December 2014 Video Recap

It doesn't take long when watching this video to pick out the theme from the last month - Christmas. With visits from Santa and family members, to baking cookies and decorating gingerbread houses, we had a great time leading up to Christmas. I can't wait to ring in the new year with my family tonight (and be awaiting a text from my brother saying we're adding a new member to our family - he's proposing to his girlfriend tonight!) Happy New Year! Hope 2015 is great for all of us!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

We shouldn't be surprised, but our plans for Christmas Day with family fell through. JJ's parents were supposed to come over but they both have the nasty illness that's been going around so hopefully they'll be able to come out one day next week instead.

That left us to spend our day just the four of us. Thankfully JJ got the day off from work, otherwise it wouldn't have felt much like Christmas with just the kids and I all day.

Backing up to Christmas Eve, we spent the afternoon and evening decorating a gingerbread house and making another batch of cookies. Once the kids were in bed, JJ and I had to get to work wrapping presents and putting together a small table and chairs set Santa was bringing. I can't believe we waited until the night before Christmas to wrap gifts, but it went pretty fast. 

 

This is the first year JJ and I decided not to exchange gifts with each other and we drew names with extended family and will get together with them on Saturday. So all the presents that we had out Christmas morning were for the kids. It made for a smaller loot, but it was a much less stressful season trying to buy gifts for additional people that really weren't necessary.

Once the kids finally woke up at 9:00, which is unheard of for them anymore, JJ brought them downstairs this morning and the first thing Chloe saw was a pink mirror for her room that was $4. She loved the pink mirror! :) Then the next thing they did was head straight for the new table with the leftover cookie crumbs from Santa. Gifts were next and JJ was smart enough to buy the kids several of the same gifts. It was this sands alive and magic sand stuff. Chloe opened it and yelled, "yay dirt!" No kidding, that's what she said. And he got them three sets each so gift after gift it was, "yay, more dirt!" It was hilarious.

The rest of the morning was spent going from new toy to new toy and before I knew it, it was 1:15. The kids had spent all morning playing with their toys and it was so fun to watch them really enjoying them. Chloe probably spent an hour with that magic sand, then water coloring, then back to a different sands alive set. Drake played with his peg board, some magna-tiles, getting up and down on his new chair, pushing it around, we played Zin.go as a family for a bit, and then I forgot about Drake's Bat.tat take a part truck that hadn't been opened yet. Oh my gosh, that thing is awesome! He was adorable watching him play with it and he could even take some parts apart himself already. 

 

The kids are down for a nap now and we're debating on going out for a low key dinner (like at Waf.fle Hou.se or Per.kins, the only places open today) or just staying in and watching a movie in front of the fire. The weather is actually pretty decent today which makes it easier to want to get out of the house.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, I know we did!

19 Months - Drake

This month flew by! And yet at the same time I feel like you grew up so much. I'm happy to report (knock on all the wood) that the tantrums were significantly less this past month and I only recall you hitting your head on the floor one time. I'm not sure what difference a month made, but I like the direction we're going here. You haven't been hitting your sister hardly at all either, and if you do, it's usually both of you hitting each other. Yeah, fun times. At least that isn't happening very often.

At your 18 month well visit you finished up your shots until kindergarten. Yay! You weigh 20 pounds but I don't know how accurate your weight really is though. The nurse actually weighed you on the standing scale and as soon as a number popped up, she went with it. You are definitely our little guy, still wearing some 9 month pants, but mostly 12 months, and even those usually have to be rolled. Shirts you can usually wear up to 18 months or even some 24 month jammie tops, but not too many. You are in size 3 diapers and I don't see that changing any time soon. The doctor mentioned that some kids start to show interest in potty training betweee 18 and 24 months, and I laughed considering we just now finally got your sister potty trained. However, every morning when we get you out of bed or after a nap, most times you've pooped and that's the first thing you say is "poop" and reach for your diaper. And the other day we were playing downstairs and you did the same thing, and sure enough, you had a dirty diaper. I still think we are a ways off from putting you on the potty, but it's nice that you are as aware as you are at this point.

