The McCleese Adventures: January 2010

I already know that I am not currently remembering all of the funny things we've been hearing from our boys lately, so I'll have to come back and add to the post as I can. But I wanted to get a few out there while I'm in "blog mode."

First, anyone that knows Owen knows that he is a character. He is incredibly funny and knows that he is a clown...he also lives in his own 2-yr-old world and is many times oblivious to what is going on around him or that he's in trouble, etc. One night at the dinner table, he wasn't minding and after several times of telling him something Wes got up and walked around to Owen's side of the table. Wes gave Owen a stern fussing that was headed towards a spanking if Owen didn't mind. Somewhere during the brief but stern "talking to" that Wes was giving to him, Owen looked right up at Wes' face, giggled and said "Daddy, you're so funny." Something about the timing and how he said it...it was hilarious. We busted out laughing (well, I did...Wes did too once he realized I'd completely ruined the mood) and it's safe to say that the moment ended much differently than it started. Now we often find ourselves having to walk out of the room while one or the other of us is trying to fuss at Owen about something so that the other can keep a straight face. The kid is something else.

One recent comment from Will came while riding in the car and was about my cousin, Lee. My boys L.O.V.E Lee. They got to visit with him some over the holidays, and Will busted out with a random "when is Lee coming over to play again?" I told him "we'll get him over soon." (The natural 5-year-old response "ok, so he can play this afternoon?" Well...not THAT soon.) Owen took this chance to bust out with "Yeah! Lee!!" Will looked at Owen and VERY sternly said "Owen, Lee is MY cousin, not yours! You can have the girl cousins, ok?" (Note that Lee is actually MY cousin and is 29 yrs old. But Will thinks he is a great play-mate). I laughed and when I recovered I explained that Lee was Owen's cousin too. Will responded with "MMMAAAANNNN! Why do I have to share EVERYTHING?????"

The most recent funny topic of discussion lately is from Will. He has learned to read and is interested in reading everything. Including the little words on toys. So the other night he had a little Star Wars figure at the table and he all of a sudden said "THIS toy is made in China TOO? Just EVERYTHING is made in China!" Ha...if he only knew. This was followed by another China remark a few days ago. I was taking him to school and he had a toy from Santa with him in the car. He said "Mom, THIS toy from Santa says made in China! I thought the elves made toys for Santa." He gave one of his long, thoughtful pauses and said "soooo, maybe the elves buy toys in China, too?" Uh, oh.

Last funny thing...and it's not so much what either boy said. It was their reactions. In early December, Karin's sister came down to visit her and brought her 2 month old twin daughters. Karin brought the babies over to visit one day. The pics will do most of the talking, but I'll summarize by saying that Will loved the babies. He wanted to hold them and talk to them and played peekaboo, etc. He had a good time with them. Owen, however, did not enjoy the babies. He wanted Karin to himself and was not happy with her holding the babies or me messing with them either. His face below says it all...

Sweet Will wanted to hold them all by himself and was so sweet and careful.

Check out that face!!! Can you tell what HE thinks of the babies?

Wow...it's been a long time since I've blogged. Let's catch up a little bit. Of course we have to start with all things Christmas. It was a WILD one this year...we pretty much saw it coming since we have a 2 year old and five year old. Lots of fun! I'll start with some pics from going to see the Square in Canton all "dressed up" for Christmas. We went with Aunt Nora and my cousin Lee and had a ball (thanks for such a great time, you guys!). We will definitely try to make this an annual event. If you've never been, they put "the biggest Christmas tree in the whole world" (according to Will) up in the square, have several toy and animation museums with old and new toys many of which move and play music, etc. There was a carousel and train/firetruck ride around the Square. Definitely go see it if you've never been. Here are some pics of that:

At the base of the big Christmas tree

Riding the rides

Taking a spin in the "firetruck" around the Square.

Now let's jump on into Christmas. The boys had a great time and this is the first year that Owen at least had some idea of what the excitement was about. Because Will's birthday was earlier in December, Owen kept telling us it was about to be his birthday. We used that as the chance to explain that Christmas is Jesus' birthday...and Owen decided that was great. I got to listen to his sweet voice sing "Happy Birthday to Jesus" for weeks! I miss it!!! We also had a fun "addition to the traditions" this year when we added Jingle, our Elf on a Shelf. This is the first year we've done it and the boys LOVED Jingle. We've already written 2 letters to Jingle since Christmas asking him to please come back next year. If you don't know how this works, it's a little red elf that comes with a book. The book explains to the kids that Santa sent their family one of his elves for December and each night, the elf flies home to the North Pole and reports in to Santa. And let me tell you...this works like a charm. Each morning after Jingle's "flight back to Santa" he landed in a new place around the house. The boys would find him and ask about his trip, tell him good night in the evenings, etc. We obviously didn't do a good job of explaining to Owen that on Christmas Eve, Jingle goes back to live with Santa for the year...b/c the poor kid fell apart when he realized Jingle wasn't out anymore. Now, the one disclaimer for those of you thinking about doing it...there is much dismay over those nights when Jingle "forgot to fly home" and was found the next morning in the same place as he was the previous day. Setting the alarm on your cell phone as a reminder of the coming "flight" works well for this dilemma.

We started Christmas Eve with the candlelight service at our church, then headed down to Mamaw and Papa Wallace's house for Christmas Eve dinner and presents. Owen was so excited to finally get to open the presents he'd been looking at sitting under the tree for so long. We get the kids in bed, make sure Santa arrives and start Christmas Day EARLY. On several levels. We always have a big brunch here at our house with parents and grandparents, so I get up early getting ready for that. But we also have Will the Early Bird who can not wait for Santa to come. This year, we had an extra special Christmas since Karin (our "adopted family") stayed in MS and was with us for all the fun. This is where the second "Will the Early Bird" comes in, since he apparently woke Karin up at 3:30am Christmas morning and pretty much never went back to sleep (nor let Karin get much either...thanks for being a trooper, K!). Note that we had to wake Owen up to come see what Santa brought...and he was not very appreciative. We headed into the brunch and everyone had a big and grand time. It really was a fun morning. Owen, apparently getting a little overwhelmed with all the people, presents and the fact that he was still mad we woke him up early, decided to take his favorite toys and disappear into his bedroom and close the door. :-) He'd had enough! We rounded out our holiday by heading to Vicksburg that night to eat and do presents with Wes' parents and brother's family. That is always a fun and exciting time getting the 4 boys (we have 2 nephews, Andy and Kyle) together to play! Ok, enough talk...let's to pictures. I will do another blog post in a bit of funny things we've been hearing from Will, and there will be some Christmas funnies in there. But for now, we'll do the pics!