Catch Up Post

I thought I'd make note of all the fun stuff we did last week while the g-parents were in town. They left yesterday morning so the unspoiling process has begun. It's going quite well, I think.

On Wednesday, we walked around Old Town Spring for awhile. We went into a few of the shops and had to show Grandma and Grandpa the toy store. Then we had lunch at the Wunche Bros. Cafe and back home until the evening when we went over to Glenn and Becky's for pizza. Clara had to check out all of Leah's new toys.

We went to the arboretum and playground on Thursday morning. It was beautiful out, a little chilly, but not too bad. We also nibbled on the gingerbread house.






That night, we hit Johnny Rocket's and walked around Market Street for a bit. Clara did not have a good dinner. She was flexing her defiance muscle just a tad by refusing to eat anything but "too ties" (french fries) and throwing a pretty good fit in the process. Daddy had to take her out of the restaurant twice to have a little talk. We did the good cop bad cop thing. He laid down the law; I made eating chicken look like loads of fun. Eventually she scarfed down the chicken. Parents- 1, Brat- 0.

Chris and I took advantage of the free babysitting and hit the movie theater for the late showing of National Treasure 2. This was the first movie we'd seen since Pirates 3 back in May when Chris' parents kept Clara for us. It was really good and was a lot like the first one.

Friday came and we all went to the early showing of Alvin and the Chipmunks. It was cute and Clara sat still until she ran out of popcorn. That girl put down the popcorn. She had a large tub between her legs. Several of us had a few handfuls, but she ate the bulk of it, hands down. Her lips looked awful afterward.

Hung out, then went to Jason's Deli with Micah and Lisa and Glenn and Becky. After dinner, Glenn and Becky came over for some cherry cobbler and Leah came over to check out all of Clara's new toys.

And that's about it. Not overly exciting, but not completely boring either. Clara did remarkably well the whole time. We made sure she got a nap everyday and went to bed at a reasonable time. She got lots of sweets and treats, but not so many that she didn't eat her regular meals for the most part. She went to time out several times (which was hard for Grandma to watch), but it was mainly for hitting the dogs with her new toys. She was just playing and excited, but there's a zero tolerance dog hitting policy in the Judd house. And then there were a few little defiant outbursts that we had to nip in the bud, but really nothing significant.

It was a lovely Christmas indeed and I'm so thankful that we were able to spend it with Chris' family, though I did miss being with mine. Can't wait 'til next year!

Someone Call CPS

Ok, this is so totally wrong and I shouldn't even post it, but I couldn't resist. This is the gruesome sight I stumbled upon when I went to clean up Clara's playroom tonight. I'm not quite sure what parenting books she's been reading.



If you can't tell what you're looking at, this would be her baby doll fast asleep in her oven. It was actually a somewhat slightly disturbing sight.

Meet Margaret

She's a blogging, emailing, Wii playing, Nitendo DS owning Great Grandma! She drew the line at Rock Band playing :( It's really a bummer 'cause that would've made a great picture.

A Very Merry Christmas

I can't believe it's already come and gone. We had a wonderful Christmas yesterday. Clara got lots of toys and played hard all day long. She got a kitchen from Santa; she also got a doll stroller, dollhouse and too many other toys to count. Her kitchen is way cool. It's a kitchen on one side and a grill on the other.

Her gift from Chris and I was a set of wooden alphabet blocks. They're beautiful and have vintage inspired illustrations on them. I also made two baby blankets for her dolls. I was tired of her swiping my dishtowels, but of course, it hasn't deterred her from the dishtowels. Here are just a few pics from the day.

I attempted to make a loaf of cinammon bread in the bread machine for Christmas morning. I repeat, attempted. It looked wonderful until about halfway through the baking process when it fell. How I messed up bread machine bread, I'll never know. Oh well, we ate it anyway.

Christmas dinner wasn't without it's mishaps either. My bread machine bread for dinner fell also, but it was edible. Hello bread machine, what is your problem? The sweet potatos didn't finish in time so we had to throw them in the microwave. I guess that was it, everything else turned out ok. It wasn't a fancy feast by any means, but it was a nice meal for the six of us. We had ham, pasta salad (Chris' required dish), green bean casserole (Kelsey's required dish) and pumpkin pie. I was afraid to ask the others for what dish they required, lest I possibly have 3 more dishes to prepare. And what if they were yucky things? I just couldn't take that chance. I know, I'm bad. But hey, at least Chris and I got what we wanted, right? Oh, since Margaret sent the ham, I'll count that as her dish. So that just leaves two people :)

It's Almost Here!!!!