You've loved pointing out our few Christmas trees multiple times a day saying "tree tree tree" and enjoy pushing the button to turn the lights on. And we've made a few salt dough ornaments and holiday treats that you've enjoyed helping with. When we aren't doing that, you are going from the play room, to the living room, to running to each bedroom upstairs, and climbing on things. You don't sit still very much. But when you do, you are a cuddler. I can't usually sit on the couch without you sitting on my lap which I love, but I have realized Chloe seems to feel like I favor you more, and I can see why. I hold you a lot, because you cry if you aren't being held - that is difficult when I'm trying to make dinner or something - but I read when trying to wean it's important to add more contact and cuddles to make up for the lack of nursing.

Speaking of weaning, we haven't quite gotten there yet. JJ now puts you to bed most nights and that's been going really well. But you, well all of us, have been sick for weeks and you've been asking to nurse random times throughout the day. On days that I work we usually don't nurse at all, but other days it's usually once, maybe twice. Eh, I think we're fairly close, but I didn't go cold turkey like I thought I might. It's hard! You continue to eat table foods really well and sleep really well through the night, going down around 8 and waking up around 8.

Your vocabulary continues to surprise me. I looked back at your sister's 19 month post and I commented that at her 18 month well visit I was worried about her speech but that as long as she had 3-6 words (which she did) the doctor wasn't worried. Not to compare, but you have so many more words than she did at this age. I love hearing you call each of us, especially Chloe. Seeesy! Seeesy! You never want her far from you, and if you don't see her, seeesy it is! Oh, and I'm going to ask the doctor about this, but I'm wondering if you have a slight under-bite. I noticed it when you were saying daddy one day; your bottom teeth come on the outside of your top teeth. And when you pout, you really can get that bottom lip out there. I don't notice it any other time though really, and wonder if as more teeth come in, if it will correct itself? You don't need red hair and an under-bite! Poor kid would have so much ammunition thrown at you.

You've finally got the kisses down and give them whenever asked and even do it on your own. Again, your bottom lip is out when you stretch for one and it's pretty cute. Little elm.er fu.dd you are. :) I can't wait to celebrate your second Christmas tomorrow in our new house! Daddy got the day off from work (yay!) so it will be a day filled with our little family, and grandma and grandpa are coming to visit too.

Snow Day

Our regular sitter's husband was diagnosed with cancer and was scheduled to have chemo this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We had arranged for her granddaughter to watch the kids today and tomorrow before I'm off the rest of the year so she could be with her husband to care for him.

JJ told me to look out the window this morning (at 4:30 am when he was getting ready for work and I was all nice and warm in bed) to see the snow. So when my alarm went off at 6:00 and I saw I had a text message, I wasn't surprised to hear the granddaughter wasn't going to be able to make it. She doesn't have a great car and couldn't get here. Then I got a news alert saying schools were closed. People...we got 1-3 inches depending on where you lived. 1-3 inches now calls for schools to be closed?? I remember it had to be like a foot of snow or more when I was in school for them to cancel but these days it seems like they do it for flurries! Anyway, we had our first snow day of the season so I stayed home with the kids.

Chloe must have looked out the window first thing when she woke up, because when she came into my room, she said mommy look and pulled back the curtains. She was really excited to show Drake once he got up.

I am off work for two weeks, and after having five days off for Thanksgiving, I know I have to keep myself and the kids busy in order to keep our sanity, and preferably leave the house and do something each day. JJ had taken a car seat out of my car last night because I thought I was picking up a large Christmas present today, so I knew we were home bound. I decided to make the salt dough ornaments with the kids. They were super easy and they both liked squishing their hands in the dough, and then Chloe liked rolling the extra out. We don't have the right paint at home, so I'll have to go to the store and paint them later.

Then all morning Chloe had been asking to go outside to play in the snow. You'd think with this being our fourth winter with kids we'd be more prepared, but besides Drake having mittens and Chloe having snow boots, that's it. And I wasn't all that excited to attempt to get them bundled up only to be out there five minutes and wanting to come inside again.

Instead, I brought the snow inside. I brought in two big buckets of it and dumped it in our bathtub. Chloe got right in, but Drake on the other hand wasn't feeling it. Another reason why I'm glad I didn't take them outside. Chloe played in there for probably 45 minutes before she heard the timer going for our ornaments which was a good excuse to get her out and go eat lunch.

Checking things out

 Yep, two minutes in and he was done.

 I love this - just chillin' in the tub, eating snow

 Peek a boo! His hangout spot while she played in the tub.

