Christmas.

I know it's a little late for a Christmas post, but who cares... it's my blog, my post...

On Christmas Eve we went to my folk's house. My dad had ordered fresh lobster to be delivered from Maine (does life get any better?) but they didn't arrive. In fact, as the story goes, they were shipped to the west coast (dad tracked their progress online) and made it out to the desert. Then for some unknown reason, the package started heading west... where it sat in Los Angeles, and then eventually started traveling back to the desert! The UPS guy arrived at my parent's house with rotten lobsters that you could smell from ten feet away WITHOUT opening the box. Dad refused the delivery thus forcing UPS to RETURN the box back to the east coast... stench and all. We had prime rib instead. Yum!

That evening, Lacy put out cookies, milk and carrots for Santa and his reindeer! As Lacy fell asleep, Randy dashed for the cookies, I got stuck with the carrots. Next year I will move much faster!

Just like her mother, Lacy scrambled to open her Christmas candy found in her stocking! (Thanks mom, you are the best! I totally forgot Christmas candy!)





I had been warned about buying certain gifts for Lacy by much more experienced parents. We were told that she would, most likely, gravitate towards the cheap gift and completely ignore the expensive ones. I was sure that this would not be the case. As it turns out, we have a ridiculously overpriced Baby Alive that has gone completely ignored since she opened it... well, except when she told me that, "the baby is crying mom, feed it"! Stupid doll. The first gift Lacy opened was the bear-skin-rug (see my previous post) from my parents. As Lacy tore the wrapping paper off of the giant brown box, she exclaimed, "Thank you for my box! I love it!" What a cool kid, she was so jazzed to get a big brown box.
By far, the most popular gift at the Cramer house was the alphabet puzzle my sister found for Lacy. She is so smart! In fact, at dinner the other day, Lacy turned to us and said, "I think I want to be a doctor, like my aunt Becky". Hmmm... maybe we better get that college fund going, huh?Lacy is not just an academic, she is also artsy you know... this is her photograph of her Grampy Mike. With her Grammy Judy watching over Grampy's shoulder! It's just ingenious the angle she chose!After our breakfast we loaded up the car (no small feat) and headed off to the San Diego area. We had lunch/dinner at Randy's Aunt Lana's house. As always, everything was amazing and beautiful. Aunt Lana made Lacy the cutest hat I had ever seen (and like a total idiot I left it there!)... Aunt Lana is totally a hipper version of Martha Stewart. I envy her taste. Here is cousin Ashley, who Lacy named her Baby Alive doll after... and according to Lacy, also has cute buns! (Inside Joke)

We spent some time with the family...This is the newest member of the family, Katie... she is sooo cute.

After that, we headed back to Grams' house for more gifts.

Lacy received not one, but three Barbie dolls from her aunt Larci as well as some of the cutest clothes...

Grams gave Lacy a million gifts including three Leap Frog games and a few toys I couldn't manage to find myself! Lacy was in heaven!

By far, the coup of the entire holiday was Uncle Kyle and Aunt Natalie's gift Mr Bucket. Lacy couldn't wait to play with Mr Bucket! Lacy is a very lucky little girl.By the time we arrived home around midnight, we didn't' have a single inch of room left in our living room. We (Randy) made nearly a dozen trips from the car to the house to get everything inside! Next Christmas I hope to be in a MUCH bigger place!

Cousin Mac and The Cookie

First off, a note to my parents: evidently Tank loves Lacy's bear-skin-rug even more than we do... thought this was pretty cute... isn't this stuffed "bear" rug adorable? I love it!

This weekend we went out to the RV site with Randy's side of the family. Lacy's cousin Mac was there to play with her which is ALWAYS the highlight of her day. Mac and Lacy get along so well, they are good friends... it doesn't hurt that Mac has a very cool truck. I am always impressed with Lacy because she doesn't even have to "drive", she is just happy to participate.

Lacy loves camping and we can't wait to get our first tent trailer! Here is a picture from breakfast yesterday morning...

Finally, this morning for breakfast, we went to Flo's Diner at the Chino airport. Last time we went, Uncle Jim bought Lacy the world's largest cookie! He made sure to keep with this new tradition and Lacy was just thrilled. She loves her Uncle Jim. He plays with her just like my dad does and I am always impressed and thankful for that.

Now Mac gets to share in the tradition too... (Uncle Jim is Mac's g'pa... trust me, he is one lucky kid!)

The TomTom Experience.

