Tuesday, December 29, 2015

there's a reason people don't like Mondays

On Saturday Annabelle woke up with cough and a runny nose. She had a coughing fit every 45 minutes that night. She was so tired she couldn't even get the pacifier in her mouth without help.

On Sunday she had a fever and I felt like I was simultaneously coming down with ear infections and strep throat. My voice sounded like a cross between a frog and a boy whose voice is changing. No need to point out how attractive that is.

On Monday Sesame's fever kept going up and she sounded like a seal when she coughed. I almost didn't want to call the doctor only to be told she had a cold (I always think I'll be called the hypochondriac mom), but I'm so glad I brought her in. She has an ear infection in one ear, swelling in the other and RSV. Yesterday was HARD. She was so miserable all day. She'd take a break from coughing to cry and pull at her ears. We watched more tv than she's watched in the last three months. She didn't want to do anything but moan and cry. My head felt like it was about to explode.


To top it all off, our landlord and his father spent the entire day at our house making a hole in the kitchen ceiling. 
On Saturday Christopher's father noticed the ceiling above the kitchen table was leaking. We (meaning him, I did nothing) turned off the water to the bathroom above the kitchen. Jim Jr. and Jim Sr. arrived on Monday morning and declared that they would need to take the ceiling down to find the source of the leak. What fun! The Jim's are such nice people and they know much more about home maintenance than I do, but it didn't inspire a lot of confidence when they said they only know how to take ceilings down, not how to put up a new one. Or when they lost the saw they were using to make the holes. They lost it for a good five hours and finally figured out they had vacuumed it up. We came back from the doctor to find the hole bigger than ever, the upstairs toilet hanging out in the hallway, and half the kitchen furniture in the living room. It wasn't the most peaceful day.

I got the following text from Jim Jr today. "The guy that's doing the drywall said I need to remove more. We'll be by tomorrow.'' The fun never ends! I have a feeling I won't have any ceiling left by tomorrow night. 

Send chocolate. Or martinis. Or both. 

Monday, December 28, 2015

Happy Christmas!

In keeping with my personal holiday tradition, I'm posting about Christmas while everyone else is gearing up to celebrate New Year's and choosing their word of the year. (I don't choose a word of the year but if I did it would be sleep.)

Much to my relief, both trees made it through the holidays without crashing to the ground. 
We forgot to trim the top of the deer tree. Too late now.
On Christmas Eve we put on our finest clothes and went to church. Annabelle couldn't believe we were going to "sing Happy Christmas songs about Jesus" in the middle of the week. 
I know I keep saying it over and over, but she's getting so big. I almost cried when I looked at these pictures because she's grown so much since last Christmas. It's a real shame she has no personality.
During the solemn playing of Silent Night, an alarm went off on my phone reminding us to put the trash out by the street. I wish I learned that the phone being on vibrate doesn't apply to alarms anywhere but in the middle of a church service. I was thinking, "How rude of someone to not put their phone on vibrate" when I saw my purse glowing. 
Annabelle wrapped and labeled Christopher's gift. She's practicing her illegible autograph for when she's famous. All three times we've been to the garden center she's pointed at a little stone owl and said, "Daddy! Daddy! For Daddy!" He's now the proud owner of a garden decoration for the garden he doesn't have.
Oma and Opa came up from Texas to spend the weekend with us. They win the award for most popular gifts of the year. Not only did they give Sesame a cash register, they gave her a shopping cart and groceries. It was all my childhood dreams come true. I hope my other childhood dream comes true next Christmas and I she gets a puppy.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Currently- The Christmas Edition

Listening to: Josh Groban's Christmas album. Have I mentioned I love Josh Groban? I DO.

Cooking and baking: Chicken soup, oreo balls, fudge and peanut butter pie. Long live dessert.

No longer loving: my Christmas tree. It's probably unChristmas to say that but it's true. I swear the trees in the living room are getting bigger and taking up more room every day. The branches are flimsy and the ornaments are constantly sliding off. They're shedding like a dog. Saddest of all, neither tree smells like a pine tree. I have to burn my pine tree candle to make the house smell like a Christmas tree.

Watching: Cheesy Hallmark movies.


Loving: My tiny poinsettia plant 

Sewing: Christmas pajamas for AB. Hello, last minute. Nice to see you again.


Playing on repeat: This Adele parody. French fries forever.

At my wits end about: Annabelle's nightly sleeping habits. She went from being asleep by 8 at the latest to still being awake at 10:30-11 every night. I can't even talk about it or I might cry. Send large amounts of ice coffee.


Decorating: A gingerbread nativity. I can't tell you how holy I felt decorating a nativity instead of a gingerbread house. 


Sleeping: Not enough.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Is it the weekend yet?

This morning I went downtown to pick up a gift card. I had never been in that part of the city before and I turned around no less than four times in an attempt to park on the street in front of the correct building. When I finally got a spot I was proud of myself for a stellar parallel parking job. (They make such a big deal of parallel parking in drivers ed you'd think it's a daily activity.) Then I noticed I was in a handicap spot. A good citizen would have moved. Apparently my good citizen days are behind me. I backed up just enough to give myself wiggle room (literally and figuratively) in case I was ticketed for my infraction and needed to defend myself. 

This afternoon I finally decorated the dining room for Christmas. I should have done it four weeks ago but I've been too busy pining table decor ideas. I almost had a panic attack/OCD meltdown when I was wrapping lights around greenery and the green of the light wires didn't match the greenery. I stopped short of spray painting the wires to make them match. 

Tonight I knocked over a cheese display at the grocery store.

One of my favorite things about this town is the gas station chain where I can vacuum my car for free. The vacuums at the gas station I normally go to were closed so I went to the one up the road. I tried driving around the building thinking the vacuums were in the back but they weren't. I pulled into a parking spot to back up and leave but I couldn't because I would have been headed straight into three one-way lanes all going the opposite of the direction I needed to go. I didn't know what to do so I sat in the car and ate the entire box of crackers I had just bought at the grocery store. Had I been there much longer I would have cracked open the lunch meat and cheese I got. After twenty minutes I decided to make a break for it. I waited until no cars were coming then backed outta there like the speed demon/rule breaker that I never am. 

Next door to the aforementioned downtown store is a pasta and cupcake store. We went in for a quick look around and Annabelle was infatuated with the cupcakes in the display. She couldn't get over them. She especially like the chocolate one with mint green frosting. Unlike some people in this house, I don't buy her everything she likes and wants. She's only just starting to understand that items at the store can be bought and I make a big deal out of only looking and not bringing everything home.

However. 

When she folded her hands under her chin, swayed back and forth in her little gold and white skirt and said, "You gonna buy a cupcake, Mama?" I caved. 
Her cute face deserves all the cupcakes.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Parade of Christmas Clothes, 2015

The week Annabelle was born, a girl from church came over to visit. She followed me into the bedroom to change the baby's diaper and asked me what my favorite part was of having a girl. I didn't answer that it was the chance to bring up Prince George's future wife or, a church answer at its best, the opportunity to raise a girl for the Lord. I said it was dressing her up. 

That was my answer and I've stuck to it.

And so I present my second annual Parade of Christmas Clothes.

She's smiling because I said either a) we were going to the pet store b) we were going to story time or c) I'd give her a snack if she stood still and smiled. I'm going with C.
She wore her darling smocked stocking dress to see Santa.
It's the same exact dress and bow she wore on her first Christmas. She was so tiny, toothless and bald! I still can't get over how cute she was.
Christmas jammies for the win! I want them in my size.
I told her the ornaments on her romper are called baubles. Besides it being adorable to hear her say, it sounds more British. I hear Prince George calls them baubles and you know what they say- as do the royals, so do S and AB.
Of course it's smocked. Would you expect anything less?

Sunday, December 13, 2015

she's not much of a Santa baby

I started the week off feeling festive and in the best Christmas mood. I played Christmas carols all morning and made AB a felt tree to decorate. I wrapped gifts and watched a Hallmark movie.

Then Thursday rolled around. I spent all day trying to get my nativity characters to stand up instead of falling onto each other and Jesus. I was so fed up with my tree being crooked that I tried to fix it and the whole thing went crashing down. It was like a slow-motion scene in a movie. I saw it falling and my arm went out to stop it three seconds too late.
"Oh dear. Oh dear. What a mess, mama. Oh dear."
What's that they say about Christmas being all calm, merry and bright?

Saturday we went to a Christmas cottage to see Santa. Annabelle wasn't feeling her best but the celebration must go on. We waited in line for about twenty minutes while I talked up the cottage and how fun it would be. We could almost taste Annabelle's excitement.
The cottage was beautiful. It was about the size of a postage stamp and decorated from top to bottom with snowmen, reindeer, a mantle and stockings, a tree and a train chugging around a track attached to the top of the wall. Unfortunately I didn't get to take it in as much as I wished because AB, who kept telling us she was going to see "San-ta Caus", got petrified the second we walked in the cottage and wouldn't let go of me. 
I find this picture much more entertaining that I should. Poor Belle Belle is saying, "I DOE YIKE IT! I DOE YIKE IT!" Santa is looking at us like he doesn't get paid enough for this (it was a free event so he didn't get money from me) and I'm all "This is so fun, AB! Look at his beard! Look at his pretty suit! Smile for the picture!"
(Speaking of his beard, in an attempt to get her to stop crying I almost pulled Santa's beard. I was this close to reaching out and pulling at it. I don't know what came over me. Noticing that he had glittery eyeliner on to make his eyes sparkle startled me into good behavior.)

It may not have been as picture perfect an event as last year but it was memorable. 

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

there's no room for us in our tree filled house

Last weekend we set up our Christmas trees.

Sesame and I scoped out the trees at the garden store Friday morning then we all went back to pick one out in the evening. We set up our plaid and deer themed tree first. As we were putting it together I kept thinking how beautiful Christmas lights are and wondering why we don't have them up all year long.
Twelve minutes later I was fighting with a clump of half broken lights on our fake tree and declaring that I can't stand Christmas lights. How quickly my tune changed. It would be stating the obvious to point out that we had a major tree malfunction.
We couldn't find the fake tree stand and the tree itself was falling apart so we threw it out and got a second real tree for the rest of our ornaments. I love Christmas trees and I love our tradition of having multiple trees, but this year it hasn't turned out so well. In our last house we had an upstairs and a downstairs living room so we put a tree in each and it worked out perfectly. We only have one living room in this house so we have a trees in opposite corners of the room. We have two trees, two couches, two bookcases, a tv stand and various toys all in the living room. And the living room is far from large. In other words, there's almost no room for us in our own house. It's like walking into a furniture filled forest. I'm seriously considering moving a tree to another room because there's nothing relaxing about all these huge trees. Is it weird to have a large tree in a bathroom? I'm asking for a friend.

Opa sent us a bunch of Christmas cookies and AB took the basket they came in and made it a bed for Baby Belle. She keeps holding the bed up to the tree so her baby can see. 
Try not to slip on the puddle my heart made on the floor.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

a little bitty tree for a little bitty girl

Last night we set up the first of our Christmas trees. It has exactly twice the number of decorations as last year. 
We put it up in Sesame's room. I was all this is so! fun! Best! day! ever! and she fluctuated between excitement and uncertainty. She loves Christmas trees but like most children in a first world country, she's not used to having trees in her room.
We had planned to pick out our tree tonight but it's raining so we rescheduled. Every year we have a theme for our fake tree and this year is plaid and deer. I found the deer ornaments at Lowe's today and let me tell you, I have never been so excited in a home improvement store. They're perfect.
Our larger than life Jesus has made his yearly appearance. Obviously I remember from previous Christmases that's he's huge but every year it cracks me up and I have to take a picture. I have at least three identical pictures. It's become a Christmas tradition.
Jesus: "I have arrived."
Mary: "No wonder my back was killing me."
Joseph: "I don't know how to handle kids. I'll just stand in the background with the light."