Wow! I'm so far behind!

Here it is, February, and I missed posting in December and January. I should feel awful. I had some prodding from a reader to remind me that I needed to do some updating.

Christmas holidays have come and gone and much has happened. I'm glad Christmas is over. It's amazing how much better I feel once I've purchased for those 21 people (22 if you include myself, unless I've added wrong). My niece had her 20th birthday in December and wants me and my spouse to celebrate her 21st with her. She's already making Vegas plans. She said something along the lines of putting her tax return into her Vegas fund. Of course, we'll end up spending our money instead of letting her spend hers. She can gamble with hers if she chooses, but the rest can be our birthday gift. The fact that she wants us to go with her is great. Shoot, she asked us a year ago, and still wants us to go with her.

So, Christmas with the kidlet was fun. He was 10, in 5th grade, and still believed in Santa. He was spoiled rotten by us, but we tried to keep the Santa gifts to a minimum. I used to wrap everything from Santa in different wrapping paper than the rest of our gifts, just to keep it separate. However, hubby used the Santa paper on something else. I jumped on him and he said that maybe the kidlet would figure it out on his own. Didn't work. Which fast fowards us to a couple of weeks ago when we finally broke the news about Santa. We're terrible parents. I fully expected to have to apologize to him like he made us do when we told him that the Tooth Fairy wasn't real, either. He was heartbroken over the Tooth Fairy and the fact that we had been lying to him for years. He wanted to know why we weren't honest about it. I was expecting something similar, or worse, for Santa. And, amazingly enough, aside from an "awwwwww", it was a bit anti-climactic. He took it incredibly well. I'm sure kids had been saying things for a while, and he was ignoring it. When we told him, it was just confirmation. I felt so much better that he took it well without getting upset. Maybe he's growing up a bit.

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In February, the kidlet got his Arrow of Light for Cub Scouts. For those of you who don't know, the Arrow of Light is the highest honor a Cub Scout can receive and the only honor that they take with them from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. They get to wear an additional patch on their Boy Scout shirt. He was very excited. The pack did this Order of the Arrow bridging ceremony, as well as the story of Akela (using other Scouts). It was probably a culturally insulting ceremony to many Indians, as most of the Order of the Arrow boys wore feathers. I wasn't offended, and I'm a member of the Choctaw tribe, but some people get stuffy about that sort of thing. Kidlet thought the whole thing was great. The next day was Scout Sunday at church. I had to stay up after the ceremony Saturday night, sewing his new patches on his new shirt for Scouts so he could wear the new uniform at church instead of wearing his Cub Scout uniform. He was proud. I was proud of him. He's moving on to a Boy Scout troop that is VERY active in the outdoors. They go on a hike/campout every month. He's a sedentary kid and this will be good for him. He's looking forward to it. So he and the spouse are going to condition for hiking and such together. He's going to go with the kidlet on campouts as I'm not much of a camper. I grew up camping with the family, as we did a lot of deer hunting. I slept on the ground a lot. As an adult, sleeping on the is a bit uncomfortable, so I have not a lot of desire to do it on a monthly basis. Especially since my knee isn't going to be 100%, and I'm going to have surgery on the other one at some point this year, they just aren't going to be up to hiking and climbing after this. Besides, the spouse gets to bond with the kidlet more. His own father never did anything with him, so he doesn't want to be that way with his own son.

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Saturday was the kidlet's birthday. We had a bowling party for his friends. More showed up this year than last time we did a bowling party. This year, we planned for much fewer. One was a boy from scouts/church/daycare, another was from school/daycare, and then from school/caretaker's son. The kidlet has a caretaker who takes him out of the house a couple of days a week, which also gives us a break. Her step-son has Asperger Syndrome but to a lower degree of functioning than our son (and he's also missing a hand). Turns out, one of the kids that he invited has some 'issues' of his own. I think the only kid there that didn't have problems was one from cub scouts (but he seems to be a shy guy). All in all, I think they had fun. Kidlet got a pack of Magic: The Gathering cards. He's been playing it at daycare and really wanted his own deck. Now he has one. He got a gift card from his Aunt, so he may go and purchase many booster packs with it.

Although, his favorite birthday present (aside from the Magic cards) was Guitar Hero III (for the Wii) from us. He's already blown through the easy level, beating the game. He started the medium level but decided that he enjoys the easy level. So, now he's trying to beat every song at 100%. He's got 3/5 so far on the first level (including the encore song). I have a feeling that the kidlet is going to be singing Rock and Roll all Night for many years to come.

To be fair, I have played it while he's been out and in bed. I have beaten the easy level and am on the medium level. I'm not doing too badly. I guess this makes me a tremendous nerd.

Oh! Something just occurred to me. I wore a tshirt that I got for being a "club member" on the TiVo Community website to the kidlet's bowling party. The lower functioning kid noticed it. He comes over to our house, so his question to me makes sense. He asked me why I wore a shirt with a TiVo on it, had TiVo clings on the glass door (there are 3, actually). I told him that I just really liked TiVo. I told him that I also had a lunch box (thanks Pony!), a TiVo doll (Thanks Xaa/Billy66), a hat (thanks again, Pony), a Christmas ornament (again, Pony), and the kidlet had a large TiVo (thanks to Shady for the trade!). He said that he really liked his PS2, but he didn't wear clothes with one on it. I guess I told told by a little kid. :D I just said that it made me a bit nerdy, and that's okay.

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My spouse did something incredibly sweet for Valentine's day. He gave me a bag with 10 sets of fingernail clippers in it. I laughed so hard that I cried. He's always losing the ones that I buy, setting them on the black hole that is his desk, never to be found again (at least, found by him, as that would require picking stuff up and looking UNDERNEATH it to find what he's looking for). I gave him one pair for his desk and put the other 9 away, so he couldn't lose those, either. :D

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I wonder if our new cat has Manx Syndrome. He seems to have digestion problems. I wonder if it is his problem, since the vet wasn't able to find anything wrong with his blood and fecal tests. Cat's always having problems with overly wet movements. I need to take him back in to the vet, to see if they can take a look at him.

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How sad is it that I'm incredibly excited about getting my hair cut? I haven't had one in months. The woman I'm going to is supposedly very good and has all sorts of extra training in New York. We'll see if I like what she does to my hair. Fortunately, if I don't like it, my hair grows out pretty quickly. One of my coworkers can't even tell her what to do with her hair, she just is supposed to submit to the stylist's will on her hairstyle. I like it's current state, so it's not that big of a deal. I just don't want my hair that short (although it's been that short before). Right now, it's just blah and needs some style. We'll see how it looks on Friday after the cut.

Nothing like it getting cut just in time for hubby and the kidlet to go on a school campout. They're heading to San Diego for a few days of camping and science stuff. They get to go to museums and spend time on the beach, learning about science. They aren't supposed to bring their own food, but I made a point to tell them that, with our kid, they won't have a choice. He will be eating his own food, as the stuff that they will be making (hamburgers, tacos, hot dogs) are more than likely going to be vomited back up if they require him to eat it. So, hubby is going to be bringing pizzas for the kidlet. He plans on having him eat them away from the rest of the kids, so there won't be jealousy. At least he'll be able to eat his lunch with the other kids.

While the spouse is camping near the beach, I'll be hanging out at home, playing video games. I'm such a gamer mom.