The Lindenbergs

Well, its the wee hours of the morning. All the gifts are wrapped and under the tree. The stockings are indeed hung by the chimney with care (in hopes that St. Nicolas will soon be there).

We baked cookies with Pierce and Anna this afternoon. Both took turns rolling out the dough and using cookie cutters. Each kid got to pick one cookie to put on a plate for Santa, and Pierce carefully placed the cookies on the hearth. Then we had movie night.

Immediately after the movie we poured Santa a glass of milk to go with the cookies -The cookies that are no longer on the plate on the hearth. My god, Santa came while we were watching TV!

...unless Anna ate them when we weren't looking. But she claimed innocence. It would appear that the part of Santa was played this evening by our dog Josie.

-Eric (Dad)

The following conversation took place between Pierce and Anna in the back of Nora's car:

Pierce: Anna, come "closely", I want to tell you a secret.

Anna leans towards Pierce.

Pierce: I love you.
Anna: I love you too, Pierce.
Pierce: Ahh, you're so cute.
Anna: Yes, I am cute. Very, very cute.

-Eric (Dad)

Last night, after being put to bed, Anna wandered into Pierce's room. From downstairs we hear Pierce's agitated voice: "Mom, Dad?". Now, of course, we can guess what's happened, but we figure we'll let Pierce tell us in his own words. "What is it?" we query, expecting him to tell us "Anna's in my room", or "Anna woke me up". Instead Pierce explains, "Anna's disturbing me". You've got to love this kid's vocabulary. Nora and I just looked at each other and laughed (course Nora went up and fixed the problem).

This morning Anna had a plastic bowl with a couple of pieces of toy fruit: a lemon and an orange. With a wooden spoon she stirred them in preparation for my breakfast. When they were ready she prompted, "Dad, do you want the creamy "orange" avocado... or the other thing?"

-Eric (Dad)

Usually when I logon on to create a blog entry I have an idea of what I'll talk about. Not this time, I'm running fast and loose.

I've been on the road since Sunday night, so I don't have any new Pierce and Anna stories. Before leaving Nora and I got the house in pretty good shape for Christmas. The tree is up, the outside of the house is covered in lights, and we've got decorations in the windows. We may try and pick up some additional yard decorations after Christmas when they're on sale (assuming there's any left).

We'll be doing Christmas Eve with some friends of ours. We think both families will head down to the Plaza to see the lights and hit a Japanese Steak House for dinner (Pierce and Anna are both big fans of the "show"). Nora's going to make cookies with both kids so there will be something to put out for Santa.

Christmas morning will be low key, just our family at the house opening presents. We'll spend the afternoon/evening with Nora's folks at their house. I think we'll be joined by her brother and his family too. So lots of eating, visiting, and kids running around screaming at the top of their lungs (also known as playing).

The day after Christmas we're heading off to Virginia to visit my Mom and one of my brothers for a few days. My sister-in-law, Erin, is pregnant with twins and due in February, so we're anxious to catch up with them and see how they're doing. I suspect my Mom will babysit Pierce and Anna and we'll spend New Year's Eve with Doug and Erin. My youngest brother, Scott, and his family won't be able to make it out to Virginia this year, but their son will be with us.

Pierce's drawings of cars keep getting more sophisticated. I need to post some pictures soon. I'm constantly amazed at all the things he can do well. He continues to have a staggeringly accurate memory. His recall of conversations that took place months or years ago constantly catches us off guard.

Anna keeps getting prettier (spoken like a true Dad). She looks like we put her on a stretching machine nightly, if you watch her for half an hour you'd swear you can see her growing. She's still making a lot of progress on potty training. Seems likes she "poops" on the toilet daily and her pull ups are staying dry regularly. I'm hopeful she'll be done with the whole process by the time we go to Corolla next year.

Nora put together a great family newsletter that's gone out with our Holiday cards this year. She even included pictures. She continues to amaze me with her parenting skills -she's just awesome with Pierce and Anna. The fact that she is able to run the household and keep everything moving forward while I travel is truly a gift. I'm a lucky guy.

I never really know who reads this blog, or what type of audience it has. Thanks to all who check in with us regularly. I wish you all the best during this holiday season and a very Happy New Year.

-Eric (Dad)

Nora has a Christmas CD in her car that's getting a lot of play lately. Anna has a favorite song that she asks for by name. Here's what she calls it: Fleas Hairy Dog.

Can you guess what the song is?

Come on now, its not that hard. Really think about it.

Give up?



Feliz Navidad
(Merry Christmas in Spanish)

You should hear her sing along.

-Eric (Dad)

Anna’s getting a little out of hand in her love of Big Bird. Last night Nora made the mistake of drawing another Big Bird for her. The rest of the night it’s the only thing she could focus on. Every 5 minutes: “Mom, would you draw me another Big Bird, Pleeeeeease.”

She went to bed crying when Nora refused.

Pierce overcame a major hurdle yesterday. At school they’ve been trying to entice him to work on lessons related to multi-digit numbers (think 1000s, 100s, 10s, and “units) for several weeks. Pierce was not showing an interest and kept interrupting the lesson to do something else. Yesterday he finished the lesson start to finish. He was so pleased he re-did the lesson for us at home last night.

-Eric (Dad)

As you may have heard, the entire Midwest got socked with snow last week. I was on the road (in Illinois), so I only saw about 5-6 inches. Olathe, on the other hand, got about 14 inches in two days. Nora took a snow day and Pierce and Anna got some good snow time in.

Pierce and Anna both consider me the “go to” guy when it comes to snow. So the Saturday after I got home was “play in the snow day” with Dad. Anna and Nora helped me build a 6-foot tall snowman (Nora made a great face for it), and I made a snowdog to keep the snowman company (I modeled it after Josie). To make sure Pierce felt included, he and I made a snow train with its own coal car and six passenger cars. Pierce was in heaven; he drew all the windows on the passenger cars. Anna was so happy with the first snowman she asked Nora to make another one. Come back soon for lots of pictures.

Of course, the next day was rainy and warm so all that remains in our yard are snow lumps. Both Pierce and Anna have taken the warming trend with grace and understanding (everyday when they get home they want to check the backyard to see if anything is left of the snow creations).

Over the weekend we took Pierce and Anna to see Polar Express (the movie) on an IMAX screen in 3-D. It was a hit and Nora and I both enjoyed it a great deal too. I highly recommend it if you get the opportunity. Pierce has been playing with his trains nonstop ever since –recreating whole scenes from the movie.

Anna has outdone herself in the stay up late department. On Sunday she managed to stay awake, after being put to bed at 8:30 pm until about 11:45 pm. The weird thing is she woke up her usual chipper self at about 7:00 am the next morning. Go figure.

Last night Anna asked me to draw Big Bird for her. It ended up being poster sized and in full color (Anna gave full instructions for its color scheme). She then had me add a color Santa Claus to keep Big Bird company. Anna was so pleased with the result that she talked to the picture all evening.

We also had about an hour’s worth of indoor hide & seek, tag, and duck-duck-goose. Turns out Josie, our dog, really likes to play hide & seek. She’s not a good “seeker” but she really celebrates when we find someone (“ohhh, we found you –now pet me, pet me, pet me, pet me…).

-Eric (Dad)