Snow Day!

Yes, I'm blogging on New Years Eve, because I'm that awesome.

The day after Christmas brought us our first snow of the season.  Since it was right after the holiday and my Dad and Lala were here, I missed the obligatory (and fun) "Snowmygoodnesswe'llneverdigout" news coverage.  We got about 15 inches of snow Sunday into Monday.  Ry and I also got a really nasty stomach bug and spent most of the day Monday imploring the boys to watch TV and entertain themselves.

On Tuesday, we decided it was time to get dug out.  T was super crazy excited to go play in the snow.

F? Well, F couldn't put his arms down ... but he was warm!

T got outside, took his first face full of snow and started crying. "Mommy, the snow is COLD!"  Duh, you goof, the snow is supposed to be cold.  Luckily, the tantrum was brief and we quickly got back to our snow activities.

While F couldn't really move, he still seemed to have a good time.

What? He was making snow angels.

We put T to work.

And made some more snow angels.

And T played in more snow.

Then we came in and warmed up with some Keurig hot cider.

A very Keurig Christmas

I was a little afraid of the toy-influx this year. As you can see by the pile of gifts behind the tree, there were a bunch. It's one of the side-effects of having 4 sets of grandparents I guess.  Fortunately, Christmas was pretty low-impact, especially considering that we had just done a big toy-culling.  Lots of the presents were books, puzzles, and smaller electronic toys.  Toss in a few new pieces of clothing for Ry and I, and the boxes looked a lot more intimidating than they ended up being.

F got a few fun new toys. He's big into putting things into other things right now.

Had to put this picture in, because it's what happens when I try to get the boys to share a lap.  Poor T does his best to scoot over to one leg, while F throws a fit because his lap has been invaded.  I try to just ignore F and finish whatever I'm doing with T, but T mostly prefers to get up and avoid the drama.  It's hard to be the big brother some times.

F does this really funny snorty-face thing.  So does my dad.

Our family tradition is to have appetizer-y type food for Christmas Even and open our presents.  Santa only brings the stocking presents, and they are the only presents opened on Christmas Day.  We had a lovely dinner.

Dad helped T put some new ornaments on the tree.

Ry and my present to each other this year was a Keurig coffee maker.  We got a super deal on them, and so decided to go in on one with my sister for D & L.  When they arrived a few days before Christmas, we showed off the new coffee maker, to their general "ooohs" and "aaahhs."  They were making noises about buying one in the after-Christmas sales.  So, it turns out we made a good choice.

T enjoyed his Pez like nobody's business.  It's astounding to me how chalky candy coming out a creature's neck can hold such allure.

This is just for my crazy eyes.

It took D & Ry to put together the shopping cart we got for F.  I only paid $10 for it, which, as it turns out, is about what's it worth.  It was one of the only ones I could find that wasn't pink though. What? Boys don't shop?

All our stockings were hung on the stairway with care.  Apparently my filling them after the boys went to bed on Christmas Eve ruined L's image of Santa. Sorry.

I forget what they were putting together

Is that the picture of Christmas morning, or what?

Yes, F was missing his pants. He kept walking out of them. So. Yeah. Pantsless baby.

And Ry ... Santa, got me these creepy blue toe socks.  I look like I have some kind of horrific skin condition, right?

Anyhow, we had a great Christmas. I'm always sad to say goodbye to our family.  It's probably the only thing that I really don't like about living in NJ.

And you? Did you have a good Christmas too?

Christmas Festivities

I have a lot of catching up to do, blogwise.  Our Christmas, will, therefore, be broken into a couple of blog posts over a couple of days.

Papa and Lala came to visit us for Christmas, and boy was T excited.  They also sent us this giant tin of popcorn, which was delicious.  T was a big fan.

F is smarter than is good for him.  He can turn on the TV, and change the channel to get to the right input.  If he could figure out the receiver we'd be in really big trouble.

T's very first Christmas pageant was also last week.  Here the kiddos are lining up to go onstage.

We're waiting breathlessly for the concert to start.

And this is pretty much the entire school.  Pre-K is on the left, 3/4s are in the middle, and Toddler 2 are on the far right.  The Toddlers pretty much cried or looked around for the entire thing.

And once again, Lala is T's favorite person. Hold a hand? Lala's. Read a story? Lala will do it. Get ready for bed? Lala to the rescue!




