Goodbye Santa

Well, it was time. The tree was drying out, and frankly I was feeling a bit claustrophobic. The Christmas stuff was packed up today, much to Emma's dismay. But seriously, the tree takes up half the living room, and that combined with the toybox and all the push toys equals not enough room. So, the tree is gone, the decorations are packed up and we have room! Glorious room!! It makes me want to spin around in the glory of the space and yell "Room! We have room!"

Defibrillator machine

We're looking into installing a defibrillator machine in our living room. I figure we can train Emma to use it on me if no other adults are around. I'm having heart palpitations daily now that Grant is walking and climbing and we just feel like we want to be on the safe side and install the defib machine. Better safe than dead of a heart attack, right? Here's the latest example:

Last night, I'm in the kitchen getting the chicken prepped for dinner. Grant has a new habit of climbing up on Emma's stool and clinging to the countertop. He's safe climbing up but not so safe climbing down since his method for getting down is really just to take a giant step off the side. So, knowing this, I'm standing next to the stool so I can monitor it. He's also taken to hanging from the oven door to open it, so I have my knee up against the oven. My third mama eye on the back of my head tells me he's behind me, probably pushing the buttons on the dishwasher or pulling out all my cookie sheets. I turn around to wash the raw chicken slime off my hands and see he's standing on the blender box which is no where near a counter for him to hold on to. My heart races, I feel faint, take a few deep breaths, then use my forearms to lift him down before I wash off the raw chicken slime. As I'm washing my hands, he waddles over to the hot oven and opens the door. I race over to close the door and redirect him, dry my hands, and pick up the breakable stoneware to put the chicken in the oven. So I'm blocking the stool with one foot, holding the heavy breakable stoneware with one hand, opening the oven door with the other hand, and hip checking Grant to keep him from climbing into the oven. Have I mentioned I was on a business call also? As I'm closing the oven door, and turning around to locate Grant, a deafening crash echoes through the kitchen. Grant has thrown my glass bread pan with one hand and my metal bread pan with the other hand onto my stone floor. After I pick myself off the floor, pound my chest with my fist to restart my heart, and take a few deep breaths, I escort Grant out of the kitchen and praise God that nothing broke. Whew. What a 3 minutes that was.

Grant's other climbing trick is to push his wooden push cart into the middle of the room and climb up it. Again, safe on the way up, not so safe on the exit. Emma at least used to push the cart over to a wall before she climbed up it. He's also decided it's fun to stick his foot in the mailbox of his laugh and learn learning house and use it as a way to try and launch over the top of the house. It's a wonder we as a human race continue to procreate instead of having boys selected out via Darwinism.

This and That

Happy Birthday hubs!

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Another cold, another sleepless scream fest of a night, another trip to the after hours clinic for Grant. We left with, surprise surprise, a prescription for an antibiotic. He's got strep throat. But Emma doesn't, so it's a mystery where he got it from. I'm guessing the church nursery, so I'll have to start swabbing it down when I get there to work on Sundays. The Dr. asked me if he was a daycare kid. I hung my head in shame and said no. He was surprised "considering how sick he's been since he was born." I left feeling not only like a stellar mother, but also like a stellar disinfector. Is that a word? He's 14 months old and has been on antibiotics as many times as Emma, who is 39 months old. Oh, and my throat hurts too. Awesome.

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I'm mourning the loss of "The Office" in my life. We are all caught up on netflix, and sit here, eagerly awaiting the end of the current season and its dvd release. Will Pam and Jim finally get together and start dating? Don't ruin it for me.

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More on Grant - he's walking!!!!! He still uses crawling as his quick form of transportation, but he'll walk from the kitchen to the living room. He's a bit slow, and has a bit of a lean toward the left, but he can change surfaces with no problem. What a stud. Interesting note, Emma started walking on Dec. 20, and two years and two days later, Grant started walking on Dec. 22.

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I currently have more presents unwrapped than wrapped. Imagine my surprise? dismay? stress? when I pulled out the container of Christmas gift bags I had bought at Sam's Club and realized they were not Christmas bags, but every other gift giving holiday bags. While they are cute, and I'll enjoy using them, they do nothing to help me right now. So I'm blogging instead.

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I hope everyone has an awesome Christmas. If you don't celebrate Christmas, go skiing or see a movie or something that won't be crowded. Just have an awesome day!

Aargh.

