Wordless Wednesday: Christmas Post #3 (Chaos and Joy at Grandma Toni's House)

Christmas Post #2

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me. . .

Well, it certainly wasn't two turtledoves. Our cats would've just eaten them. Our Christmas #2 was on Christmas Eve, which I've always spent with my mother's side of the family. Nick was excited to see his Grandma Linda, Grandpa Ray, Gigi (Great Grandma), Aunt Mandy, and Uncle Andy.  Above you can see Nick showing off his big boy Christmas argyle sweater, which I love because it looks like something an adult would wear. All he needs is a briefcase, and he's ready for a business casual day at the office.

The good thing about my son is that he gets far more excited about playing with new people than he does about toys. Not that he doesn't like toys, but I'm less worried about him getting spoiled after seeing how much he wanted the interaction. There were so many presents, but he wanted everyone to sit on the floor and play with him.  Here is Aunt Mandy sharing a candy cane with him.

Nick was soon overwhelmed with presents, and he often couldn't be bothered to open new ones because he was so busy playing with the last present he'd opened. One of his favorite gifts was a keyboard--one obviously meant for an older child. Nick absolutely adored all of the buttons. I believe in the video below he's singing a version of "Somebody Come and Play" from Sesame Street.

Nick also loves giving presents. One special one that Nick and I made for Grandma Linda was one of those Shutterfly memory books. It was all pictures of Nick and his grandma together. I think she liked it.

I'll leave you with Nick regaling us with Christmas Carols. Jingle bells is his favorite song, and the only one he knows the words to so far.



Christmas Post #1

Nick gets more Christmases than most kids. You see, since Greg and I both have divorced parents, Nick ended up having four grandmas, three grandpas, and two great-grandmas. For three of his grandmas (and two of his grandpas), Nick is the first and only grandchild, at least until next year. He is a very lucky boy, and this is especially evident around Christmastime, both for love and attention reasons and for the obvious presents that come with lots of grandmas and grandpas. Nick is a total people person, though, and having new people to play with was the highlight of each of his Christmases.

Christmas #1 was on the 23rd, with Nick's Grandpa Mike and Grandma Patty. My dad has really been enjoying being a grandpa, especially since Nick has started walking and talking. I can remember him getting down on the floor and playing with my sister and I when we were little kids, and it's so nice to see him having so much fun playing with his grandson now. Although Nick doesn't look too thrilled in the above picture, as soon as he figured out what this car does, he got really excited. All you have to do is shake it up and put the car on the floor, and it drives itself. This was a revelation for my boy, who loves anything with wheels.

I love the above picture because there are so many random things going on. First, Grandpa Mike is looking at a picture Nick drew while Nick brushes his hair with a rather serious look on his face. You can see Nick's new tent in the background, and Grandma Patty, too, who is laughing at the whole scene. On the table are several Play Doh creations. Nick likes to make people roll balls and make him snakes. "Make snake!," he'll insist, handing the Play Doh over to Grandma Patty.

Above you can see Nick opening his favorite present of the evening, a tent with tunnel attached. As soon as I saw it, I knew that this present would be a winner. I can remember how much fun it was to play in tents and make forts when I was a kid. Nick's eyes got really big and he crawled inside as soon as it was put together. I think this is going to be our go-to toy for rainy days when he gets bored.

Nick got lots of play time with his grandma and grandpa, and he was so excited he wouldn't even eat his pizza. He just wanted to color with them and play with his new toys. I believe they both left here pretty exhausted from his hijinks. He kept begging them to come down on the floor and play with him. "Play with me. Please! Sit here." It was a really relaxing, low key evening, and a great start to our yearly Christmas festivities.

The Many Joys of Cookie Baking

Every year, we bake cookies to give as gifts. My mom, my sister, and I baked the weekend before Christmas this year, and man, did we bake a ton of cookies. Nick was our official cookie taster. Gingerbread is his absolute favorite. My mom let him sample more than a few of our prototypes. It's amazing how many cookies are "damaged" and need eating.  :)

It's funny that gingerbread is his favorite. I think it must be a taste acquired in early childhood. My sister and I love gingerbread, but then again, we ate it from the time we were little kids. I've brought some to work and discovered that only a small subset of the population prefers gingerbread. Greg doesn't really like gingerbread much. That's okay, though. More for me and Nick.