We're having lots of holiday fun here at the Judd house. Grandma, Grandpa and Nanny drove in last night and they brought lots and lots of goodies with them. Nanny even made her yummy french cookies that have been a Christmas staple for many years. Grandma keeps finding all sorts of cool stuff in her pockets. It must be a magic pocket cause stuff just keeps on a comin' out.

We had breakfast at Denny's this morning and then just hung out at home the rest of the day. Tonight we were treated to a horse and carriage ride to see luminaries and lights in Shenendoah by one of Linda's friends. (They were pen pals for many years when they were young and recently found each other again after losing touch for the past 30 years. As luck would have it, she lives near us and one of her daughters lives near Chris' parents! Weird, huh?) Anyway, It was a lot of fun and the weather was perfect. A little chilly, but not windy or wet. We couldn't have asked for better weather. Clara enjoyed the lights and she got to stand up and look at the horses pulling the carriage behind us.

After the carriage ride, we drove through a neighborhood in The Woodlands that has a lovely, albeit insane, display of Christmas lights. Then we went over to their house for cocoa and snacks and to visit for a couple of hours. They had a few dogs and a toy box full of toys for the grandkids, so that kept Clara occupied. It was a lovely evening.

It's late so I'd better be getting myself to bed so Santa can come! Merry Christmas everyone!

Another Potty Post....... Sorry

You know that potty training thing I mentioned I had started up again several weeks back? Yeah, well that lasted a grand total of about 2 1/4 days before I threw my hands in the air. She peed on the potty first thing in the morning both days, but then never again throughout the day.

Even rewards of M&Ms (which she loved) didn't keep her interested for very long. She got an M&M every time she tried to go, but by the third day she just screamed and threw a fit when we went near the potty. The mere mention of the potty got her all riled up. The only way I was going to get her to sit on the pot was to pin her down, so I felt I had no other choice but to quit, yet again. I tried getting excited about it, acting silly, singing songs, reading books, nothing worked once she'd decided enough was enough. Being that it was right before her birthday and the holidays, I decided enough was enough as well.

Since stopping, I've asked her to sit on it a few times before her bath. Just recently, she started asking to go herself and for the last week or so, she's sat on her potty the entire time I'm in the shower. Yesterday, for the first time, she actually peed on the potty during that time. I stepped out of the shower and saw she had done it and I got excited and cheered and praised her for going potty. She turned and saw what she'd done and started crying. (She's started doing this crying, whiney kind of cry when she sees something that scares her in the slightest. It's actually quite a pathetic little noise.) So she got to watch an episode of Bugs Bunny for going in the potty and we made a big deal about it. Thing is, I don't think she's made the connection that good stuff happens when you go on the potty. We're just not to that point. Rewards seem to be meaningless to her.

I really think that the reason kids potty train so much later now than in previous generations is these darn super absorbant diapers. They're not uncomfortable, so there isn't much incentive to move on. I just need to bite the bullet, put her in underwear and hope it doesn't take a month for her to figure out it's not fun sitting in your own waste. And then plan on getting the carpets cleaned. On top of that, Clara just really doesn't communicate very effectively and so she just doesn't get it yet. Every day now she seems to be understanding and communicating better with us, so I remain hopeful that it won't be long. I think I'm just going to let her ask to go potty for awhile and hopefully she'll transition more easily when I'm ready for this whole potty training business.

While Visions of Toy Stores Danced in Their Heads

Chris' vacation started today (well sorta; he ended up having to work some this afternoon) and we started off the day by heading to storytime. It was kind of a bust though since the regular librarian was out and the stand in was slightly weird. She sang lots of songs, none of which any of us knew and I think she may have had a cold because she was whispering the songs and not changing pitch. Kind of hard to teach new songs that way. Anyway, I had to force myself not to look at Chris because I knew I'd start laughing. It was pretty rough.

