Year in Review

This year I have:

Had a baby
Not gotten pregnant again (so far... but I think I'm in the clear)
Not lost one single pound since giving birth on Jan 2nd GO ME!
Not gained one single pound either Grumble Grumble okay I'll take it
Nursed two children for an entire year
Not slept all the way through the night even once
Done somewhere in the neighborhood of 625 loads of laundry
Survived a son of a bitch case of PPD
Survived a simultaneous case of colic
Not killed my husband or anyone else in the process
Started a blog
Met so many kick ass bloggers
Spent approximately 1500 hours online
Witnessed my daughter learn to speak in complete sentences, sleep in her own room and ditch diapers
Witnessed my son learn to eat, roll over, sit up, crawl, climb, and just recently walk. He's also pretty awesome at waving bye bye and saying NO!
Picked up the pieces to my kids' Melissa and Doug puzzles at least 1,000 times.
Taken maybe 10 showers uninterrupted
Driven my "non mom" car maybe twice and considering that enough reason to keep it
Bought myself 8 new articles of clothing, yep I can count them
Bought my children 20 times that many
Watched Classical Baby about 700 times
Told my children I loved them 9,000 times


Not a bad year. Not bad at all.

Packing Up

I came to the harsh realization that I will never again (or at least for a very long time) be able to put off packing up all the Christmas decorations. The Peanut's birthday is Jan 2nd and while I can probably get away with leaving everything up until Jan 1, the 2nd is just a tad too late to have up a tree. So, tonight we began trying to chip away at the work to be done to get ready for the birthday party this weekend. As I put things in boxes I started to wonder about next year. Will the Weebles love being read Winnie the Pooh's Jingle Bells as much as she did this year? Will Olive the Other Reindeer get exclusive play in the van next year too? What will our children remember from this year to the next? Where will we be in our lives when I unpack her special "Jingle Bells" ponytail holder? It made me a little sad to be putting all these things away that have been such a focus of their little lives for the last two months or so. Christmas themed dishes, clothes, movies and bedtime stories have taken center stage. What if next year they aren't totally in love with Pooh anymore and the giant inflatable Santa Pooh we just got on clearance isn't such a big hit? It makes me a little sad to see them grow up so fast. By next year it isn't totally unreasonable to expect the Weebs to be in love with Barbie or Princesses (holy beans, please tell me Bratz don't come until much, MUCH later.) I'm not ready for Barbie and Princesses. I like Pooh Bear and Wow Wow. Mama isn't ready for all of this, stay little awhile longer please babies.

Christmas lessons

We had a hectic but fun Christmas that spanned three days of present opening and family visiting. There are several things I have taken away this year on Christmas with children under 3.

1.) Don't bother buying tons of presents. The kids will get hooked on one or two things and ignore all the other ones. Seriously, there are dozens of new toys my daughter hasn't even picked up or looked at. I'm packing them all up and getting them out one at a time over the next few months.

2.) Wear something presentable to bed Christmas Eve or be ready to throw on something "decent", including the requisite undergarments, first thing when the kids wake up. Otherwise you will forever be captured in pictures and videos looking a tad trashy. I learned this the hard way as I found myself on the wrong side of the video camera first thing and went to change.

3.) Don't put candy in the stockings. I know it is tempting, but just don't. This is a recipe for tantrums and who wants to spend a month working hard so your wee ones' eyes will light up on Christmas morning only to have them let you know in no uncertain terms you have ruined their life because they cannot eat a giant chocolate penguin for breakfast.

4.) Freeing toys from the packaging that they come in these days is a royal pain the ass. Be prepared with a box cutter and some heavy duty scissors (at the least.) Bolt cutters would not be overdoing it.

5.) Amazon.com is so named because the entire rain forest had to be chopped down in order to send out one order. Everything will come in a separate box, your UPS man will run over your driveway lights on purpose to get even and you will be left with a mountain of cardboard blocking the entrace into your garage.

Can't wait to do it all again next year!

Wordless Wednesday

Get 1000 new followers in one day!

