A Christmas Emergency

I'm starting to panic about Santa. At what age do you start teaching your kids about Santa? Like how long can I go without it? I'm really bad at telling lies. It's almost painful for me. I actually perfer the awkwardness of the truth. Always. What if my kids catch me in the lie? How much time are we going to spend on something, every Christmas, that's totally made up? It seems so wrong. I don't want my kids to be those weirdo's at school who don't participate in regular traditions, but Santa is just so much work. I want my kids to understand the real reason we celebrate Christmas. Not just some made up story to keep them behaving all year round. And I want all the credit for the presents they get each year. Is there some alternative? Would it be weird to tell them that Santa fills our stockings, and that's it? Will they get confused when they talk to other kids about Santa? Help me.

A Christmas Miracle

A miracle has taken place in our family. If you've read my previous posts about sleep deprivation you know that we've struggled with Grace's sleep habits for pretty much her whole life up until this point. We started out with her in a bassinet next to our bed. I'd wake up and feed her throughout the night, and then put her back in the bassinet when she fell asleep. After only a few days she quit going back to sleep very easily. I'd be up with her for hours in the middle of the night singing and swearing and rocking her back to sleep. I couldn't take this anymore, so I started laying in our bed while she nursed, and just falling asleep. This worked like a charm. She'd wake up and eat a few times throughout the night, but I'd mostly sleep through it, and she'd go right back to sleep herself. Once she started getting a little bigger, and moving more I decided we needed a new arrangement. Our bed was only a full size, and someone was always getting pushed off. I started nursing and rocking her to sleep in her room. and then putting her down in her crib, and that worked for a while, but then she started waking up when I laid her down, and she ended up back in our bed again. That's about the time that I got pregnant. I was exhausted, and struggling with morning sickness. Her kicking me in the stomach in bed was the last straw, and I got really desperate. I tried several different things to get her to sleep in her own bed, and through the whole night. I'd always been against crying it out, but I was willing to try anything, so I started putting her down with some lavender oil in the humidifier, and just letting her cry. This actually worked really well. I think that by this time she was old enough to understand bed time, and she didn't have any doubts that me and Jeff were there to take care of her no matter what. We had let her run the house up until this point, and I sort of realized that we were the problem, not her. We had never taught her proper sleep habits. We let her run her own schedule, which resulted in all of us being over-tired, and miserable. Sometimes what's best for your child will not make them happy in the moment, and I needed to learn that. All of the details of what happened between now and then are a blur, but for the last 2-3 weeks we have been telling Grace it's time to go to sleep, giving her hugs and kisses, laying her down in her crib with her baby, stuffed puppy, and blanket, and leaving. Every night she tells us, "Bye" and "Love you," and I don't hear a word from her again until morning. Today I did the same for nap time. I wish I knew exactly what combination of things made this possible, so I can repeat it with the next one, but I almost think that God is just making up for my own parenting mistakes, and giving us a little break. We really needed some structure, and I had been praying for a solution to Grace's sleep issues. I didn't know how I was going to handle a newborn baby while still having to take care of Grace throughout the night. Problem solved.

Christmas and Babies and Barfing

I've all but given up on blogging, but I'm back because Grace is asleep, Jeff is at work, and I've already watched 6 episodes of Jon and Kate Plus 8. I've been meaning to write a little update on our lives, but my memory only goes back about 2 days, so here is an update of the last 2 days. I threw up 12 times. I'm not exaggerating this time. Did I get enough g's in that word? Spell check takes too long. Anyway, stomach flu from hell. First Grace, then me, then Jeff. All in a matter of 24 hours. We had to call both our mom's to come take care of us. I don't know what we would have done without them. Today I'm feeling much better, and I've already disinfected everything. I've gotten obsessed with cleaning. Like I can't stop. Jeff keeps telling me I need to cut back, and not in a caring, thoughtful way. In a mad way. It's giving me contractions. Not those braxton hicks I'm always hearing about, but real ones, and if I don't take it easy we're going to have an early baby. So I really need to stop. But can I just admit how nice it would be to get this birth thing out of the way? I've never been more excited to go to the hospital. I black friday shopped for all of Henry's newborn clothes, I've finished the nursery, weaned Grace off of breastfeeding, and packed our hospital bag. There's nothing left for me to do now, but clean insanely, and have a baby. I'm just 2 days shy of 33 weeks, so we're almost there.

