Where I've been....

Nothing too earth shattering has been happening in our household in the past few days. But I do have a few noteworthy events that have been tumbling around in my mind today as I did other tasks, all the while thinking...I should blog this now or I'll forget it. Hopefully my memory holds out, and if it doesn't you won't know the difference!
Tuesday Zane vibrated almost all morning. It was Christmas program day in school and they were putting on 2 performances. He was sooooo excited and couldn't wait for us to see it. Rhett and I attended both performances and Cliff joined us for the evening production. And Zane was 100% right - it was FANTASTIC! I didn't really know what to expect - all Zane had told me was that it was about Mary and Joseph, which frankly surprised me since he's in the public school system and most schools are so worried about political correctness yada yada yada. Basically the grade 3 class put on a 30 minute nativity production from the shepherd and sheep's point of view. It had humor, great music provided by the K through 2's, and Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. I was really impressed by the script and the message that Christ is the reason for Christmas and overjoyed that this is the school that my child is in. After both performances the school principal got up and told us all that this school believed in celebrating the real meaning behind Christmas, had been doing so for at least the last 8 years, and have no intentions of changing that. I felt very grateful and blessed especially as I have talked to a few friends who have children in other schools in town here and their children's programs focused entirely on Santa and the commercial side of Christmas. Not one mention of the Savior or even a traditional Christmas song. But back to Zane. He was really nervous and pretty scared because both performances had really big crowds but he stood up there with the rest of his class, sang the songs, and did the actions (his actions were very small and close to his body but he did them) and I was so proud of him for doing it. He really doesn't like to be the center of attention and has a hard time being in front of a crowd like that. He was THRILLED this morning when I pointed out a picture in the newspaper of his performance - you could just make him out at the back of the bleachers - if you knew where to look. It made his whole day. And of course, being the wonderful mother that I am, I threw the newspaper out 10 minutes later. Really, you had to know where to look to realize that Zane was in the picture. Not really a scrap book keepsake. Thankfully he wasn't too upset when he asked to look at it later in the morning. Oops.
Wednesday Keri Pratt came over and I helped her put a quilt together and gave her some tips on machine quilting. (I am in NO way an expert - just passed on the little bit of knowledge I have). And this resulted in my quilting bug awakening in me...
Yesterday I volunteered at our ward's Creche display. The school across the street from our church brought pre-k through grade 5 through - minus the grade one's because apparently their teacher didn't think they needed permission slips to leave the school. Glad my kid isn't in her class. Anyways, it was pretty steady but they had things well organized - the gym had the creches, the chapel had a short video of the nativity, and the Relief Society room had chairs and cookies and hot chocolate and your truly reading Christmas stories to the kids. The ladies in charge had decided before I got there that since I am so round and prego that I didn't need to be on my feet for 3.5 hours, and decreed that I got a cushy chair, fun stories to read and all the cookies and hot chocolate I wanted. It was really fun and time really flew by.
After a quick stop at home I was headed back into town to brave the storm, get groceries, hit Old Navy (which was having a fabulous sale - I actually spent money on me and although I still feel as big as a house at least now I feel like an attractive house!) I also made a stop at the fabric store and got some flannel and fabric for this baby. Yes, I'm finally starting a quilt for him. Better late than never. I actually got it all cut out tonight so be proud of me!
We shared pizza and a movie night with our great friends the Allred's and got our munchkins to bed much to late. Oh well. Them's the breaks.
Did I mention that Cliff came home Thursday night with an XBOX 360. If you don't already know, ours has been out of commission for about 6 weeks. I wasn't terribly sad about that but alas the males in my household did not share my viewpoint. At least he got it for 1/2 price, right? Anyways, knowing that replacing the silly thing was inevitable, Cliff and I have been discussing how to deal with Zane and his obsession with his Lego Star Wars game. And after stealing an idea from my terribly clever friend Leslie, we came up with a strategy that seems to be working well. We tried giving him a set amount of time per day before and it was a constant battle between him and me because he always wanted more and more and more. So, this time around he has to EARN his time with the game. We decided to do a star system - 10 stars = 15 minutes of playing time and 20 = 30 minutes of playing time. He can earn stars by doing extra chores, doing regular chores on the first asking, playing nice with Rhett, etc. Basically mom and dad's discretion. BUT he can also lose stars for excessive whining, tantrums, etc. He is LOVING this system. Yesterday he just about drove me nuts asking for extra chores or if I had thought of something that he could do. Arg. It was great in some ways, but exasperating in others. Today was a lot better...and he managed to earn 20 stars and get his 1/2 hour playing time. He was so thrilled and proud of himself. It was fun too because during the day he would come to count his stars and sometimes I had added 1 or 2 he didn't know about - noticed him helping Rhett or something along those lines. He would ask what he had done to get that star and I would just tell him it was for me to know....I don't want him to think every time he says something nice he gets a star! But Rhett was a real crank all day and Zane was incredibly patient and helpful with him so yeah, I kicked in a few extra stars to make sure he got his reward.
Speaking of rewards....that made me remember another reward he got this week. We finally got his second bottom tooth out! The adult was already coming in but that baby tooth just wanted to hang on. Knowing that it wouldn't be long I had stashed a loonie sometime last week in anticipation of the tooth fairy event. However, Wednesday night when I went to retrieve said loonie to play tooth fairy it was not where I put it. And I had ZERO change in the house. Ok, so don't panic right? I sent a text to Cliff who was at a meeting and told him to bring one home. No problem. I was asleep when Cliff got home, but when I was up at 3:00 am (don't ask) it dawned on me to shake my hubby awake and ask if he had remembered to play tooth fairy. Umm, no. And he didn't bring the loonie home either. Great. 3 in the morning, no loonie, no change. What did I do? Climbed back in bed and went to sleep, only to bolt upright at 4:30 to jump out of bed, right a rushed note from the TF and slip it under Zane's pillow. He woke up at 5:15, shouted for me to come quick, and demanded I read the note. The note explained that the TF had fallen in the snow and lost his special prize. Asked him to put his tooth under his pillow again and the TF would bring him something extra special. After the 2nd read he seemed OK with the turn of events and went back to sleep. Me back to bed. 7:15 I wake up to him sobbing...me thinking he's puking or something - and he's DEVASTATED that the TF didn't take his tooth. Umm, honey, don't you remember the note? Note? More tears and 3 readings later Zane is finally reconciled to the waiting another night but thinks it might be a fun thing to show his tooth to Grandpa who got to spend all Thursday afternoon with us. As for the TF he made sure to bring home a TOONIE from his desk at work and Zane is now the proud owner of a toonie which he is saving for a Transformer watch.
We had fun Thursday afternoon with Grandpa Dooley and he did us a great favor and put plastic on the kid's windows and our back door window. Cliff and I had attempted it earlier in the day but didn't have big enough plastic. But Grandpa got it done for us just in time for the cold weather to hit. It's made a big difference in the temp in the back of the house and when we thaw out a bit we're planning on doing a couple of other windows in the house too.
Well, for not having much to say I sure seem to have found a lot! Keep watch for some pics of the babe's quilt soon. I'm hoping to have it mostly together before heading south and that is rapidly approaching!