All I Want for Christmas

Is not my two front teeth, although I wouldn't complain if the four top ones that Ben has coming down would come all the way out so we can all sleep again. No, this year I have something I really, really want for Christmas. Of course, I want the health and safety and happiness of family and friends (and the rest of the world, for that matter) but this year I want a toy. I want an iPod Touch. I don't know if I've ever wanted anything quite so much since I wanted an organ (you know, with a keyboard) when I was five or six years old. Back then I had a two-pronged approach to getting what I wanted and both of them meant driving my parents nuts. One was to constantly pretend to be playing a keyboard on the arm of a chair. The other was to stare at the circled organ in the Christmas catalogue. I'm not sure why I wanted an organ. Maybe because my aunt had one she played. Maybe it was that I knew there was no way we could get a piano. Regardless, that's what I wanted and I got it.

My desire for the iPod Touch is not a secret to my husband. In fact, I think my son, Sam, wants me to get an iPod Touch almost as much as he wants to get the presents he requested from Santa. If he sees one of those text to win commercials where you can win an iPod Touch for free, he runs to me saying he knows the answer to the "skill-testing question" and all I need is to phone and I will win it. He does this despite how many times I tell him this is just a ploy from junk text companies trying to trick me into giving my number. I have said, at every opportunity, that I want this device. I have also said I don't think I should get it since we can't afford it. And that's true. But, really, deep down inside, I want it. I want it so bad. It's pretty and small and cool and has wifi and can do everything I could want a device to do. And I am not an iPod fan. Don't have one. Never wanted one. I have a Sansa e260 which I really like and think may indeed be better than a regular iPod.

But now I hope Santa brings me the iPod Touch for Christmas. I have iTunes downloaded to my laptop and have my songs ready for synch. I have tons of free applications I can use for my writing and organizing my life (games) ready to transfer to the Touch. So, the question is not so much will I get the Touch as, what will I do if I don't get it? I'll find out soon enough and one way or another I will be wishing you and yours a wonderful, safe, healthy, happy holiday season.

Procrastination

Perhaps it is ironic that my first real blog post in months is about procrastination. Obviously I have been putting off this post. A number of times I wanted to come rant about the American election or our election or the recent coalition or some story in the news but I just never got around to it. I mean, first I was too busy to post but there comes the time when you must ask how long can I use a new baby as an excuse? Yesterday, for instance, I got around to getting a portrait done of the boys and there was a woman there with a tiny infant. The child could not have been more than two weeks old. And the woman was dressed in nice clothes and had her hair done! I thought it was pretty good I got out of my pyjamas and was wearing something that wasn't stained (although there was drool on my shirt but at least it wasn't mine). In my mind I blame that on having a fairly recent baby or, if that doesn't work, that I have two children. Then along comes someone like the mother of a child in Sam's class who, with her third child at 10 weeks old, not only managed to bring loot bags to school for all Sam's class on Halloween (I did not) but also had printed off personalized tags for each of the bags. So, I try to use the fact that I am trying to finish a novel amongst all this as my excuse. But mostly it is all about procrastination.

It really doesn't get you ahead, this putting things off. Take said portrait taking. I have procrastinated doing this for five years. There are no professional portraits of Sam but many, many pictures of him. We have, just as cliche dictates, way less of Ben so I decided to get a portrait. Also, they are so sweet together, the way they make each other laugh and how Ben lights up whenever he sees Sam. I wanted to get it on film. But, once again, I waited too long. Ben crawls like a madman now and has boundless curiosity. He also studies things. This is not Sam who would smile at the drop of a hat at strangers in the mall as they told me I should sign him up to be a model. This is the boy who stares at such people then looks to me to see if they're okay. He does not share his beautiful smiles unless he knows and likes you. Even Elmo Live gets a furrowed brow and a (not entirely unwarranted) look to me that says what the hell is that? A portrait studio filled with new things meant to excite and distract children is not good for such a child. When he wasn't staring sternly at the giant stuffed horsey or the photographer saying his name over and over, he was crawling off to check out something new. All while Sam kept trying to make Ben smile as we encouraged Sam to keep his smile on. Poor Sam eventually said "my smile is getting tired". We managed to get some fairly good shots, I think, but if I hadn't put this off, I could have gotten Ben as baby with Sam pics. A nice, placid baby who would mimic your smile because he didn't know any better. Procrastinating just made it worse (although such days are part of the joys of having kids, I know).

I won't learn. The truth is I am procrastinating right now. Sam is in school and Ben is napping. I should be editing my book to get it into the publisher next week. I should be taking the comments made by my trusted readers and making some changes to the manuscript. And I will. Maybe later today. Or tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow sounds good.