2006 was a good year

Well, we have returned home from the wilds of Georgia and are attempting to settle back into our routine. Our trip yesterday ended up taking a VERY long time because we stopped at the Mall of Georgia for a "break." We ate lunch with about 1 billion other people who had also decided to take a break and then walked around for a while. Somehow, David decided that we should walk outside the mall and we missed Gymboree! Sneaky! I did not buy 1 thing, even though I wanted to, which included $3 shower gel at Bath and Body Works and wrapping paper that was 50% off at Hallmark. I have quite enough of that and I learned my lesson this year with Christmas cards. I thought I was being all smooth last year and bought a TON of Christmas cards with 4x6 picture slots in them. Maggie's Christmas pictures were all 3x5 so my cards ended up looking kind of ghetto. Oh well. Hopefully people pulled the pictures out and threw the cards away. I have already decided that we are doing the kind where you don't even have to sign them next year. Speaking of Christmas cards, we got a card from every family who adopted a Lianjiang baby with us from China. They are all so cute and are all on our refrigerator. We got a BUNCH of Christmas cards this year with baby pictures in them.

Today was sort of interesting. Not really, in that I did not leave the house except to go to the mailbox and to take Maggie for a stroll. But, this morning, I got all motivated to take the tree down. I was tired of it being in front of our front door. That was kind of a pain. Plus it had dropped a ton of needles. I want a fake tree. David decided to go to the gym while I was ensconced in my tree taking down so that meant I got to have a helper while I was removing ornaments. Maggie did okay but she kept screeching and I had to put "90210" on closed captioning so I could hear what was going on. Then came the removal of the lights. That SUCKED. I stabbed myself on dry needles, the lights were wound around and around the tree and Maggie put some of them in her mouth. Hope there wasn't too much lead on those things. I kept spinning the tree around to get those dang lights off and then I struggled out the front door and hurled it in the front yard. Talk about ghetto. I then discovered that in the course of my spinning, about 10 gallons of water had poured out of the tree stand. Why was the tree so dry if there was still that much water in there? After some mopping with paper towels (and with some help), I remembered the wet dry vac! Thank goodness for that thing. It saved me when Maggie dumped a box of pasta all over the pantry and then it saved me again today! Then I put it back in the garage and David later told me that it leaked all over the place because I didn't dump the water out. But it didn't leak too much because all the cat hair inside it soaked the water right up! Ugh. I hate cat fur.

I have come to the conclusion that Maggie looks a bit like one of those dried up apple dolls when she cries. It's very hard not to laugh and it's when she's usually doing her fake cry, lest you think I'm laughing my head off when my child falls down or something. She got mad at me tonight and SCREAMED when I left the kitchen to go into the den for a minute. Tonight she had kielbasa, a pierogi, BBQ beans, some dried fruit and a cup of mandarin oranges for dinner. I already told David that I'm not changing any diapers tomorrow.
It's sort of hard to tell in this picture but you get the general idea. Note the dramatic thrown back head.


While we were visiting my parents, Mom and I got Maggie's Christmas dress for next year. David says it's not her REAL Christmas dress but I think that's just because it's hot pink. With lime green striped leggings! All you naysayers just keep it to yourselves because it's cute! It IS! I also bought Maggie her first hair bows since she now has enough hair to keep them in. She was VERY pleased with herself when I put one in her hair. If anyone is worrying, they are small and are not on headbands. I also bought her a crown with furry stuff on it (like her birthday hat) and she thinks she's quite cute with it on. She even bows her head when I put it on her. I don't know where she learns this stuff because her daycare class is mostly boys.



I'll leave you with some pictures from my parents' house, post-Christmas.

Here we are, looking for a sippy cup valve in the dishwasher. We had some exciting times over Christmas, let me tell you.

Yo, see my stool? It's just my size. I think I might try to steal it from Granny. Think she'd notice if I stuck it under my shirt?

Here's another stool! I don't need Granny's! I am reading now. Leave me alone.

I like being strapped to Mommy's back. Mostly because I can kick her if I feel like it. I wonder why she wouldn't let me wear my Shox today?

Hello, Man. If I give you a bite, can I have a sip of your drink?