glimpse into my future

Today is Friday and I am home by myself with A.  Yes, most of America is off to honor the new year, but B is at work.  This will hopefully be my life at least 3 days a week after the baby is born.  Well, certain aspects of it; the waking up at 5:15 am can go.  I looked at the clock at 8:15 to decide if it was OK to call my friend yet and realized how much we already had accomplished.  We had

• eaten breakfast- A had 2 breakfasts- cereal with daddy and then grapefruit and peanut butter toast with me
• watched a lovely episode of "The Fresh Beat Band" where Twist is a robot, I believe this might have been the 20th time that we watched this "new one"
• folded and put away laundry
• taken all of the pillow cases off of the bed to build a pillow fort
• called Daddy 3 times at A's insistence (1. say good morning 2. tell him to clean the fan or throw it away because it might make our pillow fort dirty and 3. to apologize for ripping his magazine)  I'm sure he'll be happy to have us home more too hehe
• taken showers
• gotten dressed
• played with some toys

Some of the most important decisions

• pink or white lotion after our shower
• blue or yellow cup for breakfast
• pee pee in mommy or A's bathroom
• doggy or robot Fresh Beat Band

That was all 5 hours before writing this blog.  What an exhausting, random, yet beautiful life. In the words of our favorite show-- it was a great day, a perfect way, to spend some time together.

calming chocolate

Though I feel that Christmas is the best time of year, it is definitely a busy busy time.  We're all running around shopping, wrapping, and visiting.  A and I have definitely been doing all of these things to get ready for the big day.  However, today was also the first snow of the year.  Yes, it was less than an inch, but it was magical to our little 2 year old.  She put on her snow pants and dove in the snow.  Her favorite part was eating it... not my idea of fun but then again neither is watching the same Freshbeat Band episode daily.  After about 25 minutes when her little face was as red as could be and my legs were frozen thanks to the lack of warm maternity pants to fit over this huge baby belly, we came inside.  We warmed up with her first mug of hot chocolate.  For about 5 minutes, we both sat by the tree and fire place listening to Christmas music and enjoying each other.  Truly beautiful.  Now, if only it lasted longer than 5 minutes before ornaments were being torn from the tree, Baby Bella the cabbage patch had to have her diaper changed, and the requests for Fresh Beat Band were coming.

st. nick's day

I've been having a hard time deciding what to do about Santa in our house.  On one hand, Santa is fun and full of tradition.  I remember waking up on Christmas morning, waiting at the top of the stairs for my dad to turn on the lights and music and then trying to beat my brother down the stairs to find the one unwrapped present that he left for me.  This was always our "big" present.  I remember a cabbage patch play pen, and well, that's actually the only one that I remember.  On the other hand, I don't know how to find the balance between celebrating the birth of Jesus vs. a big jolly elf living in the north pole.  I don't think I ever questioned "doing" Santa until my sister-in-law said that her family didn't do it.  I guess I never thought it was an option.  Now that I know she grew up happy and Santa free it really made me question separating the focus from Jesus and turning it to Santa.  I think the final kicker, besides the fact that my husband looked at me like I was completely nuts when asking what he thought, was that I don't want my kid to be the one telling everyone else that Santa is just a legend.

My answer, was to start a new family tradition on Dec. 6.  Dec. 6 is actually St. Nick's day, celebrated because it was the day that St. Nick passed away.  The original Santa was the son of a bishop and a minister himself.  There are several stories of his secret generosity and its impact on the lives of others. In one story, St. Nick gave bags of gold to a home with 3 daughters.  The father was unable to provide dowries for his girls narrowing their options for husbands and probably leading them into lives of slavery.  The gold landed in their stockings (hence the stockings and old traditions of giving oranges to represent gold). 

