The extent of our New Year's Eve celebration was party hats and "sparkies," which both boys liked to watch but neither of them wanted to touch.
The boys and I spent the day in Greenville but were back in time for dinner with Jeremy. That's when I handed out the party hats I'd bought at Wilson's earlier today. We also broke out the sparklers, and then, about 7:30, the boys went to bed, which is where I'm heading as soon as this post is published. Absolutely NO part of me cares about making it up until midnight, which is hard for even me to believe, because watching the ball drop used to be as must-see-tv for me as the Macy's Parade.
My how things have changed.
A couple of notable things to remember about tonight's "celebration" (such as it was):
1) Jones was so excited about the party hats (not surprisingly). He kept saying, "Happy BIRTH-day, Mama! Happy BIRTH-day, Freedie" and then "I've got my party hat!"
2) Freddie had a hard time figuring out his hats, though he loved both kinds he tried on. When he had on the top hat-type, he'd take it off and say, "Yeeeeee-hawwwwwww."
3) Jones called sparklers, "Sparkies." I'm going to call them that forever now and people will wonder if that's what I really think they are.
Here are some pictures that come with a sincere wish for a happy, HEALTHY New Year.
"Yeeeee-haw!"
Jones LOVES to perform for his reflection - or
his shadow. He just can't resist it.
I love how all you see of the "Freddie"
on this shirt is "Fred."
At one point, Jones spontaneously hugged Freddie, which he does a lot - he also randomly throws him on the ground and pulls his hair. Emotional yin and yang.
I was talking to my friend Brooke, while the boys ran, willy nilly, up and down the hallway, in and out of each others' rooms, opening and closing doors like they were acting out a French farce. This is very probably their favorite thing in the world to do (I'm not joking), and I'm just now getting to where I feel comfortable letting them do it without my watching every single second out of fear that they'll accidentally drink the Drano under my bathroom sink (that is ALSO not a joke).
After a few minutes of jubilant mayhem, I heard Freddie WAILING. I have no idea what happened, but I DO know that, when I walked in to Jones's room where both boys were at that point, Jones was hiding behind his bed, saying to me:
"Sorry. Sorry. You (for)'give me?"
"Yes, Son. I forgive you, but what did you do?"
"Sorry. Sorry."
I still have no idea what happened, but that guilty conscience tells me something did.
I'm assuaging the guilt I feel for not yet writing a Christmas post by writing a totally random post full of morsels that are completely unrelated to the holidays.
1) A few weeks ago, Jones started wanting to pray for himself - at every meal, at every bedtime, whenever we pray, Jones wants to be the one to do it, which I think is awesome. Generally, when we say it's time to pray, he'll just start praying. Then, afterwards, he'll say, "I pray. Not you pray. I pray."
Like Camden, who prayed, "Dear Jesus, thank You that I'm strong, and I run fast, and I have toys" from the age of two until about five, Jones says the same thing every time, but most of it is indistinguishable. "Dear Jesus, blahblahblah get ready, blahblahblah get ready, blahablahblah get ready. A-men."
Not surprisingly, Freddie is now wanting to pray all the time, too - "I pay. I pay," he says. Like Jones, his prayers are also indistinguishable, but they are easier to transcribe, "Dee dee dee dee dee A-nan." This means that meal times often involve three prayers - Daddy's (or mine, if he's not home), Jones's, and Freddie's, after which I always tell them, "God loves it when you talk to Him!" just so they'll always know that, and then I silently pray myself and ask God that they would ALWAYS want to talk to Him.
When I leave his room, Freddie will inevitably keep saying, "I pay. I pay!" and I'll tell him, "You can keep praying as long as you want even when I'm not in the room."
2) Jones has started saying, "Yo-ho, let's goooooooo!" whenever we go somewhere - or when he walks from his playroom to his bedroom or when he's riding in the car buggy at Food Lion and is ready to move to the next aisle. I completely LOVE that he does this - quoting Jake and the Neverland Pirates, of which he hasn't really been a fan since very early on - because it's the first time I've heard a definite Southern accent, and I think Southern boys SHOULD announce their special heritage by the way that they talk, so it thrills me to hear that Jones Pressley does.
Here's an example from sitting in the car at The Pressley Group yesterday. You can also hear it spontaneously come up in another video in this post, too (in that video, Freddie tries it, too). I should add here that he always winds his arm up like Jake does when he says it.
I'm sure I'd say the same thing about girls if I had a daughter, but I just can't imagine anything in the world that's better than little boys.
