Our Christmas.

Christmas was weirder than ever this year. Wasn't better or worse.. just weirder.. and much longer.

It started on Friday when Lily and I went out to pick up a couple of (pre-planned) last minute presents. We didn't go to the mall, but it still took us 15 minutes to get through the parking lot. (P.S. everyone has lost their minds.) That night some of Jason's family visited with us and his parents. We opened presents. And Lily played like a maniac with new stuff.

Christmas Eve was, thankfully, the only day that involved travel for us. Lily and I went to see some of my family, open presents (Christmas #2), and have "Christmas" dinner. And Lily ran around like a track star the entire time- my mom and I took turns eating and keeping her from destroying the house. For the drive home.. Lily was sound asleep about 3 minutes down the road.

The semi-procrastinators that we are, Jason and I were then awake until almost 5am (!) cleaning, putting together Lily's big gift, and wrapping presents. 5am. I don't even know where the time went. One minute it was 1:30 and the next it was 5am.

Of course Lily woke us up like 3 hours later for Christmas #3. But didn't even want to open her presents. Honestly. She just sat there and cried. Until she really woke up.. and realized what was going on. And then it was on..

She 100% ignored her giant, bigger than her, present and opened everything else first. We couldn't believe it. We thought she would kind of know what it was.. freak out.. and rip the paper to shreds to get at it. But she didn't. She opened everything else and said "it's just what I wanted!" every time. Then she took a break. And then after some encouraging, she opened her play kitchen. And then it was on.. again..

She played with it for the rest of the day. And anyone that walked by her room was dragged in to either have food made for them 20 times or get a 15 minute cooking lesson. She made everything she could think of.. and then some. Totally, totally worth every penny.

During all that, I had gotten so little sleep that I was physically ill.. after about an hour after waking up I had to go back to bed. Jason and Lily played. Jason drank coffee and fell asleep for a minute here and there.. and Lily played. When I woke up around noon, we switched. I played with Lily and Jason slept. Til almost 5 o'clock. Lily crashed around 3:00.. thankfully for me and a little peace. I cleaned up, did laundry, sat in the kitchen drinking hot chocolate, and enjoyed the quiet. I also did some online shopping. Also in peace.

Christmas #4 happened after a quick dinner (we didn't feel like making anything special) and we all opened things with more of Lily's grandparents. Bedtime was like a horrifying, almost 2am. Which was extra painful for me getting up for Target's 7am, day after Christmas opening.

But it was fun. I got plates, bowls, candy, wrapping paper, Starbucks VIA, etc.. all for 50% off.

And then came home and took a 4 hour nap.

Like a gift from above

My child has just fallen asleep. At 4 o'clock on a Sunday. No, you don't understand.. this three year old of mine just doesn't take naps anymore. Very rarely- hardly ever. Like.. two times a month. Maybe.

So the bad news is she must really be sick. Because she went to bed at 1 am. Or was it 2 am? I can't remember. And then she woke up at 8am.. so I had to as well. And we were up for 2 hours- until I fell asleep on the couch, for about an hour, next to her while she watched tv. But I doubt she even noticed I was sleeping. Or in the same room. She's like a teenager- whatever, mom, I'm busy.

I was praying she would have a nap today- so I could take one too. But now that she's actually taking one.. I don't know if I can sleep. Don't get me wrong.. 7 hours of sleep is nowhere near enough for this over 7 month pregnant, sick, mommy, but..

The fact that the little tornado is sleeping.. and the house is quiet.. and no one else is upstairs.. kinda makes me wanna do something. Anything. I can do anything I want.. totally uninterrupted. I could make something to eat.. in another room! Without having to walk several miles back and forth to check on my child because I know she's up to no good when she's quiet. I could.. go to the bathroom by myself and without fear she's hurling herself out the window, ripping the safety covers off the outlets with a fork, or covering the walls with.. stuff walls don't want to be covered in.

Man.. what do I want to do?! Sigh. All this excitement over endless possibilities of "freedom" is making me tired. So. I guess I'll.. just.. take a nap. While I still can.

I'm laughing with you

Thanks to the recent release of the Babble top 100 mom bloggers, I'm discovering some new blogs. Today I found the Barefoot Foodie. And was reading the top-most post from today about being a sick mommy. (Which is ironic because I'm a sick mommy right now too.. although Thank God I am not a sick, throwing up mommy. But anyway..) I smiled at her use of the phrase "Target Matrix".. because it totally is.. I just didn't know there was a name for it. And then I read a little further.

Poor Brittany Gibbons had to pick up her children from school after puking, and sleeping, and peeing all day. What's a mommy to do? She "grabbed a handful of empty plastic shopping bags, [her] daughter, some body spray, [and then] shoved a Huggies Pull Up into [her] underwear, and climbed into the car." I lost it at the shoving of the Pull Up. I laughed. Laughed. Really loud. Out into thin air. And to everyone else in the house.. at seemingly nothing.