We decided to check out Old Town Spring for some lunch and found Hyde's Cafe. It was a great little place; it reminded us of Cafe Texan in Huntsville. Unsanitary, random stuff hung on the walls, a screen door and you could sit at the front counter. We love places like this. I got a burger and fries and they were great. Chris said the chicken fried steak was not so great. Clara said the grilled cheese was very very great. We'll be back.

Then we walked around for a bit. We hit the doll shop. Oh my gosh, doll people are a strange bunch. I've been into this same store several times and they're always talking to the dolls. An employee was putting a doll into a box today and was apologizing for having to do it. Like, seriously close to the dolls face, smiling and cooing at it and talking baby talk. Chris wanted out of there in a hurry. Plus, he couldn't handle the hundreds of eyes watching him from the shelves. Kind of creeped him out.

On our way back to the car to leave, we passed a toy store that I've just never noticed. This is a toy store that dreams are made of. There were riding toys and a 4 foot tall dollhouse. There were doll strollers and a table and chairs set complete with a tea set and play food, ready to be played with. There was a wooden folding pink princess castle and a wooden barn with animals. A wooden pirate ship and a boys castle with catapult and boy kind of stuff. There was an art easel and a table with a track and cars. And you could play with all of it!! We had to drag Clara out of there. She tested out every riding, bouncing, pulling, pushing toy they had to offer.

This was my dream toy store. Not a Dora or Barbie in sight. No Elmo (except for the 3 foot tall Elmo puppet), Disney princess or Blue's Clues to be found. Very little plastic either. Heaven. We talked with the workers and they were sooo nice. One lady was putting together a train table while we were there. She picks most of the girl toys I think. She has 4.5 an 1.5 year old girls, so she knows her stuff. They said their toys are Sarah and Isabelle approved. I highly recommend you check them out if you want a unique toy store. It's so much more quaint and fun than Learning Express. They're called Why Not Toys. We'll be back there too.

Breakfast Conversation

Clara: "Mama, a wahvoo."

Me: (heart brimming with love and pride that my child just said that without prompting) "I love you too, Clara."

Clara: (as she leans toward me, sticking her waffle in my face) "a wahvoo"

Me: (red faced) "That's nice sweetie."

Starting to Get It

We've tried for a long time now to get Clara to try all of the foods that we put on her plate. She doesn't have to eat it all, just take one bite. We've told her several times that if she eats one piece of _____, she can have a treat. It's seemed like a simple enough concept, but she just hasn't understood.

Well, it finally clicked last night. We told her if she ate one bean, she could have an M&M. Daddy even upped it to 2 M&Ms when he could see she was right on the edge, almost convinced. Quite a deal if you ask me. It was so funny to watch. She'd put the bean in her mouth, get a terrible look on her face, gag on it and out it would pop.

Then she'd ask for the M&M, but of course, that wasn't the deal. She had to eat it. We went round and round for half an hour probably. She would go across the room and throw herself down and cry for awhile and then get herself psyched up to come try it again. We would say "Do you want a candy?". She would stop crying momentarily and reply with "uh-huh" and come over to get it. Then we'd hold the bean out and say "You have to eat this first." To say she didn't like that game is an understatement.

Then we thought we'd try some good 'ol peer pressure to get her to eat it. The dogs got lots of beans and therefore lots of M&Ms. You think Clara's going to be discussing some of our parenting tactics while laying on a couch someday? Hope not. I'm sorry to say she went to bed without having eaten an M&M. I know you were hoping things had turned out differently. Oh wait, I take that back. At one point, she bit into the bean (probably on accident) and so Daddy caved and gave her one hoping she'd eat it all for the second one.

Today, the concept seems to be sinking in even further. She's still putting up a bit of a fight though. She wanted juice during lunch, so I told her she could have some if she finished the last bit of milk in her cup. She wasn't having that, but eventually did finish and lo and behold got what she was promised. And then she wanted a treat, so I told her if she finished her lunch, she could have one. She gobbled up the last of her lunch and got a treat. I'm loving this whole being able to communicate thing. And just as I've thought all along, it makes it SO MUCH easier to deal with her.

I definitely don't plan on doing this at every meal, but to teach that sweets are ok every once in awhile if you've eaten the stuff that's good for you seems to be a very good lesson to learn, I would think. Plus, it's the holiday season and there's so much of the sweet stuff laying around. You gotta splurge during the holidays. You just gotta.

