Lazy Christmas Vacation Morning

"The simplest toy, one which even the youngest child can operate, is called the [Daddy]."

- Sam Levenson

What a Doing?

This is what I hear all day: "What a doing, Mama?" (Meaning, "What are you doing"). Eighty five billion times today, I counted. OK, not really. But it's close, I swear. I sit down to eat lunch, I hear: "What a doing, Mama?" I turn on the water and start washing dishes: "What a doing, Mama?" I burp Mary after nursing her: "What a doing, Mama?" I sit down to check my email: "What a doing, Mama?" I sometimes get the question twice right in a row. He gets excited that he already knows the answer, I think. Once in awhile he switches it up on me and puts the Mama first. "Mama, what a doing?"

I knew the "why" question was in my future at some point, I've heard about the poor parents who tear their hair out over it and I'm already prepared with the "because God made it that way" answer that Jeff's cousin cleverly came up with when her first daughter was going through the phase. I have to say I was starting to envy those "why" question parents because the "what a doing" question is pretty repetitive and boring. At least with "why" you have an interesting answer.

But then this afternoon I was standing at the fridge thinking about which meal I planned to cook today for dinner and, of course, I hear: "What a doing, Mama?" When I said "I'm thinking, Nathaniel" he asked, "What's thinking, Mama?"

Ummmm. How does one explain "thinking" to a two year old. Hmm. Can we go back to the "What a doing" question, Nathaniel?

Tiny Tiara

This picture is a week old now, but I've been waiting for the opportunity to blog about it and today I finally have time. Just after Thanksgiving my sister Colleen and I went to a bridal store looking at bridesmaid gowns and we decided to peek at the flower girl section since Mary was with us. I couldn't resist plopping this tiny tiara on top of her head for a picture! I'm usually somewhat resistant to the whole "my girl is such a perfect little princess" idea but just look at how much Mary loves wearing that little tiara! Maybe a tiny bit of princess paraphernalia isn't such a bad thing. ;)

The Letter of the Law

Me: Nathaniel, please bring your milk to the kitchen if you're done with it.

Nathaniel:

Some Pictures From Turkey Day

Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful holiday, with our traditional dinner at my parents' house followed by visiting with Jeff's extended family. The big drama this year was that my Dad decided to mash the sweet potatoes instead of baking the pieces and drizzling them with brown sugar and butter. Several years ago my Mom was greeted with outrage and shock when she decided to leave out the green bean casserole. And then a few years ago she attempted to introduce a new dish - a broccoli salad. We ate it, reluctantly. So changes made to the Thanksgiving dinner in the past have not gone over well. However, I am happy to report that the mashed sweet potatoes were amazing! Nathaniel sure gobbled (ha ha) them up!

Nathaniel is used to helping me in the kitchen anytime I cook, so he would not be left out of helping with the Thanksgiving dinner! He dragged a chair over to the counter and was put in charge of handing Auntie Colleen the green beans for chopping.

The official chefs of Thanksgiving.

The food!

Mary sleeping through her first Thanksgiving dinner.

Jeff and I enjoying our meal.

Grandma Joann and Grandpa Ray eating turkey!

A family pose. Not sure why Nathaniel is winking!

Mmmmm pie!

Happy Birthday To Us

Thirty years ago today, on my Grandfather's 52nd birthday, his first grandchild was born in the middle of a blizzard. That grandchild was me! So, yes folks, that means I turn thirty today. THIRTY! Where does time go, really? Jeff and I were at a restaurant two weeks ago and the wait staff sang "Happy Birthday" to a kid at a table next to me turning 15. I said to Jeff, "He's half my age"! Don't I sound old just saying that? When I was little I imagined my 18th birthday, and my 21st, and I imagined in my twenties I'd get married and have some kids. But I never imagined my thirtieth birthday. My imagination just couldn't stretch that far! But now that I've officially arrived there, the reality is that thirty is wonderful! I learned a lot of life lessons in my twenties and wouldn't want to go back a decade to do it all over. It feels good where I am - with a wonderful husband for 7 years, and four beautiful children (two in heaven and two at home). Everyone is healthy and happy. I am truly blessed.

