Snowmageddon
I made the a horrible mistake during Thanksgiving not splitting my time better between housework and getting grading done. I let to much build up as far as grading, but at least the house looked 10 times better than it had. Anywho, that lead a massive back-up in my workload for school. I pretty much spent almost every single night after Thanksgiving break staying up until 12 practically trying to play catch-up. The week right after break we had a freak ice storm that started Thursday night. School ended up closing for two days-Friday and Monday, and Brett worked from home both days as well. We played it safe on Friday and Saturday, and then cabin fever got the best of us plus the need for supplies so we headed to a local mall to get out. It made for an interesting week the following, and it definitely put our Christmas fun behind by a lot. Little Man and Dante had tons of fun though getting to be home and having nonstop play and mommy-daddy time. The one advantage it did give us was a chance to put up the tree. It was a completely different experience this year because Gray was able to help us out. He had lots of fun, and he discovered candy canes and "I Wanna a Hippopotamus for Christmas." Thankfully, we were at least smart enough to do our neighborhood Christmas Light walk the night before it got nasty. Little man enjoyed the night time wagon ride, but he didn't seem too interested in the lights as of yet. Another downside to being cooped up in the house was Little Man not only figured out how to climb in and out of his wagon, but he also discovered that the wagon made great step-stool. I didn't think problem solving skills started this early, but apparently in our house, it does. Little Man managed to push his wagon up to the tree Monday while both of us were working, get into it, stand-up, and then proceeded to grab the Eeyore he had been eying off the tree. Needless to say, the wagon went out of sight and mind, and I was more than happy to get back to work Tuesday even if it was to all day testing.
Left: Buddies hanging out by the window
Right: Checking out the icy damage
Bottom: Just being his adorable self.
Christmas Tree Fun
Right: Helping Mommy untangle the lights
Top: First taste of candy cane.
Right: This is what a toddler trying to take out an ornament looks like.
Left: Discovering his favorite ornament.
Bottom: Little Man's first attempt at ornament hanging all by himself.
Mixing Birthday Pleasure with Christmas Necessity
As many December babies can tell you, having a birthday not only in the winter time (technically, I am really a fall baby since the first day of winter is 5 days after my birthday, but who really is counting huh?) but also having it right around Christmas time is sucktastic. I have spent years complaining about it so I am not going to go into it now. One of the hardest things is honestly keeping them separated especially as what to do. This is compounded a bit as the Dallas area really loves to celebrate Christmas with tons of events. On the off-side, Texas is also a great place to have a December birthday since the weather can make you think it is more like September or March for most places. My 10th birthday was a miniature golf party, and it was balmy high 70s day if I remember correctly. This year wasn't one of those years unfortunately with the recent icy days of Snowmegaddon. Since we had lost the previous weekend time to being stuck in the house, we had to combine my birthday weekend with Christmas events. We didn't do anything too fancy this year because while Little Man is more present this year, he still doesn't quite get it to be honest. Including our traditional neighborhood walk before the cold, we also made the new tradition of going to the mall Santa. North Park Mall in Dallas really does have the best Santa, but I am still nervous about his reaction especially since his stranger shyness started up in the recent months. After reading up and checking some images, we decided to go with Galleria Santa. For a Saturday, the line wasn't too bad, and while he wanted to bolt at first, Little Man quickly settled down when Santa spoke to him. He was a really good Santa, and there was something special about him since Little Man gave him his high 5 of approval. I got the disc because it was the best deal, and this one of the cheaper prices in the area. However, the downside was the photographer wasn't too great; if I had known I would have been allowed to take with my own, I would have just brought that. The cookie they handed out was really good though. Afterward a little bit of lunch, we walked the mall and did a little Christmas shopping. Be mindful if you do go around lunch time, that there was a very limited selection of inexpensive places, and they don't necessarily have toddler friendly meals.
