Things I Want to Talk About

Things I do NOT want to talk about: 

1. Pops lost his race by 130 votes, less than 1% of the total.  Absolutely everyone thought he had it won no problem; the new Missouri Attorney General called Pops a few days after the election and congratulated him.  Republicans dumped $100, 000 into the race in the last three weeks, all of it negative advertising about Pops, and much of it in the form of very personal attacks.  I.e., Pops wants to take your guns away (despite having an A rating from the NRA), Pops kills babies (despite being personally opposed to abortion), Pops will raise taxes by $1 billion (I'm not exaggerating here, they literally claimed "$1 billion") and already raised your taxes as Mayor (except that he didn't, just voted with a unanimous city council to let the voters decide whether or not to raise their own taxes).  It was disgusting, and I am not pleased with the residents of Johnson County, Missouri.

2.  Today is my last birthday in my 20's.  

Things I do want to talk about: 

1.  Jack has learned to jump.  Really well.  He demonstrates this often.  We're still working on NOT jumping off stairs...

2.  Jack is attempting (with much prompting) to say "thank you."  He does the sign language pretty well.  Verbally it comes out more like "Day doooo!" but he says it with such excited conviction that I can't help but laugh happily.

3.  Jack has learned to do all the motions to the following rhyme:

Teddy bear, Teddy bear, touch your nose,
Teddy bear, Teddy bear, touch your toes;
Teddy bear, Teddy bear, touch the ground,
Teddy bear, Teddy bear, turn around.

Teddy bear, Teddy bear, climb the stairs, (we say "touch your hair" instead)
Teddy bear, Teddy bear, say your prayers;
Teddy bear, Teddy bear, turn off the light,
Teddy bear, Teddy bear, say goodnight!

At "say goodnight," he lays his head down and starts making snoring noises.  Really, really adorable.

4.  Jack learned to say "gobble, gobble," and "Ho, ho, ho," which he says when he hears the words turkey and Santa respectively.

5.  Jack now picks up the phone and says, " 'Low?"

6.  Our neighbors gave us a toy horse that their children had outgrown, so now Jack rides on this new horse and frequently asks me to ride with him on his old, larger horse.

7.  We had a fantastic Thanksgiving in Lousiana with Ben's extended family.  It was Jack's first time down the bayou, and despite not being used to the hubbub that comes with a massive, massive family (Granddad is the oldest of 8 children, and all but one of them were there, most with their own children!) Jack had a great time.  He truly is the most adaptable little boy!

8. We've finally become normal again.  You see, Ben is the type of person who sings Christmas songs in August.  We've been listening to the Christmas radio station since it came on the air in October.  Early October.  We've had a Christmas song playlist for over a month.  But now we're in the norm again, as everyone is listening to Christmas music!

9.  Jack is obsessed with football.  Since we don't watch TV during the week, he thinks the TV is a football playing machine.  As soon as he wakes up on Saturdays and Sundays, he notices that Ben is staying home and immediately starts pointing to the TV and saying "'ball, 'ball."  Even being on ESPN alone isn't sufficient; there has to be a play in progress for Jack to consider it "'ball."  As soon as the players start running, he yells, "Boom!  Down!" by which time they generally are on the ground.  The Christmas bowl season will be heaven for him.  I'm a little worried about Jack going into withdrawal once the football season ends.  More worrying, however, is the prospect that he'll soon become attached to the NBA.  I love football, but basketball?  Not Momma's favorite.