Holidays

How do you wrap up a week of holiday excitement into one little blog post? To put it simply, Christmas was awesome. Having small children definitely makes it more fun. Plus now that we have kids our parents and grandparents come to our house to celebrate so there is no traveling. Yay! It was exhausting and wonderful and I wish I could bottle it up and enjoy it during the blah days through out the year.

I already showed y'all the train table in the last post which definitely took the cake as the coolest Christmas present. My husband got me a Flip video camera of my own so I can record the kids while he is at work since he misses all the great moments that happen during the day. I also got Adobe photoshop so hopefully I will have better edited pictures coming to a blog post in the near future. As soon as I quit watching Gossip Girl dvds and start figuring out how it works. I got my husband a Stud finder among other things and it has been a source of endless jokes (on his part).

I think I should have just gotten him a vasectomy for Christmas because the man has been talking about babies waaaayyyy too much lately. As in he wants a 3rd baby in the not too distant future. And I want a 3rd baby when, well, never. So there's that. I think a real Christmas present would have been him having to do all the night time feedings for the next 9 months. I think that would nip the whole baby fever thing in the bud.

Chef Bear

Bear has been so busy lately. It is nice to transition out of the into everything toddler stage into a more structured play stage with an almost pre-schooler. He has shown a great interest in cooking lately. Every time I go near the kitchen he is in there dragging a chair behind him ready to "help make cookies, mama". Or muffins. I have to convince him that mama does more than bake cookies and muffins. Occasionally we have to eat real food. I let him watch and do a little stirring but for the most part he is too little to be much help. He will even eat chopped onion, bell pepper and carrots off the cutting board as I am working although he wouldn't touch those if I placed them on his plate at dinner. Kids are funny like that.

The other day I had set out a bowl of beans to soak overnight and went to feed Tater. I heard Bear going into his room and getting his stool. I caught him in the kitchen pretending to cook for me. He played with that bowl of beans for an hour while I sauteed veggies and got the other dinner prep ready. Guess who is getting some wooden play food for Christmas?




He got a train table yesterday from my Dad who came down to celebrate Christmas early. So if the whole chef thing doesn't work out he could definitely get behind the idea of being a train engineer. He went to bed last night holding pieces from the train set while us adults spent 2 hours building the train table. Then another 2 hours this morning assembling the train track and assorted buildings. It is awesome though.

Blah..

I am so very, very tired. I thought by 8 months Tater would be at least close to sleeping through the night but I think I am getting less and less sleep. For a couple of weeks at the end of November he was only waking up maybe 1-2 times per night which was bearable but then last week he started back to his usual 4-5 times per night. Last night I put him down at 7:30. I topped him off at 9:30, 11:00, 12, 1, 3:30, 5, and he got up for the day at 7:30. I can't figure out what I am doing wrong. He has cereal and baby food through out the day with his final feeding of cereal at 6-6:30ish just before starting his bedtime routine. I am not the kind that can do the crying it out thing. I have to go in and make sure he hasn't wet through his diaper or gotten his leg stuck in the crib bars. And once in there I can't just ignore him. Gah...

Beyond this my life has been pretty boring. I spent Friday night at a potluck with my mom before going to bed at 9:45, Saturday night I stayed up till midnight baking 8 dozen cookies for a Sunday cookie exchange and last night I went to the grocery store after the kids went to bed. The big event of my night was arguing with the cashier about the fact that he charged me 3 times for 2 bars of cheese. And then he acted like it was my fault and didn't even apologize after I had to stand back in line to make him fix it. Such is the life of the SAHM.

I do love my life and it is the life I wanted but sometimes I don't recognize this nearly 30 year old with two kids and a coupon binder in her purse. The 20 year old me would have probably never even looked at a receipt to see what a cashier charged me and I certainly wouldn't have been caught dead with a handful of coupons. I could barely tell you at 22 who the President was much less my senators. Now I spend my afternoons watching Glenn Beck and reading news online complaining about how this country is going to hell in a handbasket. My life is definitely not exciting blog fodder but I won't complain. We are happy, healthy, and uninteresting which is just fine by me. I could use a little more sleep though.

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving

Happy almost Thanksgiving! We are still alive over here. There just hasn't been a whole lot going on this past month. In fact I can't believe Halloween was already a month ago. The boys are doing well. Tater turned 7 months old on the 11th. OMG...and Bear is fast approaching his 3rd birthday in just over 2 months.

Tater is not yet crawling although he can do a little of the army man crawl with the belly on the ground. It is hard for the poor kid to get any tummy time to practice with a brother who won't leave him alone. As for Bear we are in the throes of the terrible twos still. It is shaping up that we will move straight into the tyrannical threes. There is much crying and gnashing of teeth over every little thing (mostly by me). He has also really gotten into the "no" and "I don't like it" phase lately. Let's not even mention the potty training that is so not happening. We have tried to not pressure and have offered bribes. I have taken him to the bathroom with me and talked to him about going potty until I am blue in the face but to no avail. The kid ain't budging. This was OK at 2 this is not as OK at nearly 3. I know if I try to force it or make a big deal out of it he will just resist even more.

But they are both beautiful and healthy so there is nothing to really complain about. Nothing that won't pass with time. We are truly blessed.

So Happy Thanksgiving everyone and hopefully I will post again before Christmas.

Halloween 2009

We survived Halloween. Yay! I was a little worried about convincing the 2 year old to don a hat and costume and approach random doors but he did as well as can be expected. Meaning I bribed him like crazy. It was a little sketchy at first when I had to spend 10 minutes negotiating bribes in order to get him into the costume. Then we just won't discuss the lengths I went to in order to obtain pictures of him in all of his costumed preciousness.

Tater didn't do much better as he got hot very quickly in his costume and started screaming. Although I don't blame him. I wouldn't have wanted to wear it either. Once pictures and a trip around the block were done he got to spend the rest of the night chilling on the couch in a onesie while Bear convinced his Daddy to take him a few more blocks for candy.