We then dropped off Little Man with Grammy for the night, and we did a bit more Christmas shopping. For my birthday, we picked up our friend J and his girlfriend, and we headed up to Kenny's Burger Joint. They have these absolutely delicious adult milkshakes and gourmet burgers, so I highly suggest it if you don't mind driving to or are in the Colony/Frisco border area. We proceeded to stuff ourselves with truffle oil fries, fries and gravy, and burgers topped with beer and cider for me and grabbed dessert to take home with us. When we got back to our place, we played this game called Cards Against Humanities. Awesome game but definitely for those with minds that lack some twist and turns! Several rounds went by with much needed rounds of giggles. We finished up fairly late, and Hubster and I slept in a bit before he went to grab Little Man. I spent most of Sunday getting some grading done in order to be ready for the end of the semester.
Monday (my actual birthday) was pretty tame. I did a good job of keeping it a secret that it was my birthday since I wanted the kiddos to concentrate on their fall exams than on me. However, Hubster had let it slip to one of my kiddos when my birthday was. He very sweetly brought me a box of Sprinkles cupcakes including my favorite type of cake, Red Velvet. I only had one class that day one of my conference periods was the one periods being testing, and we got out at 12:30. I made the mistake of looking for a couple of kids to talk to about their grades, and the fellow who knew my birthday couldn't keep it to himself. Next thing I know I was being rousingly serenaded by a group of about 10 middle school boys. Not embarrassing at all let me tell ya! The rest of the week went okay but on hyper drive as we got ready to wrap-up the semester. I was very relieved on Friday after our district meet-up stuff was over knowing that I was finally on break.
Left: The Santa moment captured with my phone. It was actually better than any of ones on the disc.
Right: Little man doing his problem solving trick with the wagon.
I was super excited to finally get a break from all my workaholicness, but I was sorely wrong. Of course, I really put a lot of this one myself because I can't just settle for a stinking gift card or box of chocolate. I spent most of the weekend putting together teacher and assistant gifts for Little Man's school. I did chalkboard letters for his new toddler teachers, and then I made personal canvas totes using t-shirt paints and stencils for the owner and his former infant room teachers. I then made hot chocolate on a stick for all the assistants. I had planned to make cute oreo snowmen for his classmates, but that didn't go as planned. Plus I still needed to finishes Christmas shopping. Luckily, I didn't have to worry about doing much for Christmas like last year since my Dad was hosting it this year at his house.
Top left is the chalkboard letters, and the others are the personalized bags. I am planning on setting up a blog to come about making them. They were actually all super easy and not too timely on their own, but it did add up to some man hours in the end. I did end up also making a Grammy and Maga bag for my mother-in-law and grandmother from Little Man. He picked the colors, and I let him go at it with his handprints. I then let them dry and flipped it over to stencil their grandma names and some pretty pictures. They were a definite hit.
We spent the 21st with part of Hubster's family, and Sunday we went to the Gaylord to try and get some Christmasy pictures of Little Man for our New Year's cards. Little Man had fun, but he wasn't exactly Mr. Cooperate at all. Monday the 23rd was filled with a bunch of running around. Little Man had his 18 month appointment in the morning, and the doctor said he was looking good. He was on the smaller side weight wise than I had hope, but this was probably because he had been sick on and off again and breaking four molars since Thanksgiving. The doctor was happy that he was actually on the charts and that his development seemed on scheduled. Apparently, Little Man is a bit ahead on his vocabulary according to Dr. F. He should have 5-10 words, and Little Man is about between 15-20 right now. He was also really pleased that Little Man had already started to make two word sentences. Thankfully, there were no shots this time; the last round will be when he goes for his 2 year appointment. All seemed great after the appointment, but it was all deceptive apparently for later. We dropped Little Man at day care. The Hubster headed to work, and I started doing the last touch-ups on the gifts along with wrapping things. My grandma came over to drop gifts off for the morning, and then I went and grabbed the kiddo for some last minute shopping. I am not sure if it was the running around in the cold or day care gunk, but Little Man started running fever much to our dismay. However, it wasn't too bad so we just kept an eye on it. Christmas Eve morning dawned with it seemed to have broken a bit, but by late morning, it was on the rise again. Little Man went between wanting to be held and being crazy play man. Hubster and I took turns curling up with him to watch Christmas movies. Needles to say, the laid back Christmas Eve I had planned out to go catch some of the Christmasy actives we had missed the weekends before never happened. I did make it to grab all the last minute items, and his temperature was down enough in the afternoon to attempt the grandma bags. However, it didn't last long, and it was up enough that we did call the doctor. We skipped making cookies for Santa and got him to bed as quick as possible after his bath and our traditional opening of one gift. He did manage to make it through his new Christmas book. We did decide to still set-up for Santa though just in cause he was on the mend the next day.
