A visit

One of my roommates from college was in the area the week before Christmas and so we drove about half way between and met in Annapolis. It was great to see her and her husband and their 5 kids. Last time I saw them they had 3 kids. Our last 2 kids are the same age. We had a lunch that lasted entirely too long and then we took the kids to the mall to play for a little while before we headed home. We took these pictures at the play area.

Being that it is Annapolis, there was a water theme. I about had a heart attack when I saw Gwen come down this thing head first!
She loves slides, but she has never done laying down head first, on her belly, this was a pretty steep slide, with a huge drop off, but she seemed to end up ok, I think she only did it once!

It is so funny seeing some one from college, so random and so great. Julie and Trung had flown in from WA and were stuck in an airport for 14 hrs the day before and they still met us. I had a great time and wish they lived closer, Julie and I have much the same views on child rearing and religion and whatnot, so it is nice to talk to someone who is as "crazy" as I am. At the same time it is great to see that her oldest children with the same upbringing I strive for our nice, pleasant children. I know that I am pretty different from most of my newer friends in what I do. It is also really nice to talk to someone who has more a sense of your history and you don't have to go into stuff, they just know. Sometimes I forget the "work" that goes into new friendships, since I am so lazy about being a friend, oh I'm there when you need me, but I don't always call and chat, but that doesn't mean I don't care!

For my reference

A couple months ago, I found out about this. Since Nate is in the age limit I need to schedule his appointment and I thought since a couple of my other fellow Moms also have kids in the 6m-1yr range, or will have children coming up in this age range, I would post it here. Basically it is a free screening for infants to check for eye problems that can be helped by early intervention. So, if you have a child in this age range here is where you can go to locate a Dr in your area.

Christmas wrap-up

I know I have been pretty lax about posting around here, I am sorry about that, I don't know if it will get better or worse when Eric is unemployed! Hopefully it won't be worse, but you never know. I have barely been on the computer these days, the holidays kept me busy. I made at least 6 batches of toffee and 4 batches of peanut brittle, very time consuming. But, now that the holidays are over we might be able to get back to...well I guess we will get to our new normal, whatever that will be. Eric being home is going to mess up my schedule, but more on that later, this is the Christmas wrap-up, not the post about our changing lifestyle!
We had a very nice Christmas, we went to Mass on Christmas eve, it was a nice service, although I felt like it was rather short. That could be because I was dealing with 2 children (not alone mind you) that were too close to their bedtime. But, they were both remarkably good. With Nate we did the baby pass, just passing him back and forth, to keep him occupied and not squealing. Gwen spent Mass eating cereal. Grandmom splurged and got the giant Santa balloon for Gwen, not sure how Nate would take it. How do you think he liked it? He loves balloons! He kept squealing at it and it would pop away and then come back, he loved it!

Christmas morning, because our kids are so young and we were "out" late, the slept in, Merry Christmas to us!!! We didn't wrap everything, I just didn't think it was necessary to wrap the kitchen or the weeble wobbles...is it a bad sign I am already lazy? We had a hard time pulling Gwen away so she could open other presents!

Where's my toys Mom?

Action shot.

I got Nate some links, I always wanted to get them for Gwen and when I found a bunch of them for $1 I snatched them up!!!

Still distracted by the un-wrapped presents, BTW, did you know weeble wobbles go in the fridge.

Bath water colors! She wanted to open that up and fingerpaint.

Grandmom opening a present.

Gwen finally tearing into her presents.

Nate trying to tear into his presents.

This is later in the day, Eric is explaining to me his picture. Apparently Santa is at his retirement Villa in FL, next to my Mom's house. Seriously, see the "water" labeled as Ocean, will he never learn, I grew up on the Gulf side!!! It also says "Kathy's house"!

Grandmom and Nate after nap!

The kids at the kids table. Some friends from SS came over for dinner. We had a nice time, and I think so did the kids! Poor Katie kept tripping over the table cloth, and it became community plates, but they had a good time!

Nate at dinner. He had some banana.

This is from this morning. Gwen has been getting into chocolates lately, not as in liking them, that has never been a problem, I mean literally finding chocolate hidden in presents and stockings and eating it. Blast that girl...I guess that is good reason not to have chocolates in the house!

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! We sure did!

Helping to decorate

I am finally getting to posting these pictures, I think they were taken 2 weeks ago, maybe more. But, as I have mentioned, I have been busy and I probably wouldn't even get to this now, except Grandmom is reading stories to Gwen and Nate is napping. I suspect he will wake up before I finish this post, but you know, I have got to try and get this done!

Ok, so I was right, Nate woke up, couldn't finish the post. So, here we go again! Gwen helping us with the tree cover, you know because it looks like a cape!
The snow globe, my goodness she loves that thing...but I guess who doesn't like a snow globe...besides Det. Lassie.

Showing Rudolph the snow globe.

Gwen really was excited to decorate for Christmas, she loved the idea of the "Chemistry". She was so excited when Eric was putting up the tree she pulled over her chair to help him! So cute!A couple days later I had her "help" me with the decorations...I would show you those pictures, but she is naked and I feel weird about that, but since she doesn't quite know how to do it yet, they all ended up on the floor, which I guess is better than all at the same height or on the same branch?
Nate, watching us decorate!

Gwen got super excited about the stockings, as you can see.

So, that is our Christmas decorating, in pictures, but not all the pictures.

The Nativity

I decided I wanted to get a kid friendly (read: chewable) Nativity set for the kids. I wanted to give it to them for the feast of St. Nicholas, but with me not actually knowing what day it was and the long time for delivery we got it a couple days late. Gwen loves it!
As does Nate, he seems to have a special bond with the Angels and Balthazar, he thinks they are especially yummy!

Several of the wise men travel with us, Gwen likes to take them places. Eric and I both have tried to set up the Nativity set for them, but everyday Gwen takes it down (quite irritated BTW) that we have removed them from her stroller or the bag she has put them in. Overall, I would say it was a good purchase, it also came with a book and cassette tape that you can listen too about the birth of Jesus. Although I do have to say the faces are a little scary, but they don't seem to bother Gwen.

Holy man!

I have been crazy busy. My MIL arrives today and I have been trying to finish everything I do before Christmas and before her arrival. It has not been easy and I am not finished, but I guess, that is to be expected, there is a lot on my plate around the holidays. And, I guess it wouldn't be so crazy if my MIL's involved just coming for the holidays and not medical issues.
One day I hope to update you with what has been going on. But today I will put up some pictures. The other day, ok a week ago, I took these pictures of Nate, Gwen was sleeping and I thought Nate would like to do some tummy time with his mat again, it has been a while since I pulled it out. Nate actually pulled the top down, I didn't get a picture of that, but I did get these shots.

Apparently he wanted to have something to chew on!

These pictures of Gwen were taken the other day. She has found a new way to help me clean.

I still haven't finished Christmas cards, but then I ran out of Christmas stamps. I don't know when I am going to get out to do that. I have made 3 batches of toffee and peanut brittle and 1 batch of cookies to decorate, hopefully we will get to that this weekend. So, I guess I need to get to bed. Nate has been returned to our room and I put his crib as far away from our bed as I could. But, he snores and I am hoping that he will not notice that he is in our room and not start waking up more!

Lots to do and not much time left. Merry Christmas, if I don't get on here again!

Dr. appt

Here are the vital stats:
Weight: 18lb 14oz (75%)
Height: 27.5in (75%-90%)
How does this compare to his 4 months stats...that is a 1lb, 1oz. and 1.25in.
The CRNP seemed a little concerned that he was a little low on his growth chart for weight, but thought that might have something to do with his illness. He had gained an ounce since Tues, so she figured he is still growing. I am not as fond of the CRNP, but we made it through this appt ok. He is doing everything he is supposed to be doing and he doesn't seem any worse for the wear with his illness. Probably wouldn't have even noticed he was sick, until he started coughing. When the nurse came in to give him his shots she commented on how red his throat was, the CRNP never even mentioned it.
Soon I hope to update with the 6month newsletter, but maybe not today, we'll see how naps go. I have gotten some good work done on the house and I feel like I haven't really sat down during naps all week, so I might just do that today while they are napping!

The end of a decade!

I know you all must be thinking she is nuts, this year doesn't mark the end of a decade, but for us it will. Eric or I have been employed by a certain company for 10 yrs and today he was laid off. We have figured this was coming for some time. Eric and I have been on different sides of this process before and we are now so jaded we know when it is coming. Although this time it wouldn't have taken a rocket scientist to figure it out. The thing about being laid off is that it is such a relief. You've felt the tension for quite some time, now it is over and now you know what is in your future with that company and you can move on. I think that is what we are both feeling right now. Humorously, Eric pointed out that not much of what we have today has been purchased with pre-company money. I could only think of 2 items that were purchased before we started working for the company. It is a strange thing to think of, our life will be headed in a completely different path now and the thing that brought us together (the job) will no longer be a part of our lives. Weird, strange and super exciting. So for now, Eric has employment until the end of the year and then the crazy transitional chapter will start. We will see how long Eric will last unemployed.

Amy & Brian's visit

Last week my dear friend from Huntsville called and said she was heading from NY to Huntsville, and stopped in to see us on her way. We haven't seen each other in at least 4 years. She's now married and we both have kids, our oldest are about a month apart. Fortunately she was able to spend the whole day with us. Here are Brian and Gwen playing in their PJs.

It was cold outside, but we thought it would be a good idea to take them outside while Nate was napping. They had a good time!

While the older kids where napping Amy fed Nate and I made dinner.
Nate did not enjoy pureed food from Amy either.

Unfortunately, what we didn't know was Nate was getting sick. He wasn't sleeping well, but we thought that had something to do with him sleeping in the pack-in-play in our room. Unfortunately it did not, today I took him to the Dr and she said he has Bronchiolitis. Which means we will likely be staying home for several days because it appears he is contagious. The nice thing about Amy's visit is that after she left Eric and I slept in until 10am!!!! Nate and Gwen both also slept in! Wohoo!

A very naked week

It appears we are in the throes of potty training. Gwen has decided to start peeing on the potty, the only problem is if I put panties or the training pants on her she pees in them. She is beginning to understand the concept of holding it and when she has to go. Today she told me she had to go and was upset that her potty was upstairs (where she requested Eric carry her upstairs while she was on her potty, don't ask!) So I ran up and got her potty and she just stood there naked, waiting, when I brought the potty down and then she peed!!!!! So, as I have said before, she will train when she is ready. Eric thinks it is a little bizarre to let her run around naked, but it serves its purpose, whenever she feels the need to go she just runs over and goes! I hope the longer we get into this process the more clothes we will be able to put back on her.
For Christmas Eric and I received bikes, we also got a trailer for the kids and so we got a helmet for Gwen, it came with elbow pads and knee pads and the other day before I put her down for her nap she insisted I put them on her, I didn't realize our nap rituals were full contact activities where pads where necessary, but whatever. She did not sleep in them, but wore them throughout the night time ritual!
Here is a better picture of Nate's tooth.

The little man hates the eating, he gags himself and it is just a bad scene. Fortunately we go to the Dr this week for his 6 mon appointment and so I can discuss it with them. I don't know why he hates the food so. As much as he seems to love stuffing everything to his face you would think he would like the food, but maybe he just wants the real food and not the pureed stuff!

So to conclude, we have one naked dancing girl and one gagging baby. Party time! Today it is flurrying, outside and both kids are napping, and we both got to sleep in, but more on that in my next post!

Oh Chemistry, oh Chemistry!

So it appears Gwen can't say Christmas tree, she says Chemistry, I think it is really cute. But, she is starting to get a little obsessed. When we come home from class, one of the neighbors has little Chemistries by their door and Gwen starts in with the "where is my Chemistry?" I say "it is downstairs in the basement, Daddy has to get it out for you!" (Like how I pass the buck?) In my family we don't usually set up the Christmas tree until mid Dec since we don't take it down until Ephipany and I have stuck to that tradition last year, but the kid is wearing me down! I am thinking we could put up our little Chemistry in her room but I don't know, we'll see how crazy she drives me this afternoon.

Thank you, hon!

I made it through NaBloPoMo and I won a prize! Is it rude for me to post that, I hope not, because as I have said before I never win anything, so it is super exciting to win this year. Some of my posts were pretty close to the wire! But it is done and I have a year under my belt, so maybe next year I can write less crap and more thrilling entries! Please, don't hold your breath though, I don't know if I can keep that promise.
In thrilling Nate related news, tooth #2 has made its appearance. So probably by Christmas he will have 2 front teeth and now he has made our Christmas cards look out of date. Blast him! I guess he is still our cute sweet baby! Our cute sweet baby who I had to go buy 12mon clothes for, he is starting to grow out of his 6-9mon clothes. I was lulled into this false sense that Nate's growth had started to slow down, but then I remembered I didn't buy him any 3-6mon clothes, so he has been in 6-9 mon clothes for a while. But, now he has some of cute as can be 12mon clothes, if I do say so myself.
Gwen has some hilarious phrases now. Every time I do something for her she says "thank you hon" (or honey, depending on her mood). She also mostly calls me Melanie when we are at home instead of Mom, I thought that she would be a teenager before that happens. She also says "I never..." usually eat, sleep or whatever I ask her to do. She says it with such authority it is hilarious.