Car Meets Deer - Not A Love Story

Two weeks ago, Brian and I put the kids down to bed and then I drove to my parents house to help package cards for my sisters' business. I had barely turned out of our neighborhood when I saw something out of my left peripheral vision. Luckily, I wasn't going very fast since a deer decided that was the perfect time to cross the road.

And it didn't touch the hood, so that was another good thing. It rammed into the van and then rolled to the side of the road; where my dad said it was probably knocked out and would run away when it woke up. But it was still "sleeping" two hours later, so I fear the worst.

Deer evidence.

Thankfully, the kids were not in the car with me; or who knows what kind of emotional truama I'd have to deal with. "Mama kiled Bambi!" And I could predict that everytime we would get into the van, from that night on, I'd hear - "Are we going to hit another deer again?"

Uncle Ken's Election

Back in November we traveled to the hot spot of New York state - Watertown. My uncle, Ken Blankenbush, was running for NY state Assembly and we wanted to be there for election night. In the back of my mind I knew what the NYS Assembly did, but as a refresher I went to their website to get all the details. And sadly, the best explanation was on the Kids Page: http://assembly.state.ny.us/kids/?body=assm2

We brought Patrick (who was 3 months old) and my cousin, Denine, brought her son, PJ (who was 9 months old). They wore matching onesies that said "If I were 18 I would have voted for Uncle Ken". My Aunt Linda is holding Patrick and mom is holding PJ.

PJ is huge. And he is very adorable. He'll be one year old in a week and Denine is already in her second trimester for his brother or sister. We're hoping for a brother.

Uncle Ken is not a fan of getting his picture taken. Kinda unfortunate for a politician. Here he is with his "angels" - his wife, my aunt Sheila, and his sisters - my mom and aunt Linda. There was some confusion getting the picture arranged when Sheila (it might have been Linda, I was laughing so hard at the time I just know it wasn't my mother) wasn't sure what to do because she never has held a gun. We quickly brought her up to speed that past experience with a firearm was not necessary - think "Charlie's Angels".

Wanna know what nervewracking is? Watching all the polls being posted on the tv. Here Uncle Ken was less than 40 votes away form his competitor.

And then you see numbers like this and it feels MUCH better!

He won! (it was pretty much expected).

Ken graciously accepted the win on the 11:00 news that night.

On January 4, uncle Ken was sworn in as one of the newest NYS Assemblymen. There were 17 new Assembly-persons sworn in and each got to make a short speech. I was prepared for the long-haul and texted my babysitter that this was going to be a while. But luckily, each of the speeches were short and most were entertaining. It helped that we cracked jokes the whole time. We definitely were not the most reserved group during the swearing in.

Afterwards, we took a family picture. I only noticed later that Denine hid behind her huge son. Not fair, Denine!

The Jeep

We have had to restrain my father from purchasing a Power Wheels for Jamison for a few years now. While we all thought Jamie would love it, we were concerned about his safety. I don't know if you've picked this up, but Jamison is a tad bid accident prone. Every time it was mentioned I pictured Jamison driving full speed into the retaining wall in my parents back yard.

So when my parents decided this was the Christmas for Power Wheels I asked that a helmet be included. I was denied. Apparently that was considered too over-protective. I will admit, I was also the mother who asked that Jamison wear a helmet on the jet ski as well, so maybe I am a little cautious with Jamison. But COME ON! Have you seen my previous posts?!?! He's been to the ER twice, has broken his arm, and has had to have stitches on his nose. That's not even including the silly eye surgery he needed. I actually have a page in his baby book devoted to hospital bracelets. That is just not normal.

So Christmas afternoon Jamison was told to go into my parents garage and see what gift was there. I'm so glad I caught this shot of pure joy on his face - since my parents and Brian were behind him, they couldn't see it.

And then he took off! And despite his training driving with the golf cart, he immediately drove onto the lawn. Or maybe that was because of the golf cart training, who knows?

It took a lot of coordination to figure out how to make it "go" and steer. He was a little timid at first because he just floored it but couldn't steer accordingly. Lily drove it after him and her golf cart training paid off - she loved it!

After driving the Jeep outside for a while it was put in my parents cavernous basement with the bikes. When Maddie and Ruthie came up to visit it was a comedy of errors watching them all try to ride bikes and the Jeep while avoiding the beams that support my parents house. More than once a crying child came upstairs to say they got run over. We considered it a good learning experience for them.

Christmas

The night before....

The morning after....

Santa brought Jamison The Bat Cave with a whole bunch of characters that I don't understand. He was captivated and declared it "exactly what I wanted!" and "the best gift ever!". This warmed my heart. And then he made those two statements for each and every gift he opened. Somehow, it was hard to believe that a mechanical toothbrush fell into those two categories. But he was incredibly enthusiastic every time he said it.

Santa brought Lily a whole bunch of fun paints and some random lights that she chose out of a catalogue. One is a glitter bubble lamp and the other makes a rainbow in her room. She still was more interested in Jamison's Bat Cave and Jamie was happy to share it with her.

Lily wrapped random gifts for her dolls. That she then unwrapped and acted all surprised when she showed them the gifts.

This kid has the funniest facial expressions and voice inflections. It's hard to explain in writing - you just have to listen to him. Here he is trying to explain why there are half eaten carrots in our den.

This is the Reeve (Brian's mom's side) trademark sign of concentration.

Brian and Lily are still reading the Harry Potter series so when Lily saw Hermione's wand at Barnes & Noble, he didn't need any further prodding to get it for her for Christmas. Naturally, all it does is sit on her dresser because what in the world do you do with a light up wand?

Patrick woke up a bit later in the morning then the other two. I should mention that Lily and Jamison were told not to wake us until 7am. Lily came in at 7:01, but Jamison was still asleep. She was perfectly fine with crawling into bed with us and waiting until Jamie woke up around 7:30. I couldn't believe her patience AND her desire to wait for him to wake up.

A teething toy! How appropriate!

He did not like being a reindeer.

The kids each took turns opening gifts so it was a nicely paced morning. By 9:30am they were trying to stay awake on the couches while watching a SuperFriends dvd. Since they are somewhat interested in the Marvel comic book characters, we have to go back to the old school shows in order for them to be age appropriate. The more modern super hero shows - not for my children! I couldn't believe some of the situations and topics that were on a show labeled as Youth.

Not the best picture, but we're all together and dressed up.

Jim and Karan were up for Christmas this year. They were up for a bit longer than they wanted to be due to flight cancellations but it was still a good visit.