Fa La La La La

We had a lovely Christmas here at the McElroy household. We had an easy-going day, watching the snow, opening presents, and snacking to our hearts' content. Here's a little sample of our holiday.

Deck the halls with boughs of holly.

'Tis the season to be jolly.

Don we now our gay apparel.


Troll the ancient Yule tide carol.


See the blazing Yule before us.

Strike the harp and join the chorus.


Follow me in merry measure.

While I tell of Yuletide treasure.



Fast away the old year passes.


Hail the new, ye lads and lasses.



Sing we joyous, all together.


Heedless of the wind and weather.


Fa la la la la, la la la la!

Take 5

Hello from Snowpocalypse 2008! On days like this when I lived in Colorado, I would hunker down with a good book. That's hard to do with two cabin-fevered children running about, but it inspired me to share my top five book lists with you, in case you need some recommended reading for the next time you're snowed in. So, here are my top five top fives (interspersed with new snow photos for you).

Top 5 Novels

1. In the City of Shy Hunters by Tom Spanbauer, a Portland local. It's the story of a gay man who moves to New York City during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and the people he befriends there. But it's oh so much more, and brilliantly written.

2. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I think this one is her masterpiece. It's the story of an Evangelical Baptist who takes his family on a mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959 and is told from the perspective of his wife and daughters.

3. The Bone People by Keri Hulme. It's the story of an unusual friendship between a Maori woman artist and a little boy that takes place along the New Zealand Sea.

4. Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie (and it's short story companion, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven). The stories of Thomas-Builds-the-Fire and the other members of the Spokane Indian reservation.

5. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. It's the story of what happens when an opera singer and several other guests are taken hostage by terrorists during a dinner party at the vice-president's home in an unnamed South American country.

I'm cheating. I can't do novels in less than 10. I tried, but I just can't.

6. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. The biblical story of Jacob from the women's points of view.

7. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. The story of a twin sister and brother set in India in the 1960s.

8. The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx. The story of a newspaperman living on the Newfoundland coast.

9. A Yellow Raft in Blue Water byMichael Dorris. A story of three generations of women, set in Seattle and a reservation in Montana.

10. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg. Set in Alabama in the 1930s, the story of Idgie Threadgoode as told through the eyes of a relative at a nursing home to a younger woman at a turning point in her life.

Top 5 Books of Poetry

1. Words Under the Words by Naomi Shihab Nye.
2. In Mad Love and War by Joy Harjo.
3. Vesper Sparrows by Deborah Digges.
4. The Dead and the Living by Sharon Olds.
5. Transformations by Anne Sexton.

Top 5 Non-Fiction Books

1. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. His memoir of growing up in Limerick, Ireland.

2. Everyday Acts and Small Subversions by Anndee Hochman. Profiles of women doing extraordinay things with their daily lives.

3. The Autism Trail Guide: Postcards From the Road Less Traveled by Ellen Notbohm. A collection of essays about raising a child on the autism spectrum.

4. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Her account of the year her family spent growing their own food and eating locally and how it permanently and positively impacted their lives.

5. First Comes Love by Marion Winik. Her heartbreaking memoir of her husband who died of AIDS.


Top 5 Young Adult Novels

1. Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye. The story of an Arab-American 14-year old girl who moves from St. Louis back to her father's home in Jerusalem.

2. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. No explanation necessary.

3. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. Again, no explanation needed (what is it with young adult novelists and using initials for their first names, anyway?).

4. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. Part of a sci-fi series I loved as a child.

5. Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie. A fantastical adventure tale.


Top 5 Children's Book Illustrators
(Again, I'm cheating. I have a huge collection and couldn't pick just five books.)

1. Shaun Tan.
2. Christopher Myers.
3. Lizbeth Zwerger.
4. Gennady Spirin.
5. Barry Moser.


What's missing? Let me know which of your favorites I left out!

Ice, Ice Baby

Well, perhaps I should not have mocked the weather in my last post. Because now Portland has been blasted with one of those ice storms we get every few years that completely shuts the city down. The last ice storm I remember was 5 years ago, when Elliot was 3 months old. It was the first week of January, 2004, and I was due to go back to work from maternity leave. I went back for one day, and then the ice storm hit. I got to work from home for the rest of the week, which was fantastic.

This time around, though, I'm ready for spring to come to Narnia. It's a bummer to be iced in with two young children. We've already played in the snow, watched Blue's Clues, created fantastic works of art, played on the computer, banged on the drums, and played hide-and-seek more times than I can count. Not to mention endless rounds of the elevator game. I would now like to go somewhere. However, this is what my car currently looks like.

It is snowing again now, and it's supposed to continue snowing for the rest of the week. Looks like those holiday cards I was going to mail tomorrow aren't going to make it to their destinations in time for Christmas (sorry, y'all!). I'm hoping it will at least get warm enough to melt the ice so we can get some groceries for Christmas dinner (and that Nancy, Vic, and Patrick will all make it over here on Christmas Eve - where they may have to spend the night!).

But it is completely gorgeous outside. Here are a few photos for you of our winter wonderland.


And here is Thomas having a little fun with the 1/4 inch thick sheets of snow and ice blanketing our lawn.


Elliot has been having a great time in the snow, though. Here he is bundled up and then making snow angels with Nona.



When we're not out playing in the snow, we're keeping warm and cozy inside. Here is Imogen riding around in Papa's overalls (who needs a baby carrier when you have Carhartt's?).


And last but not least, here is the super fly elevator panel I scored from an elevator repair company to give to Elliot for Christmas.


It is going to completely blow his mind, and I really can't wait to give it to him. The guy at the elevator company (who shall remain nameless) was just fantastic, finagling a way to get a real elevator part for me. Since there are liability issues, the company isn't allowed to give away parts removed from elevators they've worked on, but we of course just found this little puppy by the side of a dumpster (wink, wink). Thomas is going to build some sort of frame around it to make it safe and stable (it's about 2 feet tall and weighs quite a bit). But I'm still on a high from the score. Snow or no snow, ice or no ice, it's going to be the best Christmas ever!

Status Update

You know you're spending too much time on Facebook when you start thinking in status updates. Maybe you have an interesting interaction with a stranger at the grocery store, or something clever occurs to you out of the blue and you think, wow, that would make a great status update! And then you think about updating your status for the entire drive home until you can get to your computer and log on to Facebook for the umpteenth time that day. It's pathetic, really. But I love it.

So here are a few status updates for you.

First up, a picture of Elliot's stitches. He got them out this morning with a few tears but plenty of cooperation. Here's our little Harry Potter.

We also got our first snow of the season this weekend. Portland completely freaks out when it snows. Sometimes it's warranted, like when we get an ice storm and you can't even walk out your front door without slipping on a 3-inch thick slab of ice. But most of the time it's kind of amusing to listen to the meteorologists talk about less than an inch of snow like it's an apocalyptic blizzard. Being from Colorado, it's annoying to have your kid home from school when the only thing on the street is a few snowflakes and the random patch of ice melting in the sun. Granted, some areas of town get hit harder than others. And believe me, even if you're one of those folks who grew up driving in snow, you do not want to be on the road with the rest of Portland's residents who don't know how to handle a car on ice.

So here's what Elliot did with our inch of snow.

In other news this week, Miss Idgie turned 15 months old. Her newest tricks are climbing up onto chairs and going backwards down the stairs at warp speed. She gets into more trouble than her brother ever did at this age! Here are two sets of 15-month sibling comparison photos.


And I just couldn't resist showing you this last picture, despite the overexposure. This is Imogen reaching for the camera.


We also put up our tree this past weekend and decked the halls - pictures to come soon! And y'all will have to wait a bit longer for video of Elliot's school holiday concert. It was scheduled for tomorrow but has been canceled due to "snow" (seriously, we're supposed to be hit with a doozy tomorrow - I'll believe it when I see it!). Look for storm confirmation in my next status update!

As Seen on TV: Take 2

First up, a picture of the internet's next blogger. She may not be talking yet, but she already has plenty to say!

And now the story of the week. Y'all will remember Elliot's ordeal with an abscessed tooth last month and our series of visits to Dr. McDreamy. Well, the saga continues!

I'm a huge fan of TV medical dramas (ER, Grey's Anatomy, and House, specifically), but I don't really feel the need to live them out in my own life. And though I've never personally had to go to the ER, apparently it's part of being a parent.

On Thursday evening, just before bedtime, Elliot went running through the living room in stockinged feet, slipped, and hit his head on the side of the coffee table. There was blood everywhere, and much screaming, as he had a very deep gash about one inch wide over his left eye. While Thomas and a freaked-out Imogen stayed behind, Elliot and I headed off to the emergency room.

The doctor (who has a 16-year old son on the spectrum and was GREAT with Elliot, though alas, she was no McDreamy) took one look at Elliot's head and declared that no mere butterfly bandage or handy-dandy magic glue was going to fix this injury. It would have to be stitches. First, the nurse applied some numbing medicine directly to the cut, which apparently stung like crazy, and the trauma began.

We waited for 20 minutes for the area to be fully numb, and then the doctor tried to flush the wound with "just cooperation" from Elliot. This idea didn't work at all, since he was really freaked out by the water near his face, and at this point it was an hour past his bedtime and he'd had no dinner, so he was an exhausted little guy. In came the troops.