 "Here Turtle P, try some"

 Brrrrr

It's been a great first snow day and I have a feeling a little girl will be asking her daddy to bring more snow inside once he's home from work. Oops, what have I started? :)

A Hurtful Note

Yesterday was a good day. I had to take the kids to work with me for a little while at our commencement, JJ got off work early, both kids took a nap, and then we went as a family to see a Christmas display in someone's yard full of penguins. When we got home, the kids were running around playing and JJ and I were talking about the kids' Christmas gifts. I got a notification of a message on FB and as I read it, I was speechless. I told JJ he wasn't going to like this, but read it to him.

I wanted to outreach to you after Saturday at my mom/dads. It's been apparent for quite some time that JJ separates himself from our family during get togethers when he attends. At first I believed it was possibly due to conflict between he and your dad, but your Dad hasn't been at a few family get togethers yet JJ is usually found preoccupied on his phone or simply gone. I don't believe he stepped out because of a sour/upset stomach last night based on his appearance & behavior when he returned at the end of the night. I'm not sure if this message will be taken with anger but it's meant with concern only. I've see you trying to make excuses for him over the years and I've seen you bust your butt to do a lot of things on your own. It makes me sad. I hate to see You being treated like this. It doesn't matter how he treats us, we don't live with him or parent with him. I feel for you. I also see the impact his absence had last night and how many people were asking questions, including Chloe. JJ never told you where he was going, you had to call him to find out. I'm so sorry for this. I don't think you deserve to be treated in this manner. If it's us he doesn't want to be around, we'd rather just see you and the kids in a happy and content state where you didn't have to make excuses for him or go looking for your him at family holidays. Stephanie...you're a wonderful person, with so much to give and who deserves a whole lot in return. I just wanted to let you know that.

Wow. This is from my 40-something year old cousin on my dad's side who has been through two failed marriages and has an 8 year old daughter. We see her maybe once or twice a year max.  Now I admit that often times when we go to see family, JJ will play games on his phone or read the news. And I told him that last night. He didn't grow up with a close knit family, so I think even 10 years into our relationship it's still a bit awkward for him. He's not one that will sit down and strike up a conversation with someone usually. He commented last night that usually he's bored. There aren't that many guys there; one that's 21, 50 and one that's in his 60s. My dad and brother weren't there this time, so that was it for the guys and then the girls were left chatting. On this particular day he had three hours of sleep the night before and hadn't eaten anything until we got there. I'll add he's a very picky eater so of all the things served, he chose a big plateful of a buffalo chicken dip I made. He thinks all of that on an empty stomach made him feel sick so he went out to the car. I'll also admit that it was odd of him to leave without saying anything to me. The kids were opening gifts and we kept wondering where JJ was so he could open the packages. I finally had to call him and he said he was sitting out in the car because he thought he was going to get sick. 

But to make such a harsh judgement on someone you see once or twice a year blows my mind. How do I even respond to that? I feel like she's going to think I'm just making more excuses. And by the way, I have no idea what she means by I've been making excuses for him over the years. The busting my butt comment? That's a mom thing! This cousin is one who would get to a family function and ignore her then toddler daughter and make everyone else care for her. We would comment to ourselves that was rude and that we'd never do it. So yeah, I'm busy chasing the kids around in a home that's not child proofed. Anyway, the first thing that comes to mind is "it's really sad that that's how you perceive him." He is such a hands on dad, more so than I would say a lot of dads probably. Hell he spent the first two years of Chloe's life home with her full time, and even today still has one day a week home with both kids by himself. He's a great husband. Sure he's not perfect, but neither am I. Neither is my cousin who sent this to me. 

There was already an elephant in the room with that family due to something my dad had done years ago, and now that this has happened, it's like why even get together if you are just going to feel judged by your own family? JJ and I are pretty confident no one else in the family feels this way towards him, but we have a feeling my cousin probably talked poorly about him after we left that night. Just drama. It makes me so sad that my kids have very little extended family to grow up with. I guess it's not a big deal to that side of the family because their kids are grown, minus the 8 year old, so family gatherings aren't as important. They sure aren't what they used to be when my brother and I were growing up.