It's always been special sharing a birthday with my grandfather. While in Chicago this past weekend we all celebrated together and my parents made my favorite birthday cake, which we figured out has been a tradition for the past twelve years. Nathaniel sang all the words to "Happy Birthday" and helped blow out the candles. Mary giggled for twenty minutes at the balloon bobbing up and down in the air (guess which two year old was holding the string!). Life is good!

My Grandpa turns 82 today, and as soon as I finish this post I'm going to call him and say, "Happy Birthday to us"!

Happy Advent!

Sign up for Advent Adventure, and you will receive an email a day with a new reflection and activity for the family.

How To Befuddle a Toddler

Give him a Townhouse Flipside cracker. (And then watch him flip it around over and over saying, "Cracker! Now, a pretzel. Now, a cracker!")

Fight FOCA: Sign the Petition

Even Toddlers Have Limitations

Just before his nap this afternoon Nathaniel turned to me and said dramatically, "OH NO!"

Me: What, honey?
Nathaniel: Oh no, oh no, Mama!
Me: What's wrong, Nathaniel?
Nathaniel: (throwing his arms into the air and jumping) I want to fly up! I can't fly up!
Me: That's right, honey. We can't fly up. But we can pretend.
Nathaniel: I want to fly up! See the stars! See the moon!
Me: Me too, Nathaniel!

Advent Activities

Generally I'm not a fan of how early the Christmas season seems to start in the stores. I find it inappropriate to have glistening lights and tree displays up in November (and even sometimes beginning in October). But this year I decided to take advantage of the early Christmas shopping sales going on so I can be finished in time to really enjoy Advent this year. Advent is from a Latin word that means "coming", and it's supposed to be a joyous season of expectation of the birth of our Savior. This year I really want to focus on preparing my family and my heart for Christmas. No frantic rushing around for last minute gifts! What would Advent be like if my attention was truly fixed on the coming of the Lord?

To prepare for the preparation (ha ha) I've gathered a few resources I'd like to share with you.

This is an amazing book. I've looked the past few years for a good family Advent activity guide such as this, and I finally found it! It's mostly for preschool or older children but I'm adapting a few things for our family this year and I don't mind "growing into" the book and using the other ideas later.

We have a normal Advent wreath for our dining table and we light the candles one by one throughout the season, saying new prayers each week. This year I also purchased a felt children's Advent wreath for the kids - no dangerous flame required!

Nathaniel has a cute Little People nativity set we bought for him last Christmas. I've kept it away all year and plan to bring it out at the beginning of Advent and use it to talk to him about Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the Christmas story.

We have a great kid-friendly felt Advent calendar that Nathaniel can assemble slowly all Advent long.

I've always loved the idea of a Jesse tree. One of the activities in the Advent in the Home book includes leaving off your regular ornaments until Christmas, and making your tree into a Jesse tree for the Advent season. We're modifying the idea by having a three foot tree in addition to our regular Christmas tree to use as a Jesse tree. We will color and print off the ornaments included in the book, and hang them one by one every day of Advent. Each day there is a scripture verse to be read also.

I'm hoping these will be a start to some great Advent traditions in our home! Please share any Advent traditions you have heard of or are celebrating this year!

Gotcha!

During Nathaniel's first year I kept up a really detailed journal so I know when most of his milestones, big or small, occured. When Mary was born I skimmed Nathaniel's journal and saw that he first noticed his hand and stared at it right when he turned two months. This is such a funny phase, isn't it? Something so mundane to us is such big news in a baby's world. I looked forward to that time with Mary and was curious when she would notice her little fist waving in the air. But she actually noticed her feet first! I'm not sure if that's unusual or not, but she was always looking for them and staring obsessively at them. She did it right around two months, and it took her a few more weeks to actually notice her hands. And then last week she finally managed to grab onto her feet! I snapped a picture of it today, mid diaper-change.

Gotcha, you elusive feet!

Winterizing

As it's gotten chillier around here, we've been trying to quickly "winterize" our house and yard. I'm talking about the usual raking up the leaves, putting the outdoor toys away kind of stuff that you don't want to be doing when there's already a couple inches of snow on the ground. One thing I finally got checked off my to-do list is buying Nathaniel a new winter coat, hat, mittens, and snowpants. I love the coats that Children's Place sells because they are 3-in-1, meaning you can take the fleece liner out and wear only the liner, or only the shell, or both in very cold weather. Nathaniel is still wearing his from last year but the sleeves are pretty short and it definitely won't get us through the entire cold weather season here in Minnesota. So we took the kids to the mall the other day, which is one of Nathaniel's favorite places... he cries "More mall, more mall!" anytime we leave... and I took advantage of Children's Place 40% off sale. He loves his new hat so much he never wants to take it off!

