During the week the weather here has turned quite cold and we have a little bit of the white stuff on the grass just in time for Christmas.  Last night the temperature dropped down about 17 degrees (-7 C) and with the wind blowing it felt pretty cold.

Alex pulled another fast one on us the other day.  I guess it really wasn’t a fast but on Tuesday I was at work and just started a new meeting when my phone was ringing with a number I didn’t recognize.  Usually if I don’t recognize the number I don’t answer the phone but that day I did.  It was Jen calling from the neighbours house as Alex had locked her out of the house.  She went to take something out to the car, and it being so cold out she told Alex to wait inside for her to return but he figured that he would lock the door in the meantime.  I left my meeting was about to run out of the building when Jen called back and said that Alex managed to open the door back up. 

You know it wouldn’t be so bad but this is now the second time that he has done this.  You figure that we would have learned after the first time but apparently not.  This time we are going to have to be a little smarter and put a key in the garage.

I’ve posted pictures of Alex’s “Big Boy” room to the web site so you guys can get a look at it.  The pictures didn’t turn out that great since to get a feel on how the whole thing looks I took nine photos and then put them all together to get a kind of panoramic view.  You get the idea of how it looks though.

Tonight, actually in a couple of hours, we are heading out for Christmas Eve service and then after that we are going to head over to Kelly and Wade’s place for dinner.  (No traditional meal of potato salad and wieners but it sounds as if they are putting on a pretty big spread.  I had some wieners in my beans for lunch so maybe I can start a new tradition.)  We decided to go to the early service with Alex instead of trying to chance a late one since he has recently decided that naps really aren’t for him anymore. 

Tomorrow we are doing Christmas over at our house since…ugh…..I have to work….bah humbug.   If things go well I won’t have to actually go into work and I’ll be able to do most of it from home which hopefully won’t be too bad.  I just don’t want to miss anything here.

The past week has been pretty awful.  Alex started off not feeling very well and then I came down with cold/flu on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week and then yesterday Jen started feeling awful.  Alex and I are pretty much over it by now but my throat is still raw and I sound like Boris Karloff.  Jen is just getting to the worst part of it now so hopefully in a couple of days we will all be feeling healthy again.

We’ve tried to continue being somewhat productive around the house and today we got Alex fully moved into his new room.  Once we had the bed moved in and the curtains put up it really seemed to come together and I think it really looks good.  Once I get a chance I’ll get some pictures together and post them for everyone to see.

Besides the sickness and hanging out here we haven’t done a whole lot of anything this last week.

It’s been pretty busy around here since I posted last.  On Friday Alex and I worked in the morning to put up the Christmas lights in front of the house.  We have the same “display” as last year but I gave some thought to putting up some more lights but I haven’t been able to find any.  I wanted to put some more on the bushes leading from our door out to the road but there isn’t a place in town that has any net lights in stock.  I’m not that ambitious that I would do it without net lights so same as last year looks pretty darn good.

Later that night we went out and bought our Christmas tree.  It’s about a seven and a half foot Douglas fir tree and we put it in the same spot in the front window.  We let it sit though the night to let the branches fall and on Saturday afternoon we decorated the tree.  I tried to get a picture of Alex but he wasn’t really in the mood and kept hiding behind the tree.

Sunday was the big day for us we took Alex to his very first movie, “The Polar Express”.  A Christmas movie that takes place in and around a train, I tell you, it just doesn’t get any better then this.  Alex had a fantastic time and I predict this is going to be a movie purchase in the future.

On Monday’s Jen goes to swim with the Texins masters team around lunch time and typically she tries to put Alex in the kids room during this time. For some reason he just hates going there. Lately Jen has been able to drop him off at school and he just walks right in the room with no fuss but the kids room is just a whole other story.

Since she works out around my lunch hour I figured that I would just come up to Texins with my lunch and Alex and I can have lunch in the eating area. That way I get to see him during the day, Jen gets to swim, and Alex avoids the pain of having to be in the kids room.

