I am the Magic of Christmas

“I am the magic of Christmas”. This has been my mantra the last couple of holiday seasons. I’m sure a lot of my mom-friends will understand. Everyone talks about the magic of the holiday season–you know–Christmas lights, hot cocoa by the fire, matching Christmas PJ’s blah blah blah. Well, you know who makes that sh*t happen? Me. The magic is the part the kids don’t see. Like me visiting multiple stores just to discover everything is cheaper on Amazon. Waiting in lines for returns and exchanges because the store here has the right size for my 5 year old, the store across town has the size for my 3 year old, and the size for my 1 year old must be ordered online–but mind you all at the same transaction so I can use my 20% off coupon. Me trying to surprise my husband with gifts only to second guess every purchase I’ve made, and hope he doesn’t stumble across my Amazon.com browsing history and ruin the surprise. Thinking I’m done shopping and then finding out the gift I thought was ‘so last year’ is the same thing my 5 year old wants again this year. Making 3 trips to the store to try to fix the burnt out lights, before finally giving up until next year. The excitement of the kids on Christmas morning really makes up for all of this, but let it be known…I am the magic.

Got that out of the way, let’s flash back 2 months to the last time I posted an update. Family pictures turned out great. You’ll see a few of my favorites on this year’s Christmas card. We enjoyed unusually warm weather and spent a few more precious days at the park and working on the yard. For Halloween I had Darth Vader, Superman, and a very reluctant lion. We’ll probably be eating that candy until Valentine’s day.

My parents decided to come out for a visit at Thanksgiving this year. We decided that due to the short time they were here, the fact that it was a holiday weekend, and the fact that we’d worked all our butts off the last time they visited, we would just lay low and relax during this visit. Almost immediately after deciding there would be no “projects” DURING their visit, I convinced Jason we should update the guest bathroom BEFORE their visit as a surprise. So most of our free time between October and Thanksgiving involved painting, and installing linoleum, a new faucet, new light fixtures, towel bars, etc. We’re very happy with how it turned out, and my parents were quite surprised. My mom almost immediately observed how difficult it must have been to keep it a secret from her, and from posting it online, during the update process. She was right. Here are a couple photos.          

William continues to enjoy kindergarten. Our only concerns thus far is that he is a perfectionist, and makes a big deal out of small mistakes. My pediatrician recommended reading a book called “Mindset” (which is apparently amazing), so I’m going to check into that. He’s doing really well learning to read, seems to have quite a few friends at school, and generally seems excited to go. One thing that is still surprising to us is how much he misses going to Debbie’s for daycare! He’s looking forward to spending his days there over Christmas break, and I think she’s pretty excited to have him back as well. Other things on my “to-do” list are to work on teaching him to tie his shoes, and to figure out a better structure for allowance/chore accountability without just creating more work for me….seriously, I don’t have time for that. Suggestions welcome.

Christopher is less resistant to using the potty these days, but is still no place near being potty trained. At this point there is a real possibility I will attempt to potty train both he and Andrew at the same time this spring when I can let them outside without pants so I don’t needlessly ad to my laundry/frustration/floor cleaning pile. Christopher is also our clown. He’s showing small glimmers of tolerating Andrew as he pulls out of the terrible three’s. Hopefully we have a few days of peace before Andrew starts in on the terrible two’s.

Andrew is a goof. He is prone to tantrums but wakes up the happiest, growliest, baby you’ve ever seen. He’s at such a fun stage and as long as he’s not having a clingy, carry-me type day, he’s pretty fun to be around. He sleeps through the night, usually only waking if he’s gotten too cold, or lost his binkie. Maybe I’ll take the binkie away this summer while I’m potty training everyone and implementing chore charts. (Small goals right??)

Jason and I are great. His work is busy, but rewarding, and I’ve cut back to part time to try to make everything balance a bit better. I think our New Year’s resolution will be to try and line up some babysitting help and actually get out on a date monthly. Any takers for January?

Speaking of Jason, this week he is out of town on a work trip. I’m thankful that so far he’s only traveled for work one other week since Andrew was born. Every time he travels I remember how much better it is when we can share the load of kid duties, and it makes me thankful he doesn’t travel more often. Having another adult in the house to talk to is also nice. Even though I’m surrounded by people all day at work, I find it a bit lonely when he’s gone. Bedtime is by far the hardest. If this week’s bedtimes had titles Monday would have been “Sh*t show for One”, Tuesday would have been “Everybody Poops”, and tonight would have been “Making Empty Threats to Get your Point Across”. As you can see, we’re rocking this week so far.

I’ll post our Christmas letter soon (again more of my magic), for anyone who may not have gotten a Christmas card and would like to see the high-level yearly summary. This blog is more detailed, but the Christmas letter isn’t a bad read. Hoping everyone is enjoying the holiday season and feeling the magic as much as I am!

Steph~