3) The boys got multiple guitars for Christmas this year. Yesterday, Jones wanted to play with the one Freddie got from his Nan. I showed him how to turn it on, and he immediately started singing, "Bullseye," which is on the Riders in the Sky CD of music inspired by "Toy Story." The boys and I listen to this in the car a lot, but I was amazed with how well he'd picked up the lyrics. There I go underestimating him again!
"Bullseye, my pony! Bullseye, my prize! Bullseye, mi amigo ..."
4) The architects came to take measurements for our remodel (there aren't enough exclamation points in America to express my excitement about this). While they did, the boys and I sequestered ourselves in the den. Insanity - and photography - ensued (also, the fact that my boys are wearing shorts, t-shirts, and sandals the week of New Years' is the best Christmas gift I've ever been given).
Jeremy didn't think they'd use those bean bag chairs,
but every morning, they are the first thing the boys
pull out - the "Wildcat peel-ow" and the "Tarheel peel-ow."
Bulls-eye was a total Christmas Eve impulse buy,
but he's made a GREAT addition to the menagerie.
The boys LOVE him - and so do Jeremy and I. We
both recline on the little buckaroo!
"Mr. Sun, Sun! Mr. Golden Sun,
please shine down on me!"
5) When Freddie pitches a fit, as soon as I say, "Okay. We're going to your room," he will IMMEDIATELY shut up and say, "I 'kay. I 'kay." It's kind of ridiculous how adorable it is ... and just as ridiculous how quickly he turns the waterworks on and off.
6) A couple of weeks ago, I was singing to Freddie before bed when he all of a sudden
put his lips on my left cheek. He blew on it and then came to the middle and said, "Zerbert." Then he went to the right side, pressed his lips on my cheek, blew, came back to the middle and said, "Zerbert." He did this MULTIPLE times - going from one side to the other, proudly saying, "Zerbert" in between blows. I didn't even know he knew that word! We use it with Jones, but Freddie had never said it himself, so for him to randomly use it, interrupting me as I sang, was hilarious. He still does this some - though not every nite - and I love it.
Along these lines, the other day, I was laying on the couch. Freddie was standing between me and the back of it. He tooted. When he did, he immediately looked at me and said, "I zerbert!"
7) Freddie calls pizza "putz-a."
8) I'm sitting in the den right now, watching Freddie play and steal the "gapes" (grapes) that a still-napping Jones didn't finish this morning. He just walked one over to Bullseye and gave him one. Thomas Frederick Pressley is a special kind of precious.
9) Jones's potty train totally stalled out, because of my complete lack of commitment to it. He wasn't interested in GOING in the potty (though he loved SITTING on it), and I wasn't in the mood to force it yet. Well, turns out that may have been providential (OF COURSE, it was providential). Out of nowhere, Freddie has started telling me as soon as he's "wet" (after which, he'll crinkle his nose and say, "yuh-yuck!") or "'tinky winky." Yesterday, he kept wanting to go sit on the big potty in my bathroom, and overnight, he stayed dry for the first time, so it looks like I'm going to get to train them both at the same time, which I've, deep down, assumed would happen all along.
Freddie's readiness definitely seems to be God's answer to my longstanding prayer about timing of training, so BOTH Pressley boys are about to begin potty training bootcamp, and I'm going to start thinking of ways to spend the extra $120 / month we won't be spending on diapers!
My prediction is that Freddie will be a lot easier to train than Jones will be, but maybe Freddie's willingness to train will inspire Jones to follow suit?
Here's hoping!
10) Finally, here's one more rendition of "Away in a Manger," mostly because I cannot believe how my boy is starting to sing along with things and also because "Da weetle Ward Jesus ..." is about to kill me from its cuteness. This "singing-along" thing means big changes for our Hymns of the Month starting in January - but that's a post for another day ... like, after I write the Christmas post I have GOT to sit down and do!
The back of the chair that's, due to the Christmas tree, presently (and temporarily) in front of one of the den windows has become Freddie's favorite spot to sit. It makes me a nervous wreck, because one misjudged distance, and he can fall right off the side of the chair. I have, however, taken some consolation in the fact that the window is there to keep him from falling off of one side if not the other.
Until today, he'd never sat on the back of the chair's match across the room. I was in the kitchen on the phone with my friend Brooke when I heard some YEEHAW'ing coming from the den. "Foose. Foose." ("Horse, horse"), he told me when I walked in.
Because I can't seem to keep up with writing posts about every Christmas celebration, here's a catch-all post about what holiday sort of stuff we've been up to.
