Putting up the Christmas Tree

This year while Xander took his nap, Ainsley helped me put up the Christmas tree. She was moderately excited to get going. As Sean brought in the Christmas bins, she was indifferent.

"Licking" the lights. Weirdo.

As I put the tree and lights up and Sean shopped Black Friday, she was moderately more interested, but still pretty indifferent. She'd take moments to help me by getting branches out of the bin...or pretending to eat the lights.

FROSTY BREAK!

Break Time!

Sean made a lunch run and returned with Frostys for Momma and child. We had a yummy time eating our treats and taking the break. However, after the Frosty break, once the ornament bins opened up, it. Was. ON. She couldn't stop digging around.

Special Ornaments

Deciding what to hang up

Last year after Christmas, Sean and I went ornament shopping. I'm all about creating a tree that has ornaments that mean something to us on it. So, Sean has a ton of Star Wars, Star Trek, and Indiana Jones ornaments.

I have ornaments with pictures of the kids on them and a set of golden bulbs that hung on my Grandma McGhee's Christmas tree since I was a little girl (I used to lie under her tree and just touch them...the reminded me of gold coconuts. She gave them to me last year.).

Loving the Yum Yum.

For Ainsley, I grabbed some M&M ornaments, as she has an undying love for Yum Yums. This year, I think she needs a Little Mermaid ornament.

At this point, all of Xander's ornaments are Baby's 1st. Not sure yet what to get for Xander beyond that. Probably Sesame Street. Or grapes maybe.



Lessons The Kids Teach Us

Showing her the ropes
Feel free to covet my Christmas PJs

As I've expressed to many of you, one of the biggest lessons that my daughter is teaching me is to let go of my ideas about control. I spent a lot of time talking to Ainsley about the ornaments we were hanging up, and why we put certain ornaments in certain places. Of course, I have a system for ornament hanging and general tree decorating. I thought it'd be helpful to teach her my way...but she was too excited to listen, of course.

The red icicle branch
OK, I Get. It

So I let her go and do her thing. We have these icicle ornaments red shiny, red glittery, green shiny, and green glittery...about 12 each. Ainsley's "thing" was to put all the red shiny icicles on one branch. It took everything in me to not tell her she was doing it "wrong." Instead, I decorated the rest of the tree and secretly rearranged the branches later.

These are not the princesses
you're looking for...

As I opened the ornaments we purchased last year, we discovered some Disney Princess ornaments that Grandma and Grandpa Stewart picked up for her. I put the hooks on the ornaments, turned my back, and she was GONE.

She'd grabbed all the princesses, climbed into an empty basket, and pretended she had NO idea what I was talking about when I asked her what happened to the princesses. She still hasn't put the princesses on the tree.

And Then Xander Woke Up

WTF?

I was really excited to show Xander our handiwork. He was pretty nervous about the tree at first. He approached it as if it may have jumped out an bit him.

After a while, he became more interested in the sparkly, dangly things that he could pull off the tree. Very exciting indeed.

Bossy McBosserson

Ainsley's reaction to Xander's attempts at helping to hang ornaments was pretty hilarious. She got her serious boss on if he did anything she felt was inappropriate.  Xander, per usual, ignored her bossing. This picture here of her bossing him has to be in my top 10 pictures of Ainsley. So. Funny.

What?! I love this tree.

It took us a while, but we finally got everything put up and started to get a little Christmas tree enjoyment in.

Mostly enjoyment manifested in taking ornaments off the tree, running around, then putting them back on...or making me put them back on. Then the under the tree shenanigans began.

The best way to touch ornaments
is with your feet, natch.

I both love and hate the Christmas tree. I love to see it and I love the mood it sets in the house (which is why it goes up immediately after Thanksgiving). I hate that my hardcore OCD manifests when I put the tree up.

I admit I was better this year...more willing to chill. Maybe in the next year or two, I'll be able to just enjoy it. *fingers crossed*

Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving Lessons Learned

Deeeeelicious.

So, this year, we spent Thankgiving quietly, just the four of us.  I DVRed the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and cooked way too much food for two adults and two toddlers.

Last night, I made deviled eggs and cupcakes. I don't like pumpkin pie all that much, so I decided to make something I'd enjoy more. I've been teaching myself how to decorate cookies and cupcakes over the past few years. I experimented with icing dye this time. These are also the Fundamiddle cupcakes Sean bought. I ate one last night and they're ridiculously good. 