Pet Peeve

If you happen to be "one of those people" that I'm about to refer to, I'm sorry. Not for what I'm about to say mind you, but that you have such an irritating habit :)

I can't tell you how much I hate it when a car waits for someone to pull out of their spot in a parking lot. It drives me crazy when I get behind someone waiting for "that perfect spot", when there's an open one four cars further down the line. In my opinion, you should not stop in a row unless you see reverse lights. It boggles my mind when I see a car stopped and there are 4 or5 cars piled up behind them. That is so inconsiderate. Oh wait, I forgot about the people who drive slowly behind you until you get to your car. That's the worst ever! That is so rude.

Today I went to Target and got a coveted parking spot. The second one from the front. When we came back out and got to the trunk, a car started waiting. Hello woman, I've got a cart full of groceries and a toddler. That means that I still have to unload groceries, take the cart halfway down the aisle to the cart corral thingy, buckle in my toddler and get in myself. You could be in the store halfway done with your shopping by the time I'm out of this parking spot.

Now, so you don't think I'm completely insane about it, I would say that if I were by myself and didn't have a cart, that waiting for such a lovely spot would have been acceptable. The bottom line is, don't make people feel they need to hurry for your sake and don't make them wait so you can get a nice spot.

Chris hates it even worse than me. He'll sit in his car fiddling around until the driver finally moves on and then he'll pull out real quick so the guy behind him can have the spot. One time he and a girlfriend sat and ate their ice cream cones while a guy waited the whole time. He's gonna get shot one of these days.

Speaking of, we almost did one time. We were at the mall in Abilene and had done some shopping before watching a movie. We went to put the stuff we had bought in the trunk. Of course, some yahoo thought we were leaving and had followed us down the row. When we turned around to go back in, he started shouting and honking at us. We were looking around to see what the commotion was and then came to the realization that it was us that he was upset with.

He found a spot quickly and was following us back into the mall yelling "You don't do that to people!" and other stuff. Are you kidding me? Are you seriously upset about a parking spot? You beat us back to the door, so obviously you didn't get too bad of a spot after all. I wanted to laugh at the guy, but didn't think that'd go over well. Thankfully we already had our tickets and were able to just slip into the theater to get away from the freak.

So there you have it. That's one of my biggest pet peeves. I'll give you one more since I'm on a roll. Put your shopping carts in the cart corral thingy people!

Holiday Fun

We've been enjoying the holiday season these last few days. We drove around looking at Christmas lights several nights ago and Clara absolutely loved it. She said over and over "Ook Mommy, too toos ights!" Or "Look Mommy, christmas lights", for those of you that don't speak two-anese. She squealed and laughed the whole time, pointing out babies (snowmen), bebe Deedees (baby Jesus), Santa and weedoe (reindeer). I'm loving this whole Christmas season with a little one.

We decorated gingerbread houses yesterday with Glenn, Becky and Leah. It was decided that gingerbread house kits should come with a coupon for a discount on a marriage counseling session, because you need one upon completion of your house. It was fun, but if you haven't done one, believe me when I say your house will not look like the one on the box. Not even close. And if you're enlisting the help of a toddler, it will look even less so like a picturesque little gingerbread house.

So, here are my tips for building a better gingerbread house.

1. Plan on it taking longer than you think. We didn't read the directions first and didn't know how long it took for the icing to set before decorating. You put two walls together and let set 30 minutes, then the other 2 walls, let set 30 minutes and then the roof, which sets an hour.

2. Have some icing that's on the thin side and some that's a little thicker. Ours was thin and didn't hold the walls together very well, but it spread nicely on the roof, unlike Glenn and Becky's thicker icing.

3. Use a smaller decorator's tip for the icing. The kit comes with one, but I think it was too big of an opening for what you're trying to do. A smaller one would have worked great to do windows and detail work.

4. Let the icing set for just a few minutes before adhering candy to the walls especially. You'll see what happens if you don't do this in the picture to follow.

5. Buy a little extra candy to make it more fun.

And here are the pictures. I'm embarrassed to say that I decorated the front, but I feel the need to share the picture with you so that you can build a better gingerbread house. If I can help just one person, then my humiliation will have not been in vain.