1) SNOWMAN. The boys still call Santa "Snowman." By extension, every Christmas special we watch on Netflix (and there are MANY) is called "Snowman" + Name of Primary Character in Said Special. Our favorites are "Snowman Mickey" (Mickey's Once (and Twice) Upon a Christmas), "Snowman Pooh" (A Very Merry Pooh Year), "Snowman Thomas" (Merry Christmas, Thomas), and "Snowman Bob" (Bob's White Christmas).
As a result of this, we've not talked up the Santa aspect of Christmas AT ALL. It'd be fine with me if we never had to. I know that we will - probably next year, but for now, we've gotten a reprieve from all that, and that is fine by me.
2) DOWNTOWN WAYNESVILLE'S NITE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Early in the season, I saw that Waynesville First Baptist Church was having a Living Nativity to coincide with the downtown-wide Nite Before Christmas celebration. We'd all planned to go, but since the Tarheels were still playing when the time came, it ended up just being me and Jones.
Weather-wise, it was perfect. Just barely cool enough to require a sweater, it was so comfortable (read: wonderful) being outside. After we waited in the LOOOOONNNNGGG line to get into the Living Nativity, Jones and I had ZERO luck finding the actual Nativity. In fact, I assumed there was only a recreated Bethlehem, because I saw NO evidence of a stable, animals, etc. I couldn't find any of the stuff that we came to see (we later found out it was on the street behind where we were. BUMMER. Also, SIGNAGE, PLEASE).
So Jones and I left and headed down Main Street. First stop was City Bakery for some sweet treats, which we then sat and ate. As we headed down Main Street, Jones saw a horse drawn carriage. Of course, he was OBSESSED with it. We saw a sign on it that said that rides started at the United Community Bank, so we headed that way.
When we got there, there were AT LEAST a half million people in line. Jones said, unequivocally, that he wanted to ride it, and though I feared waiting 90 minutes for him to chicken out at the pivotal moment, we stood and waited, because, as Jones says whenever he sees Christmas lights, "It's Chreeeesmastime, Mama."
At 7:30, we'd been in line for an hour and moved, maybe 10 feet. Jones was officially up past his bedtime and was getting restless ... and whiny. I warned him several times that we would leave, if he didn't quit whining and disobeying. He didn't quit, so I made good on my promise to leave.
This was a really hard decision to make - I wanted him to ride it, if he wanted to, but at the same time, I didn't want to send the message that I didn't mean what I said (and I wasn't sure that he wouldn't get to the front of the line and then refuse to board the wagon), so after more warnings than I'd typically give to quit the whining and the temper tantrums, we walked away.
There were about four or five blocks - maybe a few more - between where we were standing and where our car was parked. Jones screamed for every single one of those blocks. Nothing shatters the magic of a Christmas evening quite like a screaming toddler being carried by his huffing-puffing, out- of-shape mother up the steady incline of a mountain Main Street.
People would (understandably) stop and stare at the screaming child. It was one of the few times in my life when I wanted to climb in a whole and cover myself up with lawn divots.
(As a result of his behavior on this nite, I very sadly decided to skip the church Christmas concert I'd planned to take him to the next nite. Maybe by NEXT Christmas, he'll be better able to handle later-than-usual nites.)
3) ROPER MOUNTAIN CHRISTMAS LIGHTS. When I was in high school, I have very vivid memories of driving through to see the Roper Mountain Christmas Lights every year. Typically, we'd pile in my convertible or Seth's, roll the top back, and "Go Around Again Free" again and again, until we just got bored of the whole thing.
So this year, Mom, Daddy, and I took the boys to see the lights, too (Jeremy was in Canton, working, on the nite we went). Freddie was really quiet the entire time - the next nite, he broke a fever, so I'm guessing he wasn't feeling well - but Jones thoroughly enjoyed it.
This picture is possibly the most "Jones" picture ever -
holding a tractor while looking at Christmas lights.
"These are a few of his favorite things."
4) CAT DUDE. At Pawleys Island this summer, Daddy asked Jones if he were a dude. Jones responded, "I a Cat Dude." "Cat Dude" has become a running theme in their conversations, prompting a simple gift from Jojo to become Pop's First Gift of Christmas.
5) UNCLE JIM & AUNT ZEATA'S. On the Saturday before Christmas, we went to Jeremy's Aunt Zeata's house to see his cousins and their families. The boys were as good as gold, mercifully, mostly because they sat at Zeata's kitchen bar eating "beebees" (strawberries / blueberries), crackers, and Chicken McNuggets the entire time. They wore their "Christmas hats." I bought these hats, a match to their Christmas Eve pants, when Gymboree had them on sale for $5 each. I go back and forth between thinking they're adorable and thinking they make the boys look like idiots, but both boys ADORE them, so we're there ya go.
