Christmas Reflections

What a whirl wind that was!  And note to self...take more pictures early, and often.  I'm kind of crazed that I didn't get a really good family photo on Kolton's 1st Christmas.  Oh well, I definitely captured the spirit of the holiday, including a Green Bay Packer Win!  All of the guys in my family got Jersey's so this holiday Green and Gold were the colors of choice =)

I

It was definitely a new experience opening gifts for both Kolton and myself this year.  Just a lot to keep track of while trying to maintain Kolton's needs that didn't always allow me to totally concentrate and make sure appropriate "Thank Yous" were said to the gift giver. I quickly accepted that timing was never going to be perfect.  Kolton wanted to nap when it was time to eat, then he wanted to eat when it was time to open gifts. I can tell my sister in laws were pros because they had their family's piles opened, cleaned up, and cleared out of the living room while I still had gifts to open.  My area didn't get organized until the next day!

 Christmas Eve at My Mom's (Grandma Barb's) who supposedly cut back this year...missing from the photo are the piles of presents that had to be stacked in another room. 

Hi Santa!

Christmas Day at our Dad's.  It was very surreal to sit with my brother Tony with our children on our laps.

For some reason Kolton likes to wait until we are in Wisconsin to hit some milestones.  You might remember he started sitting while we were here in August.  As of Christmas Eve he will now eat anything and everything AND he also started feeding himself.  I have been trying to introduce regular solid food for weeks and have always been met with resistance.  I guess he just figured the holiday meals were too good to pass up!  He's had chilli, turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, carrots, pot roast, and cheese just to name a few.  I can't begin to tell you how this new development scares me because now I HAVE TO COOK!!!!!

Overall the holiday really was wonderful.  For me part of the nostalgia is reflecting on past, present, and future Christmases to come.  This year the religious part was definitely passed over and I hope to keep that at the forefront from now on.  Last night I was thinking about the birth of Christ and the emerging toddler I now have. I wonder if the Son of God was a good baby?

 

Santa Claus Traditions

Santa Came! Santa Came! Santa Came

Last night was my first night playing Santa.  We have to leave for the airport in the middle of the night to make our 6am flight tomorrow so Santa had to come to our house a little early.  Even though I didn't really have to be stealthy about it this year I do so anyway just for practice.  Boy am I glad I did!  I learned very quickly that you do not leave the assembly of toys for the night before.  At least anything that requires a hammer anyway.  I also started to think about exactly what Santa Claus traditions I would like to establish.  My parents divorced when I was a very young so I always got 2 Christmas mornings.  My parents played Santa a little differently and it never occurred to me to question it.  For example my mom didn't wrap stocking stuffers while my dad did.  At my Mom's my brother and I opened stockings on our own while at my Dad's we opened stockings after gifts and after breakfast.  Mom left wrapping paper out for Santa to use...so that we wouldn't wonder why gifts from her and him were wrapped in the same paper.  Dad used different paper. I knew a girl in school whose Santa gifts were never wrapped at all.  Do you allow gifts from Santa to come in the original packaging or does Santa make all the toys?  Wow!  I never thought it would be so complicated!!!  Here are a couple of ground rules that I think work best for me.

1.  All gifts from Santa should be wrapped in glittery red and white wrapping paper.
2.  Stockings are filled with unwrapped candy and other trinkets with a wrapped gift or two.
3.  Its OK to leave toys in original packaging but bigger items, like the trike, should be removed from the box and assembled.
4.  Don't forget to eat the milk and cookies and leave crumbs!
5.  Leave a snow globe from Santa.  I thought of this after watching the Polar Express and The Santa Clause the other night.
6.  Sneak in to leave a gift by the bedside if possible.  My mom did this and it was so fun to wake up to!

I'm sure I'll think of more as I go along.  The key is to stay consistent.  The really hard part is that I'm sure we'll have to arrange for Santa to come a little early every year like this.  But again, as a kid, I never questioned my parent's ability to communicate with the big guy.  That's part of the magic in believing!  Merry Christmas everyone!

