We need a batter, not a broken ladder. OH HI DBACKS!

Kyle hasn't been so great these last couple of months.  He's missed more than 6 weeks of school due to a bout of upper respiratory junkyness, for one.  Ultimately, we even had to bring him to Urgent Care due to an ear infection--and Urgent Care typically won't see medically fragile patients at all, but they did that day because I was just that desperate.  (kudos to our urgent care--world class, those folks.)

Today, Kyle saw our favorite orthopedic surgeon.  Unfortunately we learned that Kyle has a 21 degree spinal curvature.  This is bad news.  For now, he'll get a soft TLSO (back brace) in hopes that we can put off back surgery for a few extra years.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that we got to enjoy, again, the holiday decorations at Phoenix Children's Hospital!  Our favorite, hands down, has been the Arizona Diamondbacks Christmas tree.  It's incredibly tall (I'm guessing twenty feet?) and decorated with Dbacks ornaments, paraphenilia, and gear.  Kyle is obsessed with baseball, and the Dbacks, so he spends lots of quality time with this tree--touching it, talking to it--each time we have to go to the hospital.  Today he zoomed right over to the tree, carelessly plowing through a small crowd of folks standing around the area.  Turns out Kyle interrupted a meet and greet with Willie Bloomquist, of the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Kyle is only four years old, so has yet to memorize the Dbacks roster, but as we drove home I emphasized who he just met and he finally "got" it.  Nearly an afterthought, I asked Willie for a photo.  Kyle appears as though he couldn't have been happier if Willie had offered him a light saber (Kyle's other obsession). 

The Dbacks tree, with a little more detail (from a previous visit).

Thanks to the Dbacks organization, and to Mr. Bloomquist, for arranging to meet the kids of PCH and making a little boy's day.

mm mm not good.

This weekend we embarked upon some holiday baking.  It was actually a pretty sad effort--one was a new, unproven cookie recipe involving powdered sugar, shredded coconut and egg whites.  That turned out to be a fail.  I hate when I follow a recipe down to the letter and it still doesn't turn out.  

The second attempt was for cookie cutter cookies.  I particularly hate these.  They are delicious, yes, but given the sweat and tears and four letter words I've always had to throw around my kitchen when I make them, they just aren't delicious enough to make them worth it.  But I have kids now.  Kids love using cookie cutters.  And let's face it--once we have kids, we forgo our own comforts and conveniences and do things for THEM.  Though this time, I bought ready-made sugar cookie dough ("just add 1/4 cup flour, mix, and roll out!") and then let the kids have at it with Christmas cookie cutters.

I was meticulous with the shapes, took oh so delicate care of every cookie form they made and gently placed them onto the baking sheet.  They were so proud of their work!  Until the cookies went into the oven and their snowman-shaped cookie turned into a big blob.  Coincidentally, their gingerbread man, reindeer, and mitten cookie shapes also baked into the same blob.  And as I sit here and type this and munch on their blob-shaped angel cookie, I am annoyed that I mailed it in with a store-bought dough instead of going all the way and making my own labor-intensive sugar cookie recipe.

Well, at least I got a good photo op out of it.  Behold my silly bakers.

May the Force Be With Them.

Sometime last month there was a Star Wars marathon on television.  Kyle caught a few minutes of it and has been hooked ever since.  He's been watching one of the Star Wars discs at least once per day, and imagines everyday objects as light sabers as he and his twin sister act out scenes from the movie.

It's quite endearing. 

What follows in this clip is a sampling of his obsession.  I feel bad for George Lucas (and John Williams, for that matter) that our phone number is unlisted, but if he really wants Kyle to elaborate on his favorite moments in Star Wars then I guess he can just leave a comment here like everyone else...?