So, this is what I/we learned this Thanksgiving:

Food

• Slow-cooked green beans taste even better if they're slowly cooked in chicken broth, bacon, and onion, instead of water, bacon, and onion.
• Substituting Greek yogurt for sour cream in green bean casserole is acceptable.
• The best method for making simple mashed potatoes is from Yahoo Shine. I say method, not recipe. 
• It's a lot easier to cook a turkey properly if you actually know where the inner thigh of the turkey is.

Entertainment

• The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is still fun to watch; Ainsley particularly enjoyed the musical numbers, Dora's Christmas float, and, of course, Santa.
• The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade announcers are ridiculous self-involved chimps. If I could have reached through my TV and punched Laura Lee Bell in the face, I would have.
• Nickelback ruins everything.
• That Ice Age Christmas special is ridiculously cute.
• Taking a nap from 4:30 to 6:45 is RAD.
• Cleaning the living room is much more fun if it's in preparation for putting up a Christmas tree! 

I barely had time to
grab my phone
for this picture.

We have much to be thankful for this year...and every year really. What I enjoyed most about this year was just being with the Stewarts. I didn't do any work. I didn't have to run any errands (somehow miraculously, we had all the groceries we needed for dinner). I just had a nice day with Sean and the kids.

The kids ended their evening with cupcakes. Xander, true to form, smashed his into his maw in 4.5 seconds.

Ainsley was more delicate...and really hyped up on the Santa sightings. So, I took advantage and got this bit of video.

HAIRCUT!

We named this brown
horse Cocoa; we aren't
very original.

I took Ainsley to get a haircut today...mostly b/c her hair was destroying me emotionally and she was growing dreds.

Part of the haircutting process was the promise of reward for good behavior. She wanted hot chocolate, ice cream, and a carousel ride. She was mostly good for the Great Clips lady. She only pretended she'd lost all the bones in her body once or twice. She sat moderately still and was pretty quiet.  Actually the only time she really spoke she freaked out the GC lady. We were discussing layering the back of her hair, and Ainsley said, "What are you guys talking about?"

Me: "We're deciding what to do with your hair."

The GC lady said, "Wow. She was really serious. How old is she again?" Ainsley is wicked articulate. I love when she zings strangers.

Since we were having a Momma Daughter day, I decided carousel and ice cream were earned. So we hit the carousel and the DQ.

So...This Just Happened

This is the grin
of victory.

Ainsley and Xander had just gotten up from naps and wanted snacks. I brought down a bowl of grapes and a bowl of Cheerios. While we were watching the Big Bang Theory, Ainsley decided to eat all of the grapes, which are her brother's favorite, while Xander was distracted trying to step over her DVD player cord. (At 1, that requires multiple attempts and all his concentration.)

Me: Ainsley, did you just eat all of the grapes really fast so Xander couldn't have any?

Ainsley: I eat grapes!

Sean: Sweetie, did you? You need to share with your brother.

As we were talking to her about this, Xander quietly got himself past the DVD cord, walked by Ainsley, swiped her chocolate milk, and proceeded to drink it all in the corner.

I suppose we should just let them work it out, huh?

I'm a Real Mom Now

This week, my second cousin Joey passed away after a very long struggle with Huntington's disease. He was 41. I didn't really know Joey very well. Because he was five years older than me, when we were kids, he was too old for my shennanigans, and when I was older, he was off on his own having his own family. He leaves behind a wife and three children.

However, I did go to school with Joey's brother Mark, and after my grandma moved down to live near my dad, I stayed with her sister, my aunt Sharon, Joey, Mark, and Jimmy's mother, when I went home to Portage.

Sharon was an amazing woman who lived a life much harder than she should have. She watched her husband develop and eventually succumb to Huntington's, then she went through it all again when her youngest son, Jimmy, developed the disease as a teenager and died in his early twenties, much younger than most Huntington's victims. On top of all of that, Aunt Sharon successfully fought breast cancer, only to pass away a few years later from lukemia.

Why do I mention all of this? One because I loved my aunt Sharon and I miss her and thinking about all the difficulties she lived through with actual amazing grace makes me feel lucky to have the friends and family that I do. Two because this post, which is making me reflect a little on grief, is all based around the fact that I felt compelled to go to Joey's funeral for Mark. I know Mark well and have always really enjoyed the company of him and his wife Patti. Joey's death leaves Mark the only remaining member of his immediate family. I felt he needed all the family there he could get.  So, I rearranged a bunch of stuff, threw the kids in the car, and went.