Here's the entire concert.  Unless you are particularly bored I wouldn't waste time for the whole thing.  If you have a few minutes tho, skip ahead to 8:00 and listen to Felix Navidad. It'll give you a good feel for the event, and the little girl in the middle is just precious.

An un-fun morning adventure

My key chain snaps apart so I can go warm up the car and still be able to close and lock the house with the house keys.  This morning, I grabbed my key chain and the kids, pulled the door shut and took everyone out to the car.  As I was getting the kids settled, I realized that I only had the car keys part of the key chain. Doh.

Oh well, I thought, I'll just get the spare key from our spare key location when I get back. And so I went. And came back.  I tromped through the 15 inches of snow we received Sunday and went to our spare key location to find .... no key.

See, here's the thing. Since I was only going to drop the kids off and come home, a 12 block round-trip, I didn't grab my cell phone or purse.  You know what I had?  My jacket, my un-snow boots and half of a key chain.

So. I tromped over to my neighbor's house.  She usually works during the day, but since she works for the school district, she's off on winter break.  She answered the door in her pajamas, looking quite concerned. "J, what happened? Is everything OK?"

I shame-facedly explained what happened and asked if I could use her phone. I called Ry, who, thankfully, answered the phone and asked him where the key, which, heretofore had always resided in the spare key location, had got off to.  There was a moment of silence on the line. Um, it's in the dirt in a spot in our yard.

And so. And so my friends, I tromped back to our yard to the new spare key location. I pushed away the 15 inches of snow over the new spare key location and found ... that the ground was frozen freaking solid.  Tromp tromp tromp to the shed where I got a garden spade. Tromp tromp tromp back where I jammed the thing into the ground repeatedly. Each time I was rewarded for my efforts with a tiny little flake of earth flying happily away.  After 10 minutes, I still hadn't located our key.

Tromp tromp tromp. "Hi neighbor." I double-checked the location with Ry and took the offered pot of hot water from my neighbor to try and loosen the frozen dirt. Tromp ... tromp ... tromp. This is probably also a good time to mention that I didn't have gloves.  That was another thing I didn't think I'd need for my "quick" trip to drop the boys.

I poured the water, and there, glimpsed the silver of the keychain! Success!  I dug it free, tugged hard, and almost sliced my finger open because the damn thing was stuck like ... well, like a frozen key buried in frozen mud in the middle of December under 15 freaking inches of snow!!!!!

After another 10 minutes of digging, I finally liberated the key. I went and tried it in the door, just to make sure it worked (because wouldn't that just be perfect?). Then I returned the empty pot to my neighbor, made a cup of coffee, and thawed my poor, frozen fingers.

And how was your morning?

Little drummer boy

It's a little grainy, but totally worth the ending.

Weaning: A Tale of Two Children

I weaned my older son, T, when he was between 12 and 13 months old.  He didn't really seem to notice.  As long as I continued to feed and water him, he was a happy guy.  Stupidly, I thought that was just how weaning went.

F is between 13 and 14 months, and I have started actively trying to wean him.  I am going to my sister's for 5 days in January, and I want to be done before that.  I figure slowly weaning him now will be better than just stopping cold-turkey in January (for both of us).

Anyway, the only time he nurses now is before sleeping.  Last week, I dropped the nursing before his nap. Oh, the tears!  He cried, and tried to go down my shirt, and threw his head back, wailing and making the sign for "drink." Honestly, I'm torn between feeling really sad for him and laughing at the drama.  The first day, he did it for about 15 minutes.  Today, it was more like 5. He's still none too happy.  I'm going to drop the nursing before bedtime after Christmas. Then, we'll be done.

I wonder how long the tempest will rage?

This is why

This is why my children are often sock-less (and pant-less, and shoe-less, and shirt-less).

"Uh-oh!" he says.  I keep trying to explain that it's not "uh-oh" if you do it on purpose, but since that's pretty much all he says, it doesn't seem to be sticking.

Aaaaand, done.

Ahhhh. My semester is finally over.  I finished the semester with a strong grade, a good clinical experience, and extreme thankfulness for my husband and daycare providers.  I am amazed by how much I learned in such a short time span. I'm also awed by how much I still have to learn.  I'm glad that we got into the hospital for clinical this semester, it really cemented what we learned.  There is so much about nursing practice that really needs to be hands on to make it stick.