This Christmas was a blast. We watched Lacy open a MILLION gifts, and it was fun! One of the gifts that both Randy and I managed to score was a TomTom which is a portable GPS navigation system. It has a little screen with a map and it tells you where and when to turn. We decided to give TomTom it's inaugural run when we went from the high desert to San Marcos yesterday... as I initiated the system and put in the coordinates, I skipped right past a seemingly unimportant screen that asked, "Would you like to avoid unpaved roads?" Obviously I wouldn't encounter any unpaved roads in Southern California, so I tapped the "NO" button and moved on with my TomTom experience. Here is where Tom Tom took us not once, but twice in what should have been a much shorter trip!

"I think we needed at Range Rover for this..."

(Somewhere between Hemet and Temecula)

I am not sure if this is even a ROAD...

Did we just pass a meth lab?

Did you ever see the movie or read the book Misery?.

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This is our SECOND TomTom required off road adventure...

Somewhere between the 15 freeway and San Marcos.

Remember the fires in San Diego County? This is it... TomTom wanted to see it too.

Finally!!!! A sign!!!

Lesson of the day: TomTom has a WICKED sense of humor!

31 years old...

My birthday started at 6:45 am, as I walked through the front door of my house (just got home from work) and quietly snuck down the hallway, I heard my Lacy call my name very softly:


Mommy, are you home?



Yes, Lacy, good morning!



Come here, I want to tell you something...it's your birthday today and I wanted to get you a present...




Yes, today is my birthday. I'm 31 years old. (I said as I sat down next to her)

I have a song for you.... happy birthday to you, happy birthday to my mommy, you're thirty one years old, happy birthday to you!

(it was the best version I had ever heard and it was followed by a three year old little girl giving me a giant hug, kiss and...)

I love you mommy, you are my best friend. And also underwear. (Her new random word she likes to toss out from time to time!)

Underwear? Under there? Under where? Over where?

He He He... yes I said underwear. (Followed by Lacy cracking herself up even more!)

Later that day we packed up the car and headed down to Coronado Island and the Hotel Del Coronado.... one word, BEAUTIFUL. Two words: FREAKING BEAUTIFUL.

Before dinner, and as the sun was just about to set, we took Lacy down to the ocean for the very first time in her life. She had a blast. It looks much darker outside than it really was. I took off both of our shoes and let Lacy put her toes in the water. Of course we managed to get in a little deeper than I anticipated, so my pants were soaked all the way to the knees. I was in heaven. Where else can you do this three days before Christmas?

After the ocean, we had a very opulent dinner at the Sheerwater inside "The Del" (as we regulars call it - ha!). I had Kobe Steak for the first time and Randy had lamb... delish. Lacy preferred to eat the butter. It was wonderful to spend a nice meal with the Isley clan. It was bittersweet, of course, to be without Big Randy, but we all thought about him and made sure to comment about how much he would have loved this meal! I know we were all thinking about our fancy schmancy meal at Disneyland's Club 33 that we had a few months ago as a family.

After dinner we all walked back to our room and had cake. Randy had made me a four layer lemon cake with raspberry-cream cheese frosting. As always, he did an amazing job!I got to open some cards and gifts... of course Lacy was there to help!This morning Lacy and I got up early and went downstairs for some hot tea and hot chocolate (her favorite!) Down in the lobby there is a giant bird that I wanted Lacy to see. This bird just hopped right up on my shoulder and watched me. I was a little afraid that it might peck my eyes out, but it didn't.I thought it was a boy bird at first, but I noticed that a sign said this was a female. So I started singing Aerosmith's song Dude Looks Like A Lady, except I changed the words to, "Bird looks like a lady..." the bird started bobbing her head and dancing every time I sang that song. It was hilarious. After a few minutes I managed to get the bird back on her cage. Later that day when I walked into the lobby, she came right to me. If I wasn't in the room she would stay on top of her cage (about eight feet in the air). Before we left for home, I went by the cage one last time. She immediately climbed down and sat on my shoulder. I decided to pet her a little and she curled up into my arms like a baby. It was hilarious. As I was about to leave, another guest asked if I'd put the bird on his arm... I said no because I really didn't know the bird (oh, and the sign that said this bird was a female, also said that the bird might bite! oops). I put the bird away and started to leave. The guest that wanted to hold the bird decided to give it a try and that bird went after him with full force: claws, beak and all! Apparently I am the bird whisperer!

On our way home we stopped at Seaport Village in San Diego and walked through the shops. Not a good idea with a toddler, but we managed to make it through.