Here's my crew eating candy while the other building crew is hard at work. Clara ate soooo much candy that night.

And here's the new house. Unfortunately, it was hit by hurricane Kelsey.

After gingerbread building, we headed to a Christmas party at a friend's house in Houston. The fact that we had a party to attend was partly to blame for not taking the time to let our house icing set properly. We had an enjoyable evening with lots of friends.

Clara just moved up to the two year old class at chuch a couple of weeks ago. She now brings home little crafts that she's done and it's more of a class and not just babysitting. So, today when I pick her up, the teacher asks me if I can send a sippy cup to class with Clara. I look at all the kids at the table and only one of them has a cup. So I say, "Um, okay" and she could sense that I was confused as to why my kid needed a cup.

So she said that some of the kids bring them and when they start drinking from theirs, she wants one. I'm actually of the opinion that at this point, Clara doesn't need to have a drink with her at all times. I've stopped carrying one to restaurants even and I really don't want one in church services. I'm also of the opinion that my kid needs to learn that just because someone else is doing something doesn't mean she gets to. Life's not fair; deal with it. Now, if she were the only one without a cup, that's different and I would probably say "sure, of course."

My question is, am I being anal about this? Chris says I'm not, but I do realize that my noncompliance makes it harder for the teachers. This is the first time I've had to deal with a difference of opinion of someone whom I've put in the position of caregiver for her. Is it rude of me to tell her no, that Clara can just deal with it? Or would it be enough to tell her that I'll take her to get a drink before class so that she shouldn't be thirsty? I don't even mind them pulling me into class if she's being a toot about it. I'll take her home if she's going to pitch a fit about something.

Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there. Hopefully she'll learn real soon that throwing a fit gets her nothing. Twice now we've been in the store and I was going to buy her a Christmas dvd. She had it in her hands and started whining and crying about something, so we walked back to the display, I yanked it out of her hand and put it back on the shelf. To be quite honest, it's empowering when I do something like that. It makes me feel great, like I'm being a good mom. That's not mean, is it? (Don't answer that, Grandma.)

Here she is at lunch today with a bad case of hat head. When she was sitting in my lap during chuch, I wasn't able to get the hair in the back to lay down and it kept getting in my face. I actually licked my fingers to smoothe it down. Never thought I'd do that.

And last, but certainly not least, please say a prayer for our little friend Jake. He's having heart surgery tomorrow for a heart defect that he was born with and will have to stay in the hospital for several days following the surgery. Here he is at the party last night having a good time with a couple of his girlfriends before the big day. (Hope you don't mind that I swiped your picture, Amy.) Aren't they sweet?

Say Cheeeeee-tos!

How to Speak Two-anese

So I didn't know that being bilingual would be a plus when entering this new job called parenting. I am becoming fluent in Two-anese these days though.

Case in point. Several weeks ago, Clara was messing around in our bed and kept saying "a moat" over and over. It was obvious that she knew what she was saying, only we did not. She's said it a few more times since then and I finally figured it out yesterday. I told her, "Say nap." To which she replied, "Moat." Yes! Score one for Mommy. You don't know how long I've been wracking my brain on that one. I was going to post it on here to see if any of my loyal readers could figure it out.

Second lesson in Two-anese was yesterday and I was more on the ball this time. This week is "Meet the Princesses Week" here in our home. Clara has never been very interested in them, so she's never watched any of the princess movies. Recently though, she has pointed them out whenever she sees them and says "Pincesses!", so I figured it was time to get to know our princesses.

Monday was Cinderella and yesterday was Ariel. While watching The Little Mermaid, she kept saying, "Mommy, mee-nigh" and pointing to the tv. After thinking hard for a minute, I asked her to say mermaid, to which she replied "mee-nigh". Wow, I am good. It's kind of fun learning a new language. Fun and challenging. I've needed something to keep my brain from gettin' rusty.

She's learning who Mickey and the gang are, too. We've checked a couple of Mickey books out from the library and when she sees Goofy, she says "Doggy." She's a genius. I didn't know Goofy was a dog until I was a teenager probably. (I also didn't know that Scooby was a great dane.)

Little Ragamuffin

Looking sweet in her little mismatched ensemble.