The scene before I went to bed after midnight.

Love that kid!

Boss

Ever work for someone younger than you?  Kolton had definitely been letting me know whose the boss lately!  If I step out of line he lets me know it, pronto.  I've been pressing my luck taking him shopping later than I should.  He gives me a couple of warning cries which I'm grateful for before deciding to lose it completely.  I try to hold my head high but I feel myself cowering and talking out loud to him more for the benefit for those that might be judging me.  Saying things like "OK, you've made your point, we're heading home now!"  And realistically its only like 7:00 so it really isn't that late.  But like I've mentioned before last year at this time I couldn't walk through a store without stares and comments from strangers about how big I was.  There was a particular incident in Target where Kristin had to act as my body guard keeping the crazies away and stopping them from saying anything else before we high tailed it out of there.  But I think the experience scarred me a little...I know complete strangers will judge me and have no shame letting me know what they are thinking.  However, as I was discussing the story with a Richmond mom yesterday-we were finally able to make a play date!- she mused that perhaps it was a north vs south thing. That people here would never be so rude.  It crazy how moving only 3 hours south of Baltimore means I've really crossed this cultural line!

For some reason I thought this holiday season would be easy peasy and that I'd have no problem getting things done.  But with the boss calling the shots and being sick and losing two weeks I'm still in the rat race.  Oh, Amazon.com how I love thee.  How did moms ever survive without it?

11 Months!

Finally, finally, we are feeling better!  We ended up taking Kolton back to the doctor on Friday after the nurse expressed concern that he was getting worse even after being on antibiotics.  Well turns out he got a viral infection on top of his bacterial cold infection.  And there is nothing that can be done for the virus at his age.  The doc told us that usually there is a 2 day period where the viral thing is really bad then it calms down.  Thankfully that seems to be the case.  I still have to wipe little man's nose through out the day but it pales in comparison to last week.

To celebrate the passing of the sickness and Kolton's 11 monthiversary we saw Santa Claus today.  I was totally freaked because the mall parking lot was packed!  But there was virtually no line to see the man in red and Kolton was on Santa's lap within minutes of arriving.  He didn't cry but he gave his trademark blank stare.  He's definitely a little more on the serious side.  Of course they no longer let you take your own pics so $40 later I have some of my last minute Christmas shopping done...sorry to ruin the surprise Mom!

One other fun thing that happened today was when I heard that Kolton was up from his nap I went in to find him in the sitting position in his crib!  So freakin cute!  He doesn't really change position that easily so it was a really fun sight to see =)  Happy 11 Months Little Buddy!  Mommy loves you very much and I can't wait to spend our first Christmas and New Years together as a family!

I swear he really is a happy kid =)

Still Sick!

I tried to stage a holiday portrait session with little man but this was the only expression I could get!  We are both still sick!!!!   On Monday we went to the doctor and got antibiotics.  Kolton's of course coming in the form of the great pink cure all-Amoxicillian. I couldn't help but sneak a taste....Mmmmmm! Its just been a ridiculously long time for a cold to hang on.  Mine morphed into a sinus infection and the pressure between my eyes nearly drove me insane.  I am feeling much better but Kolton still has a never ending running nose.  Ugh!  We haven't even been to see Santa yet because I don't want him being the snot nosed kid sitting on Santa's knee!

So I hate to admit it but since we've basically been shut ins we've been watching a lot of TV.  I still try to have it off for the greater part of the day while Kolton is awake but (sigh) I'm not always successful.  Anyway, since I've been watching a lot there are a couple of commercials that I have issues with.  Have you seen these?

1)  Foldgers-the one where the brother comes home from Africa or whatever. There is the most awkward exchange I've ever seen between a brother and a sister!  This one has been running for a few years.  Take it off the air!  It's Creepy!!!!!

2) Digiorono Pizza-the hip hop party.  A teenager poses as a pizza delivery guy to gain access to the party.  He rings the door bell...Sophie loses her shit EVERY TIME and starts barking at the door!  I wonder if the ad execs did any research on the effects this commercial would have on dogs????  While it does get my attention I'm boycotting them just because I'm so annoyed!

