Yestrerday was a blank slate, so we did the same thing we do every time we have a long expanse of day stretched out before us with nary a playdate in sight. We went to Target. I was pretty good and onlt bought things we needed. Oh, except for that little giraffe change purse that Henry HAD to have. But it was only a dollar so it doesn't count. Why does Henry need a little giraffe change purse? You'll have to ask him. I also officially succumbed to the pressure to assign gender roles to my child yesterday. We went looking for boots so that Henry can play in the snow when we go up north tomorrow. Of course they had 76 styles of toddler girl boots and one lonely little toddler boy pair. In size 5, 2 sizes too small for the bean. A pair of bright purple princess boots caught the little man's eye and he asked for purple boots. I didn't get them. Because they were purple. And he is a boy. Ugh. I suck.

After Target we went to Barnes and Noble and had a serious exercise in patience as we navigated the badly designed, overcrowded parking lot. It was worth it, though, because once we got inside we found a suprise. A brand spanking new train table. With a new toy and no Noah to throw things at, Henry played nicely with the trains for about a half an hour and I just sat and chilled out and watched him. It was nice. I should have brought the puzzle book that Suzy got me for Xmas. I am already addicted to those puzzles.

It looks like Green Greenie (aka frisbee...um...a black frisbee, I'm not sure why Henry calls it Green) is going to have to come with us to CT. Henry called out for it while I was tucking him in last night like he couldn't bear a night without his cuddly...frisbee.

Tonight is going to be a mad dash of packing and cleaning and sorting presents. And the girls are having a big fat Solstice party tongiht as well. Happy Solstice! Hooray for the return of the Sun! Jess and Noah got back last night so we are going to play with them before nap, take a short nap because we have to pick up Kyle and Fletcher early, hopefully persuade Melissa to do a last minute trimming of the bean's raggedy mop and then come home and get ready to fly away home. We ahve a 3.5 hour layover in Cinncinati. Yuck. On the way back, though, we only have a 30 minute layover, which makes me a little nervous. Ah well. We shall see.

Oh, and Kelly from the affordable housing place called. I told her about Duece Duece and she said they were trying really hard to clean up the neighborhood, but it probably wouldn't be suitable for a family for another year. I told her I was bummed that I was going to have to try to get another appointment with the builder again and she told me that SHE would talk to the builder and get me a timeline on something in a "family" neighborhood, so that's cool. I am going to call the other folks today and see if I can wrestle a timeline out of them as well. Oh house, you will be mine.

Oh, and Jessie is pregnant. Yay Jessie! Now I can live pregnancy and infancy vicariously through her and not have to get up every 2 hours to nurse whilst doing it! Wahoo!

We did not dominate at trivia last night as planned. Actually a bunch of new people came and I think they threw our mojo off. We had a pitiful performance in the first 2 rounds (What is the first month of the Ancient Roman calendar? How long does it take the moon to orbit the Earth?) and managed to come back in the last 2 rounds (with a flawless execution of the speed round, I even found an error in one of the questions) to eke out a second place finish. Not our finest hour, but not the worst either.

I am going to see about getting Henry a trim today. We went to see Santa this weekend and Henry not only looked like a ragamuffin, he was terrified of Santa. The long shaggy hair coupled with the complete freeze up when placed on the fat man's lap made it look like little Henry had indulged in a little holiday blunt smoking before getting his picture taken. Kyle is supposed to scan the picture in so I can share this fabulous picture with everyone (they don't allow you to take your own pictures), but I think that falls pretty low on this 'to do' list at the moment.

I wasn't able to do it yesterday, what with 2 little monkeys leaping around, but when the clock strikes 9 this morning I will be on the phone looking for different housing options. I am bound and determined to have us moved into a house by Henry's 3rd birthday. A house that does NOT come complete with a crackhead neighbor named after a measurement of beer. We'll see.

Aw, I just got this picture from a customer. Well, in her picture, the baby had a head, but I thought I'd crop it out in case she didn't want his face online. The longies have a snowflake on the bum, too. It looks like this is their professionally done winter portrait, so I love that they liked the pants enough to have him wear them in this picture. 

Since Henry's friend Ava has the week off od school and her mama does not, Henry and I decided to watch her today. The first thing she said after she came in, as I was changing Henry's diaper, was: "Henry has a penis". It cracked me up. The she said "You gotta nice TV". I almost peed my pants. She is a funny girl. It was interesting to see how different she and Henry (which she pronounces Hen-er-eed) are. She is WAY ahead of him as far as language skills and she is peeing on the potty. But she is not very independent at all. She wanted me to sit next to her or play with her pretty much every second. Henry couldn't care less if I am even home as long as he has a steady supply of juice and drumsticks to bang with. They played well together, though, and I got them both to nap silmultantiously so I could get some work done. I think I deserve some sort of shiny medal for that one.

