We did a ton of talking about giving this year. One time in particular was watching Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas. In this, both Mickey and Minnie want to buy each other a gift. Minnie wants to buy Mickey a case for his harmonica and Mickey wants to buy Minnie “a chain for her neck to wear her watch.” In the end, Mickey sells his harmonica to buy the chain and Minnie sells her watch to buy each other’s respective gifts. Really, its a sweet story and I made sure SB understood.

here’s a clip….

One thing that EP and I discussed, oh you know the week before Christmas, was that we should have SB think of something he would like to give us. As adults, we tend to buy all the gifts, so I wanted him to take ownership in his gift.

SB and I were talking one night and I said, “Hey, I want you to think about what you would like to buy for daddy and mommy for Christmas, okay?” He shook his head and ran off. He brought me a box a few days later filled with cars, fake money and a measuring tape and told me it was for dad. I let him put it under the tree and reiterated, what could we BUY??

So, when EP said Stunt Boy told him exactly what he wanted to get me, I was a little jealous. In fact, EP said he has asked on several occasions and received the same response every time. They left one morning on a mission and I sat at home wondering what they could be doing. Of all my gifts this year, it was the one I was most excited about getting….for obvious reasons. What had the boy thought of??

When SB proudly brought the box in, told me it was for me and put it under the tree, my heart swelled!!

I kept asking, “what do you want to get daddy?” And it was always his toys. When I’d tried to defer he’d say, “but daddy loves my cars.” Okay, okay!!! {okay, one time he told me that we needed to go buy daddy a big hummer, but that wasn’t in santas budget}

So, Christmas Eve the time had arrived. SB gave me my gift and sat in my lap. He was so excited….he even wrote his name and mine (very well I must say for the small space!) on the tag. Of course I saved it but didn’t get a picture….yet…

Inside was a present for “his girl” a “chain for her neck.”

My husband told me that SB knew exactly what he wanted. People, they went to James Avery three days before Christmas, took and number and waited almost an hour just to get me this “chain for her neck.” AHHHHH!!!! I still well up with tears.

Egg White/Oatmeal Waffles

6 egg whites

1/2 cup oatmeal

1/2 cup low fat (or fat free) cottage cheese

dash cinnamon

Mix just just a second in the blender….seriously, not very long at all or it will fluff up too much. Pour 1/2 cup into waffle iron. Serve with low cal/low sugar syrup. This 333 calories, 4.8 fat, 31.3 carb, 49g protein. Yes, almost 50 grams of protein. That rocks!

I know, I KNOW, you are thinking how gross, but I promise these turn out excellent and what a great way to eat the boring old “egg white and oatmeal” breakfast.

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While eating our wonderful waffles this morning SB did the weirdest thing. It was one of those, “did you really just do that?” moments. He’s just sitting there eating his breakfast when suddenly he blows his nose…..WITH NO TISSUE! Not only was there no tissue, there were no hands….seriously. He basically blew a snot rocket at the table. While I was mortified I was also trying hard not to laugh it was just the most random thing. It was as though he completely did not realize he was doing it until it was done and he’s looking at me like, “i could really use a tissue mom.”

Way to kick off the day, huh?

….you aren’t afraid to smell that odd stain that appeared on the floor.  After all, if you can’t identify it, how are you going to clean it.

…you cry the first time you have to shop in the “big kids” section.

…you find yourself saying “you have to brush your teeth because if you don’t all of your teeth will fall out.”

…you have a day all to yourself and realize as you pull in to pick the kids up that you’ve been listening to the kids CD all day!