I'm so excited for Christmas this year! I don't think I've been this excited since I was little. I started decorating the day after Thanksgiving, and haven't really stopped since. I love our Christmas living room. It feels so cozy to me. We've actually completely finished christmas shopping already. This year we wanted to consentrate on not overspending, so we decided to get ourselves a camcorder that we've been much needing, and then just do stockings. For me and Jeff at least. For Grace we got lots of clothes, and some really fun toys. I can't wait for her to get up on Christmas morning and see all her new things. She absolutely loves getting new things. It's sweet how much she appreciates getting a new toy, no matter how small it is. Now that we have a camcorder I will post some videos of her. She's getting so big. She's such a good little girl. She's extremely helpful, and I love spending my days with her. I'm a little worried about how she will react to sharing attention with a new baby, but I'm trying to talk to her about it and prepare her as well as I can. I probably should have gotten a book on how to best go about that, but I'm not that responsible, so we'll just take it as it comes. Hopefully the next time you hear from me it will be announcing that our new baby is here. Happy Christmas!

Feed me more candy

This Halloween season has been so eventful that today at Costco I kept asking Jeff why they were still selling costumes. I thought it was over. I only just realized that Halloween isn't even until next week. I also just remembered that Grace has a bucket full of Halloween candy in the cupboard. I never knew how fun Halloween was until I became a mom. My mom never let me go trick or treating, because she thought it was rude, so I'm like one of those deprived kids that goes crazy when they are allowed some freedom. Like today I ate 3 doughnuts, and 2 candybars. I'm eating for 2, though, so really it's like I ate 1 1/2 doughnuts and 1 candybar.

So far this month we've gone to the pumpkin patch, carved pumpkins, made lots of hot chocolate and sat by the fire, gone to Jeff's work party, a friend's party, the ward trunk or treat, and had a birthday party for Sadie with the neighbors. Have I ever mentioned that her birthday is on Halloween? Awesome. I don't have any pictures of any of these activities. I'm so bad at taking pictures when there's stuff going on. But I will post our recent pics of sitting around at home, doing nothing, because that is when I think to take a picture.

 

This is Grace's costume. A garden gnome.

 

I don't know why, but I think Grace sitting at the table in the morning, eating her breakfast is the cutest thing ever. I think half the pictures I take are just of this.

Hi Sophia

The other day I bought Grace a toy dog at DI. I don't usually buy toys at DI, because they're disgusting, but ever since Jeff put me on a budget I started being more responsible with money I've been getting really bored. I decided to go find some old furniture to refinish and sell for way more than it's worth, so I could buy myself some new fat maternity clothes. While we were there Grace fell in love with this little dog toy. I could tell it was supposed to talk and stuff, but there weren't any batteries. We brought it home, and put batteries in, but it still didn't work, so I said a swear word, and then went about my day. Later while I was in the bathroom doing my semi anual toenail painting I heard this child talking. I stopped and listened, and distinctly heard someone saying, "You take such good care of me Sophia." I came out to find Grace holding her DI dog, and laughing. Apparently it's one of those things you can plug into your computer, and program to say your kids name and stuff. So now all day long I hear about this Sophia person. It's creepy and funny at the same time. Sadie hates it. She gets super jealous when I touch it, and starts barking and growling. Sometimes I see her run by at full speed, with it in her mouth, whipping it back and forth.

 

"Brush me Sophia."

Things that make me want to not have any more kids

Dumping milk on the dogs head

Stealing all of my food, and then saying thank you.

Hearing "Mommy" over and over all day long as if it is the word to use for everything.

Hearing the word "Ew" which means that Grace has pooped, and it's coming out her pants.

Playing with dog poop in the backyard.

Asking for cheese, and then feeding it to Sadie. Actually asking for anything, and then feeding it to Sadie.

Falling asleep with Grace in our bed, and being kicked all night.

Grace asking to be picked up after I've made her upset about something, so she can hit me in the face.

That hand that's always groping my boob in public.

Screaming in church when everyone is quiet, and then laughing.

Finding KY and using it as lotion.



And....our latest pictures. Lagoon, pumpking carving, and our new favorite activity-fires. No pictures of me, because pregnancy makes me too fat.

Thou Shalt Not Kill

Yesterday in primary we learned about the ten commandments. One of the kids in my class raised his hand and said, "If you kill someone with their head off, and then you eat it then it's called the hunger games." I have the best children in my class. So spiritual.