasn’t exact, but pretty darn close considering they were two years old when I wrote that and not completely out of the blob stage.
I was so sad when I woke up this morning and learned Baton Rouge was blanketed (I mean, relatively. This is Louisiana, after all.) in snow. I had thought briefly of bringing the boys to my mom’s last night so they could see it for the first time, but I figured if I did, it wouldn’t snow. (You’re welcome, residents of Baton Rouge.)
Here it’s been cold and drizzly, but I guess cold enough for a bit of slush to accumulate on my windshield, at least.
Introducing…
Frosty the Slushman! Isn’t he adorable? I’m a natural.
PS I’m not as sad now because apparently it snowed at school and they let the kids out to see it. It didn’t accumulate or anything, but I’ll take it!
PSS It’s not really the first time they’ve seen snow. Once they trucked in snow to City Park and we brought them. And it snowed once when they were babies, but they were at daycare, so no pics.
Well, the boys’ birthday has come and gone, and I think I’ve finally recovered from their party. But not quite enough yet to host another slumber party next year. We’ll see. I am guessing I’ll capitulate once again. Words of wisdom: Hosting slumber parties is like childbirth.
The Party
We had five boys come over (so 8 total) and thank goodness my friends Teresa and Jenn (one of the boys’ moms) stayed to help for the evening. After eating pizza, we walked down the levee in the fog to see the bonfire. There were tons of people there, but fortunately, the side we were on wasn’t crowded. Between the fog and the crowds, I was a little nervous. But each adult was assigned a triplet and a friend or two, so it worked out fine.
We saw people doing weird things with fire (not sure what to call them) and then the bonfire was lit! It was cool. The kids enjoyed it. And it killed some time.
My favorite picture of the fire:
After we got back to the house, we had cake (that I made!) and sang three times, as usual.
I’d also bought some canvases and pastels from Michael’s and they got to make artwork, which killed about, oh, 7 minutes. They were all too excited about playing on the Switch.
I went to sleep at around midnight but the boys didn’t. Well, two of them did. But the rest informed me they were going to stay up all night long. I rolled my eyes at this, but sure enough, when I was woken by the patter of little feet at 4am, I knew the other parents were going to hate me.
(Well, I mean, surely they expected this?) (No one was mad in the end.)
I groggily got up at around 7, and there were a few passed out boys here and there. Apparently, mine napped for about an hour in the middle of the night at various points, so I think only one kid truly stayed up all night (he conked out on the sofa in the morning.)
I went to get donuts for the kids, and the parents started coming to pick them up around 9. And then the boys napped off and on throughout the afternoon. There was a trip to Target late in the day to spend the gift cards that were burning holes in their pockets.
The Big Day
Monday was their actual birthday and the poor kids had to go to school. I drove them, though, so they didn’t have to suffer through a bus ride.
But first! They got to open presents from Grandee and Larry and Kiki. Those were the big gifts. Miles got the drawing tablet he coveted, the promise of a custom sweatshirt (he wanted to use the tablet to draw a design for it), and a pogo stick. (Fun!) Linus got a drone and Mario Odyssey for the Switch. Oliver got a controller for the Switch, some fancy markers, a kite, and a book on drawing. A good haul!
I spent the day trying to work, but mostly failing when I realized that I didn’t have a decent gift for Oliver. (I ran to the store to get something, whew.) George and I picked them up from school later that day, took them to guitar lessons, and then went and had a nice dinner.
Afterwards, they got to open their gifts from us (Linus got a Pokemon game and Ticket to Ride, Oliver got some drawing supplies (including a drawing mannequin that Ziggy promptly ate), Miles got fancy colored pencils and the sweatshirt I accidentally already mentioned.)
All in all, a great but exhausting birthday. They loved all their gifts, which was gratifying. Now just to figure out what to get them for Christmas…
Ten years! A decade. Double digits. Ack!
Ten years old means I’ve taken ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY monthly pics. Where’s my medal?!?
I did think that this year deserved individual posts on each boy, which you can see here:
How in the world did I get so lucky?
pyjammy dot blog 