The Pruetz Family: From Spit Up to Sit Up

I'm really batting a thousand here, aren't I? Once again, I've let quite a few days go between posts. What can I say? It's a bad time of year. Is that a good enough excuse? Let's go with that.

We've been having quite a bit of fun around the Pruetz house. While we're all still battling the stomach bug that has plagued us for nearly three weeks now, we have decided to not it get us down. We're on the move, Christmas shopping (Todd is doing so right now, tracking down paraphrenalia from the movie, "Cars," for Devin) and generally getting into the holiday spirit. This weekend marks our annual "Cookie Factory," a time-honored tradition for ZZ and myself during which we bake ourselves silly for two days straight and then hand out our somewhat mediocre goods to family and friends. The first year we did it, my white kitchen floor ended up black. No, I'm not exaggerating, either. Whenever I say to Todd, "This floor is filthy," he always asks, "But is it Cookie Factory filthy?" Nope -- it never is.

Faith and Grace are moving along in their milestones. Both are learning to sit up. They still topple over and need to be watched, but they can sit upright for about 15 seconds now and even balance themselves when they start to fall sideways. It won't be long before they're sitting up unsupported.

Also, this morning, Gracie held her bottle for the first time. I had to help her out a little but tilting it up, but for the most part, she did it herself. You have no idea how big of a deal this is when you have twins. It's the simple things in life...

Devin, too, is busy making life interesting. Now that the Christmas tree is seeing more and more presents make their way underneath it, I have to convince him every morning that it is not Christmas and that no, he cannot open even one of his gifts. It's like he's foaming at the mouth. The anticipation is just killing him. I love it -- it's like reliving every Christmas season of my childhood (okay, adulthood too). I can amost taste the excitement he's exuding.

And he's up to his usual antics, too. On Sunday, I took him to the grocery store with me. The usual items were purchased, including about a half-dozen apples. He had one on Sunday night along with me, leaving four in the fruit bowl.

Side note: Mornings have become a little easier these days now that Devin is a little more self-sufficient. We put a cup of milk in the fridge for him and tune the TV to the Disney Channel so that all he has to do is hit the "On," button when he gets up. It eliminates Todd and my having to get up at 6:30. We're usually up by 7:00, but those extra 30 minutes are very worthwhile.

So Monday morning, I woke up and went down to greet Devin. A hug and a kiss and, "What's for breakfast, Mommy?" I asked him what he wanted and his reply was, "Waffles." Okay -- I can do waffles.

So I started getting out the stuff for waffles and I said, "While you're waiting, why don't you have something fresh? Maybe an apple?"

"We don't have any apples."

"Yes we do, honey. We bought some yesterday."

"No -- I ate them all."

"No -- we only ate two last night."

"No, they're all gone."

It dawned on me at this point to actually check the fruit bowl to see what he was talking about.

Sure enough, no apples.

"Where are the apples?"

"I ate them all."

"All of them???"

"Yes -- I threw them away when I was done."

I looked in the trashcan. True to his word, there were four apples, somewhat eaten. It seems that Devin had taken a few bites of one and thrown it away. Minutes later, he was in the mood for more apple, so he started in on another and tossed it when he was done. Repeat. Repeat again.

Here is the evidence.

I couldn't do anything more than just laugh hysterically. I guess this is what mommyhood is all about.

Speaking of mom...

Mine won't leave me alone. For those of you who don't know or may have forgotten, my mom passed away shortly after Devin was born. It was sad, but after her very long and painful battle with Alzheimer's disease, it was a relief for all of us. We miss her dearly, though.

And, it seems she misses us, too. Or, if it's not her, then someone misses us.

Back on Halloween, I heard footsteps upstairs and found no culprit (Devin was fast asleep, as were the girls, and Todd was gone). Thinking it to be an isolated incident, I just wrote it off.

But then it started happening more frequently. Devin's door will open and close at night, but when we go to investigate what he's doing out of bed, we find him sound alseep. Last week, Todd walked past Devin's room to check on the girls. Devin's door was open because Todd distinctly remembers seeing him sleeping in a certain position. He made a mental note to close the door after he was done in the girls' room, but when he went do to so, the door was latched shut.

Yesterday afternoon, one of the girls' play gym toys started to play music after no one had been in the room with it for two or so hours.

My dad was in town this weekend and I mentioned this all to him. He said, "That's funny...when you all were in Fredericksburg, both nights I heard Devin open and shut his bedroom door. When I went up to tell him to get back in bed, he was sound asleep. It happened twice and I thought I was going nuts."

We continuously hear footsteps upstairs (we have very creaky floorboards and can tell where in the house they are coming from) and lights turn themselves on and off throughout the house. Things go missing and reappear, days later, in different places. We hear music and voices and even laughter.

All in all, I'm pretty sure it's my mom. This was her favorite time of the year and I think she just wants to be near us. I'm happy to have her, of course. She's still a part of our lives and she always will be. The closer she is, the better.

So, I leave you to ponder these things and draw your own conclusions: Haunted house or crazy Erin?

Here are the photos I promised a few weeks ago.

Merry Christmas!

E