Sleepover and funny words

One of the moms in our play group hosted a "sleep over party" where the kids all went in pjs and played around, ate pizza, had popcorn and story time. We took our giant shark tent and the kids seemed to enjoy playing in it too. We had a great time and both boys were exhausted by the time we got home. I wanted to post a blog entry to generally catch up and make note of some Coleisms that have gone undocumented.

Several weeks ago, I taught Cole the meaning of superfluous. He inisists that it is pronounced as it is spelled super fluous. I explained that it was something that you didn't need because you had something else that did the same thing. On Christmas day, he opened a gift of play food for his kitchen. It had 2 pretzels. He very politely lifted up a pretzel and said, "Mommy, this pretzel is superfluous, I already have one." I was quite impressed...I wonder what he will make on his SATs!

Yesterday, Chris bought Cole a train set - it is a Catepillar one that pulls cars with dumptruck and a digger on it along with a couple of other cars. The engine is like a diesel one and runs on batteries. Chris was getting it set up for Cole this morning and Cole said, "Daddy, be careful, it is very decilate (delicate)."

Chris asked me a question while I was mid-bite today and I answered him through a mouth of food - very impolite, I know. Cole called me on it and ran over to where I sat and said, "Mommy, don't talk with your mouth full, you might choke!"

The weather has recently been very beautiful and while I have been struggling with indigestion, I really want to and have been making more of an effort to get back into an exercise routine. I am looking forward to the new year and getting back into a regular exercise schedule.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

I didn't create an entry yesterday because I was so busy all day. I intentionally let Cole skip his nap because we really wanted him to go to sleep. When Rhys went down for his first nap, Cole and I wrapped the gifts for Chris and Rhys. I also made cards for Chris from both Cole and Rhys and after lunch we baked cookies for Santa, baked a cake for Christmas Eve dessert (pound cake with cranberries and an orange glaze), and baked biscuits for neighbors. I packaged up the biscuits and delivered them. We ended up visiting with our neighbors next door for a while and came home around 3. I put a chicken in the oven to roast and made some side dishes. By that time, Chris came home and we tidied up the house a little before Janelle and Scott came over for dinner. After dinner, Janelle read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to Cole and Rhys and we put Cole to bed. Cole went straight to sleep and was out cold - thankfully.

We all worked feverishly as Santa's helpers and finally made it to bed at 10:30 or so. I read and managed to get to sleep just before 11. The baby woke me up soon thereafter and then again at 5:30. Cole got up to potty at 6:30 and I wanted to make sure that he didn't go downstairs without us so I got up then too. Chris was right behind me and we went down together - I ran ahead and took video of Cole discovering his toys.

He was really excited and plowed through his toys quickly. As you can see by this photo, he played with everything immediately! He was also quite insistent that Daddy unwrap the surprise we wrapped for him yesterday (a Transformers robot battle set). Rhys came around just after 7:30 while I was putting the Monkey bread in the oven. I, again, rushed downstairs to get a video of Rhys discovering his toys. He was still waking up so he was a bit dazed but still so cute.

We ate Monkey Bread and fed Rhys his breakfast in a seat downstairs while Cole watched his new video and made it through his mountain of new toys. After breakfast, I started putting together lunch (I made a ham that I added a crust of ginger bread cookie crumbs, butter, brown sugar and brandy to, scalloped potatoes, peas and carrots, and buttered corn) The weather was so beautiful that after we had a video chat with Nana and Grandad in England, I took Cole outside to ride his new scooter while lunch cooked. I was in and out checking on lunch and moved the cars to block the driveway so he had the yard and drive to play in.

We came in and enjoyed lunch - it was a really nice meal and peaceful. After lunch, we let the boys play for a few minutes before nap time. I was graced with a perfect afternoon nap where I was able to rest completely and wake up refreshed - this is such a rare event, it seemed like it was a gift in and of itself. Cole joined me in bed for the last 20 minutes or so and when we both came around, he asked me to put the television on. I did and he suddenly realized that it was still Christmas and promptly excused himself downstairs to play with his toys again.

