DNA is a powerful thing

My argument that Mike's DNA is responsible for the collective kookiness of our three children took a hit last weekend, courtesy of my nephew Liam.

Since I saw him last, Liam (along with identical twin Dylan) is walking and starting to talk. Both are obsessed with brooms, mops, and the vacuum cleaner, which means I was extremely tempted to bring one of them home with me. Heather and Kevin don't really need two copies of the same kid, right?? Liam also has a talent I have not seen before. He drinks from a bottle like this:

He manages to empty the bottle without tipping it up. When this picture was taken, we were trying to encourage Liam to mellow out with his pre-nap bottle. He wasn't having any of it until he picked up his black camouflage hoodie and positioned it on my head. Once he was satisfied it was going to stay there, he got serious about drinking his milk. After a few minutes, when the milk coma appeared to be kicking in, I removed the hoodie. Liam stopped drinking, gave me the eye, and said, "Hat." I put the hoodie back on my head, Liam smirked and resumed drinking, and I kept my 'hat' in place until Liam was escorted to his crib.

Maybe Mike's family and Kevin's happen to carry similarly impish genetic traits. Yeah, that's it.

Holiday letter 2010: A Year Too Real

Our annual Christmas greeting probably arrived after December 25 to most of the houses on our list. We decided that if it leaves the house before Christmas, it isn't late. And since I just found the pile that we planned to hand-deliver to our immediate neighbors (because it seemed lame to stamp and mail something to people who live across the street), I guess tardiness is not our only problem. Perhaps we'll be a leaner operation in 2011.

2010 has not been cheap. We’ve extracted snow-damaged trees, teeth and a dying heat pump -- and thus the biggest extractions of all have been from our bank account. The time came to consider extra sources of income. Thus, we plan to sell offer ourselves to the Bravo network as a Real Housewives franchise. Fortunately, we already have many of the elements of a successful Housewives installment:

• Stunning exterior shots: Pix submitted from January 2010 should astound, along the lines of, “I had no idea that much snow could fall in DC.”
• Midlife crisis: With a milestone birthday on the summer horizon, the lead Housewife engages in some ‘life’s too short’ decision-making: Leaving initially promising job that devolved into Dilbert cartoon. Instead of adding 'updating resume' and 'fielding complaints about supervisor' to required minute-by-minute timetracker, Housewife opts for less controversial terminology and calls them 'treatment planning' instead.
• Background spouse: The husband appears sporadically because he's working insane hours on a year-long project (and proposing his own Bravo spin off, tentatively titled Pimp My Computer, Million-Dollar Upgrade, or Mike’s Workstation Takeover).
• Dramatic phone conversations: Housewives love to advance the plot while gripping an iPhone. One call from the oldest Housewife-in-training’s school went like this: “She was having a rough morning, and then she pulled out two of her teeth, and she’s been doing much better since then.” Housewives offspring are often filmed as they attempt to find direction; future seasons could portray Leah learning to extract her own wisdom teeth.
• Road trip: Housewife and family take the show on the road to Duck, NC, to commune with sister-Housewives of LA, Stuttgart, and Sarasota. Possible crossover with Top Chef: Dabbling in Donuts.
• Facial-enhancing surgery: Numbing the jawline for a root canal immobilizes the facial muscles at least as well as Botox and is covered by dental insurance. Members of the greater Crofton community clearly find the resulting smile compelling, as they can’t turn their eyes away from its lopsided charm.
• Bling: The sparkly green and purple, handpicked by Housewife-in-training Lauren to adorn the hardware on the roof of her mouth, cost more than the lead Housewife’s engagement ring.
• Drugs: Housewife-in-training Lauren mellow during dental sedation, Leah whacked out on anesthesia.
• Frequent flashing of credit cards. Three trees removed, one a/c unit replaced, four root canals, a couple of new crowns, a few fillings, two extraction procedures, and a mouthful of hardware -- plenty of opportunities to act like we’re rolling in dough.
• Comic relief: Dentist finds it hilarious when lead Housewife suggests he offer a ‘buy two, get one free’ root canal special.
• Product placement: Leah finds motivation through repeated trips to Five Guys.
• Fast cars and fast women: Road to lead Housewife’s new job is apparently equipped with speed cameras. More uses for credit card.
• Tenuous grip on reality: Housewife-in-training Maddie wants a laptop for Christmas.

