Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas, or as it may be known in some ancient folklore, "The Day of Three Naps." For James? The overwhelmed toddler? Nope! Uncle Kevin... keep reading.

We started the day at our usual 5:30am (!) with James opening his stocking which we have now just noticed is the same size as his torso....

Then down the stairs to see "if Santa brought him any toys."

Then a nutritious breakfast of Santa's leftover cookie crumbs....

Great uncle that he is and not wanting to miss a moment of James' Christmas joy, Uncle Kevin spent Christmas Eve on our couch so he would be bright eyed and bushy tailed as the festivities began. This lasted through the stockings and one round of gifts when we broke for brunch preparation. And so began nap #1.

And then the real gift opening / taking turns / helping unwrap everyone's gifts began. James actually did quite well, only pausing for minor confusion/meltdowns a couple of times. Here are some of the highlights:

a new kitchen:

a stacking puzzle from Nanet:

a backhoe from Oma & Opa:

walkie talkies from Great Uncle Dave:

tools and a toolbox from mom and dad:

and in a moment of confusion, James helped me unwrap one of my gifts and took my new boots for himself:

Then it was upstairs for a nap while Uncle Kevin took #2 on the couch....

Reinvigorated, James & Oma enjoy his new table and chairs that are "just my size!"

new art easel from Santa:

Then dinner prep and nap #3 for Uncle Kevin.

I keep telling Uncle Kevin that although he may run triathlons and play on several sports teams, he should be impressed with our stamina and mental endurance. Case in point: Christmas with a toddler.

Happy holidays!

Christmas Eve

Whew! That went by fast! Season's greetings, blog readers, from The House of Recovery. Brian, James and I have all managed to get sick, recover and then spread it to each other all over again, but we did not let it stop us from enjoying a visit from Brian's family, 2 Christmas Eve dinners, dinner for 9 (nine!) at our home, a neighborhood cookie exchange, and 10 hours of gift unwrapping on Christmas day.

Here is James' new bear, from Oma, that sings "Santa Baby" while swiveling its hips. James loves it and hugs it while it's writhing around in his arms.

This is Christmas Eve Dinner #1. The Coynes have a long-standing tradition (about 25 years) of having Christmas Eve dinner with friends of the family, the Lyons.... in West Palm Beach (avg temp on Christmas Eve - 75). Somehow we convinced them to keep up this tradition by driving 12 hours north and celebrating it with us in Old Town (avg temp on Christmas Eve - 10) on December 21st.

It was worth the chill to enjoy another great Christmas Eve dinner, this time in our own private wine room at a great Old Town restaurant, Landini Brothers. Even better was the fact that our babysitter was available so Brian and I actually enjoyed dinner.

 
Oma brought a gingerbread-man making kit and James made one cookie with every frosting flavor and decoration provided and then stated, "this one is for Santa!"

Here is a pic from our ACTUAL Christmas Eve dinner at La Tasca - spanish style tapas. Brian and I had been there in the past and were treated to a performance by Flamenco dancers. We assured everyone that this would be the case on Christmas Eve, but arrived only to be assured by the waitstaff that we were crazy if we thought Flamenco dancers wanted to perform on Christmas Eve. Of course, we had built this whole thing up for James who asked about the "dancing ladies" for three hours straight. 

He only stopped asking about them long enough to (I swear) flag down a waiter and ask for his ice cream. 

He honestly (!) waved him down and said: "Excuse me. Can I have my ice cream?"

Waiter: "Sure! Do you want strawberry, chocolate or vanilla?"

James: "ummmm, banilla please."

Then back home to write a letter to Santa (10 minutes), leave out the cookies and milk (5 minutes), and to unwind from that GIANT bowl of ice cream (about 2 hours).

Stay tuned.... it's not even Christmas yet.

The Christmas Spirit?

After a delicious holiday treat and a very messy face....

James: "Some cookies are messy and some cookies are not!"

Brian: "That's right, buddy."

James: "Yup! That's the spirit of the cookie!"

So there you have it.

Christmas Can't Come....

... soon enough! Obviously, the entire playroom full of toys isn't enough for James and he needs more more more! I know this because, when left alone for 5 (five!) minutes, he is eyeball deep in my purse, applying lotions and potions and generally wreaking havoc.

I Will Not Be A Short Order Cook! and Other Lies I Told Myself...

Greetings from the "House of Sick." After proudly holding a temp of 103 degrees for three days, James seems to be on the mend. Brian and I have been sick too and the day we were all at our worst was like some kind of horrible illness trifecta. I don't wish it upon anyone. Anyhoo, even though James is feeling better, his appetite (picky and scant as it was to begin with) is not quite back to normal. None of his usuals will do and I think he has taken in about 10 calories since Saturday.

Today, after his much needed 3 hour nap, I fixed him a snack.

