Miscellany
I find myself in the midst of the Christmas season (yes, still). We have a charming tradition of spending the week after New Year’s in Vail which makes the wind down after Christmas much easier. My parents also host their New Year’s Eve party which is a good time. Matt’s hoping Tabby will be able to stay up for the fireworks. I will be bringing buffalo chicken dip and what I have decided to refer to as Breakin’ Dishes Jell-o … or maybe this awesome-looking candycane angel food cake.
That thingy on the right is Tabby’s brand new stuffed animal holder. It’s just an over-the-door shoe holder that Matt installed on hooks on her wall. It was a bit tricky, apparently, but I like how it ends up. I can’t take credit for this idea … I found it somewhere on the internets. It was about the best solution I saw to tame stuffed-animal clutter … most of the rest involved nets or cages (not kidding!).
On the left you’ll find the ornaments that I painted for our kids and our best friends’ kids. They were really fun to do. We also did more Tabby art ornaments this year. We found teeny canvases (3″x3″, maybe) at a local hardware store and had her paint them. She had a great time doing it. Then I screwed eyehooks into the top of them and strung them with ribbon. They turned out very cute. Will have to put up a photo later because I still have not gotten one.
The freaking tile is still not in. It’s supposed to be in today, though we’ve been lied to so many times I’m not really trusting what they say anymore. We could get a refund, but then we’re out tile that we really like and a ton of time since we’d still have to order in more tile. And we have not yet been able to select carpet. Our carpet guy was supposed to be getting a bunch more samples from his manufacturer, but they are not in yet. I just want this done in the worst way.
I got some really cool stuff for Christmas. My new Sansa Clip is an awesome MP3 player for workouts, being all tiny and clippable. I am also loving Sims 3: World Adventure, though I did have to pick up a strategy guide for it yesterday (*shame*) since I don’t have a ton of time to fool around playing it. I also got Scribblenauts, which I haven’t gotten to check out and a cool cookbook from my sista that I can’t wait to try. Santa was very good to me.
And I suppose that is about it for now. Hope you’re enjoying this little short, slow week. Cheers!
Protected: Normal
Ben at 8 Months
Hard to believe, but Benji turned 8 months old on Christmas Eve! It’s been a big month for Ben. He seems to be pretty much over his texture issues with food and is now eating everything in sight (as we allow). He also wants only to feed himself and gives us a look like “You know what you can do with that lousy spoon!??!” every time we try to feed him. The four new teeth that have punched through in the last month are getting good use tearing off pieces of crackers and bread … though Ben wants desperately to move on to burgers and steak.
He is also mobile! It is not crawling exactly, but scooching along, usually backwards. He is, however, extremely frustrated that he cannot crawl. He constantly flips on his tummy and gets up on all fours, sometimes doing a downward dog sort of deal and scooches and cannot quite get it, so he grunts and moans and eventually protests until we sit him up again. But that doesn’t stop him from reaching everything in sight. And he is now pulling himself up on our hands and stationary objects. I really do want him to crawl/walk soon … at 23 lbs, he is heavy!!
The jumper is still his favorite occupation, slowly being eclipsed by sitting on the floor and playing with toys. He is finally more interested in books, though it is more of an oral interest. And speaking of oral, in addition to putting everything in his mouth, he is putting his mouth to excellent use chatting us up. He now says mama and dada with some association and patpatpat when he claps (darling!). We also think we’ve caught him saying Tabby once or twice. Big sister figures big into his world.
He (still) does not sleep through the night. I really think that at this point it’s a comfort issue rather than a hunger one, but we’ve been so exhausted with basement/Christmas that I haven’t had it in me to work with him at night. I hope that in the next few weeks I can work with him and get him sleeping through. I need it badly!!
2/3 of the way through his first year and we are loving him so much! This is prime adorable baby time and I do not want to miss a minute. Off to smush my baby boy!
Christmas All Wrapped Up
It has been a frantic week or so since I last posted. On Tuesday, our Nashville family came to town, along with some snow. Wednesday evening we went to see Zoolights in the snow. It was chilly, but so beautiful! Thursday, Christmas Eve, we spent most of the day cooking and getting ready for Christmas. That evening, Matt’s dad and stepmom took everyone to their favorite restaurant, The Fort. Christmas was a fun flurry of activity. The kids got a ton of awesome gifts … toys, books, clothes and Matt and I did pretty well too! The kids had a lot of fun, didn’t get too overwhelmed or hyper on sugar and even got midday naps. It was fun to spend it with just about all of our family and it was a very nice day. We spent Boxing Day with our Nashville Family and they left today.
Christmas is hard for me photography wise … I get too caught-up in the action and forget the camera. Not a bad thing overall, I suppose, but I’m always a little bummed when I see my photographs. This year I even apparently had a lovely smudge on my lens all day. Awesome.
Protected: Animal Rescue
Cat Herding
Over the past 8 weeks, Tabby took both gymnastics and dance from our local recreation district. I’m a huge fan of their classes because they’re very affordable and they’re realistic about what a 2.75 year old can do and how long they can do it for (classes are 45 minutes). They also have classes that I can take her to (evenings and weekends!). Wunderbar.