So here's the adorable sight that greets me all day long. This is actually his very cheesy "cheese" face for the camera - I'm not sure why it looks like he's in pain!

I Got My Rock Moves

The kids and I listen to music a big chunk of the day. I have several toddler music CDs, classical CDs, Christian and Bible song CDs, and then there's always the radio. We have an under-the-cabinet mounted CD/radio player in the kitchen (if you don't have one of those you should get one!) and so whenever I'm cooking or getting us lunch or a snack, we're usually grooving to some tunes. Nathaniel receives many compliments on his dancing - he has lots of great moves and usually finds the beat too. He's done this from a really young age.

One of our favorites to dance to is Pink's "So What". It's a rebellious kind of a song, but it has a great beat and some fun lyrics to sing. Our favorite lines are "I'm still a rockstar! I got my rock moves!"

I just found the video on youtube and maybe I'm just in a weird mood but I think it's pretty funny. Kind of brings me back to a just-dumped-by-my-highschool-boyfriend mood for a minute. OK not exactly! :)

Tummy Time

Mary is finally tolerating tummy time! This is what she's doing right now while I blog:

Toys R Us Coupon

Today I got an email that Toys R Us has free shipping with no purchase minimum through their website.

Also, click here to print a coupon you can use in store now through this Thursday for a 15% off a toy item.

Happy early Christmas shopping!

A Rainbow For Daddy

Recently Nathaniel graduated from drawing straight scribble lines to attempting circles. I thought that was an exciting feat, but then yesterday when we were making a card for Daddy's birthday he started drawing lines on one side in various colors. At one point he turned to me and said, "I'm drawing a rainbow"! I looked closer and thought wow!! He's totally drawing a rainbow! I had never tried to get him to draw a rainbow. I had never tried to get him to draw anything that wasn't a simple shape!

Because Jeff's card was on dark paper I knew it would be hard to scan or take a picture of to show you all so I had him try to recreate it today. I know it's not the best picture but can you see it? Over on the right side? And the circles that are on the left? I'm so proud!!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Here are 29 things we love about you!

1. Your hugs
2. Horsie rides around the house
3. Saturday morning pancakes
4. Your patience
5. Your block towers
6. The way you tuck us into bed at night
7. Your silly made up songs
8. Your strength
9. The way you work hard for us, every day
10. Your tickles
11. Cuddles on the couch
12. How you can make anything fun
13. Your kisses
14. Your reading of Goodnight Moon
15. Your generosity
16. Your faith
17. Your willingness to swing a toddler high into the air with your arms until your back is nearly broken
18. Your airplane rides
19. Your laugh
20. Your goofy sense of humor
21. Your willingness to always go the extra mile
22. Your gentle spirit
23. How you try to make everyone happy
24. Your guitar playing
25. Your matchbox car racing skills
26. Your willingness to try new things
27. Your guidance
28. Your intelligence
29. Your unconditional love

Love, Nathaniel & Mary

Four Firsts

We've been a household of "firsts" lately. Here are four of them captured on film (or pixels, whatever)!

First highchair:

First time in the jumperoo:

First flurries:

First taste of solids!

Future Architect

It's been awhile since the wooden blocks were dragged out, and to my amazement we have moved on from precariously tall leaning towers to intricate towns. I'm pretty sure he has surpassed Mommy's wooden block creativity level at only age 2!

Freight Train Toddlerhood

Sometimes being the mom of a toddler makes me feel like I'm on a freight train that I cannot stop. Sometimes this is a frustrating thing. Sometimes it's a good thing. Nathaniel can be the most stubborn little guy I've ever known, and today I'm pondering how this may well be an evolutionary trait necessary to toddlerhood. For example: lately he is really wanting his own way. He insists on putting on his own clothes. He insists on wearing what he wants to wear. He insists on drinking from a big boy cup and refuses anything that has a spout or a straw. He doesn't want to sit in his booster seat at dinner. He demands we sing along the ABC song with him, twenty five billion times a day. He wants to jump, crash, tumble, dive, roll, run, bounce, dance, and hop all over the floor and sometimes the furniture too.