Me: How about a smoothie?"

James: "ooooh, yeah!"

The smoothie is lovingly prepared with strawberries, peaches, apple juice and whole milk and then presented to the client.

James: "This doesn't feel good."

I taste it. In his defense, it was kind of tart so I added some blueberry yogurt for more "pink" and more sweet. The smoothie was again, presented to the client.

James: "This doesn't feel good. Maybe you should have some." (seriously, he said that)

Now I am thinking maybe he thinks the actual cup is too cold and doesn't feel good so I fashion a koozy around it. Nothing says good parenting like your toddler holding a sippy cup that essentially says, "Murphy's Pub" on the side. Whatever. The kid needs calories!

James won't take a sip at all and now can't stop staring at/playing with the koozy.

Me: "What would you like for a snack James?"

James: "Pear sticks!"

Me: "Would you like pear sticks or grapes?"

James: "Oooh, grapes!"

Grapes are rinsed and cut into choke-free portions and then presented to the client.

James (tasting one and spitting it out): "I don't like these. They are too drinky."

I think this means, "too juicy." Who complains of a grape being too juicy?! Perhaps, by "grapes", he really meant "raisins."

So, back to the pear sticks. The pear is washed, peeled, and cut into strips and presented to the client.

James eats 1/2 of 1 stick and places them to the side.

Me: "How about some cheese and crackers?"

James:   "Can I have the cheese that is not cheese stick cheese?"

But of course. Sharp cheddar is cut into squares, crackers are placed to the side and LO AND BEHOLD... he eats them. Aaaah, maybe we're up to 50 calories now?

Ha! I/we swore we would never do this! But what were we thinking using words like "never" and "always" and "I mean it!"??

This had me thinking about the other things we swore we'd never do:

#1 James will never use a pacifier. The 3 weeks we held out by not giving him one were some of the most traumatic and loud weeks of James' life. We took it away at one year and it seems to have all worked out fine.

#2 James will have one toy box of toys. If something new goes in, something old comes out. Well, we really stuck to our guns on this one if you consider toy "box" to mean an entire room of toys, referred to as a playroom. We really don't buy that much, but James is the recipient of many gifts and they make him happy (and occupied) which makes me happy and there you go.

#3 James will eat whatever we eat, when we eat it. I don't know what I was thinking with this one. I happen to know that James is genetically programmed to be a picky eater. I've heard stories that Brian was a pretty good eater as a kid, but I KNOW I was terrible. Excluding carrots and celery (covered in ranch dip), I did not eat vegetables until well after college. My entire body was composed of cheese and crackers and king-size Snickers for most of my formative years. Did my mom offer all the right things? You bet, but I wasn't having any of it. I bet she was saying (as she paid for the CostCo size box of Snickers), "I swore I'd never do this..." 

Elfed

I know everybody is doing one of these, but I find that the secret of elf success is in choosing the right headshot. I am laughing a great big 34-week pregnant belly laugh as I type this because I think I have chosen such a superb elf headshot for Brian. 

He doesn't seem to think it's quite so funny. I am posting it anyway. Consider it my gift to you.

Enjoy.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

30 LBS of Love and Support

Who needs therapy when you have this guy around?

I overheard this while Brian was changing a particularly "adventurous" diaper: 

"You're very brave Daddy."

And this just this morning (also during a diaper change):

"You're a pretty great girl Mommy."

Decorating the Tree

First, a big shout out to my patient husband who survived another year of "Steph's Tree Lighting Ritual/Rules/Strategy/Dictatorship." This involves lighting the tree "at the base" meaning at least one strand of lights as close to the trunk as possible in order to provide a nice backlight for the ornaments. I HATED this ordeal when I was growing up because it took forever and I just wanted to hang that crazy silver tinsel on the tree (the last step), but my mom always stuck with it and it was always worth it. Try it. I promise it will change your tree, your ornaments, and possibly your marriage.

Now, because he's only 3 feet tall, we did the lights, but then we put James right back to work - decorating the tree. Here he is hanging his first ornament:

He took to it with a seriousness very similar to his baking - lots of heavy breathing and lots of focus on one area. Please note my 33 week belly almost (almost!) camouflaged by my shirt matching the window.
Then Pa and I settled in for a long winter's nap on the couch while James went to work with his basket of ornaments. Periodically, one of us would open our eyes long enough to shout, "Spread them out. Spread them out!"

Although I did not catch it on video - Brian is my witness - James actually said this: "Welllllll, this is a pretty tree. Thanks guys."