After we were done with the baking, decorating, bagging, and packing, I tried to get some cute pics of Nick in front of the Christmas tree. Each year I use them for my gift tags. Here are the ones I ended up using:

Tonight I am baking cookies again. In my family, our tradition is to bake cookies (tons and tons of cookies) to give away as Christmas gifts. Here's a link to our cookie baking from last year. We did indeed bake this year, but here it is the day after Christmas, and we're just about out of cookies. Tomorrow we're having Christmas #4 with Greg's dad and stepmom (plus tons of cousins, aunts, and uncles), so I figured I'd better bake more cookies so there would be some fresh ones to bring. I made gingerbread, because gingerbread is my favorite, too. Yum.

Merry Christmas!



I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We sure did. Here is Nick's picture with Santa, taken at an incredibly late date--Christmas Eve morning at 11 a.m. He wasn't even a little scared, and he shouted, "Santa over there!" as we approached his chair. "I see Santa! Santa!" Nick went right to him, and grinned really big, especially when Santa gave him a candy cane. My boy has grown so much this year. Check out his Santa pic from last year:

See the difference? He's gotten huge! But both times Nick showed no fear of the large, bearded man in red. Last year we had to wait in line for what seemed like forever, and I just couldn't stomach the thought of wasting several hours in line to see Santa.

We meant to go a few weeks ago, but we all had a terrible cold and felt lazy. Then, last weekend I had cookie baking, a cookie exchange, and the great diaper explosion weekend of 2010. I went to the mall with Nick on Wednesday the 23rd, hoping to get in, but the line snaked around Fox Valley Mall in a line rivaling those at Disney World. I gave up, but then felt incredibly guilty at home later. Parental guilt is a horrible thing. I know intellectually that my kid will not suffer if he does not sit on Santa's lap, but I still felt like a lazy mom. Nick knows who Santa is, and points out everything that has Santa on it. Last year he wouldn't have known the difference, but this year, he gets it.

So I convinced Greg to go out on Christmas Eve morning. To the mall. Yup. We're crazy. The wonderful thing, though, is that everyone else must've thought it was too late to see Santa, because there was no one in line--not one person ahead of us. Just Santa sitting there taking it easy, resting up for his big night. Next year we'll try to be earlier, but we really lucked out going at the last minute.

We broke the record for last minute errands on Christmas Eve, I think. There needs to be some kind of award for miraculous shopping adventures. We left our house at 10:30 a.m., and got home around 12:15. Here is what we managed to accomplish during that time. It was a true Christmas miracle:

1. Greg filled his car with gas.

2. Drove to Louis Joliet Mall

3. Santa visit, complete with official picture printing.

4. The festive eating of the hot pretzel.

5. Went to Bath and Body works for last minute gifts.

6. Tried three different stores, finally found sweaters and socks for Nick.

7. I got my eyebrows threaded. (Ouch! But it was very quick.)

8. Nick got to ride the big shaking car that costs umpteen quarters.

9. Drove to Best Buy.

10. Located and purchased $57 of ink cartridges. (For printing custom gift tags. That line was hideous.)

11. Drove to grocery store.

12. Greg bought wine and maple syrup. (Gotta have the basics.)

I was so proud of us at the end of that trip. When we left the house, Greg was telling me there was no way we'd get it all done. I secretly agreed with him, but kept my fingers crossed. I remained calm and told Greg not to worry. Both of us were shaking our heads in astonishment when we pulled in the driveway at quarter after 12.

Wordless Wednesday: Captions, Please?

Big Brother?

Nick has just recently found out that he's going to be a big brother. Does he look surprised? Well, I'm not sure he totally gets the concept, but we've been telling him "There's a baby in Mommy's tummy." He looks back at me quizzically and asks, "Baby in there?" Nick likes to poke my tummy--he thinks it's funny and he's definitely noticed it growing. Then, a few times, he has poked Greg in his tummy and said, "Baby in there?" This is where I started laughing hysterically. I've been teasing Greg for the last few weeks about eating so many sweets, and now Nick thinks his daddy is pregnant, too. Yup. He's pregnant with twin cream puffs.

So here are the promised details: I'm about 15 weeks pregnant, and due June 15th. We opted for CVS testing (roughly the same prenatal testing procedure as amnio, just done at 11 weeks) and just found out that the results are clear. We waited to tell most people because I've already had a miscarriage and a chemical pregnancy this year, so we wanted to make sure everything was okay with this one. Honestly, I wouldn't even let myself get excited until the first trimester was through. I've been feeling pretty good, except for my feet, and I've had to wear maternity clothes since I was about 8 weeks along. I'm pretty sure I can already feel him wriggling around in there.   : )

Oh, and the genetic tests did show that it is a boy. I enjoy being a parent more than I ever thought I would, and I'm really looking forward to having two little boys. I'm sure they'll exhaust me, but they'll also make me laugh and make life far more interesting.

Did that answer all of your questions? If not, please just ask.