Have you seen the movie Roll Bounce with Bow Wow, formerly known as L'il Bow Wow? You should. I know. The star is named Bow Wow and it is about roller skating, but it's good. Another one we enjoyed was Mad Hot Ballroom, a documentary about a 5th grade inner city ballroom dancing competition. Yup.

Henry has adopted a high tech frisbee as his new "most favorite thing ever". He took a nap with it this afternoon and took it in the car with him when we went to pick up Kyle from work. He doesn't grasp why playing frisbee in the house is a less than stellar idea. He can really whip that thing, too. Lamps, beware.

Trivia tonight. We will dominate.

It was so beautiful today (sunny and almost 50!) that we decided to go for a hike at Bent Creek. Henry was psyched to get outside and we were happy to get the sunshine and fresh air, too. In addition to throwing rocks into the creek, Henry carried around 2 sticks and drummed on every tree, plant, blade of grass as we walked by. Great exercise, walking .1 miles and hour dragging a drumming toddler along behind you.

This evening we are going to grab slices of pizza with Amy and Brian and Ava and then going to see the holiday lights at Lake Julian. Then home to hopefully watch a movie since all of our usual "Sunday Night Television Glutfest" shows are in holiday reruns.

Speaking of movies, we saw possibly the worst movie ever last night. Unleashed with Jet Li and Morgan Freeman. Oh my GOD was that a bad movie. Even the fighting was bad-less style and more brutality, which seems to be the order of the day. Not my thing. I am finding that my tolerance for violence is less and less as I get older. Reason #476 that I am turning into my mother: I think I asked Kyle 12 times to "please turn that DOWN"! Geez, how loud does a movie have to be anyway?

Henry getting ready to throw a rock into the creek and stopping to pose for a quick picture. 

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeell...on a whim yesterday we decided to drive by the house so Kyle could take a peek in the windows and we were greeted by the welcome wagon. The welcome wagon being a crackhead named "Duece Duece" who lives with his poor 93 year old grandmother across the street. Um, yeah. The house is no longer an appealing option. While friendly and not threatening (he was stumbling so badly that I am confident Henry could have kicked his ass), he was annoying as hell, asking for money and repeating things 8 million times while we tried to make our escape. From some of his barely coherent ramblings I got the idea that us being white may be an issue in that neighborhood, something I hadn't considered before. I am sure that, should we move there, Duece Duece would plague us every day of our lives.

I resigned myself to living in this apartment for the rest of my days for a few hours and then I finished filling out the long and involved paperwork for the other affordable housing organization. They have a waiting list, but I guess it will be worth the wait to not have to deal with The Double Duece. I didn't want to move in the winter anyway, sniff sniff.

Today we woke up to a half an inch of ice covering everything. Kyle got the day off, which was nice, but we couldn't go anywhere, which made for a long, stir crazy day. There was a lot of drumming to various gods of rock.

In addition to this blog, I also keep a livejournal. No, you can't have the address. Anyway, through a comment on an old friend's journal, I was found by someone else I apparently know from high school. I can't figure out who the heck she is. She was friends with the girl who used to live across the street from me, and she knows I lived across the street, so I know she thinks I am the right person. I feel like I should know her, but I just don't. Even weirder-she told me another person would LOVE to see me. A person whose name I can't place either. Is my memory that bad? Did I actually block part of my high school experience out to cope with it? I am baffled. Ooooh-yearbook. Hang on.

"Rock Tar! Rock Tar!" 

The little man in action. 

Bob the Builder longies. Does that look like a thumbs up or an obscene gesture? 

Henry and I just got back from our appointment with the builder. Adrienne's assesment of him was correct-very nice but seems like he could be a little flakey. Someone who would be in serious trouble if anything happened to his wife. Henry fell asleep in the car for long enough that he is boycotting a proper nap. He is splashing around in the tub-don't worry, I can see him from here, I know babies can drown in an inch of water, etc., etc.