And, of course, then the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Coming up next: James wraps his own gifts.... (just kidding) 

Christmas Tree Trip

Get a cup of coffee people. This is going to be a long one. Last weekend was our (hopefully) annual trip with the Bruces to the Virginia mountains to pick out, chop down and haul home our Christmas tree. We found a great cabin in Floyd, VA with 4 bedrooms and one room even had a crib for little Miss V. In some kind of cosmic event, both of the children took a nap while the snow came in and it was beautiful! and cold! We definitely have to toughen up our Florida skin if we're going to make it here.

Here are our men (Brian & Tres) hauling in the kindling for another great roaring fire. 

James and Virginia hugged no less than 100 times on the trip. They are very sweet together. The cabin was stocked with toys for the owner's grandkids, but to James & V, pure joy was jumping off the air mattress onto two dog-hair infested beanbags.

Some doodling before dinner. 

Floyd is a cute little town. Pretty artsy with a few antique shops and a music "jamboree" on Friday nights at one of the three restaurants. We stopped at this place on our way out of town. Brian got a latte, but I wasn't very thirsty so I just got an idea...

Then we drove about 30 minutes north to Pilot, VA to Roll Out Farms - home of insecticide free trees and tractors that run on vegetable oil. We cared about this for about 5 seconds since the windy top of the hill felt like it was roughly 1 degree. Here are our little eskimos toughing it out.

Shortly after these two photos, Brian and I went inside to have some hot chocolate and 58 chocolate chip cookies while James did all the work. He was really into it and he owes us anyway, right?

Here he is testing the needle strength of a Frasier Fir.

Then measuring to make sure it's about 8 feet. We told him, "don't even think of bringing us a 7 foot tree!"

In a moment of great parenting, we decided he shouldn't actually chop it down by himself so Brian helped a bit.

After hauling the tree down the steep steep steep hill to the truck, the poor little guy was pooped.
So we let him eat a cookie (or 18) and have some hot chocolate that was clearly labeled "double chocolate meltdown" which I thought might have been a sign of what was to come on our 5 hour ride home...

But then it was back to work - here's James with his great find. 

Stay tuned for the next post "Decorating The Tree" which also involves child labor...

Thoughts on Christmas

Me: Do you want to ask Santa for that toy for Christmas?

James: No.

Me: Why not?

James: Because Santa is old and he has whiskers.

James is watching Christmas cartoons now. We have a DVD of really old (pre-Disney) cartoon shorts.

Me: See the reindeer? They are pulling the sleigh.

James: Oh, I didn't notice that!

We are also reading Christmas stories, T'was the Night Before Christmas, Santa Mouse, etc

Us: Do you want to hang your stocking on the fireplace?

James: No.

Us: But we need to hang it so Santa can fill it with goodies.

James: Where is he?

Us: He will come down the chimney and come out through the fireplace and leave you presents!

James (looking at the fireplace quite suspiciously): Is he in there now?

Since this moment, I have caught James stealing suspicious glances at the fireplace and he won't go anywhere near it. 

Well done, Mom and Dad, well done.

I also submit, for your review, proof that James possesses 90% of Brian's genes and only 10% of mine. We let him hang some small ornaments on this crazy silver tree and this is how he went about it. Please notice the obsessive color grouping.

It's going to be a long December.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are back from another fun trip to Englewood, NJ - home of Brian's Uncle Kevin (see Jersey Shore beach post of 9/08). Great time, great food and great chilly fall weather.

Around this house, Daddy is the toy du jour. Since I stay home with James, I am old old boring news, but Daddy is new and fun and exciting. Ranking just above Daddy is Uncle Kevin whom we see quite often here in Old Town. But above Uncle Kevin are James' second cousins KC and Missy. NO ONE can top KC and Missy. James stalked them both the entire time we were in New Jersey. He asked Missy to play with him no less than 1,000 times and he would often ask if he could "check on her" if she were outside the room.

Here's James and his top three favorite people:

And here is why James loves KC so much.... because he will get on the floor and do this. There was even some sliding belly-first onto the floor resulting in great laughter from James and weeks of un-doing by James' parents.

I don't know how it started, but James kept asking people to take him on "adventures" around the house. He wanted to go in different rooms and look for monsters. KC took it a step further and found some Indiana Jones-type adventure hats.

Just to prove his love for KC, James sits on a dirty NYC sidewalk, you know - just to be near him.

So just to recap:

#1 KC and Missy

#2 Uncle Kevin

#3 Daddy

and in a distant 4th: Mommy (until he needs to eat and then suddenly I am #1!)

We ventured out on a little side trip to Ridgewood, NJ where Brian was born. I had never seen it and it was adorable. It should be called, "Pleasantville" - so cute. James, apparently, thought otherwise and threw up in the car all over himself and his car seat. Here he is in what is left of his warm winter outfit: a fleece on his chest, my scarf underneath him and socks on his hands.

After a short side trip on our side trip to a clothing store - we are revived. James downed his weight in pancakes, demanded some juice from the waitress and was back to his usual self.