Grinchiness

Despite the goal I made on Monday to not raise my voice for at least the rest of '08, we have had a bit of Grinchiness this week on the part of yours truly and the children. So much for "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!"

Monday morning, this happened.

If you read my last post, you recognize that those are two of my special Christmas dishes, and that I only get one place setting of each pattern, so that's it. And it's discontinued. I didn't get angry though, just sad. It really was an accident and Harrison apologized several times throughout the day, and it was so sincere and sweet. Elizabeth is kind of fixated on broken things, so she keeps pointing to the hutch where the dishes are and saying, "Boten, Sesan" (broken, Harrison). Today, she threw a plate on the floor and it broke. After sending her to time out, I took her over to the trash can to show her the broken pieces and tell her how naughty that was and the first thing she did was point to the hutch and remind me that "Sesan boten." Don't try to shift the blame Little Miss, his was an accident.

Tuesday night, Harrison had his pre-school Christmas program. They've been practicing for weeks. He had sung most of the songs to me at home. But he didn't sing at the program, despite being front and center. Not one word. Just looked tired and somewhat miserable. He came straight to me at the end and said, "I didn't sing." Ya, I noticed. So I asked why. "Because I hate Christmas." "What?? Why??" "If there's one thing I hate it's the NOISE." Okay, so maybe we've watched Grinch one too many times. I'm surprised he didn't say, "It's the noise, noise, noise noise."

Here the kids are waiting to make their entrance. His facial expression should have tipped me off.

Here he is after the program, still looking grinchy.

Once we got home I got him smiling. Notice that my left eye looks smaller than my right.
Well, I have been sick since last week. Tuesday morning I woke up with an ear ache and a sty in my eye. I went to the Dr. and sure enough I had an ear infection. She gave me antibiotics for that, but said there wasn't much I could do about the sty. I've had them before and usually they pass quickly and aren't that big of a deal.

Well, this was me Wednesday morning.

And by Thursday morning it looked even worse!

Friday it was still pretty bad. It's now Sunday and it's looking better, but still not gone. I keep thinking I'm so grateful that I don't have any permanent facial deformities. I don't like feeling self-conscious and ugly. And of course, this was our ultra-busy, typical December week. So a lot of people were exposed to the hideousness.

Thursday was the day Harrison's teacher picked to celebrate his birthday (since he has a summer b-day). He wanted Santa Cookies, Reindeer Cookies and Sleigh Cookies. I came through on two out of three.



I actually really get a kick out of making stuff like this. I must admit, I was surprised and disappointed that his teachers didn't say ONE WORD about the darling cookies. I guess it was silly to expect lavish praise. . .

Thursday night we had an appointment to see Santa at the library. Harrison had been very excited about it for weeks. I purposely picked a night that Nate would be able to go with us, not realizing it was ward temple night and his other calling is something along the lines of "encouraging people to go to ward temple night," so he didn't get to come after all. And as usual, things without Daddy (especially at night, after a very busy day) are not that fun. Some of the lowlights were -Harrison wrestling with some friends and a couple of strangers in the middle of the floor (in front of about 50 people), causing a 2 year old to get a bloody lip -Me bringing all the hair stuff to do their hair while we waited for our turn, EXCEPT for a comb (which is the key to doing cute pigtails) and apparently no one else carries combs with them (I usually have one in my purse, that's why I didn't bring one, but it wasn't in there) -Harrison purposely and defiantly splashing water all over his shirt minutes before it was our turn to take pictures -My eye being at it's peak of ugliness that day -Elizabeth being terrified of Santa and crying for all the pictures. There was really nothing Merry or Christmasy about the feelings I was having that night, which made me feel like the worst mother on earth.

Harrison got lectured the whole way home and was feeling really bad. I later found him with the camera. He had taken this picture (a blurry close up of his PJs).
When asked what he was doing he said something about checking to see if his heart was two sizes too small. That made my heart feel two sizes too small (at that point I was surprised it could get any smaller, but I guess mother guilt can do that).

I'm sad to report that I'm still waiting for the "heart grew three sizes that day" day.