We sat in the builder's office for a while and talked about the different houses that would be available in the next 6 months or so. There was one coming up in March that sounded perfect. A little Cape Cod, 3br, 2ba, 1400 sq.' on a .5 acre lot. The only problem is that it was outside the city limits, but only a few miles. So he said. We piled into the car and went to look at it. It took us a good 25 minutes to get there. Pth. The lot was indeed .5 acres, unfortunately, the spot the house was on was the only part that was usable. The rest was a steep hill on 2 sides of the house. There was no usable yard at all. Double pth. So I asked what else he could show me. We went to another development outside the city limits where they were building some ranches. About halfway there it turned into Whitetrashville, USA. Um...no thanks. The road the houses were on was a disintigrated paved road covered in gravel and the development was 4 fugly prefab ranches all in a row. Yuck. At this point I was feeling a little let down. Then he told me about one house they have in a "challenged neighborhood" in West Asheville (basically where we live now, lol). A ranch that was about 98% completed. It was the cutest house I've seen thus far within a 75k radius of our price range. It was a cute little ranch (more of a square than one of those long, skinny, trailer looking affairs) on a cute little end of the street lot. Nice little front (with some cute landscaping) and back yard, both with porches. 3br, 2ba, big living room attached to a big dining room attached to a nice big kitchen with a bar to pull up stools to. They almost never do hardwood flooring, but this house was meant for a family whose child had severe allergies and couldn't have carpeting. They had a family emergency and had to leave the state or something. So it has all hardwood floors. Nice light maple cabinets and granite-esque countertops-dishwasher and disposal, stove and fridge, all brand new. There is a utility room off the kitchen for a washer and dryer (which it doesn't come with). Down the hall-2 smaller bedrooms to the left, one with a walk in closet. In the hallway ceiling, a pull down ladder to 500 square feet of floored attic space for storage. On the right, a full bathroom, then further down to the right, the master bedroom with a walk in closet and another full bathroom. All nickel (plated?) fixtures. All energy efficient. The only bad part is that, if you stand in the side yard in the winter when there are no leaves on the trees, you can see the strip malls of Patton Ave. No big. The reason it's a "challenged neighborhood" -mom, stop reading now- is that there is a house that drugs are being dealt out of down the way around the corner. Now, now, now, I know drugs are bad. BUT. If the builder hadn't pointed the house out to me I would have never given it a second thought. It just looks like a normal house. You can't even see it from the house we want to buy. They are *thisclose* to being kicked out. If real estate patterns continue like they are going now, this neighborhood will be filled with young families like us in no time. All of the formerly "challenged neighborhoods" are now places we can't afford to live in, so good things should happen. If I thought it was dangerous I wouldn't even consider bringing Henry there. Actually, I just looked up the records for 2004 and the whole year on that street there was 1 incident, a stolen car. I then looked up the street we live on now and there was also 1 incident, a residential burglary-so they are pretty comaprable. Then, I got curious, so I started looking up neighborhoods. The whole neighborhood (Burton St. area) this new house is in had 27 incidents in 2004. The neighborhood we lived in last year (Biltmore Heights) also had 27. The neighborhood we're in right now (Horney Heights, snicker, snicker) had 41!!! I guess we'd better get the heck outta here! I will have to take Kyle to see it. Then we will SNATCH it up and move in. Soon. And lo, there will be closet space.

By request, below are some pictures of my monsters. I always forget that the order you post pictures is bottom to top, and not the reverse, so I meant them to be in the opposite order. Go to the bottom of the pictures and scroll up. I guess it doesn't really matter.

A monster family portrait. Please note that that is not actually a big white spot on the couch, it is some sort of lighting issue. I think. 

Mr. Barky. 

Hiding behind Barlow. 

Henry using Alowishus as a sock monster shield. 

Wow, has life been boring around here or what?

Saturday Kyle made the 4 hour hike to Durham to watch AHS play in the state championships. They won. Yay. Except that meant I was home with the rowdy bean from 6am to 7am. As a sweet reward for my amazing patience and mothering, I went to see Narnia Sunday evening. It was so very good. It had the sensibility of a British film, but the budget of a Hollywood film, a perfect match. Apparently, though, it was an Australian film. The make up and effects were amazing and the child actors kicked booty. Unfortunately, some yahoo decided that it was an appropriate movie for a 3 year old and sat directly behind me. She didn't make a peep the whole time, but there was much chair kicking. I kind of felt like I was playing a video game with one of those fancypants vibrating joystick (do they still call them joysticks?) thingies. Oh, they call them controllers. Right.

Last night I ditched the boys and went to trivia at the pub. The past 5 weeks we had a 3 week winning streak followed by 2 disappointing 2nd place finishes. Last night there were so many of us that we split into 3 teams. We won. Woot! It's so nice to not have to pay the tab. About the same time we started winning, I went to a sock monster making workshop and then came straight to trivia, toting my newly made creature in my messenger bag. From that moment on he became our team mascot. He was named Alowishus. Alowishus is now a famous monster. The guy who asks the trivia questions on stage has taken a shine to Alowishus, always asking about his health and whatnot. I can see other regular teams plotting his demise. It is way too funny.

Did I put CD-RWs and DVD-Rs on Kyle's Xmas list? Damn, I think I forgot.

