Christmas Recap

What a glorious week it was!  Mom and Dad came Christmas Eve and left this morning.  Will was loving all the extra attention...and making me look like a liar, when I tell them about his toddler episodes of banging his head on the floor and loosing his cool at dinner time.  He was on his best behavior!  But now the house is quiet again, and he's stuck with only me.  We went over to a friend's house today and we have a few other things to do this week, so hopefully he won't be too disappointed that he's back to reality!

 Christmas morning was a good time!  I would have to start opening the gifts for Will, but he would finish them and then not realize he had 25 more to open.  He wanted to play with, or read what he had just opened.  So we would hide that gift, and move on to the next one.   The kid was WORN OUT.  He took a three hour nap, which has never happened, in the history of Will.  I was tempted to re-wrap everything and do it all again the next day!

Some of the toys that he has really taken a liking to are the Little People Airplane, cars/trucks, foam blocks, Duplo blocks and drums that light up.  My grandfather built Will a giant toy chest, so we have a place to store all these fun new toys!

Will got his first haircut, and while the end result is so handsome, the process was awful!  He must have sensed it as soon as we walked in, because he started to cling to my leg before we tried to bring him to the chair.  It took two adults to hold him still, while the nice lady speed trimmed his mullet off!  It was quite a show for anyone watching!  I know that I will not be able to take him next time alone! But check out the before and after:

The week was a little bit of a blur, because I can't even tell you what we did to keep busy.  A few shopping outings with Mom, Billy built a new fence with Dad, a couple walks with the stroller, and a lot of good food!  I haven't stepped near that scale since last week!

Some funny things Will started doing:
-Becoming obsessed with turning on/off lights.  There are a couple he can reach, and one is on the stairs.  :/
-Christmas cards.  He points at them, and wants us to take them all out, so he can look at them.  And then he hands them all back to put away.
-Putting his clothes in and out of the hamper.  He can't yet grasp that they stay in there.
-For a while, every animal sound was "baaaa".  Now it is just the sheep and the dog and cat sounds are just barely recognizable, but mostly only to me.
-He tried to hand my dad blocks/toys while he was snoozing in the chair.  Sleeping on the job, Grampy!

Random Monday

This is pretty random...as my mind is scattered with Christmas just next week!

Have you seen the new coke ad? It is the perfect description of new parenthood. Even Billy said, "spot on." http://www.fastcocreate.com/3023400/this-new-coke-ad-totally-captures-the-reality-of-early-parenthood?utm_source=facebook

I really don't know what kind of expectations I had of becoming a parent. I really didn't know much and had not been around babies. I had, of course,  made myself an expert in how other kids should behave though!  I had to laugh at myself last week, when Will was being a little dramatic about not having my phone. I don't know if it was a tantrum or just an outburst. But Of course I recorded it and sent the video out and thought, if someone had shown it to me pre-parenting, I would have wondered why they let their child act that way. LET a one year old act a certain way? Hahaha. That came right back and bit me, didn't it? 

I had a friend and her two year old over this week and it's so funny to be that the kids really only acknowledge each other when one of them has a toy that the other wants.  But let's be real, play dates are for parents as much as they are to socialize the kiddos.  And thank goodness for them! I learn a lot by talking w other moms too...back to the previous paragraph...I have minimal experience!  And now that the COLD is here to stay, outside time is pretty limited so I'm having to find other things to do to get out of the house.

Not much going on this week though. My first outing w friends...at night...without Will is happening this week. And I'm fairly confident I won't get a frantic call to come home from Billy! He has started to take over the bedtime routine a few days/week and it has been going so well. It only took 14 months!?!

Now that I have Will helping me emptying the dishwasher, loving the vacuum and putting his clothes in the hamper, I'm thinking his future wife is going to owe me a big thank you! One minor hiccup is that he tries to empty the dishwasher when there are dirty dishes too.

He started using the sign for "all done/finished" at meal time! I have to pay attention, because if I miss it, the food starts being thrown on the floor. Progress, though! I have to say I am enjoying having a one year old far more than a tiny baby!  He's cutting about five molars right now, and they don't seem to be bothering him as much as they did when the first ones were coming through.  Can I get an amen on that one?  

Christmastime!

Christmas time is here!  I took a few things out the day after Thanksgiving, but we waited until Will was in bed on Saturday night to take everything else out of the basement.  We thought about letting him participate, but then thought better of that idea!  It worked out much better with him seeing the lights and the tree in the morning!

Billy and I have our yearly squabble: colored vs white lights.  I'm on the colored lights wagon, especially right now while we are in little kid mode.  I agree that the white lights look more classic, but that isn't my goal right now.  Having a fun tree, that is touchable is more where I think our house is at right now.  So we stuck with the colored lights again, and decorated the bottom half of the tree with unbreakable ornaments.  So far, he has been pretty gentle, and takes them off the tree and either hands them to me, or tries to put them back on.  And yes, we have mismatched ornaments, and things collected since I was small.  That is what I want decorating to be in our house...things that are ok to touch - and of course, memories.  I'm not saying I would turn down any Pottery Barn decor, but I like what we have now just fine.

One of my favorite things to pull out is our nativity sets.  I have a large ceramic one that my grandmother painted, a smaller white one, a teeny one that my aunt brought back from Honduras(maybe?) and this year we brought out the Little People set that Will received from my parents last year.  We have had the most fun with the Little People.  Roberto, the truck driver has joined the manger crowd, a donkey is sometimes on top of the manger, and baby Jesus has even been found in the dump truck.  Will is obviously too young to understand everything now, but it will be good to have over the next few years.

Christmas Cookies aren't exactly my forte, but I broke out the cookie press this weekend to make some Christmas trees for a Moms Club cookie exchange this week.  The press was my grandmothers and still works like a charm.  The cookies are pretty fool-proof too!

To kick off the season, we got our first real snow this weekend too.  It snowed Saturday and Sunday, and I took Will out on Saturday for a walk around the yard and a wagon ride around the block.  The cold didn't seem to bother him.  He was pretty focused on just eating the snow.  Gotta stay away from the yellow snow - good advice from Grampy! 

 Christmas shopping/ordering is almost complete.  With our siblings, we decided to forgo gifts for each other and only buy kids gifts.  I love thinking about kids gifts - there are so many options!  Especially compared to boring adults! ;)

We've had the Christmas Pandora station on since Thanksgiving.  Will has started dancing.  Which is really just stomping his feet up and down quickly.  Every time I try to record, he stops and just wants the phone.  Surely, everyone has seen this Little Drummer Boy video by now.  So good, and now my favorite Christmas song.  And oldie, but goodie.

Now, for a couple weekly Will highlights:
-He has been somewhat efficient at eating his oatmeal out of a bowl with his spoon.  The baby forks aren't really functional, so I give him an adult fork, and he can stab some foods and make it to his mouth.  Under supervision, of course.
-I bought him a coloring book and crayons at the Dollar Store.  After trying a marker earlier in the week, I decided a crayon was a better option.  But here's a tip, don't buy crayons at the Dollar Store!  They pretty much all broke and don't color very well.  A fun activity for a little while, though.
-Now that I have realized he understands quite a bit, I've been assigning him more "chores".  I asked him last night to put his dirty clothes in the hamper(we were in the bathroom) and he went into his room and opened his dresser drawer to put them away.  A for effort!  Typical boy though, wouldn't you say?

Thanksgiving Recap

Whew-isn't cleaning up after guests a lot more consuming then cleaning before?  I haven't even started yet because I still have a guest!  My MIL got pretty sick on Saturday, and had to switch her ticket to Monday evening.  I haven't really had to cook because we have so many left-overs, and really, no one feels like eating big meals.  I'll take it!

My first Thanksgiving dinner was pretty successful.  Billy took care of cooking the bird, while I did the rest.  My most proud dish was the cranberries.  Simple, yes.  But I had not planned on making them until last minute, when I asked a lady in the store where the canned berries were.  She then shamed me into making them.  All it took was a bag of Ocean Spray cranberries, some boiling water and a cup of sugar.  Done and done!  Will was a fan, too!

It was so nice having Billy's parents here.  First of all, because Will became attached to my FIL, who I didn't even know was good with kids.  Seriously, I can't ever get this kid to sit next to me and be calm, but my father-in-law is like the baby whisperer.  Will would follow him around like the Pied Piper.  I did not mind one bit!  He slept pretty soundly when they were here, because he was so worn out!  They brought their little dog too, and Will loooved her.  The feeling was not mutual!  Ha!

They offered to stay home with Will on Friday night so Billy and I could go out.  Well, we all started drinking a few beers and we never left the house.  Missed opportunity!  I can't believe we did that, but we had fun sitting around the table with our Blue Moons anyway.

I did take the opportunity to have my photographer MIL take our Christmas card photo.  What a lash-up it is, trying to get a toddler and a 100lb dog to sit still for more than a 1/2 second.  There is not one picture where we are all looking in the same direction.  Also, not one picture of Will cracking a smile.  Thanks, little buddy!

So just for my record, here are some fun things Will is doing now:

Helps me empty the dishwasher by handing me the silverware

Gets me his socks and shoes

Puts his toys away in a bucket

Puts the cans back in the kitchen cabinet when I ask

Comes when called

Signs "more" but it mostly means "food"

Takes a one hour nap in the morning and afternoon, if we're home

Loves kiwi and cheese.  We still have to hide the shredded cheese bag.

For most of these things, I am shocked.  I didn't necessarily teach him to do these; he really just picked up on what we do daily, and my narration I guess.  The putting the toys away, I think he learned in Kindermusik.  After every task, the teacher sings a song and the kids all put the toys back in her container.  Next, I will teach him to vacuum!! ;)

Happy Cyber Monday!!