Christmassy Stuff

Note: this post was obviously written awhile back. I wanted to get it out while it was still 2011! Happy New Year everyone! 🙂

Getting ready for the holidays while working full time and raising a baby and a three year old is a little hectic. Ok, A LOT hectic. I really have to put my OCD, clean-freak tendencies aside as my house sits in a state of disaster. Weekends are a whirlwind of activities, laundry, grocery shopping, meal preparing, holiday decorating, card envelope licking (really, could they put a better tasting flavor on those?? ick!), nose wiping, diaper changing, cold coffee sipping, Christmas tree getting and decorating kinds of things. Whew. It’s exhausting.

Last weekend we had plans to get the tree on Saturday, but it rained all day. (Yup…rain….still no snow in these parts!) So after a morning of advent calendar opening and lounging around in our snowman jammies and santa hats….

we went to our town’s pancake breakfast instead. Still plenty of holiday festivities there. Even the man in red made an appearance. It was the kids first encounter with Santa. M was unfazed, but S wasn’t about to sit on his lap. She inched in for pic and that was as close as she got.

Sunday as the only day left to get the tree. The parking lot was a mud pit. People were slipping and sliding all over the place, but we managed to bundle everyone up and select “the” tree.

S thought it was pretty neat that the tree was on the roof of our car and had fun hanging up the ornaments this year. I think she asked “Is this fragile?” for every one.

We kind of “cheated” St. Nick’s visit this year and had him come on Saturday night so the kids could enjoy looking through their stocking on Sunday morning without having to rush off to school. Myles had fun eating his stocking (look at that pre-haircut mop!).

So, we are somehow managing to get ready for Christmas. I’m not sure how the last-minute gift shopping and present wrapping is going to happen, but we’ll figure out something. It’s a fun time of year and I plan to focus on that. S is enjoying the special things about Christmas even more this year.  And we are milking the “nice list” for all it’s worth.

Just a few of my favorite things this year are this ornament I made from a pinterest idea. It was rather difficult to get this result, but I’m glad I made the attempt.

The other thing I’m loving is our mantle with our family stockings. Now that our family is complete, I was so excited to purchase a set of stockings with all of our names on them. I also got a really good deal on them, buying them off-season, so that makes them even more special to me. I love looking at the kids’ stockings and smiling at their names side-by-side. We are so lucky to have Miss S and Mr. M in our lives!

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Mylestones: 6 Months

I can’t believe that half a year ago we were headed to the hospital on a sunny summer morning to go meet our little man! Time sure does fly. It’s amazing how fast babies grow and learn new things. Myles is all about scooting around on the floor. I think the Christmas tree and glass tv stand are his favorite destinations when he’s on the floor, as I find myself pulling him away from those places most often. He loves playing with his baby toys and S helps him out with that, always making sure he has a huge pile of toys to pick from. His shrieks and squeals are some of my most favorite sounds ever. He’s still a two-teether, but I know others are on their way from the way he chews on anything he can get in his mouth.

His 6 month check up went great. He’s at 21 lbs, 13 oz (97%), 28 1/2 inches (97%), and his head is 44.6 cm (75%). Doc said he’s obviously more mobile now that his weight growth is slowing down a tad. I guess we still could carry him around in the infant carrier, but we decided to make the switch and Myles is now riding around in style in his convertable seat. He seems to like it, but it’s definitely more of a challenge to take him out and about and have to carry him instead of letting him sleep in his carrier.

He’s tried avocado, apricot, sweet potato, carrots and mango. He seems to enjoy the orange foods. I made my own sweet potatoes last night, so I hope to start feeding him some homemade stuff soon. We’d been using some container foods that our nice neighbors gave us when they discovered that their little one only enjoyed table foods. I also bought some organic brown rice that I need to put in my food processor to make some rice cereal for him. So much to do, so little time!

Myles is thisclose to crawling. I think he’s actually managed a few good crawls in there, but didn’t realize that he did. He had a great first Christmas and especially enjoyed the wrapping paper. I think next year I’ll just wrap up some tissue paper and the kids will be happy.

Happy Half-Year, Kiddo! Guess this mommy needs to get started on the 1st birthday plans! Pinterest, here I come…

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Reindeer Games…Er, “Canes”

I remember making these candy cane reindeer when I was young, so I’m not sure where the original idea came from. The “reinbeer” picture on pinterest reminded me of these little guys and I knew S would have a blast making them. I finally got a chance to hit up Hobby Lobby and bought all the supplies. All you need are some candy canes, red pom poms for the noses, googly eyes, brown pipe cleaners, scissors and some glue (I just used regular ol’ Elmers).

There really aren’t specific instructions, just cut the pipe cleaners so they are long enough to twist around once for the main antler piece and then snip two smaller pieces to wrap around the tips for the full antler effect. Then glue on the googly eyes and pom pom nose. Let them dry and you’ll soon have more than eight tiny reindeer to help you celebrate the holidays.

We are planning to have S take these to school to give to her friends for a cute holiday treat!

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New ‘Do

Myles was born with a ton of hair. I knew that when I had to snip carefully around his ears with the manicure scissors while he slept as a newborn that we’d probably have to visit a haircut place soon. I guess I just didn’t think it would be when he was only 5 1/2 months old! I’m new to this whole “give your baby a haircut” thing since S still hasn’t had to have her hair cut (although I’m thinking a few inches off would be good). I called my amazing stylist and asked if she cut baby’s hair (do they do that so young??). Of course! she said. I didn’t trust his first locks to be chopped by just anyone, so I took him in to see Miss B.

Myles enjoyed his first visit to the salon from the moment he walked in. All the pretty ladies checking him out and smiling at him. He grinned right back. Miss B covered me in a smock and M sat on my lap. Once she started (and had to move quickly with a squirmy baby!), we were covered in fuzzy brown baby hair. I couldn’t believe how much of a mop he had on his head! Once it was trimmed up, he looked so adorable and like such a little man. We saved his little locks in a tip envelope. I think he looks so cute!

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