It's been a day of aggravations. Grant was up at 5 am. Again. For what seems like the 100th time in a row. Hubs reminded me as he was leaving that he was going out with his work buddies tonight (which means he's home after the kids are in bed). There was no parking at Granny's place so we had to park in the ditch. Literally. Emma left her listening ears at home when we went to have lunch with Granny. Grant flung more food than he ate all.day.long. Emma's loud voice during naptime woke Grant up after 40 minutes. I had to put the smack down on Emma not listening to me so we didn't go to the library today. I have a cut on my thumb that is right where it gets used all the time and it hurts. The soap bottle opened in the bag on the way home from Target and got everywhere. I found ants in the nursery. And all down the hallway. Grant is getting a cold and has been stirring and crying out hourly since he went to bed. I haven't wrapped a single Christmas gift.

The kids were in bed by 7pm. That is indicative of a day where working outside the home seems dreamy.

I was busy today

A special thank you to Megan for passing this one along

http://www.kellymom.com/writings/parenting/do-anything-today.html

An Inclusive Nutcracker

I saw The Nutcracker yesterday with my mom and brother (whose wife is having a little girl! YAY!!). It was beautiful and magical and wonderful, just as it should be. But do you know what was most memorable for me? A little boy in the Christmas party scene at the beginning. It took me a few minutes to notice him, but once I did, I couldn't take my eyes off of him, and I had goosebumps from his performance. He looked around 8 or 9, and had the biggest smile ever. He was so into character, and was chatting with the other adult characters, playing his character to the "T". He nodded when he was supposed to, moved his arms around when he was suppose to, and looked excitedly at the toy he was given. He was right in the middle of everything, other children performers on either side of him during the sequences that featured the children. And he was in a wheelchair. The more I watched, the more I realized he probably has a diagnosis of something like cerebral palsy - his arm movements were stiff, his arms didn't extend all the way. The most wonderful thing about watching him, aside from his sheer joy at performing on stage, was how included he was. He was seated in a period appropriate wheelchair. The dancer playing his mother moved him around the stage appropriately, and like I said before, he was included appropriately in all of the children's pieces. It was awesome. I couldn't help thinking while I was watching that scene, that this is probably a thrill of a lifetime for him. Such a wonderful, normal experience for him to have, and such an awesome example to the other children in the ballet that people with special needs have the same interests and desires as they do. That is why I'm so passionate about inclusion - because when children grow up with special needs people in their daily lives, it becomes the norm instead of the exception.

So thanks to the ballet company for reminding us that inclusion is in all facets of life, not just school.

Christmas Cheer

10 days left....feeling stressed....must laugh.

hilarious hunks singing

Mom's letter to Santa

Enjoy!

Play that funky music white boy

Well Grant has started to dance. And it's clear he's a white boy with classic white boy moves. He shakes his arms, he bounces off beat, he has a silly smile. Dancing With the Stars competitor he is not.


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We have this little chalkboard hung on the wall that says "________ Days 'til Christmas" and every morning Emma erases the number and we write in the new number. She loves it. Frankly, it stresses me out how few days we have until Christmas. 12 days people. 12 days. Stressed now?

Take my poll!

I just figured out how to post a poll so take it! One rule, if you check other you MUST leave a comment explaining. Now go vote. It's to the left, upper column.

Phase one is complete

We got our tree yesterday and got it decorated. It was by far the most fun we've had picking out trees since the excitement of picking out our first Christmas tree as a married couple. Emma was running up and down the aisles, picking the ugliest trees on the lot and announcing "THIS is the one daddy! Pull it out so mama can see how beautiful it is". Grant, also with an eye for the ugly, was pointing at various trees with vigor, mostly the trees that were still wrapped up. We got cute pictures of them holding hands in front of a bunch of trees, we waved at cars driving by, Emma chatted up a few other tree hunters. Anyway, we found an awesome tree and got it home and decorated before dinner. It's HUGE for our standards, I had to stand on a stool to get the tree topper on (no short jokes please). It's also quite barren since we have zero breakable ornaments on it. Grant is great about not bothering the tree unless the lights are on but I have no doubts that will change when he starts walking.

Speaking of lights, hanging the lights outside was a comedic debacle. We ran out of lights like a foot short of the end of the house. Ghe-tto. And of course, the store was out of the kind we needed. So three stores later, we settled on some that sort of looked the same. I'll say it again, Ghe-tto. See, this is why I don't like hanging lights outside! Emma was in love with the whole process, and helped hubs by handing him the plastic things the lights hang on. We made no less than three trips outside to look at the lights once it got dark. And our neighbors got to enjoy our lights alllll night long because we forgot to turn them off before we went to bed. I know we can use a timer, but it's plugged into the tree lights.