And, no matter how lackluster the ratings, our fans know we'll be back for another season.

Best wishes for a happier, cheaper 2011!

Mike, Alison, Leah, Lauren and Maddie Hamilton

Feliz Navidad

All three kids were greeted by this season's hot toy: Pillow pets. Santa had mixed emotions about those, but the excitement from the kids was contagious and they are still in use.

Lauren and Maddie exchanged joke gifts for the first time this year. We teased tomboy Maddie for weeks about asking Santa Claus for a pink flowered dress, so Lauren decided she really wanted to buy her one. So our last-minute shopping this year took place at Goodwill.

Since we didn't want Maddie to feel victimized, Mike convinced her that Lauren needed a joke gift. Maddie picked out a 40 oz. bag of Hershey kisses. Both kids were completely thrilled with their senses of humor, so the two joke gifts were the first ones opened.

Phineas and Ferb barely left Leah's hands in the week after Christmas.

My sister Heather paid homage to my impressive accumulation of frequent-driller miles at the dentist's office by giving me a new set of teeth.

Maddie was (and still is) very proud of her monogrammed sweater vest.

We ended the day with Christmas crackers, a Cocks family tradition that feels like a necessity. It's not really Christmas without those paper crowns. Since my parents were with us, we knew crackers were a must.

Back in time, part 3: Halloween

This year, Mike's mother (aka Mimi) joined us for Halloween. She bravely endured parades and parties at two schools, an orgy of pumpkin-carving and a day trip to Hersheypark in the Dark. We taught her that the best person to hang out with at Hershey is Lauren, who will give any free chocolate that comes her way to the nearest family member. Crazy kid still claims she doesn't like chocolate. I shouldn't complain, since it means more for me, but I feel that I have failed to instill in her one of life's great coping skills.

Mimi enjoyed taking pictures of the fall foliage, which looks a bit different from the October scenery in Texas. Fortunately, she carries a nice camera with her. Ours went on the fritz shortly before she arrived. For those who are keeping score at home, it was our second camera casualty of the year. Camera #1 disappeared from Mike's pocket during an April trip to Hershey. Camera #3 is holding up so far.

I spent an afternoon carving Phineas, Ferb, and Agent P into our pumpkins.

Leah was quite excited about her Hello Kitty costume. She was Mickey Mouse for three years running before I made her pick something else last year (baseball player). We'll see if she tries to bring this one back in 2011.

Maddie and Lauren were Woody and Jessie, to the delight of a preschooler down the street and her toddler brother. The little boy was determined to follow Maddie all over the neighborhood. Maddie was initially a bit wigged out by having a groupie, particularly one that called her Wee-Wee (Woody was a little beyond his skill level at the time). Then she realized having a fan club was actually pretty cool. It gave us another way to yank her chain, too -- if we need to take a little of the wind out of her sails, we pull out the Wee-Wee moniker.

And finally, we got some great pix of my nephew from my sister in Germany. He is his mother's son:

This is the child of the sister who gave each of her bridesmaids a Hot Diggity Dogger, which is now Leah's favorite kitchen appliance. As far as she's concerned, if a hot dog is not cooked at Five Guys, it needs to be prepared in the Dogger.

Back in time, part 2: Pimp my light fixture

Lauren apparently is underwhelmed by the dining room decor. I'm wondering if she could beef up her college fund with an eBay store devoted to recycled My Little Ponies.

(For those who are unfamiliar with My Little Ponies, they have a magnet in one of their front feet. So far Lauren has not divulged how it occurred to her to try them out on the chandelier in the first place.)

Back in time: Fall 2010

Call this the real-world equivalent of doing your holiday break homework the day before school resumes. Instead of opening a math book, I am updating the family blog, which has been neglected in much the same way my academics were relegated to the back burner in favor of all things Christmas. Our real lives resume tomorrow, making me miss college and the monthlong breaks we got at Christmas. But I digress.

Over Labor Day weekend (yep, we're going that far back), we took the kids on a pirate cruise around Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

Pirate costumes were mandatory, even for the adults.

The kids had many opportunities to fire water cannons at enemy pirates.

And they ended the day with booty from the treasure chest, which they liked all the more because it was called 'booty.'

Kids loved it, Mike and I were intrigued by the Bring Your Own Grog adult cruises. Who's with us?