Our last stop was very unexpected... we somehow (I think I invited myself!) to Randy's cousin's beautiful new home. Actually we had gotten off the freeway to look at the model homes, but then we managed to score an invite for dinner... Staci, David and the newest family member Baby Katie were all at their new home with Aunt Linda, Uncle Jim and Jamie Corey and Lacy's cousin Mac... here is Lacy "riding" her new pony... Uncle Jim... you know he is going to feel the pain in the morning!! He is an awesome "grandpa"!

Here is Lacy and her cousin Mac climbing on top of Jamie! Lacy and Mac have soooo much fun together!

Glasses and Santa Claus

We had to go pick out some glasses for Lacy. We were able to narrow it down to two pairs for her, but then we couldn't really decide. We ended up getting the Barbie glasses (the bigger glasses) and then decided to go back and buy the thinner glasses after the holidays. We are not sure if she is going to wear them or just pull them off and toss them on the floor, but time will tell. They are supposed to be done in a few weeks. I think she has that whole Lisa Loeb thing going with these. Maybe we'll get her a guitar for Christmas too...

Following the visit to the eye doctor, we went to see SANTA!!! Lacy made sure to ask him for a "Present" nothing specific really, just "A present, please".

My first Lacy video... hope it works!

You simply can not fail to notice that Miss Lacy marches to a beat of her very own. She refused to rehearse her "dance moves" during preschool, but preferred to do her own thing.

Notice how she improvises beautifully with her spinning, choosing not to follow the other children in there simple-minded choreography! Not a single genetic match with her parents, and yet so similar!

Court Dates and Blankets!

We had another meeting in our home with the SB county dept of children's services. It went surprisingly well. Randy and I were very nervous, not knowing what to expect. We simply didn't know what to expect, so to be on the safe side we just made sure EVERYTHING was perfect. We even reorganized the closets, cupboards and refrigerator. As to be expected, they didn't look in any of those places! The worker asked us if we needed anything or if she could answer any questions, and so I took the opportunity to tell her that we were very nervous that this was going to turn upside down on us and some family member was going to come forward to take Lacy from us. She told us that BY LAW once Lacy has been in our home for six months we have a legal right to her, and anyone other than her mother would have to take us to court and prove us unfit to parent her! Birth mom's court date is January 15th, so we are keeping our fingers crossed. This is the BIG one where she will lose any and all rights to Lacy FOREVER!!!

After the county worker left, I decided to work on a Christmas blanket for Lacy. I think it turned out pretty well! I think Lacy does too!

Can I get a little help here?

The morning of Randy's dad's funeral, I came home from a long night at work (I work from 6pm to 6:30am, and that night I had to attend THREE deliveries on top of my babies in the NICU!). Soooo... I was pretty exhausted and my day was only getting started. Randy was in the bathroom when I walked in and asked me if I would help him trim up his hair. He wanted me to make the back just a little bit shorter. I watched him place an attachment on the razor (which I assumed would allow some distance between the razor and his scalp). He handed me the razor and I began to "trim" up the back of his head. As I completed my first pass up the back, I was horrified to notice that things did not go as he probably intended...

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Unfortunately for Randy, and very fortunate for myself, I am quite good at only being "horrified on the inside". Randy had no idea what I had done. I wasn't sure if I was going to tell him either. For a moment I reassessed my options. I could:

1. Continue as if nothing has happened, leaving a giant bald strip in the back, and just hope nobody mentioned it.

2. Attempt to "fix" the hair, again, without Randy knowing what I had done.

3. Fess up.

I was highly reluctant to tell him what I had done. Unfortunately, circumstances demanded that I take the high road. I couldn't let him go like this to a funeral for his dad, right? Or could I???

Yes, I told him and Randy had to shave his entire head that morning. Oopsie!

For my husband. I know this is how he feels right now.

Funeral Blues

by W.H. Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,

Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,

Silence the pianos and with muffled drum

Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

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Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead

Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead.

Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,

Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

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He was my North, my South, my East and West,

My working week and my Sunday rest,

My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;

I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

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The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,

Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,

Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;

For nothing now can ever come to any good

Those eyes!

We have an appointment with the opthamologist today...

not a moment too soon!

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Playing in the snow!

Laughter

I have found that through nearly a decade of knowing my husband, there is nothing more enjoyable than watching him laugh. Not that little chuckle of his, but rather that throw-his-head-back-and-smile-so-big-that-his-eyes-smoosh-together laugh. Unless you know Randy VERY WELL, you will never see this display of amusement. But I am lucky enough to have a front row seat. For me this is joy...
Last night was my mother-in-law's birthday... we all met at Disneyland for a few hours of fun. Every few hours it snows along Main Street. (Bubbles, actually) Randy and Lacy were caught in a snow storm and we managed to get a few pictures!