First Day

We had a great first full day as a two year old. Clara was happy all day. She made it through church without being carried out (for the second week in a row!), she didn't fuss or whine much all day and she got to play with all of her new toys. She was still smiling at bedtime and went down without a peep. All in all, I like two! I hope the next 364 are just as good as today.


Here she is last night before bed with all the loot.

And this evening riding her new bicycle. She actually has the concept down and can pedal a couple of times when you get her started. We don't have a very even sidewalk, so we'll have to take her somewhere so she can really open 'er up. She has the bell ringing down pat! No problems there.

See, I told you she was all smiles. These are her cutie patootie ballerina pajamas. She calls them "eenas".

And this is completely unrelated. Am I the only one who comes across these kinds of pictures when her husband has had control of the camera for, like 2 minutes tops? He's so helpful.

All Partied Out!

Well, the big event took place this morning. Clara had a wonderful second birthday with her friends. Unfortunately, when you combine being as absent minded as I am with playing hostess, you don't get the best pictures. I'm going to have to get pics from those of you that were on the ball.

Here's the birthday girl before her doggie party. We took some pics outside since it was a balmy 75 degress here in the middle of December. (As a side note, Clara was born on the coldest day of the year in Huntsville.) This year we could've had a pool party if we'd have known.

The dress was given to her by Grandma and Grandpa especially for her birthday. A special thank you to Brandon and Erin for coming a few minutes early to help out in the kitchen and take some pictures. (And for saving us by bringing some cheese, because someone forgot the cheese. That would be me.)

I made all of the kids dog ears. Clara was a corgi of course. I didn't get a good one of all of the kids in their ears; this is the best one I got. We're missing three dogs in this picture. Leah got her ears just like Clara's and then her nose painted and then wanted to know where her doggie dress was. I wish I was Martha Stewart enough to whip up a bunch of hand-smocked clothing for all of our guests.

I made a dog house out of cardboard and we did agility dog racing in the living room. There were dog bone shaped sugar cookies and goldfish in dog bowls. We had hotdogs, fruit salad and veggies and dip and I made chili for the hotdogs and for frito pie.

Here's the dog bone birthday cake I made. You don't want to look at it too close up. The powdered sugar did something funky, because the top had white spots all over it. We might need Grandma to give us a photoshop fixer upper on the picture. We just about had a frosting fiasco last night when I tried icing the sides of this bad boy. It started crumbling and getting all gunked up and then my hero stepped up and Chris was able to finally get it to stick. All in all it didn't look too bad and tasted pretty good.

One of the things Erin helped me do the other day was put Clara's name on a double dog dish that she was supposed to use for her cake and ice cream. I totally forgot to get it out. (See first paragraph.) I was so bummed when I remembered. I'll have to take a pic of her eating leftover cake out of it.

Daddy helped Clara open her presents. Here she is with gifts from her family that couldn't be here to share her special day. We missed y'all! And thank you for your thougtfulness. The bistro table and chairs in the picture above was a gift from Bia and Pawpaw. She received lots of great gifts. The hat was from Brandon and Erin and she decided to keep it on throughout the gift opening ceremony.



And the biggie! Is this not the most awesome tricycle you've ever seen? Chris keeps making fun of me for my choice of tricycle, but come on, this is a thing of beauty.

So here's to another year and to the terrible two's! Thank you to all of our friends who helped make Clara's birthday a special day!

It's Late

...and I haven't a thing to talk about, so Chris told me I could post this picture he doctored. I know, it's so wrong. You have to wonder about the circumstances surrounding the original picture. Night night.

Christmas Dress

Here's Clara looking quite festive in a dress that I wore when I was a little girl.

Hmmmmm

Turns out this daily posting thing is going to require some thought. Bummer.

Since we're smack dab in the middle of the Christmas holiday, I've been pondering how I feel about this particular topic. I've been listening to KSBJ, the Christian radio station, because they're playing Christmas music non-stop. (This is done in hopes that someone will tune in and keep listening after the new year.)

They of course mention time and time again that "Jesus is the reason for the season" and "Keep Christ in Christmas." I hear people comment about the new trend in saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" in an attempt to remove Christ from Christmas.

