It is COLD.

I'm beginning to wonder if we might end up with a white Christmas. It went from sweatshirt weather to full on frozen misery weather in like 2 days flat. The mud is frozen solid out there, the grass breaks when you step on it. My dogs do not have any desire to go outside, and I cannot honestly blame them. I hate going out there too! It supposedly hit 16 degrees last night. I believe it, with how cold the house got. I don't even want to think about what the electric bill for this month will look like. Chunks of ice came out of the bathtub faucet... I hope this doesn't mean the pipes are freezing. Seemed to be ok after awhile though.

Hauled another load of toys to Goodwill, and I'm feeling better about the mass of STUFF my kids have accumulated. Now they'll have room for the stuff they'll get in a couple days. I cannot wait for Jaymes to see the cool Thomas Train stuff. He'll be SO excited.

Need to get a new calendar. Jaymes has all these appointments in January, and I just have them written on the side of December. He's set to see the dermatologist on the 2nd, for his godawful eczema. I hope they can do something for him. It's a pain to lotion him 3 times a day, plus the oral antihistimine. Crazy. And he remains somewhat scaly. This NC winter air wreaks havoc on his skin. He never had issues back home, maybe the humidity? He also sees his psychiatrist/developmental pediatrician later in the month for a med check. They've had me take him from 2x a day to 3, and want me to try 4 but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that. We discussed adding Risperdal back, as the Clonidine wears off quickly and causes big mood changes. One minute he'll be calm and sleepy, the next he's super hyper and aggressive. the Clonidine may end up not working out, but as Dr. K says, we have to give it all a fair trial.

Sierra sucessfully removed every label from every can in the house, and I'll admit it.. I didn't stop her. It was making her so happy, and they've been going nuts in the house with very little to do. Too cold to be outside, and inside is not much fun. Maybe later we'll do some fingerpainting. People seem to love kid made Xmas cards anyway. They won't make it in time, but what can you do...

Sold something on Ebay and am waiting for the person to pay me so I can get my last batch of gifts. Need to buy for my friend Julie in FL (who sent me the awesome stuff that Jaymes ripped open!) and my grandma. She's kind of hard to buy for, I don't know what kind of things she likes. I'll figure it out though. Hope no one minds new years gifts instead.

I caved in and gave Jaymes one of the Thomas sets to play with. We'll all go nuts if he stays so bored. He's very happily sitting on the couch watching Elmo and piecing together train track. It was the smallest set, only track, so it wasn't too much of a spoiler. He could spend days arranging track and not get bored. It's good fine motor play, I would think. Later we'll crack out the swing and get him nice and relaxed. I wish the kids would get along enough to swing together, then one wouldn't have to have a fit while the other swings!

Christmas is coming! We're doing our best to get in the spirit, between talking to lawyers and Jaymes' social worker. Hopefully by tomorrow we'll be in the mood to have a very happy Christmas Eve and then the big day!

Decided that rather than have a home party for Jaymes, we'll take the kids to Sciworks and get a cake from Walmart. Clearly, my New Years resolution does not involve weight loss. They make the most delicious marble cake. We looked at designs the other day, and are trying to decide between a really cool one with Elmo sitting on the beach, or a construction crew one that is really colorful and has little toy construction stuff on top. On one hand, he LOVES Elmo, and it does have a rubber Elmo for him to keep. On the other, the construction one is beautiful, and has 3 toys on it. Decisions, decisions.