All of this can be incredibly frustrating, but as his mother, I realize these are all things that help him on his way to gaining independence. And I cannot stop him. I don't want to stop him! So last Wednesday after walking into the room a few times to him having just stripped down and peed on the floor, I took two seconds to evaluate the situation and realized - I guess we're potty training. It's been requiring a lot of time and patience but I'm trying to go with the flow. After all, there's just no stopping the learning freight train I call Nathaniel!

55 Million People

Fifty-five million people woke up this morning disappointed. My guy won the two elections I've been old enough to vote in, so it's a new feeling for me. I watched both McCain's concession speech and Obama's victory speech last night and felt incredibly jealous. Jealous that I wasn't among the millions of people rejoicing last night. Anyone who has talked to me about this election knows I've held hope the entire time that McCain would win. After all, the past two elections the mainstream media has predicted a Democrat win, and yet the Republicans pulled it off both times. Part of me just didn't want to admit that our country has become as liberal as it has. I guess I shouldn't be so surprised that I find myself in the minority once again. As a Catholic it seems we take a beating more times than not. I'm well aware the beliefs my faith holds are very rarely the popular ones. I have to say I was a bit alarmed yesterday at how exuberant the crowd was in Grant Park. Jeff and I joked that the camera kept going back to the same two elderly people in the crowd - as if they were the only ones of that demographic that CNN could find. So many young people, weeping and hugging and rejoicing! I am proud that so many people of my generation love their country, want the best for it, and are willing to fight for it. And I am glad so many citizens want to grasp onto something bigger than themselves and believe in it. But I am deeply worried that their hope is misplaced. I am convinced this hope is more appropriately placed in God. Much of what President-elect Obama believes in is contrary to the teachings Christians believe come from God. And even if you set aside all the moral and religious issues and focus on the "secular" ones, such as the economic, foreign, and healthcare policies Obama has been touting, I am still worried for our country and how we can remain true to the foundations it was built on. I am concerned we are going to go in a completely new direction that is unfaithful to what America has always been about - freedom. Freedom to work hard and keep what you earn. Freedom to live without excessive tax and burden from the government. Freedom to practice your beliefs without the government infringing on them. Freedom to give money charitably the way you want to give it. Don't get me wrong, I understand certain things need reform and change, but I don't think an entire overhaul of everything is necessary either. I hope I'm wrong on these secular issues, and that 55 million of us are wrong, and that Obama knows what he is doing. I hope this because last night CNN was already reporting how quickly he plans on moving. There is not much doubt in my mind that he sincerely believes the policies he's laid forth, and intends to fight hard to see it all through. With a democratic- heavy Senate he doesn't have much in his way. I'm disappointed, but I'm trying not to feel devastated. I am placing my hope in God. I am praying for His will. I am praying for Obama. I am praying for our country. And I'm continuing to fight for what I believe in. God, please bless the USA.

Elmo For President

Just now as I sat down to flip on CNN and check the results that are in so far, Nathaniel runs into the room demanding "Watch Elmo, watch Elmo!" This is the scene whenever I try to turn the television to anything I want to see. As I was quickly scanning the TV trying to make sense of the red and blue blocks on the screen, I asked him, "You don't want to watch and see who is the next president of our country? Without a pause he said, "No, I want to watch Elmo!"

Good thing I have the internet, and Nathaniel hasn't yet discovered the world of computer games!

Church Giggles

Today at the 5:00pm Mass it was hard not to giggle as we walked back to our seats in the Communion line. Nathaniel was in Daddy's arms and generally when we approach the Blessed Sacrament he is quiet and still in a state of wonder at being up in front of Church. Jeff performed his usual attempt-to-pin-the-toddler's-arms-down-so-he-won't-grab-at-and-spill-the-hosts-all-over-the-floor move but Nathaniel wrested his arm free and held it out to the Eucharistic Minister, saying loudly, "Have some?" And then during the long walk back to our seats the entire congregation was treated to him demanding, "I want to have some! I want to have some!" The two of them were following Mary and me and at one point I could very clearly hear Jeff whisper behind me, "You can have some goldfish crackers as soon as we get back to the pew."

Someone please help me remember to tell this story at Nathaniel's First Holy Communion.