On the other hand, I know of Christians who refuse to acknowledge any "Christian" aspect of Christmas because Christmas is not in the Bible and most traditions are actually derived from pagan holidays. If I understand their argument correctly, as long as you're not talking about the birth of Christ and mangers and whatnot, it's ok to celebrate Christmas. Put up a tree, go see Santa, just ix-nay on the aby-k.

I guess as with most issues, I kinda fall in the middle on this one. We're not commanded to celebrate Christmas. We don't know what day Jesus was born on. Christmas isn't in the Bible, so I don't feel I should be judged if I want to only celebrate it as a secular holiday. Is it so bad if I don't have a nativity scene in my front yard and I only listen to songs about snowmen and Santa Claus? Can I not say Happy Holidays to a Jewish co-worker who celebrates the season differently from me?

At the same time, I see nothing wrong with celebrating Christ's birth as long as you don't view it as something that's a requirement of the Christian faith. I feel quite confident you could shun Christmas entirely and still be a faithful servant. I do believe that Christmas is way too commercial and should be centered around giving and goodwill towards men, which are very much Christian ideals, but I guess I just don't feel the need to get bent out of shape when baby Jesus gets taken out of the spotlight. For the record, I feel the same way about Easter. No command, derived from pagan traditions, but still fun to go buy a new dress, take a few pics with The Bunny and hunt for eggs. I don't feel it has to be anything more. If you want to use it as a time for reflection, then by all means, do. We can all use a little introspection now and again.

And while I'm thinking about it, I love Halloween. There, I said it. I'm a Christian and I love Halloween. I don't need to call it a "Fall Festival" or a "Harvest Celebration". It's Halloween, it comes from pagan traditions and it's fun! (For the record, I don't worship Satan on Halloween. Nor do I sacrifice babies. I just had to interject that.) The only difference between it and Christmas and Easter is that Christians didn't take it over and make it a Christian holiday too.

I might be convinced to give up Halloween if someone created another day of the year, I don't care when, and let me dress up, dress up my kids, maybe my dogs, and eat candy and caramel apples. Let my kids wear their costume to school because by golly it's just fun to dress up! Just tell me the day and I'll switch.

Happy Holidays everyone!

:)

Meanie

Clara's been exercising her right to say no lately. Very frequently I might add. Tonight after dinner, I took off her clothes because she got food all over them. Since she was a little chilly, Daddy got a blanket and snuggled up on the couch with her. I thought I'd join in the snuggle.

Wrong! She told me "No" and pushed my face away when I got close. I know when I'm not wanted, so I went to the other end of the couch. I then decided to mess with her and took a small corner of her blanket (that didn't uncover her in the slightest) and put it on my leg.

Wrong! I was scolded again and the tiny fragment of cloth was yanked off of me. Then I asked if I could have a hug.

Wrong! I was, yet again, told "NO". But she gave her Daddy one. We were laughing so hard, but I was crying on the inside. Ok, not really, but it is a sad state of affairs when you're rejected by your two year old. Time and time again.

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Clara's learning all of her Christmas words. She knows Santa, reindeer and christmas tree, but she's slightly confused about what a snowman is. Leah has been carrying around a snowman and calling it her baby, so now everytime Clara sees a snowman she says, "Baby!"

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I've been busily preparing for the big birthday extravaganza. I won't go into details about what all I'm planning, but it's going to be really cute! You'll have to stay tuned for the pictures. I am really enjoying the planning part of this birthday, although it's turning out to be a lot of work. I hope I'm able to make each of her birthdays special just simply by the thought and care I put into them. I hope I never just throw something together without thinking. It's the one day of the year I want her to know just how special she is to us. I don't have to spend a lot of money to show her that, just my time and energy.

Having said that, I need to go get busy on birthday stuff. If you haven't noticed, I've been on the ball with my posting. I'm going to aim for a post a day in December.

Wake Up Call

I was having a bit of a hard time pulling myself out of bed this morning. Clara's been waking up between 6:30 and 6:45 for the past week or so and that's just a bit too early in my opinion. Anyway, she was just up playing and Chris was getting ready for work while I laid in bed. Our internet was on the fritz, so Chris climbed up into the attic to check on watever it is that's up in the attic that's internet related I suppose.