Heather had a fantastic post today in response to the controversy surrounding Shellie. It really made my day to read it because so often I have sat here, thousands of miles away from her wishing there was something, anything, I could do to help her. Turns out, the tweets we send off into cyberspace and the outpourings of love on our blogs do actually matter during our online friends' time of need.

Twitter is an awesome resource. Whether I want to share something funny, vent about something frustrating going on or just see what the world is up to it is there day or night. If I sneak the whole box of Christmas Cookies into the bed to munch on while blogging, I can tweet it and instantly get back up telling me to #putthosebackrightnow! If my kids are making me nuts I might get a response from another mom in Chicago telling me their kids are being ten times worse and I'm able to laugh about it with them. I get up to the minute news, someone to "watch" the big game with or tips on great Christmas presents for those hard to buy for relatives.

And yes, there are lots of us that use twitter as a support group. Why that is so threatening to some people I just don't understand. I have to wonder when I read these scathing accusations of moms that tweet while their children are fighting for their lives have any understanding of the technology that makes social networking possible. Tweeting doesn't involve going into your living room and firing up the old Commodore 64, waiting 10 minutes for it to start up and then dialing into Prodigy. What she did took no more time than a very brief phone call and surely nobody would try to fault someone for calling someone, anyone, when something so shocking and horrible happens. Social networking isn't limited to Farmville and trending topics on the latest hit movie. It can be used for amazing things too. Now if you'll excuse me I need to go check my @ replies...

5 Years

Five years ago we braved the bringing together of all the various warring factions sides of our families for a wedding. Sure, there were arguments, plenty of threats (from me) and perhaps 911 had to be called during our reception with paramedics swarming in.. but all of that is neither here nor there. The important thing is that we made damn sure all the elderly relatives were fed at a decent hour and not left waiting. And that we had an open bar. And really, isn't that what weddings are all about?

In the movies the groom is frequently shown freaking out and considering running off while he still can. Pacing back and forth... or doing last minute nerve calming shots with the best man. My husband to be? He calmly went downstairs in the chapel and ran his hands under hot water because he was "afraid they would be cold" when I got up to the altar. I think the typical concern is cold feet hon.

Happy Anniversary Roo

Wordless Wednesday - Tis the Season

Bloggy Holiday Card Exchange

Wishing all my bloggy friends a very happy holiday season from my crazy family to yours!

Family tradition

Thank goodness NaBloPoMo wasn't in December. Good thinking on their part. Family drama is already heating up. I sure do love the holidays. Every year I feel like I'm having to drag my family through the motions. I buy the gifts for my mom to give my dad, for my dad to give my mom, for my parents to give my husband, for my parents to give my children. I've even started buying things for myself for my husband to give to my parents to give to me. I'm determined my children will grow up thinking Christmas is as special as I think it is. I want them to remember it as a magical time of the year filled with family memories and anticipation. When they are older I want them to understand what the holiday is *really* about both in the religious sense but also the spirit of the holiday too. Thinking of others, appreciating their many blessings and remembering those that aren't as fortunate. I'm determined they won't see it as the time of year that their mom lost her cool at the crazy uncle that persisted in standing over her shoulder saying "another potato? you don't need any more potatos, who is going to eat all this food?" while ridding the entire house of doritos and mixed nuts and eating directly out of the serving pots. Or the time of year that mom and grandma got in a fight about whether or not the TURKEY needed to be refrigerated overnight. Holy hell my mother and her steadfast belief that food never spoils. Sigh, I'm looking forward to it already.

Who in the hell is this guy?

Merry Christmas from the family y'all

Wordless Wednesday

Fuzzy Logic

There is so much static going on in my head I can't seem to get a clear thought out of the lot of it. I have so many half projects and to do's swirling around that it is beginning to induce panic. On top of that I feel like I spend my day chasing down my "half way dones" while not actually finishing anything or spending any quality time with the kids. This is resulting in one broke down mama. How to drop it all, figure out the two or three most important things and focus on them while admitting that I won't get everything done? Won't happen... I'm just not wired that way. Sigh.

11 months old