So, we had our favorite neighbors over for a St. Nicks party.  We made a dinner of pork and potatoes and cookies found at www.stnicholascenter.org, read a book about him, and gave out gold coins and chocolate.  I would have put them in shoes at the door as the tradition says but our dogs don't really care about tradition. I know that A and our neighbor G.  didn't really get it now, but as time goes on, maybe they will understand the generosity vs. consumerism that is becoming Christmas.  I loved it!   

another run for parents of the year

B and I were in the room right next to A's talking about our painting project.  A is nicely playing with her dolls.  She does a great job putting them to bed, changing their diapers etc.  It got really quiet which is usually the first sign that something is wrong; a well known fact that we ignored.  A few minutes later, I peeled myself away from the very important discussion of the size of polka dots to put on A's new big sister walls.  This is what I found....

The worst part is she then decided that baby needed a bath and proceeded to go turn on the water by herself.  Don't worry, we joined her quickly. 

Another highlight... at dinner A told her daddy, "puppy is my favorite friend.  Don't worry, you are  my friend too, Daddy."  Gotta love being second to a stuffed animal!

a little encouragement

Our lives are a little up in the air right now.  We are expecting a baby which along with the excitement also brings a certain amount of uncertainty.  I think this uncertainty grows with health care professionals and especially those like myself that treat and love kids with disabilities.  As much as I already love this child, there is definately some fear. 

On top of that, we are in a time that we're not sure about what to do with jobs.  I really want to stay working some but not as much.  So 1)do I stay at my job? Can I find another? Can we afford another job?  Could we still afford daycare?  All questions that I don't know answers too.  Put all of this uncertainty into Christmas when I LOVE to spend money to get good gifts for all of my family and we have quite a delimma.  So today, after talking to my husband, I was feeling really down.  I was contemplating who I should call to make the no gift agreement.  I decided to wait a little bit, pray, and enjoy the company of A.  As she was having her snack, I logged onto the computer and stumbled across this blog http://www.littlebitfunky.com/ with her entry entitle allow me to encourage you.  I"m encouraged.  Maybe this is the year for handmade gifts.  I don't know the answer but I do know that I just got a little bit more certain of our future.

a day of thanks

This Thanksgiving was different than any that our family has ever had. When B and I got married, we decided that we would do Thanksgiving with my family and christmas with his. That has changed over the past years, we no longer travel to Harrisonburg and spend hours with my Dad's brothers and their kids having the same conversations year after year ie. Heather is short, JMU is better at football than W&M and many more. We also don't eat more than one dinner traveling from home to home feeling so sick that we can barely feel thankful.

This year, we enjoyed the parade, made crafts with A, played Rockband with our great friends, and had more food than we could every imagine. This year, I was more thankful than ever to be in that place. This year we spent all day with our Maryland friends; we have endured a great tragedy this year with the loss of our great friend. However, we spent the day in our Christmas pajamas, courtesy of Mama Saint, enjoying each other and talking about how much our friend also would have enjoyed the day. We did what we do best eat, laugh, and drink wine (well some of us had to skip the wine b/c of baby bellies). I couldn't help but to look around every so often just to say thank you for having these amazing people in my life and for letting us to grow together more in the wake of such tragedy. So to the gang, here's to you... Happy Thanksgiving

Birthdays

Birthdays are a big deal in our family. My mom buys cheesy signage and hats galore. I whine about it but I do it for A too. My dad's birthday was Nov. 12. However, we haven't gotten a chance to see him yet. So, to A, it is still his birthday everyday. She has been working on his card since about November 1. It has now taken on a life of its own. She has cut shapes, taped ribbon, and colored with all types of crayons, markers etc. Each time she works on it, she sings happy birthday to him. Here's a clip of my little artist. Hopefully we'll see my dad soon b/c we really need to move on to Christmas cards. hehe

Friday Dinner

An evening at the Collins dinner table from B's view...