To fully extend the attic stairs, it's easiest to open the door to the guest bedroom, which he did.* While he was up there, I hear an excited toddler exclaim "Bicycle!". Oh no, tell me I didn't just hear what I think I did. I go running into the guest bedroom and there she is sitting on her totally awesome, brand new pink tricycle that she's not supposed to see until her birthday. Thank goodness her play kitchen that Santa asked us to hide for him was still covered up with a sheet or there's no way she'd have left that room without a fight.


Oh well, at least I know it's going to be a hit. I just pulled her off of it and shut the door and she didn't even retaliate so I got lucky.


And there's one more thing that's been on my mind for several days now that I've been meaning to post about. I have three words for you. Candy. Cane. Kisses. They're soooooo good. You have to go buy a bag (or two like we did). I got my first taste of the sweet confection in a goody bag that the sweet Erin gave us at the Christmas party. Chris was able to have his first ever Hershey Kiss! He had never opened a kiss before. What a milestone! He's a fan and the reason we had to pick up two bags last night. So thank you Erin. Thank you.



*I should mention that it was my fault that she saw it. After Chris put it together on Saturday and covered it up with a sheet, I had to go in and check out the finished product. I saw no need to keep it covered since we keep that door shut all the time and it wouldn't be there too long. Silly me.

Splurge!

Am I the only person who goes out and splurges on payday? Chris and I keep a very tight budget as we're trying to pay off all of our debt, so we don't get much personal spending money. The money that is budgeted for me and Clara to spend as "we" choose is gone on the first day of the month usually because I know months in advance what it's going to buy.


I also tend to do a little splurging on non-essentials that first day or two. My splurge this month? Well, after we went to see Santa on Friday, Clara and I hit Hobby Lobby and a dollar store. I needed to pick up a few things for her birthday party. At the dollar store, I bought a pair of reindeer antlers for the dogs and a can of pringles. I also stopped by Sonic and got a Vanilla Dr. Pepper on the way home. That was my splurge for December. A whopping $3.50!

While we were in line to check out at the dollar store, I told Clara that these were reindeer antlers for the dogs. She put them on and started barking. Ummm, ok. So now she puts them on and crawls around on the floor barking like a reindeer.

And then Saturday morning while Chris and Clara were at breakfast, I braved the crowds and headed to Wal-Mart. Since we're having family here for Christmas, there were a few things I needed to pick up. I bought a butter dish. We've been married for almost ten years now and have never owned a butter dish so I felt it was time. I also bought a spatula. We actually have 3 spatulas, but two of them are only half a spatula. One just broke a few weeks ago; the other has been broken, but continuously used, for probably five years. I felt it was time to retire the halfies. I bought several other things, but won't bore you with the details. The butter dish and spatula stories have filled my quota for boring details in this particular post.

While I'm on the topic of shopping, I don't know what the deal was on Friday, but everywhere we went that morning was jam packed. Why on earth were there 20 people in line at the same time in Hobby Lobby at 11 am on a weekday? They had 5 registers open. At Hobby Lobby! When we left the mall before 11, the parking lot was almost full. Toys R Us was packed too. Hello people, shouldn't you be working??


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Clara has had a couple of really bad food reactions on her face this past week. Earlier in the week, I gave her pasta with some sauce on it. She pretty much painted her face with the sauce while my back was turned and her whole face was red and swollen. And then today after a lunch that consisted only of fruit and a few chips, she looked just as bad. She was rubbing her eyes before I cleaned them off, so she probably got fruit juice all in them. Poor girl.


I'm going to bring a couple of the pictures I've taken of her after meals to her two year checkup and make sure it's nothing to be concerned about.

All Dressed Up.....

....with someplace to go! We so rarely get dressed up, I felt obligated to post a picture of us all cleaned up this evening. And me with eye makeup. Lipgloss even. We had Chris' company Christmas party at Macaroni Grill and had a lovely time eating way more than we should have.

You Want Me to Sit Where?!?

Not a fan of the guy in red. This is the best I could get. There was no way she was going to sit in Santa's lap. I had to peel her off my chest just to get this one.

And here's a flashback to 2006. She wasn't quite sure of him then either, but she at least humored me for the ten seconds it took to take a picture. And look; same Santa. I absolutely love an authentic Santa beard. No imposter here!