6) ARDEN PRESBYTERIAN SUNDAY SCHOOL BRUNCH. When we showed up for Sunday school on Sunday, we were met by a deacon at the door to the boys' building. He said, "You know there's no Sunday school today?" Having missed last Sunday, we didn't. "There's a church-wide fellowship!" we were told. So off we went, and it was really, really fun. First of all, we got to meet some new people and visit with some old friends, but also, the boys played REALLY well, and they didn't stay right at my feet. They played in an open space a few feet in front of me, which was awesome to see them feeling more comfortable in our new church.
Then, we went to church, where Mr. John gave Jones a wooden boat he'd made. You'd have thought he'd given him a chest of gold. He was SO excited.
7) PRESENTS. I've purposely kept the presents out of the den, assuming they'd be a huge temptation for the boys. Rather than worry what they were up to when I'm in any other room of the house, I just left the presents spread out in little piles all over the office floor. The boys have shown ZERO interest in them. In fact, they've been SO uninterested in them that I'd started thinking that maybe it was safe to bring some in to the den.
Before I could do it, though, Jeremy brought two of my gifts in on Sunday nite. I opened one (THAT'S a story in and of itself; let me just tell you ...). The other he left propped up against the wall under the tree to stay until Christmas morning. The next day, I came in to THIS scene.
Jones's curiosity had gotten the better of him. He didn't get in trouble - after all, I'd never told him NOT to open the presents under the tree - but I DID decide that, at this point, it was better to keep the gifts in the office, safely away from inquiring little minds.
By the way, the gift he opened is the new biography of Rosemary Kennedy. I started it last nite, and it.is.AMAZING.
8) CHRISTMAS WITH THE BOONE FAMILY. As we always do, we had Christmas with Jeremy's extended family a few days early at cousin Carrie's house. All day, I practiced with the boys what to say when they got a gift and reminded them to say, "Merry Christmas!"
When I asked Freddie what to say when someone gave him a present, he said, "God," but it sounded more like "Gawwwwww-uddd," and I couldn't ever get it on camera. Now, in spite of our practicing, Jones's delivery was significantly less spirited and more shy in person, but he managed to say, "Thank you" and even told people "Merry Christmas" as we left. Freddie's version is "Kissy!" which is absolutely awesome and which I also hope to capture on video before the end of the season. It's just that they almost always quit their tricks as soon as they see me start rolling on the camera.
As they always do, Jones and Freddie had a BALL playing with little little Lila's toys at Carrie's house. Her piano was again a huge hit (JoJo is getting a piano from my parents, though it's black instead of pink, per Jeremy's request!), but the coffee pot (or the Minnie Mouse "Toon Car") was probably the favorite this visit.
Jones asked everyone who walked in the room if they wanted coffee. He'd then pour them a cup, which was really pouring from one pot into another and then handing one pot to the person. At one point, Jones pulled out Lila's Bitty Baby high chair. Not knowing it was a seat for dolls and not boys, Jones tried to climb in it. I showed him that it's for feeding babies and put the doll that Lila named Freddie in it (seriously. She has Bitty Babies named Jones and Freddie - Jones has brown eyes and Freddie has blue, and this is one of my favorite things ever). Jones said, "Oh! Alright! I make him some coffee." I'm sure that's just what Baby Freddie wanted. Jones was willing to be in the group photo of the ten great grandkids this year, which was a nice change of pace, and when we pulled out of the driveway, he said, "That was fu-uu-un!"
Freddie, on the other hand, wasn't as excited about the group photo. He ran off after a few awkward shots. He did, however, love the coffee pot. When it came time to go, Freddie walked around Lila's room and said, "Bye bye, Baby" to each of her dolls in their different beds around her room. Then next day, we were driving around, and he said, "I want Yiyah!" For the first time ever, I think he met LITTLE Lila instead of the older Lila we'll see tomorrow!
9) LINUS. Finally, Jeremy and I have been trying to watch a Christmas movie a nite this week. After getting home from Carrie's, we watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Jeremy very quickly noticed a familiarity between one of our boys and one of the characters.
So that's Christmas so far. Tonite, we are planning to go out as a family of four (mostly so that they boys don't re-destroy the house once I get it straightened up today), and tomorrow, we head to Greenville mid-morning. It will be interesting to see how Jones and Freddie like the pandemonium of Christmas Eve at Mayme and Pop's house!
A couple of notable things to remember about tonight's "celebration" (such as it was):
A couple of notable things to remember about tonight's "celebration" (such as it was):