Santa Playdate 2014

This past Saturday was our favorite playdate of the year - with Santa and Mrs. Claus! Our friend Rachel invited several kids over for crafts, cookies, hot chocolate, and this other little thing...oh yeah, Santa Claus! This was the third year in a row and it was so fun to just sit back and see how much this event has evolved over the years. The first year all the kids were so little and timid. This year, it was hard to keep them still to listen to the story because they were too busy playing with each other, or toys, or their cute cat.

Chloe primping for the day - curlers, pretend make up and all.

Waiting for Santa to arrive

The format was similar to previous years with Santa coming in to read a story, sing a few songs, then take pictures. After that we each brought our favorite cookies to share, did some crafts, and then for the remainder of the time the kids played with all of Ava's toys.

 My little diva turned around and saw me taking pictures and struck this pose.

 I have the exact same picture from last year

 My handsome boy

 She loved sitting on Santa's lap this year!

I had said a few weeks ago that I thought this would be the year we'd end up with a tear-filled Santa picture and boy did Drake not disappoint! He had just started playing with a toy when it was his turn to sit on Santa's lap so that didn't help when I took it away from him, but his butt barely touched Santa's leg before he was arching and crying to get down. Santa was a good sport making a funny face for a minute so I could snap a picture.

We tried again a little later with a treat in hand, but it didn't go any better, so I held him and we ended up with this - blue frosting all over his mouth and all.

 Making reindeer food

It was fun to see these two again together again. Last year they just laid around, but this year they were up and around with all the big kids.

This is a bit unrelated, but that night we went to an event in town. We had never been before and it turned out not to be what we thought. It was outside and the two main attractions were Santa and carriage rides and we had just done both. We did get to see reindeer though!

 The kids were cold so we ended up leaving and going to a Christmas lights display set to music.

A First For All Of Us

I'll spare everyone the sob story of how our Thanksgiving wasn't the best, but let's just sum it up by the fact that I was met with this sight the afternoon before we hosted our family in our new home, I shed tears a few times on Thanksgiving for various reasons (missing my mom, lovely AF, plans to see family not panning out, JJ having to work), but in the end, we had the immediate family over for a good meal.

Our dining room ceiling. The aftermath of thawing the turkey in the master bathroom tub.

The weather was pretty nice Friday so I ventured out with the kids to do a tiny bit of Black Friday shopping.  I was still in a funk though. The weather was so unseasonably warm, I didn't want my bad mood to carry over to another day so I thought of something fun for us to do. For JJ's birthday I gave him a year of dates. A few of them include the kids, and the date for November was to go to the Plaza on Thanksgiving to see the Christmas lights turn on. We didn't get around to doing that unfortunately, but I still really wanted to take the kids. My idea was to go on a Cinderella carriage ride around the Plaza. JJ agreed it would be fun so I made the reservations the night before. I was surprised they had an opening seeing how the weather was in the 60s!

We didn't tell the kids, only told Chloe that we had a surprise for her. Saturday evening we headed down there but quickly realized we didn't leave with enough time to get through the crazy traffic. We also realized after we had finally gotten through the Plaza, we were headed towards the company's corporate office, not the location of the carriage ride! It took us forever to get turned around and find a parking spot, but thankfully they got us on the next ride as soon as we got there (the wait for everyone else was an hour and a half)!

As I was checking us in, JJ took Chloe down to look at one of the horses and she said she wanted to ride on one, so I think she was pretty excited when we hopped on up into the carriage a few minutes later. One of the workers offered to take our picture. She took only one shot and I had a feeling she didn't get a good one, but surprisingly it wasn't bad- if only Drake had been looking at the camera too.

Since the traffic was so heavy, there was a lot of stopping and going. Drake wasn't interested in sitting on my lap and there wasn't much of a floor on the carriage. I kept thinking to myself, what did we get ourselves into?? But after pulling out the bag of veggie straws, both kids settled down on the bench and started taking everything in.

My boys. D's owie, chapped face, bare belly and all :)

I would definitely say we all enjoyed it and hope to maybe make it a new yearly tradition around the holidays. As the kids get older, I can picture us sipping hot chocolate all cozy under their blankets looking at the lights, but this year it was so warm we didn't even need coats!

Trying to get him to smile for the camera

  I posted this picture on FB - can we say turtle face?? Ha!

 Love these two

(from the company's website - I realized I didn't get a picture of the carriage)