We quickly dubbed Tabby’s classes Cat Herding class. Truly, they were my bi-weekly dose of humor. Inevitably at some point each class, one of the kids would take off. Tabby was a frequent offender, particularly in dance where she wasn’t as interested. She likes gymnastics much better, particularly her teacher, Miss Katie.
As a culmination to the 8 weeks of fun, they do a “recital” (Cat Herding: The Musical!) and a “meet” (Cat Herding: The Olympic Event). Friday night was the recital and Tabby’s group (all three of them) got up on stage and did their thing to “Colors Make Me Happy” (it’s from Barney, feel glad if you can’t place it). They accomplish their routine by following their instructor who’s on the floor facing them. At one point they had to do a twirl. Tabby twirled and twirled and twirled and then teetered and almost took out another kid. It was awesome.
The meet was at the ungodly hour of 8 AM on a Saturday. They rotated between the four events: skinned the cat on bars, running jump off the spring board on vault, silly walk + somersaults on floor and beam walking sideways and forward on beam. Tabby made it through the whole thing and did everything as expected with a little help. Afterward she told me she only wants to do gymnastics next time.
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like a Basement
So … almost everything is done. Two big exceptions:
1. the carpet … we were seeing about getting some freebies and that didn't come thru (no biggie, of course, but it would have been nice!) and then the carpet we picked had been discontinued, so we're on to round 2 of carpet picking
2. our freaking tile … I think it's off the boat … I think it got on a truck and I hope it will be here soon … also, it is apparently marble and our contractor doesn't necessarily have much experience installing it or have the right saw to cut it … umm… I hope it turns out OK. I'm too tired to worry about it
Other than that, we're (Matt and my dad) touching up the paint, finishing a teeny bit of work on the trim and (soon) installing a banister for the wall in the stairs we took out. These photos are a bit old … trim is all up and outlet covers are on now. Lassiez les bon temps roulez. Continue reading “It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like a Basement”
A Night Off
Matt (sensibly, for once) decided to take a little break from working on our basement. He caught up to where our contractor needed us to be and as he has the same obnoxious head cold I do, he decided he could use some rest. So last night we ran one teeny errand (toy shop – to pick up Tabby's Christmas present) and then went home and had dinner. After dinner, faced with the choice of a bath or going to bed, Tabby selected bed (!!) and as it was almost 7, Ben followed quickly thereafter.
I would like to have stayed up and had some fun, but we wasted 30 minutes to an hour doing things like looking for the remote, checking on the basement, putting away laundry, etc. and by the time we crawled into bed to (theoretically) watch The Tudors, I curled up next to Matt and went right to sleep. Yes, people, I went to bed at 8 PM. Maybe before. It was great!
This weekend is another flurry of activities. Friday, our day off, will surely be busy enough and that evening we have Tabby's “dance recital” – or as I like to call it, “Cat Herding: The Musical!” – and after that I am meeting up with The Moms for dinner and some much needed girly fun. Saturday, bright and early, we have Tabby's “gymnastics meet” – or as I like to call it, “Cat Herding: The Olympic Event.” We will have plenty to do that day, I'm sure, though it hasn't been set in stone. And that evening, we have dinner plans with some family friends that I'm very much looking forward to. Sunday it's back to work on the homestead. If the stars align, there is a teeny chance we might have it done by Christmas.
Snot Head, Pink Eye
A post about nothing:
So I was coming home from work yesterday and my eyes were driving me mad! They were so itchy and irritated. I thought I was having an allergy attack. But as soon as I looked in a mirror, I knew the truth … it is the dreaded pink eye. Very infectious, but very treatable. That is if the nurses line will ever call you back. Grrrrrr. Also that cold I was trying to stave off? It's hanging around. But at least it doesn't seem too bad. And I hope it's getting better.
Ben went to bed at like 6PM last night. Woke up just once for a bottle @ 2 AM and slept 'til after 6:30 this morning. Good boy! His night feeding keeps getting drawn out farther and we're hoping it will soon be eliminated (didn't I say that a couple of months ago?).
Tabby was sweetness personified last night. She came home in a great mood and completely turned around my grey mood with her songs and snuggles and chatter. After her brother was asleep, she was ever so content to watch Elmo's Christmas countdown while I cleaned the kitchen and folded laundry in my zombie like state (owing to little sleep and a snotty head). She melted down when she had to go to bed because she wanted to go back to the garage and chat with her Papa more (he was over, yet again, helping us stain trim – the man's a saint!!). Can hardly blame her.
Friday we had planned a shopping day. Both Matt and I off, and a friend of mine willing to watch Tabby for at least a few hours. We have very little shopping to do now though and I'm not sure how we'll spend our time. We do have a *very* messy house. We do have a lot of wrapping to do. But I always hate to spend an illicit(ish) free day with Matt doing chores. Seems like we should do something more fun! Meh.