Isn't it interesting how life events can really have an influence on the Christmas season. I was thinking about our various past Christmas seasons and how what we had going on in our lives really influenced the season. Our first married Christmas can be summed up with the word giddiness. We were dirt poor, but so excited to be getting our first tree together, and buying a few ornaments for it. It was a total Charlie Brown tree, but it was OUR tree! We even took pictures next to it. The next year I have no memory of at all, then we were in Italy so no decorations came out at all and it almost seemed like Christmas didn't happen. That's the year I realized family plays a huge part in my Christmas experience. It was so hard for me to be away from my parents that year. The next few years are a blur as we lived separately while I finished school and we moved to our current residence. Then we had Miss Emma and the life change of having a baby left me so drained we got a tree a week before Christmas, threw a few ornaments on it, and sent out New Years cards. Last year things started to get interesting as Emma asked endless questions about the tree and stockings and presents. This year has been magic and I truly feel like I'm seeing the wonder of Christmas all over again. Emma is so awed by everything, and so excited about every aspect of decorating and visiting Santa and getting her stocking out and reading Christmas books. She asks me every single morning if today is Christmas Eve. She's excited to tell me about Baby Jesus and how he was "born in a barn because one two three four hotels were all full". I'm really looking forward to the next several years as the kids are young enough to be enveloped by the wonder and awesomeness of Christmas.

Conversations with Emma

In the car on the way to preschool today

Emma: I'm chewing gum. Do you want some Mama?
Me: Sure.
Emma: Here (reaches forward) It's purple gum.
a few seconds of blessed silence pass by.....

Emma: Are you still chewing your gum?
Me: Yep.
Emma: I threw mine away, it was yucky.
Me: Why was it yucky?
Emma: From dirt.
Me: How did it get yucky from dirt?
Emma: I got dirt in my gum from Big Bird throwing it.

Christmas House Lights

I don't get it. I drive around town, and I see Christmas lights everywhere and I just don't understand why people spend hours hanging lights all around the outside of their house. I don't understand the blow up inflatable penguins and snowmen and Santas. I don't understand the people who half hang them up so the lights looks shoddy and just thrown up on the house. Don't get me wrong, we are hanging lights up this year simply because it will stop Emma from asking hourly when we are going to hang our Christmas lights. But I still don't get it. Lights on the Christmas tree inside? Totally get that. But outside? Not so much.


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Emma: (as we drive by a random Starbucks) Mom, do you need a grande nonfat latte today?
Me: (biting my tongue off trying not to laugh) Not right now, thanks.

Hmmm.....me thinks I drink too many grande nonfat lattes if my 3 year old can order for me! Maybe I should look into getting some Starbucks stock.

Like a first date

I had my first playdate today with friends from preschool. It was two moms I've had my eye on since the first week of school, and Emma adores their girls. The moms and I chat when we drop the kids off, but it's just idle chitchat. At the family picnic they shared a blanket, and we tried to sidle up next to them, but Grant took off crawling in the other direction. I wave and smile when I can.

Then on Thursday, one of the moms mentions her daughter talks about Emma all the time, and she wondered if we wanted to get together this Saturday and go to the outdoor mall in town and check out the Christmas lights. I try not to look too excited as I write down her phone number and tell her we'd love too. I think about what I'm going to wear, and if I should pack snacks. I wonder how the morning is going to play out, I mean I'm no stranger to playdates, but it's been while since I've playdated with new people.

All in all, it was fun. They are way more fly by the seat of their pants than I am so we ended up taking public transportation at the last minute, and they forgot to write down the details of where we were going, and no one had a watch, but I went with the flow, enjoyed the company, and Emma had a blast. She even talked with Santa, from a slight distance, which is HUGE considering when she was 1 we couldn't even push the stroller past Santa without her screaming bloody murder. I didn't pay the $750 for one picture of her and Santa though cause if I'm paying that much for a stinkin picture you better believe Grant is going to be in it too. We got home 3 hours after I told hubs I'd be home, which lead to a grumpy Hubs, but he got over it. I'm looking forward to my next playdate with them, maybe at the zoo. And I'll leave the whole afternoon open, since who knows where we'll end up. I'm driving my car next time though, that's for sure.


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Ever since Grant weaned, it's been a fight to get enough milk into him. The boy takes max 4 sips of milk during a meal, and we don't ever get anywhere near the recommended 12 ozs. of dairy in a day. I mean a person can only eat so much cheese. Today, Grant sucked down his milk in no time flat. The key? Let him hold the cup all by himself. Done.