• A wants more potatoes. I tell A that to get more potatoes she needs to put some more green beans in her tummy. She stuffs greens beans down her shirt.
• We argue for 2 minutes over whether her chocolate is a Kit Kat or a Crunch bar. It is clearly a Kit Kat but she is still pretty persistent.
• A finishes dinnner asking for concoction (S drinks it every morning; 2 T of apple cider vinegar, a mug of hot water, and honey to taste) Instead of hot water, A drinks the same thing with cold water and says, "I like it, Daddy"

S's random info about concoction according to Earth Remedy: The reported cures from drinking Apple Cider Vinegar are numerous. They include cures for allergies (including pet, food and environmental), sinus infections, acne, high cholesterol, flu, chronic fatigue, candida, acid reflux, sore throats, contact dermatitis, arthritis, and gout. Apple Cider Vinegar also breaks down fat and is widely used to lose weight. It has also been reported that a daily dose of apple cider vinegar in water has high blood pressure under control in two weeks!

I learned about it from a yoga teacher. Its probably all in my head, but I feel more alert; its better than the 16 oz. coke that I drank before in the mornings!

a turkey day egg hunt?

Tonight B and A made a visit down to the storage closet aka substitute for no garage aka collector of all randomness. Their purpose was to find some tools so A could help with the closet reorganization in her big sister room. However, she found the Easter eggs and her little basket with her name on it that her daycare teacher made for her. So, B reorganized the big sister closet and A and I had an egg hunt. My first thought was to be somewhat educational and talk about how turkeys lay eggs and it's almost Thanksgiving when we celebrate everything good throughout the year blah blah blah. Anyway, she looked at me like I was crazy and told me to hide the eggs. Her 2 year old mind probably doesn't remember Easter and definitely does not remember Thanksgiving. So, we just had an egg hunt. I went first. I hid them in open areas where she could see them though she was peeking through her open fingers the entire time I hid them. As I predicted, she magically knew where they all were but had a blast counting all 6 eggs. Then it was her turn to hide them. While I closed my eyes, she hid all eggs... in one spot. I opened my eyes and she said, "look Mommy, I hid all the eggs right here." B now joins in the fun to help her hide them. I close my eyes again and when she's ready she says, "Mommy find the egg in the drawer and under Cooley's bed." The third try B thought he would be funny and hide 1 in my pocket of my jacket and maybe I wouldn't feel it. Maybe, if A then didn't hide the other 5 in my pocket laughing out loud as I covered my eyes and laughed as quietly as possible. We'll obviously need some more practice before Easter, maybe we'll hide paper turkeys next time.

how to start

I hate the blogs that I read that start with the entire history of the thought process behind blogging. However, I also don't like the blogs that jump right into a family story; it seems like starting a book in the middle. So, instead, I'll just start with the name and then move onto the story. It seems like a nice compromise.

If I had to categorize each person in our family, I would say that I am the organizer and innovator. My husband is the fun guy. He's just enough of a nerd to be a little quirky yet he is very social and always has something to say. A is just busy. That's all, just busy. So, when I told B that I wanted to do this, he threw out like 10 names using Collins in about 2 minutes. In the mean time, I was looking up blogs about how to name your blog. B, interesting... Me, not so much

Onto the story) This nice little tidbit occurred while getting ready for work/ daycare last week. Mom: dressing A in a simple pull over shirt and pants. A: I want to wear zippers. I love zippers. Mom: "OK"-- this is not a battle that I want to pick. Why not let the 2 year old pick out her clothes? A: "Mommy, you like zippers?" Me: sure, they're nice A: "Daddy like zippers?" Me: I'm not sure that he has an opinion on zippers. A: "text him Mommy" Let me pause here, first of all, how does a 2 year old know about texting. Do we really text so much that she has learned that phrase? So, I text him. "Daddy, A wants to know if you like zippers." A waits patiently in her car seat for an answer (yes, this conversation has lasted through getting dressed and into the car). His response, "Yes, very much. Much more than buttons." My satisfied little 2 year old is now ready for school.