Just had to get that out there!  Hope everyone is having a happy, healthy, count down to Christmas =)

46 Weeks!

I need my Mommy!  Only now I'm the Mommy and feel kind of helpless.  This cold has been relentless...for both Kolton and I.  It's just been round after round.  I've never experienced anything like this before.  Thankfully its somewhat manageable but we're almost out of toilet paper!  And I'm not kidding about the Charmin.   Seriously, the next time you get a cold get some Charmin.  I've been wiping my nose all day for a week and my skin still feels soft and smooth without any weird lotion tissues.

My poor baby is doing OK.  Thankfully his appetite returned over the weekend but I'm worried because he'll no longer stand.  Is he weak?  Or does he simply just want to crawl all the time now?  In a slight panic I called the on-call pediatrician over the weekend who told me that sometimes during a cold a baby's hip can get sore.  If things aren't remarkably better by the morning I'm going to take Kolton in to be examined.  Then maybe depending on his diagnosis I'll have to go in myself.

What really, really, sucks is I feel like I have to cancel yet another play date we had scheduled for tomorrow.  Ugh!  And just when I felt like I was starting to find some gals to hang out with.  But I just can't imagine exposing anyone to this thing.

Hangin On

Sorry for the lack of posts this week.  Kolton and I have bad colds that keep hangin on and just won't let go.  It feels like just when we're about to get better another round starts.  I have some holiday shopping and stuff left to do and it doesn't help that I've lost an entire week.  But hopefully this means we'll be able to make it through the holidays germ free.

Does anyone else find that using a roll of Charmin toilet paper for wiping runny noses works much better than Kleenex?

45 Weeks!

Whoops!  I took this photo a few days ago but didn't have time to post.  With all of the fun we've been having Kolton got a little run down and came down with a cold.  Unfortunately that forced us to miss the birthday party yesterday.  I still find the consequences of having a sickly child kind of funny.  Canceling plans, which I'd hardly ever do in the past, just can't be helped; especially if there are other children involved.  Then there is the inevitability that I will get what ever he's got.  Thankfully he just has a runny nose but otherwise seems to be in good spirits.  But he won't let me anywhere near him with the snot sucker thingy!  However, he is already in bed for the night.  Poor little guy.

This weekend I was able to do a little holiday shopping.  I even went out after putting Kolton to bed last night.  I can't help but think about last year.  I was super duper pregnant and was realizing my limitations for the first time.  Instead of marathon shopping days I was only able to last and hour or so.    I'm almost done but not quite.  I'm always looking for a good bargain that's why it takes me so long!

Oh what fun!

I feel like the holiday season is in full swing and we've been having a lot of fun lately.  The Wilson family is in town visiting from Minneapolis.  John and Mike went to college together, Jen is one of the coolest moms ever, and their two girls are simply adorable.  They actually used to live in Richmond before moving back to MN a few years ago.  So they had a lot of fun insight on our new town.  Oh, how I wished they still lived here!  I think Mike and I would be settling in much better if they had.  We went to the Children's Museum on Tuesday followed by a pizza party back at our place.  Then last night we got a babysitter for all three kids while the adults attended a VCU basketball game.   It was the first time I've ever left Kolton with a non-friend babysitter.  I admit I was slightly nervous about it.  But, I ended up finding an amazing sitter through a referral from the realtor/property manager of the house we are renting.  Megan came with glowing references and completely put me at ease.  She is a full time nanny and babysits on the side as well.  She reported that Kolton is the best baby ever and I can't say that I disagree =)

Tonight its back to VCU for an AOII meeting then tomorrow we are cruising back to Baltimore for the night.  Saturday I have an AOII 25th Anniversary gala to go to celebrating 25 years of the sorority at VCU.  Then Sunday is the 1st birthday party for one of Kolton's Romp and Roll buddies.  Busy, yes, but oh what fun!