Lily came running in to me from her room, it was so unexpected- wanting to know what was so funny. I didn't know what to say.

"You'll understand when you're older."

But she kept standing there, because that was obviously a totally unacceptable answer.

"It was a funny picture," I tried. And she walked over to see my computer screen, because she likes a good laugh too. Except of course there were no pictures. She looked me right in the face, with a look like.. "why are you lying to me?"

So I read her "she shoved a Huggies Pull Up into her underwear." And I got a half-smile. Not even.. maybe a quarter smile. Because that's not even remotely funny to a three year old. How could it be?

"I told you you wouldn't think it was funny." She ran out of the room and screamed back at me "I don't care!" Which only made me laugh more..

.. I love that kid.

In the company of misery

I just want to curl up into a ball. And sleep. For 12 hours. With a pillow.. and blankets.. maybe even in the dark. And wallow in my sickness. Because that's what my husband gets to do when he's sick. But for me? It's just a pipe dream. Because I'm the mommy.

Although I'll admit (and knock on wood really, really hard) that Lily has been fairly good today. We only had one incident.. and it wasn't even a major one. But she was totally trying to push it in the direction of it being one.

She's watched tv, used on her iPad (mostly Mr. Bean and Simon's Cat), and played nicely (nicely!) while I sat on the couch. And sat on the couch. I almost took her outside for a little while.. but then I just thought.. God, I really don't want to do that. Thinking about having to get dressed and wear outside clothes and walk down stairs and be outside? It was a little too overwhelming. So I didn't even bring it up to her. And she hasn't seemed to notice.

The only appealing thing about being outside was that maybe it wouldn't be as horribly hot as it is inside. It's 40 degrees out. And the heat is on- which is not making me feel better. I've had the windows cracked open in the living room all day and even had to turn the ceiling fan off and on throughout the day.

I'm currently spacing out to Angelina Ballerina on Sprout (can I just say how disappointed I am that they brought Barney on board- thankfully Lily's shown no interest what so ever during commercials) while Lily half-watches and plays with animals.. and I pretend to forget their names so she can correct me.

Sigh. Can't someone just come home and feed me? And bring me orange juice? So I don't have to stand up? Or go into the kitchen and try to make complete thoughts about food preparation? And then I can lay down. With a pillow. And a blanket. Maybe even in the dark. And sleep for 12 hours. And not have to worry about being the mommy.. just worry about feeling better. That'd be awesome.

Fun with toddlers

I won't go into great detail (you're welcome), but.. Yesterday there was an incident involving Lily. And poop (her own, thank God). And I swear to you that I did not over-react. I didn't yell. Or spank her. Or even put her in time out. In fact, when she came up to me I just said "ooh! I have an idea" and scooped her up and plunked her into the shower. (But really there was a lot more negative words going on in my head.)

There was some yelling during her shower, I'll admit. But what she was covered in was getting on everything and during her jumping and jumping and jumping I was so afraid she was going to slip and fall. But that was about the extent of it.

I spent a good hour cleaning her, the shower, the floor, her again, myself, her play tent, and her one more time. And all my non-negatively reacting SO came back to bite me in the a-s-s today.

Because.. She did it again. Except it was worse this time.

And this time I yelled. A lot. Sorry, but I did. I couldn't help it- it just happened. I even threw something across the room. And then I scooped her up. And cleaned her up. Then we sat in the dark for a few minutes so we could both calm down.

I called Jason. Who laughed. I told him I hoped he still thought it was funny when he got home, because he was going to be the one cleaning it up. But I cleaned it up anyway because the thought of it all sitting there on the carpet in her room was just making me more angry.

This time, Lily and I had a talk. Well, I talked, she hid behind a pillow. I thought I was pretty calm.. but also, I knew that if it happens a third day.. I'm going to run away from home. So.. whatever tone that is.. that's how I was talking. Do parenting book generally have a chapter on this? If so, I'd like to read up on it. Because this is not my idea of how to have fun with toddlers.

merry cokemas

I've seen displays made out of soda cases online and tv, but I don't think I've seen one in person. (And if I have, I never took a picture of it.. and therefore couldn't possibly be expected to remember it.) Until today.

I saw the Christmas tree first, but then I wasn't sure what the other thing was. I guess it's supposed to be their polar bear. But.. it does kind of look like an Imperial AT-AT Walker too. (And no, I didn't just know what they were called.. I had to look it up.)

You never know what you're going to see on a Sunday morning trip to the grocery store.

To drink a glucola..

This week was the traditional glucose drinking event that all pregnant women look forward to.. so so much. Not really. It is not awesome. The first sip.. you think 'oh, it's not as bad as I remember.' Then you take another.. and you are confident you can drink it and live to tell about it. After 3 or 4 sips you look at the clock and 2 minutes have gone by. Already. Two minutes and you're only a third of the way done.

You try drinking faster and it starts to burn your throat. You slow down and all you can think about is needing to drink water- but you can't. The drink is terrible. It's like flat orange soda.. with extra sugar. Even though it's supposed to be lemon-lime flavored.

