Me: Sure. Which one? The round one?

Isabelle: Yes, the round one.

Me: What kind of dolly do you want me to make? Do you want me to make it directly from your drawing like the us dolls? She’ll be a little flat.

Isabelle: No.

Me: How about I sew it up like your Isabelle doll?

Isabelle: Uuuuuummmm….no.

Me: Ok let me think. *think, think, think* Ok, how about I crochet it like your little red airplane?

Isabelle: YES! OK! YES!!

Me: Ok what color do you want her body?

Isabelle: Blue.

Hook. Hook. Hook….

Me: Ok Isabelle. How about her legs and arms? How about this color?

Isabelle: No, how about this color.

Me: And her feet?

Isabelle: This color. And I want this color for her eyes and her ribbon.

And more hooking and knitting and sewing and embroidering.

Me: Here you go Isabelle! Does it look like your drawing?

Isabelle: YES she does! Oh thank you mommy!! Thank you! I love her!

Me: You’re welcome honey.

Isabelle: I’m going to name her Horsey.

She runs off and plays with Horsey.

Nathan: I want a dolly too mama!

That sounds soooo dramatic but that is where we were tonight. It was a regular night. Alan seared some snapper for dinner. Nathan loved it. He kept asking for more. Then his face started turning red. And he started scratching his little mouth like crazy. Scratched it so hard he broke skin in a couple of places. And he said it was itchy. And then his lips and the skin around his mouth started swelling.

We were slightly concerned that it was a food allergy so I called an advice nurse. She went down the check list and based on what was happening she thought it was a slight allergic reaction. But she wanted us to go to the emergency room since he is only two years old. When she mentioned the E.R. my worry level went up a notch.

We worked out which hospital we would head to and then the nurse said, not to worry you but if Nathan stops breathing on the drive to the hospital pull over and call 911. W.H.A.T?? Worry level through the roof!!!

So, we drove down to the hospital. It was the longest twenty plus minute drive ever. We got checked in, they made sure he was breathing fine, and then it was a long wait for a doctor.

When the doctor arrived he checked him out. Everything was fine. The doctor prescribed some cream and Benadryl. And we were discharged.

Those two hours felt like forever.

Then I uploaded these photos to Flickr and…

…and it dawned on me why Flickr by itself is NOT going to work for me. When there is no blogging, like last month, I don’t upload any photos. They sit untouched on my computer. Look at this set of all the pictures I took of Isabelle for month 76. There are four. F.O.U.R! I definitely took more than four pictures. I think I took more than four pictures. See, with no blogging, I have no clue. And no pictures to look at? I will definitely miss pictures.

So…so…I’m not going to stop blogging. In fact, there will be blogging! You might even get some pictures from the Christmas season on here because…F.O.U.R. pictures!! But as to how I’m going to do it? I don’t know. But at least now, I know I want to.

Oh and I completely forgot. These pictures. I didn’t say a thing about them. These are our monthly photos. Isabelle is now six years four months. Nathan is two years four months. I particularly love the zombie shots of the kids. I don’t know what it is with my kids and zombies. The other day Nathan was in the car singing a little song to himself…about zombies. ZOMBIES!!

And that tongue picture? Nathan has been doing that lately unexpectedly for pictures. So funny.

With Nathan I’m specifically talking about the Hello Kitty jacket. He didn’t choose it. Alan did. It was cold outside and Alan was in a rush and grabbed something, anything. With Isabelle it was her princess crown and the curls she asked me to put in her hair. We were in a rush since it was getting dark so I only did the front, you can’t see the back so why curl it.

Then for Nathan’s picture day, him in his Batman shirt. He specifically asked for it. You can’t see the velcro-ed cape on his back but it is definitely there. He has gone a little cuckoo over Batman. In fact, tonight, after his bath he was complaining because he wanted to wear his dirty Batman shirt again. And I may or may not have added some velcro to a regular shirt so he could wear the cape. And then Isabelle with that do-dad on her head and the play necklace. It’s so funny the things she wants to wear.

Too bad we weren’t late by another day taking Nathan’s picture. Why? Isabelle lost one of her bottom teeth at dinner tonight. And we could have showed you her new gap. Which reminds me. Tooth fairy. Right NOW. Ok…goodnight before we have a repeat of this.

Ahhhhh Nathan barely fits into it now.

Well anyhoo, back to what I was saying, Nathan was whining and moaning when we were getting ready to go out, wanting to play Batman. But as soon as I said, “we’re going to see Santa now” he calmed right down and went to get his shoes saying, “Santa! Santa!”

And oh my what a difference from seeing Santa last year. There were no people. NO PEOPLE. Well I shouldn’t have been too surprised. Last year we went a few days before Christmas when all the kids were out of school. It was a madhouse. This time there was only one other kid there and I don’t know if he was there to take pictures or to play with the fake snow.

FAKE SNOW!! The kids loved it as you can tell from the pictures. We really need to bring them to the snow this year. Isabelle’s been talking about going sledding.

And Santa? The kids were ok with Santa. Isabelle hasn’t had a problem with Santa ever. But Nathan was sort of hesitant. He was all gung ho saying, “Santa” and “Cwistmas”. That is until we rounded the corner and he actually saw Santa. Then he stopped dead in his tracks and didn’t want to sit with him.

So, I held Nathan in my arms and we took a few shots with Santa like that. Then I transferred Nathan over to Santa and no problem.

Actually, I did try to blog. Or I should say I really wanted to but never sat down at the computer long enough to. I’ve been busy? I don’t honestly know. It took me two days to edit these photos. Well, not actually 48 hours, obviously, but I worked on them on two separate days. I think the kids distracted me the first day so I finished them up the next day. Then when I was finished I MUST have been distracted again because I still did not blog. Yeah…busy with the kids.

Busy, busy, busy. That’s why I’m so glad we got our tree already! Yep. We got our tree BEFORE December.

Isabelle chose it.

Nathan wanted a different one.

Just kidding. He didn’t have a preference.

I love how small the tree is. Even Isabelle could prop it up no problem.

We didn’t even need to strap the tree to the roof. It fit INSIDE the car.

And, no, Nathan is not crying because there is a tree in his way. His foot got caught on the netting and he was complaining. Loudly.

When we got home we decorated.

Decorating a small tree is easy. It’s tiny enough that we didn’t need a chair to put the star on! Even Nathan helped. He pulled up a little chair and a stool all by himself without any prompting because he wanted to help.

He did hang a few ornaments but mostly he played with them. And broke them. Ok…just a couple. Thank goodness for glue.

Afterwards, the kids spent a good deal of the night sitting in the dark staring at the Christmas tree lights.

You can just make out Nathan. Isabelle is right there next to him.

And as I was drawing this he walked up and saw what I was drawing and asked for raisins, not princess. So, he clearly knows he wants raisins. Maybe he thinks the lady on the box is a princess?