Friday, December 26, 2008

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone! We are all enjoying time with family and friends right now, but we'll be back to posting soon. Santa brought us a new camera, so get ready for an onslaught of pictures to make up for the last three months!

Squiggles is just one bad Christmas sweater away from perfection right here...

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Ho Ho Ho!

I just saw this great post on Lifehacker...apparently, you can dress up your Flickr photos by using Easter egg notes. Of course, I couldn't resist dressing my boys up as Santa...



Brian looks really happy as Santa, don't you think? But Squiggles makes an adorable St. Nick!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Pillow Fort

Squiggles tends to get a little antsy in that little stretch of time before lunch. Yesterday was no exception. I had lunch (chicken nuggets and tater tots, yum!) in the oven, but the waiting!

I had left our bedroom door open, so he ran in and did what he usually does when he can get into our room; he asked to get up on the bed so we could play in the pillows. He loves to fall against them and then make Brian or me fall against them, too. It gave me a wonderful idea: pull all the pillows off our bed, the guest bed, and the couches and throw them in the middle of the family room! He had a blast, and was entertained until lunch was ready. And now we have a new game in our arsenal.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Anniversaries, good and bad

I already blogged about our great, lazy Sunday last week, but it dawned on me a few days ago that Sunday was a day for a few anniversaries.


Brian proposed to me on November 30, so it's always been a special day for me. He popped the question the day before I graduated from college. It was good timing because I was so focused on finishing exams and getting ready to walk at commencement that I was totally gobsmacked by his proposal.

But something happened on November 30 last year to taint the day a bit. That was the day I was let go from my job. Even though I didn't love the job, or even the fact that I had to work, it was still a shock, and it took some time to heal.

However, since I never went back to work, I guess November 30 is also the anniversary of when I became a stay-at-home mom. And that's been a very good thing.

P.S. What do you think of the bigger picture - is it good or do you like the smaller sizes I've been posting better?

Thursday, December 4, 2008

A bad day

Squiggles did not take a nap yesterday. As in, no sleep at all.

I should have known the path our day was going to take when I woke up at 9:30 and didn't hear anything on the monitor. Usually Squiggles is singing or talking to himself or, if I've been asleep too soundly, crying out for me. Yesterday there was nothing. He probably slept longer today because he was up for 30-45 minutes the night before. I went in to get him and he was sitting up quietly playing with his pillow, so I don't think he had been up for long.

He was very pleasant in the morning because he had gotten so much sleep, and asked to go out after breakfast (i.e., he took me over to the garage door and said "dis, dis!"). Yes, an outing, what a good idea little child! So we got dressed and headed out into the beautiful sunshine. We went to Babies R Us to look at a few things and then I figured we'd head to Chik-fil-a for a bite of lunch and some playtime.

He was great as we meandered through the store; but after we checked out, he started to unravel. The trigger was a giant ride-on Garfield as we left the store. I didn't have any change to turn it on, but I let him walk around it and even set him in it to "ride" the kitty. He had a lot of fun, but after a bit, I told him it was time to go. Cue meltdown!

Thinking maybe the promise of chicken nuggets and a slide would help him, we drove over to Chik-fil-a. No luck. He was crying and screaming and had already flung his socks and shoes at the back of the seat in front of him. I got out of the car to explain what we were doing, but he just screamed louder and tried to hit me (our fun new discovery, which Brian and I are not impressed with). So we left - I wasn't about to take him into public already mid-meltdown.

I managed to calm him down during the ride home using this trick I read in Parents magazine a few months back: I act out his emotions and use words to describe how I think he feels. In this case, I banged my fist on my leg and declared that I know he must be frustrated, hungry and tired, and that it's okay to feel that way. It usually works like a charm. I hoped he would fall asleep on the way home, because I figured he was tired after all the screaming. Wrong again.

We went back and forth over the next couple of hours, me trying to get him to sleep and he throwing a fit over it. So at 3:30 I gave up and we snuggled in the chair together under a blanket and watched Sesame Street.

After this "rest" and a good snack, he perked up a bit and was only slightly trying for the rest of the day. Of course, I was ready to rush out of the house as soon as Brian got home, but it all worked out. Good thing last night was Zumba night for me!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

NaBlo...never mind

Well, I failed at NaBloPoMo again this year. It is difficult enough to post every day, let alone to do it while I'm on vacation. I did much better than last year, though. I'm not sure if I'll do it again next year or not. I felt like I was clogging the web with silly posts on some days just for the sake of posting. Plus, I had to back-date my posts a couple of times.

Speaking of which, between last night and this afternoon, I managed to put up a few posts from our Thanksgiving vacation, so scroll down to see what we did last week!