I couldn't make it in 5 minutes. It was closer to 6 (but that's just between us). I did the best I could. I knew if I drank any faster it wouldn't stay down.

Thankfully I passed the blood test with flying colors and won't need to redo it. Thank God, thank God. However..

When I made my next appointment the only ones that were available during the next millenia were at the office location I avoid like the plague. More than the plague. There is only street parking. And you have to park a block or more away (if you're lucky). Neither of those things are totally awful- they just make it worse.

Every time I had to go to that location when I was pregnant with Lily, the waiting room was always packed.. every chair had someone sitting in it. And there were always three or more children under the age of 8 running around like wild animals. Only three- if you were lucky. And I never sat in the waiting room for less than half an hour. Never. It was only a half hour wait if I was lucky.. and I most often was not lucky. It reminds me of the time I spent in the social security office waiting area in my local urban city right after I got married.

Based on my appointment time coming up.. I anticipate about an hour wait. An hour. Just so my doctor can listen to baby's heartbeat and the nurse can make sure I've put on another pound or so. Man. I'm so upset. There was no way around not having to go to that office.

And I have an awful awful feeling, based on what the receptionist was saying when I made this appointment, that I'm going to have to make more appointments at that office. Aggg.. I just want to cry. And if I thought it would help, I totally would. I would totally drink that glucose goop again and have my blood tested again.. if I didn't have to go to that office. I'd drink it every morning for a week.

Do you think they'd take me up on that offer? I doubt I'm that lucky.

Stylish!

Lily and I went out today- to do nothing really. We ended up at Target. So I thought we could look for some new shoes for her (and totally avoid the toy section altogether). Thankfully it worked.

There wasn't an enormous selection, but I found a pair of sparkly sneaker-like maryjanes and held them up so she could see them..

Laura: Lily.. look at these! Do you like these?
Lily: Those are stylish!
Laura: They are, huh? (laughing)

The late teen/early-twenties man in front of us turned around and looked..

Man: Did she just say those shoes were stylish?
Laura: (laughing) ya..

He smiled and laughed.. then walked over a few aisles to the woman he was with. And I could hear him telling her what Lily and said.. and then I could hear her laughing too.

I sat her down on the nearest bench to try the shoes on..

Laura: Who says "stylish"?
Lily: I do.
Laura: I know you do, but who did you hear say that?
Lily: Me!

You really can't ever be too sad with this kiddo around.. she says the funniest things. (And yes, she got to have her stylish shoes..)

Slacking on the baby talk

I don't think I blog about Baby XY nearly enough.. hardly at all. Hmm. I was thinking the other day about the differences between first pregnancies and all the ones that come after that. I am wondering if I am alone in some of the differences I've been noticing.. or if just the way it often is.

When I was pregnant with Lily I read books about being pregnant and took my prenatal vitamin every single day and never forgot once. I took DHA supplements, gave up coffee (and all caffeine) cold turkey.. and drank lemonade like it was going out of style (cus that's what I felt like drinking). I'm pretty sure I tried to pay attention to what I was eating as well.

This time around? I don't even know what happened to pregnancy books. I take my vitamins most days, but there are plenty of days when I can't remember if I did or not.. or by the end of the day I'm pretty sure I didn't. The only extra DHA I get is when the grocery store has that type of milk in stock for Lily and I actually have some.. which is pretty rare. I've been known to have a sip or two of coffee when I'm really dragging myself around. No lemonade this time, but there is at least one serving (if not two) of ginger ale in my diet everyday and plenty of chocolate candy. And as far as paying attention to what I eat.. hmm.. not so much. But I don't do too bad. I eat plenty of Greek yogurt for the protein, keep water with me wherever I go, try to pile on the vegetable servings whenever I can, and really don't snack between meals.

I think it's just the way it is. I had told a nurse at my doctor's office I was surprised so much time has already gone by, carrying this baby. Apparently a lot of people say that.. the first time around you have a lot more time to focus on yourself (like taking nap when you need one, eating when and what you want/need to, etc).. and now I chase a toddler around all day. What's a nap? 9 times out of 10 she doesn't even take a nap anymore.

I wouldn't say it's necessarily better or worse this time around.. just different. A lot of the fears I had before, I don't have now. But I am also totally trying to prepare myself for all the chaos that is going to ensue with with small people under 4 against two fubbling grownups. Because basically.. that's us being outnumbered.

She's got good taste

Lily likes Mr Bean. She likes the real version and the little cartoon version that she finds on YouTube (maybe because of his teddy bear, I don't know). And she knows Rowan Atkinson when she sees him.. during a commercial for Johnny English Reborn, Lily pointed at it and yelled "mister bean!"

She finds all kinds of things on YouTube. Most of it is fine, some of it is horrifying or stupid, and then there's the stuff I stick into her favorites because it's so awesome. Like..




You're welcome.