Oh, and I can't forget the giggling from the family just behind us at Nathaniel calling our pew the "puke". Never ever a dull moment at Mass with a toddler! I much prefer the giggling moments to the embarassing toddler running in the aisles moments!

Happy DSD!

If you don't know what DSD stands for, this post is for you! Today is Digital Scrapbooking Day, and since digi scrapping is my latest addiction *ahem* hobby, I thought it appropriate to blog a bit about it. I have been paper scrapbooking since summer of 1996 when I sat down and put my high school pictures and scraps into an album. Since then I've created over fifteen paper scrapbooking albums about me and my family. I love documenting my memories and being creative in the process, but it takes so much time and money that I was falling very far behind with our family albums. Once Nathaniel was born I was taking literally about a thousand pictures a month, and feeling very overwhelmed with actually scrapbooking them. I ended up completing a birth through 1 year album for Nathaniel, but other than that I did no scrapbooking for myself for two years. Shortly after Mary was born I started looking more and more into digital scrapbooking and just a few months later I have almost 100 layouts completed!

Digital Scrapbooking is super easy, can be very inexpensive, and FUN. Any free time I have these days is devoted to creating layouts. I can make one or two layouts a day during naptimes and after Nathaniel and Mary go to bed, whereas before it would take me just as long to pull out my supplies, figure out what pictures I had printed, and design a page. Then the next day, if I was still feeling motivated, I would actually sit down to put things together onto a page. Maybe another day would pass before I was even finished with one paper layout!

Paper scrapbooking can be pretty expensive. Digital scrapbooking can be absolutely free (as long as you already have a photo editing program) except for the cost of printing pages and buying an album. However, this pretty much equals the cost of buying a photo album and having regular pictures printed! There are a lot of designers out there, people just like me, who just love to digi scrap and want to try their hand at making papers and elements. Someday I may try to design my own things but for now I'm happy preserving my memories and getting caught up with my pictures. The designers out there, when they are getting started, put together kits of coordinating papers, frames, and other embellishments such as ribbon or flowers, and post them for free for people to use and try out. Designers typically get a following of people, and then apply at a store online to be accepted to create for profit. So if you know where to look, you can find lots of great kits and things to use for pages and not spend one cent!

If you want to learn more, I have a couple of links for you:

What Is Digital Scrapbooking?
Digital Scrapbooking 101

Here are two great resources for freebie kits:

http://www.shabbyprincess.com/ (click on "downloads")
http://www.ikeagoddess.blogspot.com/ (this blogger scours the internet every day for new freebies!)

Here are a few of my favorite pages:

And finally, today two of my layouts were featured on an up and coming digital scrapbooking designer's new blog! Check it out! I made these layouts from her freebie you can download and play around with in any photo editing program that does layers (Photoshop, Print Shop Pro, PhotoImpact). If any of you decide to try it out, let me know! I love to talk about digi scrapping with anyone (and everyone!)

Happy Halloween!

A Girl And Her Mouse

(This one's for Becky!)

Mommy's got that camera thingy again...

I'll give her a little smile to make her happy...

OK that should do it. Wait, why are you taking my hoodie off? It's cold today. All you're gonna get now is a picture of me looking grumpy and cold.

Uh oh... here comes that Nathaniel kid and he's got a funny gleam in his eye.

OUCH! Why are you tugging at me?! Mommy, stop taking pictures and help!

Oh, hello little friend. Where did you come from?

Answer Key!

Here are the answers to yesterday's Pop Quiz!

1. Nathaniel
2. Mary
3. Nathaniel
4. Nathaniel (I think this one REALLY looks like Mary!)
5. Nathaniel
6. Mary
7. Mary
8. Mary
9. Nathaniel
10. Mary
11. Nathaniel
EC: Mary

Congratulations to Kim and Chris - bonus points to Chris for his observational skills because he has never even met Mary!! Nathaniel INSISTS these are all Mary, so the rest of you can all be proud of at least getting more correct than a two-year-old. :)

Before You Carve Your Pumpkins

Practice here first!

Here's my unoriginal attempt:

Pop Quiz

Take my quiz and post your answers in a comment. I'll reveal the correct answers tomorrow!

Mary or Nathaniel?

1.

2.3.

4. 5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

Extra Credit: