OK, that cold finally caught up with my ass and kicked it pretty hard.  I know what the problem is… pre-motherhood my colds were short-lasting, just a couple of days.  This was largely due to the fact that I would just sleep through the illness until it left.  Motherhood = no opportunity for extra sleep! Thus, the cold that has been hanging on for TWO WEEKS NOW, rendering me half-functioning at best.  Well, today it decided to settle in for good  (I don’t think the head-butt to the orbital I took yesterday helped either… oh yeah, AND the late night concert with the drinking the night before).

I admit it’s partly my fault for not slowing down (but I still blame the germs!!).  But since today Keen was already set up to babysit as I was supposed to visit my girlfriends, it became the perfect (and unavoidable) day to sleep.  I’m feeling a little better now, thanks.

So, of course, I’m right back to the next thing on my list… Christmas shopping!  I consider myself behind this year… it’s not as if I have all my shopping done by this point normally, but I usually know what I’m getting everyone.  This year I am still in the brainstorming process.  I’m good on most of the adults, but I’m also shopping for a pack a kids.  My dilemma, as I was discussing with a friend, is that last year I got the kids some really cool shit.  I got all the kids on my list a big glass canning jar full of polished gemstones, seashells, marbles, wheatie pennies & foreign coins, a couple of fossils, and other miscellaneous cool stuff.  I divided the objects of the jars by age, the little kids got non-swallowable items and the bigger kids got smaller pieces.  It sounds deceptively simple, doesn’t it?  I’ve always been into these kind of things and I have a bunch all over the house; a bowl of shells here, a bottle of marbles there, cool rocks and coins, etc. and I had noticed the kids were really interested in them when they came over.  I remember being fascinated by this stuff when I was a kid (I love natural history) and some of the pieces I have are things I collected when I was really young.  I keep them because not only do I still think they’re cool but they remind me of that feeling of discovery every time I found something new.  I wanted to give these kids o’ mine “starter” collector kits and I hoped they would enjoy the process of discovery as much as I did.  And you know what?  All the kids went nuts for these jars.  They loved ‘em.  It was a very gratifying feeling. 

It’s not as if I want to top last year, but it would be nice to match the coolness factor at least.  I would ask you all for suggestions except people who I am shopping for also read this blog, darn it all.  I hate to spoil the surprise (even if it’s just the adults). 

So now I am doing research.  Thank god for catalogs and the Internet.      – the weirdgirl

BTW, there is some crazy shit on eBay.  They actually have toddler tricycles on there for $6-8 dollars each!  Does this seem suspiciously cheap to anyone else?