Gram told me that Lafayette was an hour behind us, and I believed her; this was my mistake. I should have double checked before I went to bed, but didn't. So while we left on time, I still felt a bit rushed because I didn't get to have that extra hour to lounge about and slowly wake up.

I kept updating the route on my GoogleMaps and I knew we were going to arrive just in time. When we were about 20 minutes away, Ainsley started to complain, "I don't wanna go! I wanna go home!" I assumed her complaints were related to the fact that we'd just traveled to Muncie the day before and she was sick of the car.

Then her complains got more urgent, " I WANT my daddy! Want to go HOME!"

"We'll visit for a bit and then go home soon, sweetie."

"WANT to go HOME! My tummy hurts." See, a good, seasoned mother would have perked her ears up at this statement. But Ainsley is the boy who cried wolf...lamenting tons of imagined pain. I assumed that this was the case.

I was wrong.

She started coughing and choking. My less seasoned ears perked. Then the vomiting started. I swung the van onto a side street (this is where I'm thankful I was on 25S with all its side streets and not, say, I65).

By the time I got the van stopped and opened her door, she was done puking and merely crying. Then I entered some weird Mom zone. I whipped her out of the van, got her out of her clothes (lamenting that she's puked all over her dress clothes while also THANKING GOD that I'd had the foresight to bring comfy clothes with us for the ride home), got her into her clean clothes, and started cleaning up the puke with what I can only describe as a shit ton of wipes. I must have looked a sight to the people driving by...running around my van back and forth getting wipes or plastic bags to put them (and the puke clothes) into...all while in my heels and funeral dress...trying to keep the puke off of myself, as I didn't have a change of clothes.

"I not spit up!"

By the time I'd finished getting the car seat as clean as I could, Ainsley was fine. She was going into a fresh round of "Momma, I wanna hold you!" And this is where my hindsight is crystal clear. We were already late. I should have held her. But I was frazzled and now running late for Joey's memorial service. So, I gave her a hug and put her in her seat and soldiered on. I kept asking her if her tummy felt ok and she kept saying it was fine. I stopped asking after she responded with a "Why do you keep asking me that?!"

We were a little late. No one cared. The service and lunch afterward were very nice and when my kids turned into little monsters, we went back home. When we got home, she decided to put on her bathing suit over her sweatpants and my shoes. Clearly she was recovered.

I thought about the vomiting incident while driving home. I felt like a soldier who got his first battle scars: I handled traveling puke. I am a real mom now.

Sleeping Babies

So, I started this thing a couple weeks ago. I started taking pictures of the kids asleep before I went to bed (or once, when I forgot, when I woke up before them). I thought I'd see how long I could go. Then I though I could share the pictures, sort of like a 365 Stewarts sleeping. I'm not diligent enough to add everyday, so I'll just do it every so often. 

*side note* As I worked on this blog post, I discovered something WEIRD. Even though they're in different rooms, they're often in the same position when I take the picture (which, in most cases, occurs within 2-3 minutes of one another). People have asked me if they're twins before...but this is too weird.

November 6: Flanked with Babies

November 7: Stretched Out Stewarts

November 8: Lovin' Babies

November 9: Ainsley as Scarlet O'Hara, Xander as Pillbug

November 10: Babies Hiding Faces 

November 11: Tuckered Out at Grandma and Grandpa's

November 12: Even MORE Tuckered Out at Grandma and Grandpa's

November 13: Home at Last...and Ridonkulously Tired

November 14: Babies with Babies

November 15: Contortionist Sleepers

November 16: Fetal Position Stewarts

Nerd Parents

"I angry."

As I've posted before, Ainsley has been big into painting.  Right now, she's very monochromatic. She's already had her red period. Right now she's moving into a blue period.  This morning, we had this exchange.

A: Momma! Want new paper!

Me: If you're painting this for Grandma and Grandpa, they like more colors.

A: No.

Me: You're not painting this for Grandma and Grandpa?

A: NO.

Me: Well, you have all this room on the paper left to fill. You're too young to understand the value of negative space.

Sean (from the kitchen): You don't know...maybe she's a prodigy.

Update


While I was writing this blog post, I appeased her by giving her some animal crackers and telling her she wasn't going to get new paper until she filled her page more.  This is the result.

"Momma, I want more
light up blue."