Chris and I cleaned up the dishes from lunch and I made grilled cheese sandwiches for Cole and Chris for dinner while Chris fed Rhys. While I was cleaning, I made room for my new food saver that I got from my parents. We had a video chat with my sister Becky and her husband Charlie and daughter Emma Grace. It was really a perfect day - good food, good times, laughter, cheer, and family.

I don't want to focus on the gifts that we received because the "things" aren't what stand out in my memory of the day. I think of how my children both were caught up in the magic (even Rhys seemed to know that it was a special day). I also think about how nice our meal was together and how much I enjoyed the time in the kitchen. Finally, I think of the beautiful weather - the blanket of soft clouds with a pink glow flowing across the sky early this morning - and the nice sunny late morning when Cole was enjoying his new toy and just being outside. I am really thankful for the lovely gifts that my generous family gave to me but I am so much more thankful for those people who think enough about me to give me something and I feel blessed, for sure.

After the kitchen was clean, I donned my new workout clothes and took the dog for a walk/run. The air was cool and I enjoyed the quiet of the streets. I could hear the distant murmur of people gathering for Christmas behind the doors and I enjoyed the light displays that I passed along my route. The wonderful feeling of the day kept me warm from my heart throughout my whole body. What a perfect day. Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!

You know, they killed Old Yeller

Today has been a bad day in the House of Harding. It started as early as a day can start when Chris got home at 1am. He went to see Oasis last night and when he got home, I woke up. I managed to get back to sleep but was awakened by Cole at 3:30 wanting to snuggle. I took him back to his room (very aware that Chris had only gotten to bed 90 minutes before this visit). I snuggled with him in his bed for about 5 minutes and then went back to my own. I managed to get back to sleep again only to be awakened once more at 4:15 by Cole, once again wanting to snuggle. I sent him to his room and told him that he needed to get back in the bed. He SLAMMED his door. I was infuriated.
Meanwhile, Rhys had been asleep since 8 without a peep. This, one of the rare nights that the baby sleeps through the night, was turning out to be one of my most restless nights in months! I went to Cole's room and told him that he would be punished later for slamming the door and explained that it was very naughty and wasn't going to be overlooked (as his punishment, we decided to turn his doorknob around so we can lock it from the outside). At that point, my blood was boiling and I decided to read a little before I went back to sleep. I managed to drift off around 5 and then, Rhys woke up at 6. I nursed him and went back to bed until 7 when he was really ready to get up.
I was extremely irritated and wanted nothing but a quiet time to just stare at the walls while the baby rolled around and played. Unfortunately, Cole followed us down stairs and all I could hear was a flood of words flowing forth at such speed that I was unable to cope. That is when the yelling started. Honestly, I am ashamed to say, I yelled all day. If it wasn't one thing, it was another. He had me right where he wanted me and I fell into his trap of attention ALL DAY. It was horrible and I reacted un-intelligently, emotionally and irrationally to every little misstep with equal enthusiasm as I did the more severe infractions. I am not proud of this. I am disappointed in myself. I could see myself outside of myself and the name I gave that person was Old Yeller. Well, I am ready to put Old Yeller out of her misery myself.
The lucky thing is that we get to go to bed and start over tomorrow. In the DVD of Cole's life, today won't even make the "bonus features" menu. I am glad for that. We will get back in control tomorrow as parents. I will plan on doing something fun with the boys to occupy their minds and energy. 'Tis the season for love, selflessness, forgiveness, etc. I will pray for patience during the coming week and hope that I am better able to control my reactions. I realized long ago that my reaction is the only thing I truly have control over and I need to be more conscientious of that.
I see new rules and consistent enforcement in Cole's future. He is getting so independent and we need to re-establish the boundaries so he can confidently move about his day understanding our expectations and rising to the challenges that he is facing. Every developmental phase is so challenging and when our oldest isn't quite 3, I still feel like a first-time parent.