We we sat down to lunch and I got his sandwich out for him and my sandwiches for me, and after about two bites he picked up his pudding and said,

“I need to eat this yoghurt.”

Now I don’t know if he really thinks this is yoghurt because he does eat yoghurt, or he really knows it’s pudding and he’s thinking to himself, “You know, if I just keep calling this yoghurt maybe I pull a fast one on dad and he won’t notice the difference.”

I negotiated a couple more bits of his sandwich before opening the pudding and then he dug in with gusto. By the time he finished his pudding I was done with my sandwiches and pulled my pudding out of my lunch box. Well, his eyes just lit up and his little mind raced into action. He started with the big one,

“I need to eat this one too.” he said.

“No, this is Dad’s pudding, you already ate yours.” I told him. Hmmm, that didn’t quite work so,

“We need to share this one.” By which he meant, here, you take my pudding cup that’s pretty much done and I’ll start on your full one.

What’s a Dad to say?

We took Alex to his first hockey game tonight and went to see the Frisco Texas Tornado. I guess they would be similar to the Guelph Storm and the teams in the OHL league as all the players seem to be about the same age.

It’s kind of nice seeing a smaller team since we were able to get seats really close to the ice, fourth row. I’m pretty sure that I’m not going to be able to afford any type of NHL tickets that get you that close but come to think of it, since the NHL weinies can’t decided if they are going to play then this works out for me. I just hope that Alex isn’t too disappointed when we finally do go to a big NHL game and we end up sitting in the nose bleed section he isn’t too disappointed.

Alex had a good time and we managed to stay for the entire game. He wanted to leave somewhere in the second period but Jen took him or a walk around the area and got him a cookie and that set him up for the rest of the game. Speaking of food they served the biggest darn hot dogs on a really good pretzel bun, and to top it off I don’t think you can find any complaints about a place that servers Molson Canadian.

The Tornado won the game 8 to 3 so we got to see lots of scoring.

In case you don’t check out the main page of this site anyore, I have finally published the picture of completed kitchen.

There are also some Thanksgiving pictures up too.

By the time all the votes were in it was split right down the middle and the winner is……Boy. Yesterday we went for the sonogram and most importantly the baby is doing fine. They said that everything they expect to see they see, brain looks normal, they are four heart cavities, and he is growing just fine.

The sonogram technician said that he was big and they might move the due date but when she found out that Alex was 10 pounds she figured that this was just going to be another big baby. But when Jen went to see the doctor she decided to move the due date up a week because of the size so we’ll have to see once we get closer.

So all you Boy voters are winners. I was convinced that this was going to be girl. About four months ago I had this really vivid dream that we were having a baby girl which is why I was so convinced but it turns out I’m not really all that good at being a psychic.

Boy          Girl

------------------------

Pat          Derek

Wade         Jennifer

Ryan         Kelly

Amanda       Bob

Peter        Deanna

Doug         Barbara

There’s still time to get your votes in. So far it’s 6 to 5 for a girl.

Boy          Girl

------------------------

Pat          Derek

Wade         Jennifer

Ryan         Kelly

Amanda       Bob

Peter        Deanna

             Barbara

As for what Alex thinks I’m not too sure. We’ve asked him a couple of times if he would like to have a brother or a sistem ut he keeps changing his mind. The first time he said that he wanted a sister and then next time it was a brother.

In two days we are heading for the sonogram which should let us know if we are going to be having a boy or a girl.

Here are the votes so far.

Boy          Girl

------------------------

Pat          Derek

Wade         Jennifer

Ryan         Kelly

Amanda       Bob

Get your votes in before Thursday….

We are safely back from our Thanks Giving trip to New Orleans and we had a great time and the Thanks Giving meal was fantastic. Kelly and Wade drove with us so Alex had some good company in the back seat. Sounds like Wade made a good impression during the trip as when Jen was driving in the car with Alex he said

[Alex] – “We live in Plano?”

[Jen] – “Yes we do”

[Alex] – “That’s what Uncle Wade says.”

[Mom] – “Yes that’s what he says.”

[Alex] – “He’s smart.”