wonderland5

since we last talked: final wrap-up

alright already girl.  enough with drawing out the re-cap right?  I hear you.  No one is more sick of looking at pictures from the holidays than me.

however, the archivist in me just can't let the planned pics languish unrecorded.  Goddess forbid that my grandchildren look back some day and not know that their father was also once a whirling dervish of christmas fervor.

so this is it, the past month in one post.  Those with no interest, please move on.  I'll be back with creations and fresh news later this week.

 

Cookies were made...

 

and frosted.

 

Favorite decorations were arranged in new ways.  Sock monkey loves his minions!

 

I put my virgin of guadalupe collection out for the first time this year.  (everything else is put away now--except this shelf.  Somehow I can't stand to scatter all these goddesses again.)

Solstice was a welcome quiet moment, as always.

 

The stockings were hung with care and our hopes of St. Nicholas were indeed realized.

 

No such luck on my hopes of non-conspicuous consumption, however.

 

On New Year's Eve, Jack turned 3.  Terrible twos are over!  Terrible threes just beginning?

 

Four days later, Anna turned 1.  My sweet baby girl. this year has gone by SO FAST.

 

Today, we watched the television for hours.  At noon, we captured this photo for the kids to share with their grandchildren.  I had goosebumps.

whew.  all caught up.  I'm all about the present and the future now.

see how they grow

Wow, gotta love the old cliche of how fast kids grow--it is trite but true.  Jack is all over the place these days, talking a blue streak and pronouncing every statement he makes as "funny!", especially the times when no one laughs at his jokes.  Just like his father, that one.  He's gotten his first tricycle and learned to climb a ladder.

Anna is three months old now and I feel like I have aged about ten years since January.  She is inching towards a solid chunk of nighttime sleep,which is great.  And she just has the best disposition, always ready with an amazing smile that lights up her whole face. 

Mike and I agree that we could totally eat her up she is so sweet and cute.  And just as a measure of how adoring we truly are, we also think her trembling lip crying face is to die for.

Perhaps I can fashion some type of comedy/tragedy masks out of these pictures?  Or one of those dolls that you can flip over and underneath the skirt is another head?  hmm...

Studying up

Being a big brother is a big responsibility.  When Anna is sleeping, Jack practices with this baby.  In fact he has been loving it so much lately that one night I took it upon myself to make it a little diaper and a tiny blanket made out of the same fabric that Jack's "wooby" is made out of.

The next morning Jack was excited to see baby's diaper and blanket.  Then he promptly forgot all about baby and hasn't played with her since.  Sheesh--boys!

whew!

Yes, I am still here!  I just checked out how long it had been since I last posted and I was shocked to see it has been almost *two weeks*.  Wow, where does the time go?  It's gone so fast and yet these have been two of the longest seeming weeks of my life.  Not that anything extraordinary happened, just the opposite.  It's been two long weeks of feeding the babe every three hours, laundry, loading the dishwasher, answering "what's that?" 20 times, unloading the dishwasher, changing diapers diapers and more diapers, loading the dishwasher again, feeding the baby again, bathing everyone, doing more laundry.  What they don't tell you about parenthood is how relentless and repetitive it is. 

The good news?  Everyone is finally over their colds--the doc said 2 weeks and she wasn't kidding: this was a nasty one, folks.  It's really going around I guess and those who have avoided it seem to have gotten the awful stomach bug instead.  This bit of knowledge has propelled me into such a fit of handwashing and sanitizer using that Maria Montessori must have been thinking of me when she said "all this hygiene has made the world neurotic."

Also good: Anna slept a six hour stretch the other night, which is promising.  Of course it was immediately followed by a night of restlessness and fussing but hey, at least we know she *can* do it.  Her reflux has really improved and her personality has started to emerge: she looks to be the calmest one in the family.  She is very mellow and happy, which is great. 

So, all is well.  I have been doing a bit of sewing and have lots of home improvement pics to show but those will have to wait a day or two.  For now, let me leave you with this image of "tiny elmo" and his giant t-bone:

Oh yeah, I know it's weird and totally un-PC (monsters eat steak?  They can't live on cookies alone, you know) but it is a lot better than the pic I had of dirty dishes and empty press pots of coffee all piled in the sink.

I'll try to keep the sighing to a minimum.

We are on week two of Jack's winter cold: the week of the voluminous green snot.  Lovely.  He really is miserable (as opposed to last week when he was just cranky and out of it) and is waking up all through the night and crying.  I feel so badly for him. 

Anna is working through her reflux issues this week thanks to some Zantac--not just for old men anymore!  She seems a little more content with less tummy troubles but it will take another week to fully kick in so she is still suffering a bit.  I feel so badly for her.

And to tell the truth, I feel a bit badly my own self.  Jack's cold seems to be latching on to me, despite the 100+ handwashings a day I have been doing.  I have been doing all the getting up at night for feedings and miserable toddler so I am sleeping only 2 hours or so at a stretch.  And I haven't left the house all week let alone had any reason to change out of pajamas. 

I keep telling myself that this won't last--a tiny baby is only tiny for such a short time.  Colds pass.  The weather will warm up.  Everyone will be sleeping better soon soon soon.  I'm not one to wish my life away but "all better soon" is my mantra right now.

all.  better.  soon.

You forget...

...how little they are.

...how tired you feel.

...how vulnerable they seem, all floppy necks and scrawny arms.

...how much you love them already, despite all these things.

PS.  Get ready Amy, all this and more coming your way!  Take my advice and forget the getting ready projects and take a d**n nap already!   

A little something to nibble on

What is it about baby toes that makes them so delicious???  Zero calories so no diet busting for anyone on a New Year's diet, these ten tiny toes make the best snack, day or night!

Miss Anna is doing well and we are too.  more pics coming up soon.

she's here!

I had every intention of using this pic as my first post of 2008:

That seemed the sum of it all: huge belly, whirling toddler. 

Then my water broke two weeks early so now we have a different first post of 2008:

Please welcome Anna, born January fourth at 12:42 am.  7lbs 8oz and the prettiest thing you ever saw in your life.    How's that for a happy new year?

now what do we do?

I have sent out Christmas cards every year since I was in my teens--it's just something I have always done.  And now that I have this adorable child and a husband with a huge extended family who live far away, a picture at holiday time seems the least I can do.

This year however I almost can't get myself to do it.  We hadn't taken a picture, I hadn't bought the cards, nothing.  I figured that the baby announcement coming soon would explain why we didn't send cards to those who would wonder.  But then came that warm afternoon the other day when we could actually play outside and miraculously Jack was willing to wear the adorable reindeer hat I bought him the other day and even more miraculously I hadn't forgotten my camera.  So, I proceeded to take fifty pictures.  M and I picked out our favorite.  Walgreens was set to print so I bought a  million cards and stamps,

I went today to get the pics.  Here's what we picked:

Can you see the problem?  No, neither can I in the digital version of this shot.  Let's zoom in:

Still hard to see digitally.  Okay, the problem is this: prior to this pic, J had been throwing lots of dirt around and it had gotten all over his face.  Normally, no problem, he is a kid.  This day though I wiped off his face for more pics.  The problem lies in that I didn't do a very good job and there is a level of grime on the face that shows up in the printed pic as clear as day.

Now what?  On one hand, I think this is funny and know that our friends will agree.  But what about the relatives?  Will they think "boys are boys" or will they think "that girl is a negligent parent who lets her kid run around in public filthy.  I should call her mother in law immediately and tell her exactly what I think of this behavior." 

I really want to send these out and be done with it--my lists still seem endless and my energy is very limited.  If it isn't  this pic we probably won't have a card for the first time in almost 2 decades.  What do you think folks?  Should I send Grimey and be done with it?  Or scrap the whole thing?

not much, you?

I've sort of fallen off of the face of the virtual earth here for a little bit, not sure why except maybe that everything I do has started to slow waaaaay down all of a sudden.  I've hit the 30 week mark and seem to need a lot more rest and vegging time.  Jack does not feel similarly, unfortunately, so it's other areas of life that must take the hit.  Looking forward to that burst of adrenaline that should surely come some time next month when I realize just how little preparing I have actually done for baby girl.  We have the basics covered, the rest will take care of itself.  (do you hear the hopeful note in my voice?)

Anyway, I haven't been making much of anything really--at least not anything I can show here, mostly holiday gifts and such, so I didn't have any photos to share.  I can't bring myself to post without an image so I picked out a pic of Jack taken last weekend.  My brother, Uncle Pickle, works for the local Habitat for Humanity resale store and I must say that Jack makes out quite well from the arrangement.  Here he is riding his new horse that used to be part of a display at a children's museum.  Still a little big for him but he loves it anyway.  And may I also point out the tie-dyed t-shirt that Daddy made?  Nice work.  I guess you can take the guy out of Dead shows but...well, you know the rest.  I hope that someday this little guy realizes just how lucky he is to have such great male presences in his life.