Salt Dough Ornaments

My friend Kim H has wanted to host a salt dough ornament making play group activity. She had to cancel it last week because her daughter was sick. She had rescheduled it for today and this time, she called with a very croaky voice and cancelled it again. This time, I volunteered to host and Amber brought her son, Nate over and we made ornaments. Cole was not interested at all but we managed to make some cute ornaments and I even got Cole's handprint. They really turned out well and I can absolutely see us doing this every year.

It is so easy:

2 C All Purpose Flour
2 C Salt
1 C Water

Mix, divide dough into bags and add 10 drops of food coloring to each bag. Let the kids knead in the coloring. Roll each dough out onto a floured surface. Use cookie cutters and decorate. Finally, bake on wax paper at 250 until completely dry but not brown...about 25 minutes.

To bake or not to bake

So, I am not a baker. I can cook pretty well and make do with what I have on hand and that is probably why I am not a baker. I don't buy butter and a bag of sugar could last a year around this house. I just don't have supplies on hand to bake and don't want to have supplies left over because we have a lack of self control and can't stop eating the good stuff if it is around. This year, I decided that I would bake. I just thought about doing it on Friday and my friend, Janelle, loaned me a cook book full of cookie recipes. I made a list of ingredients for 4 of the treats and Chris went to the store to stock up on baking supplies.
On Sunday, Cole and I baked 2 different cookies (chocolate-covered cherry cookies and fudge ecstacies) and I made some marshmallow cereal treats too. We shared those treats with friends on Sunday night and then Chris took some to work on Monday. We still have some of all three upstairs as I type this today (Wednesday). Yesterday, I baked 4 dozen cookies for the MOMS Club cookie exchange so I came home with 8 sets of 6 different cookies from the swap today. We have a great variety of yummy goodies upstairs that I will gladly share with friends and neighbors. I also decided this morning to make homemade biscuits for the meeting (why not? I have all of this butter and flour!). They turned out so good, I decided that I would make a batch for our closest neighbors on Christmas Eve for their Christmas morning breakfast. Maybe that will take care of the butter surplus and relieve me of the temptation to do anymore baking!

Living in the moment

So, I mentioned before how I always feel like I am living for the next event or activity. I am really trying to stop that and am trying now to live in this very moment. Today, I sat and enjoyed reading a book. I watched Rhys crawl across the floor, reach me, and pull himself up onto his feet. I am starting to slow down and realize that Christmas is just over a week away and this is a Holiday Season, not just a day and I need to enjoy today - which was one of Cole's friend's birthday parties. I baked cookies yesterday - the first year that I have ever baked for Christmas. I made the dough for my cookie exchange cookies tonight and will bake those tomorrow. I am looking forward to tomorrow...eternally...but am really enjoying today too.

Another week begins, another weekend ends

It is Sunday evening and I am never excited about Sunday nights. We had a really nice weekend. Friday night, I finished making our family Christmas cards but was up until 2am. Chris let me sleep in and when the day started, we finished up our Christmas shopping for the boys and then Chris and I went to a friend's birthday party last night. Cole and Rhys were watched after by a friend from MOMS Club. She came over with her son to play for a while and then her husband picked him up just before bedtime. I am so grateful for my friends and it was such a pleasure to be away and not worry about how they were being treated. Cole even kissed me goodbye and said, "Have fun, mommy." I was amazed and delighted.
I got up with the boys this morning and let Chris sleep in. When he got up, Cole and I baked cookies. He was such a good help and really understood how important having clean hands was. I actually enjoyed the experience. We made two different types of cookies and some rice cereal treats. Chris took Rhys out shopping and finished his gift purchases. It is a relief when all of that is out of the way, the cards are made, etc. I am still so excited for Christmas and am really looking forward to the day.
Tonight, we hosted the Family Fun Day for MOMS Club. We led a caravan of cars to one of the local drive-through light displays and then everyone came back here to enjoy cookies and treats. The kids played well together and it was a nice time for the adults to chat too. Rhys and Cole both had later bedtimes and I hope will be no worse for the wear.

Monday will come early tomorrow.