We took off Elliot's shirt, since the nurses warned he was going to get really hot (they were right). They then wrapped his upper body in a sheet so that his arms were immobilized by his sides, which he of course hated (who wouldn't?). Then one nurse held his head still while the other pretty much sat on the lower half of his body to keep him from moving while the doctor flushed the wound again and started the suturing. I was sitting next to him trying to talk to him and keep him calm, but he was completely hysterical. The doctor was fast, but it took FIVE stitches to close up the wound. When she was done, poor Elliot was sobbing and sweating and scared half to death. It was pretty horrible.

We did get to ride an elevator when we were done, though, and then Elliot had some animal crackers and a snack when we got home and cuddled up in bed with Papa to watch some videos on You Tube until he fell asleep (10:30pm!). It was quite an evening, but I'm happy to report that Elliot is doing just fine now and is back to his usual, spunky self. We have to go back to have the stitches removed on Tuesday, so wish us luck!

Before all the excitement this week, I did manage to take a couple of photos in a Santa hat self portrait session with the kids.


We're planning to decorate our tree tomorrow (possibly with a snow or ice storm raging outside), so stay tuned for festive holiday pictures soon!

Nightmare on the 13th Floor

Y'all know how much Elliot loves elevators. Most of the time, it's Thomas who takes him on adventures to ride elevators all over town on Saturday mornings (most recently, they checked out all the elevators on the Reed College campus). But I do my fair share of elevator riding, as well. Before Elliot's obsession began, I usually took the stairs. I'm not at all fond of elevators. They make me slightly dizzy, and I don't like being enclosed, especially in close proximity to strangers. But I've had to look my fear of elevators in the face for the sake of my fabulously quirky son. And, apparently, I'm working out that fear in my dreams.

Over the past few months, I've been having a recurring nightmare. I haven't had one of these since I was a kid. And it's not exactly a nightmare, since it's scary but not too scary, and it always turns out ok. In my dream, I'm in an elevator with various companions (none of which has ever been Elliot). Most recently it was Tess, but it has also been my best friend from elementary school who I haven't seen in a couple of decades. Go figure.

In every dream, the elevator ride seems to be taking much too long, and then the elevator detaches from the building and falls slowly through the air. It always manages to land safely - once in a field of snow, and most recently in the Willamette River (with a gorgeous aerial view of Portland on the way down). The elevator almost always lands with the doors on top and open, the passengers' heads peeking out. And even though I always land safely, the dreams are still disconcerting. I don't think you'd be able to pay me or lure me with any sort of temptation into one of those elevators on the outside of a building with glass all around.

But I do have a new appreciation of elevators, thanks to Elliot's fascination with them. And if ever I'm out and about somewhere with an elevator, Elliot expects that I will take a picture of it for him on my phone to show him when I come back home. We now have a heck of a lot of pictures like the ones below from my trip to Seattle with Tess this past October. They are shots, respectively, of the inside of the elevator at our hotel and the elevators at the large downtown Seattle Old Navy store.

Some kids may be glued to the TV watching Sponge Bob or Barney, but my little guy likes to sit at the computer and look at pictures of elevator control panels on Google Images. I'm in negotiations now with a local elevator repair company to get him a real elevator panel for Christmas, ripped out of some building or another. Stay tuned!

And not to be left out, here is how I found Miss Idgie earlier this week when I turned back around from making my own lunch.

And finally, I want to share with you this super cool picture that Tess took recently of Erin, Grayson, and Willow at the Orcas Island skate park.


Now I'm off to call the guy at the elevator company to see what he turned up! Woo hoo!

Arts & Crafts

My New Year's resolution back in January, 2007 was to learn to knit socks. Then I found out I was pregnant, and I just didn't get back to knitting for awhile. Now I'm finally taking the plunge! I'm taking a toe-up socks on two circular needles class from my friend Chrissy, sock knitter and designer extraordinaire, at Twisted, one of our local yarn shops. The first class was last night, and it was a blast. We are starting out with baby socks (less intimidating for the first attempt!). I'm hoping these little beauties will fit Imogen. Last night we completed the toe, as you can see here.

I also recently took a class from my friend Chris, who just started a cooking school called Lost Arts Kitchen in her home. I took her cheese making class, in which we learned to make neufchatel, ricotta, mozzarella, and yogurt. Yum! For those of you in Portland interested in cooking and in learning about local foods and slow food traditions, I highly recommend checking out her class offerings.

And if knitting and cheese making weren't enough, I also bought myself a sewing machine for my birthday and am determined to (re)learn to sew. I've managed to set up a table and get it out of the box, but I've yet to crack the instructional DVD and practice on some fabric. I may have to wait until my mom comes to visit in January (sound good, mom?). My first project is going to be curtains for Elliot's room (we'll see if I can find fabric with elevators on it).

And in honor of the gorgeous, sunny day we're having here today, here are some pictures of the kiddos enjoying a day at the park (though this was a couple of weeks ago). The swings were cause for much glee.

Happy December, everyone!