My experience is also reinforcing for me that I don't want to do general medical/surgical nursing.  I had a good experience and enjoyed my clients and the floor, but can't see myself making a career from it.  Next semester we have rotations in the operating room, labor and delivery, and pediatrics. I'm beside myself with excitement about the L&D rotation!

In the meantime, I am taking deep cleansing breaths, wrestling my house back under control and enjoy my very long winter break.

Somehow, over the past few weeks we also managed to get a tree.

Put it up.

And decorate it. T was a really big help this year.  He got a kick out of hanging the ornaments.  We have an overabundance in the back, since that was T's favorite spot to hang.  They have also all migrated upward, juuust out of F's reach.  I didn't really hang anything breakable this year, but F has still done his best to destroy what's there.  He's been leaving the tree alone for the most part, but when he decides to play with it, he's very determined.

We had a floor picnic or two.

And got some super cute matching PJs that my mom made.  Seriously? Could they be any cuter?

We're looking forward to D & L coming next week.  It's going to be a busy 6 weeks.  I'll also be going to CA to visit my sister (for 5 days ... all by myself!!!!). Then M & G will be coming for a nice long visit.  After they leave, I'll have about 4 days before spring semester begins.  Bring it!

Holy Stereotypical Christmas, Santa!

This year, T is really starting to get into Santa.  His school has talked quite a bit about Santa, and Friday he came home in antlers and a red nose.  Tonight, we decided to watch Charlie Brown's Christmas.  We pulled it up on the TiVo, and decided, just for giggles, to see what was on Netflix.  Well.  They had a group of 1940s and 1950s Christmas shorts.  Let me tell you that I wish I had pre-screened.

Santa's Surprise, the little gem above, was among the milder of the racist stereotypes we saw.  I'm glad T didn't really catch anything strange.  Let's just say that this particular series of Christmas cartoons won't be on our must-see list for next year.

Numbers

• 7 and 2: Years and children it takes to break enough of your stoneware to make it almost useless.
• 3: Tests I have in the next 8 days.
• 3.5: Harry Potter books I'm going to finish when my final is over next Tuesday.
• 3: Christmas light strings that didn't work this year.
• 10: Christmas light strings my husband bought because "They were on sale."
• 2: Christmas light strings it took to decorate our Christmas tree.
• 1: Christmas tree toppers we had to return because it made the top of the tree droop sadly.
• 1: Christmas present boxes sent so far this year.
• 0: Christmas cards mailed.
• 5: Steps F can take without toppling over.

Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither

Seriously? Glad to know that we're hunting down and detaining those dangerous breastfeeding mothers. I can't wait for my flight in January.

Holiday Dance Party!

I love the all-Christmas music channel!

Our future Frank Lloyd Wright

T has been making these gravity-defying towers lately. He does it all by his lonesome, and seems especially motivated to make new creations because we let him photograph the results.This one reminds me of one of those Easter Island heads.

And now it's a parking garage!

Yet again.

And finally. A church, perhaps?

Holiday Happenings

When we first moved here, Ry and I were wandering around and happened upon this house. We marveled at the sheer Griswald-ness of it all. Every Christmas season, we talk about that house and make noise about going to see it again. We never have, until this year. Apparently, it's been a tradition for this guy for many many years. It almost didn't happen this year due to a pretty nasty yard accident.

We decided that T was old enough to appreciate this house this year. And dude, he did!
He thought this was just about the coolest thing we'd ever done. So much so, that he quickly confiscated our camera and didn't give it back until we were getting back in the card. Most of the pictures from here out are courtesy of T.

Now I know why I couldn't find a used play house on craiglist. They're all here! Each house has a little display inside.

The train room.

Anyone who has been around me during Christmas knows about my love of giant, inflatable, lawn art. As such, it was only appropriate to get my picture in front of this particular display.

Ree. Ree. Ree.

And T's last picture, on the way out. Seriously, I've never seen anything like this. I can only imagine the power bill in January. Also, it's an electrician's nightmare. Everything is strung together with extension cords plugged into each other and dangling precariously above and behind the displays. Still, you have to give him an A+ for holiday cheer!