And the beat goes on

I am really jazzed about Christmas...let me say that again: I am REALLY jazzed about Christmas! I can't wait. I am looking forward to seeing both of my children in awe of the mystery of Santa Claus and I love that Cole recognizes every baby as Baby Jesus now. I told him that it is Jesus' birthday and he now sings "Happy Birthday" regularly along with "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."
I have been pretty busy this week with something going on every day except for today. Today it is really rainy and yucky so we stayed in. We had an activity on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and tomorrow we are going to a birthday party and I haven't told Cole yet. I will let him know in the morning as we are getting ready, otherwise, I won't hear the end of it.
We are still struggling with getting Cole to eat. He decides he doesn't want something just by the sight of it and no amount of coaxing or leaving him alone makes any difference. He has taken to gagging or making faces when he tastes something. He usually likes what he eats but getting him to take that first bite is like getting a train to tread water. It is really impossible.
When I worked, I was at a company that was started by entrepreneurs and had that spirit. At the company meetings, the president always said, "Why doesn't everyone do this?" The answer was always, "Because it is hard"
It is staggering to know how many people are parents and some barely cope, some rise to the occasion and hold it together, and others - and I believe that I fall into this category - really try, really find that it is important work, and really worry that one misstep on their part can lead to a juvenile delinquent. I guess if we just gave up and allowed Cole to eat mac-n-cheese all day, every day, that would be taking the easy way out and nothing good comes easy. Why doesn't everyone insist that their child eat healthy food for every meal? Because it is hard.

Meanwhile - back at the ranch - while I have been typing this, we have been begging and threatening and everything in between to get Cole to eat...finally, I got out the timer and set it to 5 minutes. I told him that when the dinger goes off, he is done. If he doesn't eat before then, he doesn't get anything else. He immediately started to gobble it up. I think this will be the rule from now on! He doddles so much, he needs to get into the habit for school. Phew!

Getting caught up

I am finally able to make ground. Today, I am organizing my blog, adding photos, and uploading videos. Please take a look at the new videos that appear in the Youtube bar on the homepage of my blog. Also, if you are interested, browse through old postings to find a few new pictures.
I am also freecycling a lot of old things that are just taking up space, selling our old Christmas tree on Craigslist.org and purging my closet. Do I really need so many shoes to collect dust in there?
We are busy this week only having Thursday as a day to be home. I dread laundry when I get to it. Hopefully, I can keep up the momentum that I have and actually tackle my bedroom...what a disaster area!
Anyway, we are doing well and I am generally feeling better. I am working on our Christmas cards over time...am making them all from scratch so it is a multi-step process. I hope to be done by the weekend so they can be addressed and sent out.
There really isn't much else to report. I want to get back into the walking routine now that I am feeling better and hope to start that tonight.

And it spins!

I am truly suffering from my fibromyalgia today. It is terrible but not as bad as yesterday. I look back on yesterday and it is a complete blur. I woke up to excruciating digestion pain. It is hard to describe but it felt like indigestion in my back. The sensation of a spiky bowling ball trying to go down my spine. The pain was persistent throughout the morning and I had to choke down anything I tried to consume, including water. It even hurt to take Tylenol.
Chris can't stay at home and by lunch time he was ready to get out. I needed to get out too so we headed out to get a tree topper. I had gotten up and steam cleaned the carpet downstairs and we moved furniture around to put up our new tree. It is beautiful, by the way. It is the perfect size for our space and doesn't take over the room like our last one.
We went to K-Mart and my pain, combined with Cole's fatigue, made for a frustrating shopping experience. We managed to pick out an angel to top our tree. It is clear plastic but looks like it is glass with three led lights shining from below. You could see what it looks like lit up by pressing a button. I thought it was pretty and Cole selected the one with the horn.
We ate a quick lunch and came back home for nap time. I relaxed for a bit and then tackled the installation of the angel. When I put it all together and installed it on top of the tree, I was delighted to find that the light outlet actually fit the string of lights on the tree and was surprised to see that the Angel rotates! At first, I thought it was a bit tacky - Chris still thinks so. After I looked at it for a while...I turned the lights off in that area of the room and laid down on the floor watching the patterns the lights made on the ceiling, I really appreciated its beauty. It is really pretty and when we get the rest of the tree decorated today, it will all come together nicely.

Contentment

Rhys is teething and he was having a hard time settling down tonight. Chris went Christmas shopping so I had both boys for the evening. Rhys cried and I went to soothe him to sleep. His room is cooler than any other room in the house but he was snuggled up in his sleep sack. I left the hall light on so only a thin beam of light cut into the darkness. I was quietly singing "Jesus loves me" while I rocked him to sleep. Down the hall, I heard Cole making his way toward the nursery. He quietly entered the room, "Mommy?", he said. I kept singing. He was holding the mallet from the Whack-a-mole game. He slowly climbed up on the ottoman and sat, silently, swinging his feet and patting my socked feet. Rhys drifted off and I savored the moment.

Elvis has entered the building

I am SLOWLY getting back into the groove of things and am spending today in Laundry Hell. We all now have fresh clean beds and I am working on load #3 now with at least 3 more on the floor waiting to go in. I somehow managed to get all of this done along with a quick kitchen clean-up even though we went to a MOMS Club activity this morning. My friend, Kate, hosted a letter writing activity at her house. She had cleverly drafted letters to Santa for each person and we cut out pictures of toys and presents that the children wanted and pasted them on. I printed some things that are on Cole's list beforehand so he had actual items on his letter that we are expecting Santa to bring.
We are really into the Christmas spirit in our house. Cole opens a window in the Advent Calendar after supper every night and we have welcomed our Elf on the Shelf, Elvis. He hangs around all day observing Cole and Rhys and at night, reports to Santa. He sneaks back in before the boys wake up and can be found perched someplace new in the house. Today, Cole found him sitting on the stove. Cole at such a good breakfast AND lunch. Elvis is welcome to watch us eat anytime he wants :)
We are planning on putting up our tree this weekend and I am going to work on our Christmas cards too. Hopefully I will get all of the projects out of the way and can enjoy the season a little too.

We went out to the Washington Monument lighting in Baltimore tonight and it was wonderful as always.

So much to give thanks for

I vowed to keep up with the blog and type everything when I got home. Well, vows are made to be broken, some at least :) I didn't even take notes. There were some funny Coleisms. Specifically, he said, "I want to watch it, kapeesh?" when we told him that we were too close to Grandma's house to watch another movie. I had taught him to say to Chris, "I want some candy, kapeesh?" a while ago and I guess he figured out what it means.
We had a lovely visit with Mom and Dad, Becky, Charlie, and Emma Grace, and Mandy, Nora, Charlie, and Keith. The kids are pictured below. We went down on Wednesday to Mom and Dad's house and then on to Mandy's house on Thursday for Thanksgiving. Cole had a potty accident but was pretty good overall. He went without a diaper and without accidents on both legs of the trip. I am really proud of him.
On Friday night, we went to Kelly and Scott's house so Cole could have some good quality play time with their boys. Kelly ended up with a spare set of tickets to Disney on Ice so Cole and I were able to go too while Chris and Rhys hung out with Scott. It was a really good time and now that I know Cole will sit through something like that, we are more likely to take him.
We got back to Mom and Dad's house on Saturday around 11am and we decorated their Christmas tree while Chris and Dad watched the Clemson vs Carolina game. Cole headed down for a nap and Chris and I took advantage of that and went downtown to wonder around.
Honestly, every time we are there, we are more and more convinced that we want to move there. Chris was easily swayed when he saw the wide selection of international restaurant options on Main Street alone. I really love going downtown.
On Sunday, we set off around 5am and, in spite of the rain, were in Richmond by noon. This pace came to an abrupt halt as soon as I took over driving and we entered traffic hell on the corridor between Richmond and Washington. We finally rolled into our drive way at 5pm. We were all exhausted. Sasha ate a little food and hit her bed hard. She didn't get up until 11am today and then was just up long enough to go outside. The boys and I stayed in our pajamas all day and I managed to get very little done.
We are so happy to have built memories over this holiday and are so glad that we made it home safely after such terrible driving conditions.