Henry is now obsessed with movies. Any movie will do, really. Whenever he sees the little case, he will jump up and down in delight and yell "Mooobie, MOOOOBie". Hee. It's pretty cute. He is able to sit through most movies now, too. We watched The Lion King 1.5 the other day, which had him singing his own little version of "Hakuna Matada" all day long. It was pretty cool. It was kind of like a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern thing, following the story of 2 sidekick characters through the regular Lion King story. Last night Kyle got him the first Lion King so we can watch that today. He saw Toy Story yesterday, but he wasn't that impressed. His favorite is still Madagascar. He even wanted to try on his wee little Madagascar underwear the other day. After Xmas we will be actively persuing a diaperless existance, so I am hoping his Madagascar love lasts enough for him to want to wear the underwear. Yeah, right.

Wow, we have nothing to do today that will take us out of the house. We have cleaning and knitting to do, but those things hardly make the time fly by. Hmmm... what fun things can I think up for the day?

Henry learned to write a little last night. He can do 'H', 'i', 'I', '1', '0' and '10'. Not too shabby for a not-quite-2.5 year old! He gets very excited about the letter H. I think he drew about a dozen of them all in a row.

Auntie Cindy sent him an early Xmas present. "The Country Family Band", including: the spoons, a washboard, a harmonica, 2 shakers, a triangle and a little banjo. It's an awesome gift, but it's also in the closet. I'm just not ready for Henry and a triangle quite yet.

A wee pair of pants for a wee little Tessa. 

So I just dragged Henry all the way downtown to meet the builder it took me 3 weeks to get an appointment with. He wasn't there. He forgot about us and went to some last minute land trust meeting. Mama ain't happy.

At least I finally went grocery shopping, although, $50 and 45 minutes of bribing Henry to be quiet later, I still can find nothing I'd like to eat for lunch. Pth.

Whew! It's been a while since I have been able to update this thang, huh? We went on a trip to Florida for Thanksgiving and after that I was knitting my way out of a black hole of holiday orders. I am ALMOST caught up and it is looking like all is getting back to normal. At least for the two weeks before we ahve to start getting ready for our Christmas trip to CT. Peanut butter balls and shnetkin here we come!

Florida was awesome. The drivedown was uneventful and Henry proved to be a good little traveller. Kyle wanted to drive all the way there since Henry was sound asleep in the car seat, but since we'd have to stay in a hotel anyway (the ferry doesn't run from 10pm to 7am) I made him stop at 11 to give my back a fighting chance of someday regaining its natural shape. Of course, Henry sprung to life immediately upon contact with the gorgeous diamond patterned comforter and proceeded to work up all 10 hours' worth of energy he'd built up in the car. We got to sleep somewhere in the neighborhood of 3am. And worse? Kyle was right. We should have kept driving.

The visit was great. The weather was absolutely gorgeous-85 and sunny every day. Henry had to be routinely dragged out of the ocean and made to warm up in the sun before making a break for it immediately upon release. He loved the water, the sand, the shells, you name it. In the pool in front of the house he learned how to blow bubbles in the water and do froggy kicks while riding around on Kyle's back. Many card games were played and much sugar was eaten.

The ride home took a few hours longer because of holiday traffic, but Henry was amazing and that made the 14.5 hours bearable.

Speaking of the Amazing Bean, he has some new fun tricks. Not only does he know all of his letters, but he also knows the alphabet song, which is impossibly cute. He can also count to 20, which is pretty impressive, he knows all of his colors and a handful of shapes: circle, square, triangle and rectangle. His current favorite activity is running around the house roaring and calling himself a "big yellow tiger". He is so impressed with himself that I don't have the heaert to tell him that tigers are, in fact, orange. He is also WAY into please, thank you, you're welcome and bless you. If he brings me something and I don't say thanks you he looks up at me and says "thank you, mama" hoping that I will feel guilty enough for my transgression to give him ice cream.

We were at the play area at the mall the other day and a little kid (about 3 years old) came right up to Henry's face and roared a fiersome roar while sporting a magnificently scrunched up face. At first, Henry held his ground, going into defensive mode by pasting on a cute little smile, folding his arms into wings and quacking at the boy. But the little beast would not be swayed and roared in Henry's face once more. Henry ran away. Henry was chased by the evil little monster boy, who kept up with the roaring and the horrible face until Henry burst into tears. Big meanie.

Scroll down a little for some Florida pictures. I have some really cute nekkid baby ones too, but I feel weird about putting them online. Pervy old men and such. Why yes, I am turning into my mother, why do you ask? Next stop-weirdos in the woods.

Wheeeeeeeeeee!!! 

Henry and  

The Bean beachbound.