The Boys

How did it get to be November already?  And how on earth did we end up with SNOW on the ground already?  I'm not quite ready for this. Winter has become a dreaded season for me. The early darkness and the cold temperatures never used to bother me, but the past few years it's really gotten me down.

Knowing that, though, I'm heading into this winter season prepared to do whatever I need to so that I don't get really depressed. I'm already exercising and eating healthy, which are two of the things that are recommended to stave off SAD (seasonal affective disorder), and I'm going to talk to my dr. about taking Vitamin D, and I'm going to make a very concerted effort to fit yoga into my schedule at least once a week. Hopefully those steps will help me get through the worst of it.

November and December actually aren't too bad, because the holidays add enough excitement to keep things happy and fun, and they make things busy enough that the days and weeks fly by. And we'll have Carmine's first birthday in January, so that will add a bright spot to an otherwise dreary month, and then February's the shortest month, so hopefully it will go by quickly. See, I'm already looking on the bright side!

And of course we always have Gabe and Dante to add humor to our days. A few choice moments from the past couple of weeks -

Dante, for some reason, was talking to me about our trip to Gillette Castle this summer, and mentioned the ferry boat that we took to cross the river to get to the castle. And then he mentioned the cabin on the boat, where the pilots sat, and kept talking about how it was a 'mini room.' And I said yes, it was a pretty small room. Then he thought for a minute, and said "You could eat a muffin in there."  Then he thought some more, and said "But not cake."  I told him that was a very interesting observation.

Another day, he was playing his guitar for me, and told me he was going to play a Led Zepplin song, and then he informed me that "Led Zepplin 3 starts out mellow, but then they really rock!"  I think that was one of Scott's proudest moments as a father.

Both Gabe and Dante have now started playing "Punchbuggy," but without the punching. When they see a VW bug, they both yell out "Punchbuggy," but that's it, thankfully. I guess they heard something about the game, but clearly missed out on the gist of it, becuase they appear to think that these cars are really called Punchbuggies, and the way you play the game is to just yell that out. I have no intention of correcting them. They'll figure out the real rules soon enough.

Gabe has spelling tests once a week now, and as part of his classroom work, he also has to use his spelling test words in a sentence. So a few weeks ago, one of the words was 'regret.' And when he brought home his spelling work that week, his sentence for the word regret was:  "I regret that I did not hit Dante." I'm assuming that he accidentally inserted the word 'not' in there, but maybe he was just being brutally honest?

Scott went on a business trip recently, and the boys were asking him what his hotel was like. They've only stayed in a hotel once, and it was quite a while ago, so they probably don't remember it very well. And while they were talking, Gabe asked Scott was the bed was like, and inquired if it was a princess bed. I wonder if somewhere he heard someone talking about a "king-sized bed," and was just a little confused over the terminology, or if he has a vision of Scott staying in some palatial castle-like building.

And lastly, Gabe is the master of coming up with excuses for not going to sleep at night, and he had a great one last week. He came downstairs complaining that his back was itchy. So I went upstairs and told him I was going to put some lotion on his back so that it wouldn't be so itchy, to which he replied "It's not itchy; it just really needs to be scratched."

Of course. What was I thinking?

Comments

[Wes]

LOL... itchy! but lotion just wasn't the right idea :-) love it...

[Taryn]

My dad used to battle with SAD too! He always planned a little trip somewhere sunny mid-winter. Hopefully the Vit D will help! Yoga sounds great too. I'd love to join you if you find a good class. I've never done hot yoga & I bet that would be awesome here! :)