'Tis the Season...

I've had an enormous struggle for whatever reason this season, not to completely go overboard buying gifts for Lake. He's at such a fun age, and he's so much more vocal this year. He's been meticulously going through the Christmas catalogs (btw, how are we on SO MANY CATALOG LISTS? I don't shop THAT much!) picking out all the things he wants 'Santa' to bring him. He's at the point now that he's saying, "Santa's going to bring me everything on this page." He's not, but I'm having a hard time explaining that to him. He has quite the little sense of entitlement. He's three. I guess his world still revolves only around him. I've been trying to teach him about all the little kids in the world that don't have beds, toys, clothes, etc..but I'm not sure he's getting it quite yet. It's hard to explain privilege to a 3 year old, but we're starting early. I desperately want to instill a sense of service in him young; simply due to the fact that we do have a greater responsibility because we are privileged to those who are less fortunate than we are.

I've also been teaching him about Creation this season, and how God made the mountains, rivers, people, animals and all the other glorious riches on our Earth, so he's been getting God and Santa mixed up. (Naturally. They're woven from the same thread, right? Both are givers of great gifts. I can see where he gets them confused.)

The other day he said, "Mommy, my toys are so beautiful." (I always talk about the beauty of the trees, or the flowers, etc). Then he said, "God made them. He made them ALL for me." I was like, hmmm. Well, Santa made the toys, and God made people, and people help Santa pass out the toys..which made him pretty happy. At least he's getting the concept, or at least starting to, right?

We're also having work done on our chimney. Yes, it's official. We live in a money pit. If you haven't seen the 80's classic film by that title, watch it. That's our house. The chimney needs rebuilt. (Shock. Disbelief.) Of course, I've been discussing Santa coming down the chimney as we've been talking about the upcoming holiday; which led Lakie to believe the masons who brought the scaffolding and started working on the chimney yesterday were 'Santa'. He said, Mommy, "Santa is outside, working on the chimney. Let's go see him!" Last time I checked, Santa wasn't two, 6 foot tall 200 + pound bearded dudes in Carrharts chugging Diet Cokes, but hey that may be some kids' Santa somewhere in the world! He had to go out and say hello to them, just to make sure they WEREN'T Santa, but he was still very impressed with them both.

Regardless of his confusion on who Santa is, where he's coming from, and in what shape or form, there is still boundless JOY emanating from every little pore of his being - and I must say this has been the most fun holiday already. We decorated the Christmas trees on Sunday and he was just in absolute awe of it all. The perfect summation of that day was "Mommy, I LOVE my Christmas Trees. I love them." I still have quite a bit of decorating left to do, but he's loving it already.

I'm wishing each of you boundless joy too this Christmas...hopefully, it will be less energetic than my little bucket of joy, but present in your homes anyway!

Peace & Grace,

Our Little Trick-or-Treaters in the Kokomo Tribune (Submitted by the Grandpa)

READER PHOTOS: Week of Nov. 5

The kids made the Kokomo Tribune, (again) with their Halloween photo published on the Home Page online. Little Stars! They misspelled Albrecht, but hey, that's okay! We don't want everyone to know how almost famous Lake already is.

Click on the Reader Photos link above, and scroll down on the page to see them on the right.

Enjoy!

I'll be posting some new photos very soon.

For The Record...

Lakie is officially a big boy. He told me so just this morning. He woke up, in his skeleton pajamas, and said, "Mommy, I'm a bag of bones!" He's funny, isn't he? I told him that last night, when he was looking at his glow-in-the-dark bones, on his jammies. Then he said to me, "I'm big. I'm getting tall. I'm a big boy, Mommy". True, true. Sad, but true.

He's completely potty trained. Which is unbelievable, really. People always say potty training boys is tough. It wasn't the case, thankfully, with Lakie. He was so easy. We did it in four days. He's been trained for about a month now. #1, #2, and for the most part, even dry through the night. The funniest thing he said during the process is "Daddy, I can't go poo. Can you help me? It hurts. It won't come out, it's LOCKED!"

Daddy must have had the key...because he rubbed his back and his belly, and it became 'unlocked'. Whew. That was a close one.

He's been a rock star at school, and even at Grandma's. We've really had no accidents, which is good. However, he has taken to dropping trou and pottying outside. It's a nice shock for the neighbors, I'm sure.

He's moving into the "Preschool" class at his daycare. It states that you must be three, and you must be potty-trained. That was a sad day for his mama when they told me he's moving into the Preschool room. He had just gotten used to "Miss Raine" and "Miss Barbara," his two-year old classroom teachers. They are going to  miss him, I'm sure. (Or, at least I hope so!)

He's still only going two days a week, so hopefully the transition will not be that bad. They had computers in the classroom, along with all the other fun pre-school stuff. They still have "rest" time, but he never rests there anyway. Too much going on, I assume.

That's all the news we have for now. We are going to paint pumpkins (self-portraits) this weekend...Each of us will paint our own pumpkin. I'm still deciding what will go on mine. I'm sure lots of glitter and some bright colors, no doubt. John's will probably be drawn up ahead of time in PhotoShop or SketchUp, and then painted in 3-D or something ridiculously grand and well planned. And, Lake's, well his will be plain brilliant. He's a child prodigy. In case you didn't know.

We're also going to attempt to make cut-out "painted" cookies and hit ZooBoo with the fam on Sunday. Lake's a lion. He's been practicing his "ROAR"! Which is helpful, especially in our neighborhood. It always helps to have a second guard dog on the lookout!

Peace,

Digging In Again.

It's been over a year since I've worked on  our family blog; since someone graciously decided to hack into all of my accounts last summer. They even left me nice little notes saying "It was just for fun". Yeah, right. Good times had by all. However, I realize how much I'm missing by not recording the small things with Lake. He's growing up so fast, it really is a detriment to myself and to John and anyone else who cares to follow along with our crazy lives, for me not to be keeping a record of our golden little moments.
So here I am again, diggin' in to the world of personal blogging. I hope to record as much as I can, as often as I can, and maybe someone can help keep me accountable! (I have lots going on, you know?) But, when all is said and done, this journal will help me remember all of the little things that should be at the forefront of my mind, because after all, they are the only things that really matter.
Peace.