Fun times at the Gaylord
Christmas Eve Traditions
Left: Tree pre-Santa visit Top: Christmas morning before
Little Man saw
With a sigh of relief, Little Man was perfect the next morning. I wish that I was a bit faster with the a camera because the look on his face was adorable! It was so much cooler than last year. He did this whole "oh, my goodness" look at all the presents and did the whole hand "for me" type gesture, and then he did his funny fast diaper walk to go check stuff out. It was hilarious to see him go from item to item to check it out. We finally got through his stuff, and then we checked out our gifts to each other. Hubster did good with my gifts this year, and I was happy to see that my gamble of Star Wars socks and "Back to the Future" delirium lego set. We got the living room cleaned up a bit since Hubster's immediate family were coming over later and got ready to book-it to my dad's.
Left: Hanging in his new chair with his boy doll.
Right: Mad dash shopping cart-the face reminds me of that grocery game show.
Left: Taking a juice break from all the presents
Right: Having bubble time with Daddy
Helping Daddy out with his new UNT bowl game shirt. Already teaching him to say "Go Mean Green!"
Getting some help from Mommy to finish off opening some presents.
We spent Christmas day at my dad's house (a little weird to say still rather than my parents'). It was nice to get to see everyone and see the house full of people. We got a chance to take some family photos, but of course, I come from a family that keep a straight face. We got home in the early evening time, and the Hubster's mom, brother, and grandma came over for dinner. Little Man got a basketball hoop and a cleaning set. I was so happy that my mother-in-law was able to find a blue set rather than something girlie! The Hubster's brother got him a 3-foot Darth Vadar that he has been having fun placing all over the house. It is mostly funny unless it is in dark cavernous places like our shower unexpectedly. All around it was an amazing day.
Note to those with boys: There is value in boys playing house just as much as girls. From research I have done, it helps encourage speech (Awesome blog post by a speech pathologist about toys for speech development) as well as promotes real life activities like cleaning, cooking, and being a good parent. If your kiddo is in Montessori, then they are already playing with it since it part of the Montessori curriculum if it is being done correctly. If you are like me and already knew this, then you are probably having some of the same issues I have had-finding items that are vomited in pink and overtly girlie. Never fear, I have included the items along with links to help out. Toys R Us carries a line called Just Like Home who makes the blue set which includes a broom, dust pan, two types of mops, a bucket, and play cleaning bottle(Just Like Me Cleaning Set). I included the link in case you were looking for one. I found a boy baby doll at Target on sale a few days before Christmas (Circo Baby Doll). The shopping cart was originally a gift for my niece last year that never got opened and didn't go with her when she was adopted, so we decided to regift it-don't judge me please since the whole point is for it to get played with. It is by Little Helper's. We got it at Kohl's two years ago on sale, but they also sell it at Toys R Us (Little Helper's Shopping Cart). It comes with a shopping bag and some play food. Several of the items say +2, but we just removed the small parts like the pacifier and paper boxes that Little Man decided try to eat one of. Everything else so far has seems to be on the non-choking hazard side since it is far too big to put in his mouth.
New Year's
The Hubster and I have talked for years about doing a fancy New Year's party, and this most recent one we actually got an invite through J's girlfriend. I was super excited, and I even lucked into finding a beautiful new dress for only $18. We also managed to score last minute reservations at the restaurant we had planned to go to for our 4th anniversary, but the fates were not with us. I had horrible issues of the feminine nature, and we ended up going to dinner. Then we ran by Kroger's to grab some sparkling Moscato (sweeter than regular sparkling stuff), and we celebrated the change of time at home. We did get to talk to the H family who are in Hawaii which was nice. We cuddled on the couch and watched a movie before heading to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment