Nap Time

Maia fell asleep in the car on our way home from the park. She was all snuggled with Moosie when I lifted her from the car seat and over my shoulder into the house. Bed was waiting for her, but first I had to pull her blinds to help darken the room. The noise woke her up a bit and she looked and me and almost sighed "hi" before laying her head back on my shoulder.

I tucked her into bed and she again looked at me for a moment before drifting off to sleep, once again snuggled with her moose.

It's these times when there is no doubt in my mind as to why I love having a child, and this child in particular. She is pure joy.

Rushing Things

Conversation after dinner--

Maia: Maia big girl panties.
Me: You want some big girl panties? Like Mommy?
Maia: Yes. Big girl panties.
Me: OK. We'll get you some, then.
Maia: And then, Maia bra.
Me: ...

I Didn't Think We Needed "That" Talk Yet

Maia has been admiring my ever-growing belly and we've been talking about how mommies' babies live in there.

This morning as I was getting dressed, Maia comes over to me and gently pats my belly and says "Mommies' babies". I thought we'd made a real break through in her understanding of what is going on.

Until we went to get her dressed and as she's laying on the changing table she begins to rub her sweet little belly and say: "Maia's babies".

Um.

Well, at least it's a start. And cute.

Moon Child

(Originally written about four months ago. Stored on my computer...found today.)


Maia likes the moon.

She has to be read "Goodnight Moon" at least seven times a day. She knows where the book is. Sometimes I hide it after the fifth reading because I'm a bed mom. But I always read it to her, twice, before bed.

She finds the moon in the sky at night. She'll track it from her car seat. She thinks street lights are "moon". Right now any light in the sky is "moon".

She finds moons all around her. She found my moon the other night, and I think that gave her a thrill. I was wearing a tank top during bath time and after bath, while I was dressing her for bed, she looks up at me and suddenly her eyes get wide and her face lights up..."Moon" she says as she points to my shoulder.

Now she looks for Mama's moon when we get dressed in the morning. Soon she'll find some stars and then everyone will know she's my daughter for sure.

(And she has. Stars. Moons. My girl.)

Shut the Door!

I was up this morning when Maia woke up and John was (is at this point) still sleeping. So in good mom/ wife fashion I get her up and out of bed. In bad wife fashion I decide that, even though it's the weekend and he was up much later than I was, John should share the morning with us. Plus, I'm angling to go out for breakfast.

Usualy Maia will run into our bedroom yelling "Daddy sleeping! Wake up!" and how nice of an alarm is that? This morning when I opened the door Maia did give her accustomed greeting of "Daddy sleeping" followed very quickly by "Shut the door! Shut the door! Shut the door!"

So we see that Maia is firmly on her fathers side this morning.

Yucky Cookie

Harvey the cat has developed some sort of gastro-intestinal problem and as of late has been throwing up chunks of cat food. All over the house.

While this causes me to swear inwardly, Maia has a different approach. She points at the pile of yellow cat food puke and simply says: "Yucky cookie".

We've Split the Toddler

Lacan was right.

Maia is currently running around the house, jumping on things, and yelling: "Evelyn Terry! No jumping!"

This could be bad. Or it could also be one of the cutest things I've heard all day.

No Dumping

Maia is testing our limits in true almost two-year-old style. I know she knows the few simple rules we ask her to follow, just as I know she needs to test how serious we are about them.

Today in the car I gave her a sippy cup with some water, but left out the gasket that prevents it from spilling all over the place. We had a five minute drive home and I was in a hurry to get there...yeah. So. Of course Maia decides to dump water all over herself in the seat. She tips the cup upside down and **shakes** to get the best effect.

I turn around to see what she's doing and exclaim: "MAIA EVELYN WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

She immeditaly holds the cup out for me to take from her and says "NO DUMPING!"

I had to not look at her the rest of the way home, because I was silently laughing so hard.

Almost Two

Me-(kissing Maia in her car seat) Love you!

Maia-(looking very serious) No "love you".

Count Down...

Alright!

Busy day, as usual for a Saturday. The fun news is that I am getting a haircut which means that I will be dyeing my hair tonight. Purple. I might even post pictures if it comes out as cute as I think it will. :)

From hair chopping to food shopping. We have finalized our Christmas Buffet menu and now cheese must be purchased. It's not a party without cheese.

Wish me luck on my missions of merry.

Some Ideas

Let me toss some ideas around here. It looks like the majority of my family will be here in the late morning...perfect brunch time, although my dad and Susan will have already eaten, it being a family tradition to have cinnamon rolls Christmas morning. (sorry for the long, awkward sentence) With that in mind, I took a peek through my Williams Sonoma Breakfast cookbook. It's a small book with nice brunch ideas and the recipes have always turned out well for me. Some dishes that sound good for our Christmas feast:

Either Chocolate Croissants (purchased frozen then proofed overnight and baked fresh...I don't have time to make my own. Really, I don't.) or a make-ahead Cranberry Chocolate Breakfast Cake. With Streusel!

Cinnamon Rolls. Whole wheat, although with the hard white winter wheat flour, you can hardly tell it's whole wheat. The secret is love.

For eggy-goodness we could have either a wild mushroom quiche with a cheesy pastry crust or a broccoli rabe strata. The small advantage the strata has over the quiche is that it can be layered the night before and left in the fridge over night, as it uses bread cubes as the base as opposed to pastry dough. The quiche pastry and filling could be made ahead and simply assembled and baked the next day, but we have a lot going on in the oven first thing--so maybe the strata would be better, time wise.

Banana bread? I have bananas in the freezer just waiting for the chance to become bread. I could even make it tomorrow and wrap it tight. It keeps up to a week!

And for later in the day food:

Cold cut platter with cheese and sandwich fixings.

Fresh baked rolls for above sandwiches.

Nummy cheese and bread and crackers. Maybe goat cheese fondue? I love me a pot of warm cheese!

Veggie tray and fruit tray. Mostly citrus. And apples and pears. Seasonal fruit. And nuts. This is California, after all, "the land of fruits and nuts". As my Idaho family would say.

Stuffing? Maybe...

All day sweets:

COOKIES! 3-D reindeer cookies. I'm baking some today to see how they work and if I need to tweak them at all for the big day. Plus all the others I'm baking for cookie boxes.

Rocky road candy...at least what ever is left after my gift boxes are made.

Bourbon balls. Ditto on above conditions.

Pretzel sticks? These will be dependent on time constraints. I'd like to get them done for the cookie boxes...but...we'll see how that goes.

Comments? Votes? This is mainly for John, so hon, "Um yeah" doesn't count as a comment. ;) We'll winnow down the list tonight and get a shopping list ready for Saturday morning.

Here we go, ho ho ho!

Quick List

Things Done:

About 10 dozen assorted cookies and coffee and eggnog delivered to John's office today!

Most of my presents secured.

Johns' family presents wrapped and handed off.

Sugar cookies cut and ready to bake. Ditto for gingerbread men.

Rocky Road candy.

Bourbon balls.

Chocolate crinkle cookie dough ready to roll and bake.

Tree trimmed.

House lit.

Things Left to Do:

Yikes. Wrapping. Maia's presents alone will take a good chunk of time.

A menu for Christmas day.

Spritz cookies.

Cookie decorating.

Cookie boxes.

All the other normal day-to-day stuff.

Eegads. I can't wait for New Years with no plans but to relax. And begin house projects...

Wii...

...got one.

And kind of on a whim. Last weekend John and had the chance to play on our friends' console and we became hooked on the Wii. We decided we needed to add one to our household. Now. For Christmas...at least for End of Year Bonus Time. Good enough reason to spend money, right?

Of course, it is only a week to Christmas and we were getting in on the hottest game in town. John spent last week looking for deals and getting to know the delivery schedules of the closest Wii dealers. Target looked good...Costco had a package deal..and there was the game store right around the corner...the breakdown went like this:

Costco gets them in at various times but only puts them out in the morning because of the pandemonium they cause.

Target gets a regular shipment Sunday morning.

Game Stop has a delivery on Friday between 10 AM and 1 PM.

Disadvantages?

Costco bundle is $500 and still has only one controller. Not such a great deal, plus you have to call everyday to see of they might put some out the next morning.

Game Stop wait time is hard on jobs and babies. More on that later.

Target is an early-rise job. And "everyone" knows when they get their shipment. So it can get crazy in line.

Friday I went to Game Stop after John told me they might have gotten their shipment in. I was in the store about 10:30 and a small group had gathered. Numbers were passed around. I was took the #5 spot form a man who was believed to have left the store. The other folks in the store knew what the delivery woman looked like. They had been here before. Apparently this store only gets a handful of units at a time...and they always instantly sell out. I had the Bee with me so I wasn't going to wait past 11 AM. We had a park date to get to. Just as I was getting ready to go, word arrived that the delivery woman was on her way. The store became more and more excited...one woman groaned that she was going to lose her job (she was on a loong lunch) but she couldn't leave--not this close to success. Another woman shared the fact that she had been trying for a Wii since November and still hadn't been able to secure one. She was #1 in line this time and wasn't going anywhere.

The Wii's were counted. Six units. I actually got a bit excited. I was five, after all, and this was our FIRST attempt to get a Wii. John's sussing out of the situation had payed off.

Then, sadness. The original #5 came back into the store. He hadn't really left--he had been pacing in front of the building. I was bumped to #7 and out of the running.

Oh well.

The Costco "deal" wasn't much of one, so John and I decided to skip that madness.

That left Target and Sunday, this, morning. John set the coffee pot last night and the alarm for 5:45 AM. He was up and out and in line by 6:10. He ended up with the #13 spot for a double holiday shipment of Wii's totaling 90! Woo-hoo! Wii-ness had been secured...along with extra controllers and nunchucks and games. Many games. In fact we returned later on in the day and purchased another game.

Check out his experience in line waiting
here.

Live blogging from the iPhone. Aren't we cool? And when I say "we" I mean "John".

So we have a new time sink addiction. And it is fun. But we did manage to get other grown-up things done today as well so we still have balance in our lives. And I might gain more as I learn to use that wii controller...

Oooof

Yikes. I tied one on tonight. Red, red wine. Stay close to me...
I am super chilly cold right now.

I am soooo happy in how John and I are raising Maia.

I am not rally caring about a new TV. But I do want one.

John wants a Wii. And i don't know if I can find one. And I have his presents already.

Friends are good. Kebabs are really good.

Slings for baby dolls are super cute and I am so glad to get one for Miss E.

I would really like to sleep now.

I have used spell-check too many times for this short of a post.

Good night!

Bless You!

Yesterday I was changing Maia and had one of my ever-present sneezing fits. When I finished sneezing I glanced down at Maia who looked up at me and said, "Bless you".

Moments like that make a heart melt.

The End of the Grand Experiment

Hats off to all of you who made it through the grand experiment of NaBloPoMo.

While I will, after this post, have the "required" 30 posts for the month of November...sadly...I did not manage to post every day. I don't think multiple posts count for NaBloPoMo.

I did enjoy the exercise. I miss writing. Even if it's just simple journaling for myself. I also discovered I am much more of a "mommy blogger" than I intended to be. But right now, I am using this space to save everyday stories...and Maia is my everyday story. I will be fun one day to print (perhaps, if we still do that sort of thing) and Bind (how retro) these Maia memories and give them to her. I love to hear stories about myself from back before I can remember. I hope she will too.

I also hope to keep some of this writing momentum going. I realized I don't have to write a novel for each post. I don't even have to have something interesting to say. I just need to be able to find the one point from my day that the rest of my day turned on. The quick distillation of gathered daylight hours. A story to remember a day by.

Because there might be a time when these days are the ones "before I can remember" and I think that would be a great loss.

Keep writing.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (?)

Why is it that the holidays, which in my minds eye is a time to come together and share with loved ones near and far, bring out the worst in families?

Why do I sometimes feel like our budding branch of the family tree is the most rational and reasonable?

Why do some people feel the need to act slighted when they have never stated a desire to be met?

And why do those same people expect those around them to be mind readers?

Please forgive my obtuse rant. I hate family drama...and I may have innocently, accidently, started some.

And this is the kind of stress that makes getting together so hard. The kind of imagined problem that only hurts those we love. The kind that hurts MY nearest and dearest, and for that, I will be upset.

Looks like we're getting the fuzzy end of the candy cane--and it's not even December yet.

But We're Not the Only Ones

I just did a quick *flickr* search for "crying" and "Santa".

Yeah. OK. So I didn't know this picture thing was such a thing.

Now I don't feel like an evil Mom. I just feel like I'm in with the "in" crowd.

And She's Scarred for Life

I took Maia for her Christmas photos with her play group friends today. It was so much fun! The kids did great, all things considered and the photos turned out really cute. I have three that I am going to frame and hang in Maia's room of the kids and a sheet of sweet Maia faces to give to family for Christmas.

We were having such a good time we decided to keep the momentum going by having the kids take pictures with Santa. After all, they were already dressed and looking nice. The mall wasn't crowded. It was early afternoon, after lunch and we planned on bribing them with cookies.

Mommy M and Mommy R were comparing childhood notes about pictures with Santa. I have no notes to compare. I think I might have one from when I was very young, but my parents just didn't do that sort of thing. Mommy N and Mommy R both have a series of bawling-on-Santa's-lap photos which they cherish...of course in the pictures their brothers are the ones crying while they beam...nevertheless they want those same sweet memories for their children.

I am game of course. Pictures of crying babies? Why not. Maia had done so well with the photographs in the studio, and she's a very open and friendly baby. I thought it would be no problem to have a Santa photo.

We arrive and step right up. No waiting. Miss A and Mommy N go first....and Miss A starts to cry even before she hits Santa's lap...lip trembling and tears welling. She starts bawling as soon as her mom lets go and stretches out her arms..."No, no, no..." Mommy R and I are holding back chuckles while Mommy N gets Miss A to aim her wails at the cameras. Click click. All done and the tears dry as soon as she's off the jolly old elf's lap.

Up next...Maia the wonder kid. She manages to say "Hi" but isn't so sure about the whole situation and begins to moan and groan as I get her on the lap. I let go and she loses it...a full face wail of scrunching misery. No arms...but her face says it all. Now Mommy N and Mommy R are looking on and laughing...and I'm trying to cheer Miss Maia up. Nope, not having it. Click. Click. We get one of her with her face up, as scrunched as it is. I pick her up and all is forgiven...at least by Maia. Santa, on the other hand, is beginning to look concerned.

Master D is next and Mommy R assures us we're in for more of the same. But then something happens...Master D remains stoic throughout the entire process. Not a tear. Not a cry. This from the young man who normally hides if you look at him funny. He was simply resigned to his fate...and I think Mommy R was almost disappointed.

Santa was glad for the break. He gave us some funny looks as we chuckled over and purchased our crying baby pictures. He really was a sweet man...I think the three of us are most definitely getting coal in our stockings this year.

The World May Never Know...

The guys/gals at John's office didn't save me a piece! Boo. I'll never know how that chocolate-ginger combination worked.

In other news:

I've just about completed my Christmas Excel spreadsheet. With this powerful tool in hand I will be able to shop until I drop and get 'er done within the next week or so. In case you were wondering how crazy I got with the spreadsheet. Well. Columns with the name of the recipient, followed by gift, where to purchase, if it has been purchased, budget/price. If only I were as organized about everything else.

I'm also planning Christmas treats in the form of baked goods, candy and jelly. Another spreadsheet waiting to be be created.

Tomorrow Maia and I, along with her friends Miss A and Master D, are going for Christmas pictures. We've not had professional pictures of all three kids done, so I'm very excited about the prospect...and nervous to see how Maia takes to it.

As Master D's mom said when I asked about lunch afterward: "Lunch? Yes. We're going to need a drink after this!" Wish us all the best of luck. Especially the photographer.