Thursday, December 29, 2011

Big Boy

Milo is currently getting tucked into his big boy room for the first time tonight. I realize the parenting "experts" say this important step should have been done months before the new baby's arrival and not, as in our case, weeks or perhaps days. Still we are feeling a huge sense of accomplishment in that the room is ready and the baby is still in my belly. Now we just have to hope the adjustment goes well. He is very excited about the big boy room and bed (a twin sized one which he looks adorably itty bitty in), so I am crossing my fingers that it will go well.

In celebration of the big boy room, I wanted to jot down a few quick notes about our big boy before our little guy makes his appearance.
  • He's a lover that one. A friend told me today that yesterday at a play date, he stopped playing and told her he was just going to go check on a baby in the group. He went and stood at the baby's bassinet, said hello and returned to playing. Likewise, he has been very protective and sweet of me lately. I was taking a rest yesterday and he came up to check on how I was doing, he petted my arm and said feel better Mommy.
  • He talks quite well now. I can almost always understand him and others are starting to not have a tough time with it either. Of course pronouns and verb tenses sometimes trip up. I often hear do instead of does / my instead and I and vice versa. One of my favorite language mess ups I hear is that he always says "I love you too" even when he initiates the phrase.
  • Milo, for all his sweetness, is also stubborn. There are times when it is far, far easier to just give in rather than battle with his strong will. There are also times when his stubbornness is quite amazing to watch. We have a ladder that leads to our attic. He loves to go up, but is scared to come down. One night, we watched as proved to himself he could climb back down that ladder. Even if he was crying and fighting us the whole way, he was going to do it. And he did.
  • The stubbornness also means that potty training is commencing on his own terms. If he decides when and where he sits on the potty, things go quite well. If we suggest it, there is quickly a fight. So he's about a quarter of the way potty trained. We've had some great moments and some not so great moments. I'm not pushing it too much as I know there is likely to be regression once the baby is born.
  • Milo's favorite toys right now are Thomas the Train items. He loves the books, DVDs and all variety of trains. He often races around the house pretending to be Belle the fire engine train and will assign us train roles as well. I know more about the Island of Sodor than I ever thought I would.
  • He is also very much into Buzz Lightyear and to a lesser degree Toy Story. His Buzz jammies remain his favorite. In fact, we just bought the next size up because the first pair had not only seen better days, but also was getting too small. He's wearing these new jammies in his new room tonight.
I am so excited to see Milo take on the role of big brother. He has so much love and a keen sense of adventure to share with the little one. Each morning, Milo comes into my bed for a little cuddle. He will often say "so Mommy what we do today" and if I don't have an answer, he will have a suggestion. And that's just one more thing I love about him.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Another Christmas on the Books

I've said before that I often get a holiday hangover of sorts following the big Christmas celebration. This year, the feeling that I somehow messed up Christmas crept up on me before Christmas day even transpired. I was up late on Christmas Eve night, not putting together toys or finishing up details for breakfast the next morning, but ordering jammies. Matching pajamas for next year. For all of us. At 11:30 on Christmas Eve. While putting Milo to bed, I realized I never bought the requisite winter / Christmas pajamas for Christmas morning and it bothered me.



It also bothered me that we didn't put up a tree until the afternoon of Christmas Eve. And even then the tree didn't get ornaments - just lights and a star. It did the job, sure, but it was missing the magic.

I think the magic, is what I was missing last night on Christmas Eve. Of course, the magic wasn't missing for Milo. He was still excited to spend lots of time with us, Pa, GG and his uncles. He excitedly opened presents and played with new toys (big on Cars, Toy Story and Thomas the Train this year). For both nap and bedtime he requested bringing new toys to bed with him and I know he feels like one lucky and loved little boy (he so is).

Being two weeks away from having a baby on Christmas is exhausting. I couldn't do as much as I wanted to. We moved the Christmas day celebration from our house back to my parents. I'm glad we were still able to spend the day together, but I missed taking the burden off of them for a day.

We're still en flux figuring out our own holiday traditions - where do we go, who do we go with, where is Santa in all this, what about the reason for the season. Each year I feel like we put the puzzle pieces together a bit more. Some things have to go, but the really important parts stay.

Next year will be all different all over again. We'll have two kiddos to share the excitement and love with. And matching jammies for our family.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you and yours felt the magic and enjoyed your time together.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Christmas Thoughts

I have mentioned before how I am a little ambivalent about the whole Christmas thing. I mean I like the lights and holiday specials on television, but the overall consumerist nightmare gets to me. Plus, while I am vaguely religious, Chris really isn't anymore. So it doesn't even make sense in our house to focus on the birth of Jesus as the reason for the season. If anything, I can get down with the Solstice - celebrating the return of light over darkness, yes, please (and this thought of course can be carried over into the nativity story). Santa is a whole different issue. I don't feel right about totally ignoring him - he's everywhere, but we're not into the whole naughty and nice thing either.

Milo has seemed to pick up on all these mixed emotions and messages. Thinking it would be a good segue into Christmas, I bought an Elf on the Shelf book and figurine. At first Milo was excited about it, but as we started reading the book together his face got darker and darker until he ripped the book out of Chris' hands and threw it. What was I thinking? Milo doesn't like Santa and here we were reading him a book about an Elf who was going to live with us and spy on him in order to report back to Santa. It's messed up.

Today another Christmas hang up happened. We were grocery shopping when Milo saw a train set. Ensue 35 minutes of crying his eyes about wanting the train. I tried to patiently explain we weren't getting it. He would hopefully cry that maybe we would get it next time. And then the cashier said maybe he would get it on Christmas if he was good. Seriously?

So now Christmas is all about getting presents and according to Milo it is also when Buzz Lightyear comes. So, yep, I think that pretty covers my thoughts on the matter.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Stationery card

Extra Sweet Tidings Holiday Card
Create custom Christmas cards this holiday at Shutterfly.
View the entire collection of cards.
This is one of the three holiday cards I designed (and will maybe send out) this year. I love online cards and found this one to be especially "sweet" with Milo's little face showing how proud he was of making the gingerbread house.