Happy Christmas...

I started out putting unbreakable ornaments on the bottom part of our tree years ago, when kitty & all his peskiness would knock them off the tree. A few years ago, I tied together bells & hung those from the lower branches, so they would jingle when he brushed up underneath them.

Jack has discovered the bells, & he pulls those off the tree along with the other unbreakable ornaments. Its okay- they are unbreakable for that purpose. Well, him & kitty. The ornament in the lower left hand corner [above photo] was an ornament he really wanted off the tree, because he wouldn't stop yanking on the branches [apparently this was an ornament I didn't want him to have because I bent the branch so it would stay on]. I was doing dishes, a mere 8 feet away around the corner, when I hear CRRAAASSSHHH!!!

I rush over, only to find the baby monster pulling himself out from underneath the tree- NO SCRATCHES, NO TEARS, NOT EVEN A DAMN PEEP OUT OF HIM!!!!

Because of all the destruction he caused, I had several ornament casualties- more than I've had in YEARS!!! Also, the [fake] tree will no longer stand upright on its own. Santa has taken his new place underneath the tree, assisting in the upright condition of said tree. It will be meeting the graveyard- aka, my garbage can- not to far off in the near future.



Sorry Mom [-inlaw], but you won't be getting this bad boy for your yard.

Lawn fairy. [sorry, no pictures of this one]

Well, I signed Dylan up for wrestling in hopes that he gets over his fears and becomes a stronger person. I hope it builds character, teaches respect [respect of others, respect of self, etc] and shows Dylan just how much your actual body is capable of. Yesterday I took him & my nephew [a fellow first year wrestler, though he's in 5th grade] to a wresting clinic for skill development. Andrew [my nephew] kicked some serious ass, including his own. He was huffing & puffing and really giving it his all. Trying to learn moves and master the fine art of the walrus walk. Dylan- I love this boy dearly and I pray to god that this is just a phase- found another like-minded first grader, and pranced around similar to [for lack of a better description] a fairy pixie horse {Thank you, Alex the lion/Madagascar}. Not saying he didn't try; he did. But he tried with his definitely-a-first-grader effort. Looking around the room, rolling around on the mat, falling over or falling down when supposed to be wrestling. He reminds me of Sadie; when there is another dog in the area, she gets so excited and to prove that she's harmless, will immediately roll onto her back to show the dog how submissive she is. Dylan was like that yesterday; he fell down to show that he's a nice kid, not a tough guy. I didn't know whether to yell [it was free, so no $ lost] to hang my head [every time he went down intentionally instead of wrestling,] or to walk away. Its so hard to watch... I just want to go out there, scream 'PAY ATTENTION!!!' while shaking the living crap out of him. I don't know if he knows that in wrestling, the object is not to be the one to get pinned or held down. When he plays with Alex he's always the one getting pinned down, so I've no idea.

I've had a similar experience when he played soccer at 4 years old. The boy was then, and is now, really unfocused. Back then, he picked out the kids who had no interest in the ball, but rather a renewed interest in the blades of grass and the flowers growing between them. He'd pick flowers, twirl around, spinning at just the right time to watch the ball go whizzing past him, while looking after it, going, "WHOA! Did you see that?? That ball almost hit me!!" He would then proceed to show the other lawn fairy what it would have looked like, had he been hit with aforementioned ball.

:sigh:

I love him, but someone please tell me its just a phase.