out with the old...

i'm sitting here...alone in my big, dark house...
listening to the quiet reign.
my boys are outside, making bonfires in barrels.
it's cold out there...and until those fires get really roaring, i'm content to stay inside.

i've just been going through the piles of photos that litter my hard drive.
there's quite a few. heh.
it's interesting to view them as a whole...as an entire unit instead of monthly (i organize them by month).
i watched my photographic ability kind of wobble, take a bit of a nose dive in september and then start to climb back up to where it was at the beginning of the year.
i suppose i could blame that on complete and utter lack of creative energy around september/october (due to a little thing called pregnancy)...but regardless...it's a little dispiriting to see.

in addition to watching my photography skills wax and wane, i watched my boy grow from a baby into a little boy. what an amazing progression! (i hope to have his two year old update on here soon) looking back at where he was just a year ago to now is almost more than my mind can take in right now. utter amazement.





welcome 2009.
it's tough for me to say goodbye to 2008.
it almost seems like it would be easier to stay here...
in the comfortable, the familiar.
who knows what 2009 will bring?
it's dark and murky and a little bit intimidating to peer into its future.
but i suppose i best approach 2009 as i did 2008:
one step at a time...
one day at a time.

ps. i'll try to be a better blogger in 2009. :o)

until next time...

so...i've really been wanting to blog lately.
but naptime is still a struggle.
if i get twenty minutes...i consider myself lucky.
and on top of that...john hasn't been getting home until eight-ish every night
so by the time he gets home and we get the dude in bed...i fall into bed too.
maybe this weekend i'll have time to post some holiday goodness...
but for now...
this will have to do!

naptime, shmaptime.

i just exhausted my repertoire of christmas songs singing elijah to sleep.
and i have a rather large repertoire.
trust me.
*sigh*
i don't know what to do with that boy and naptime!
he's been doing so great going to bed at night on his own...i can't understand why naptime poses such a problem.
if i'm a hardnose and make him stay in his room by himself, he rarely falls asleep. he doesn't play with his toys or try to climb up the shelves...he just sits on his bed or hangs over the gate and cries. if he does happen to fall asleep on his own, i'm sure it's accidental and he wakes up less than 30 minutes later, just sobbing.
but, if i sit with him, rub his head or sing to him (like i did today), he's out in minutes.
what gives?

on a totally unrelated note, we're going to get our christmas tree tomorrow! hooray! i've been slowly pulling decorations out over the last few weeks, just bit by bit. elijah has his own tree in the corner, next to the fireplace. he loves to pull the ornaments down, play with them for a bit and then put them back. he did a great job decorating it! obviously, only the bottom half of the tree is covered (for the most part) but he didn't glob them all into a single section...there's even some on the back! he had me put a few up high...to balance it out i suppose?

little boys and their toys...

i didn't take many pictures during thanksgiving weekend. i've been taking it easy with my camera lately and last weekend was no exception. but i did want to share this one...we were hanging out in the orchard at john's parents' old house, waiting for the turkey to finish cooking. john brought a bunch of elijah's ride-on toys with us: two bikes, two four-wheelers and his battery operated car. (note: these toys were given to elijah...we only bought one of them! seriously...my son has a ridiculously overwhelming number of bike-eqse toys.) after trying to ride his big boy bike and failing miserably (the ground was just too soft), he decided on this one and had the best time ever. just a little plug here for this radio flyer bike: it was probably the best $30 we've ever spent on elijah. it was his only christmas present last year...and it has served us well. he's probably a bit too big to be riding it anymore since he now likes to do wheelies and other crazy stunts on it but seriously...the look on his face says it all. oh boys and their toys...

ho ho ho?

well...it's tiny...but it's proof that elijah did visit santa today. though he talked about santa all morning...he wasn't thrilled with the idea once we got up there...which is why i'm sitting with him too. but oh well...at least he didn't cry.