Christmas

I am so so so behind in my blogging! We have been busy having fun with friends and family and of course lots of new toys from Santa. Then after the gift extravaganza, we have been shopping our brains out! I have never in my life seen Bill shop with so much gusto. He usually acts like he is allergic to the mall, and has about a 2h time limit, but he loves a deal and deals there were this year. So shopping at Costco or an outlet mall is something he can tolerate. We went to the outlet mall on the day after Christmas and he literally bought a years worth of work clothes at fantastic prices. I am getting a little ahead of myself.

Back to Christmas. This year was fantastic, the best ever since Lana totally GOT it! She was so excited the night she asked, "Mama, is Santa coming tonight?" and I said, "YES HE IS!!!" We left Santa a plate of cookies (thank you auntie Rumi for the awesome recipe) and a carrot for the reindeer, along with a note that Lana dictated :"Dear Santa, I am a good girl. Merry Christmas. Thank you." Christmas morning she asked, "Mama, is it Christmas?" "Yes, baby, it is!" We woke up Baba and Grandma Dianne . They rushed downstairs to turn on the lights on the tree and got their cameras ready. Lana came downstairs to her new dollhouse (which is pretty awesome, I might add) and looked SO confused. She was thrilled that the furniture in the dollhouse moved around b/c in toystores they generally have the furniture glued down so it doesn't disappear. We opened gifts for an eternity and finally decided to save some books and coloring books for a rainy day--she was totally overwhelmed with so many new things. Its not that we even bought her too much . But every family member and close friend sent her a few things which added up and then it just got to be out of control. Anyway, she was so excited and loved that Santa left her an orange in her stocking and despite the candy cane consumption, she took a monster nap after all that excitement.

Later Bill's parents came over for dinner. I made a fantastic turkey recipe with pancetta and I don't even like turkey all that much. It was a perfect day. So perfect that it even snowed--big fat Christmas snowflakes. I will leave my thoughts about the snow for another post, once I get my photos unloaded, but suffice it to say that we got a lot of snow--too much really and I am glad its gone. But it was festive, if nothing else.

So that was Christmas in a nutshell. Here is Lana's photo for our Christmas card. I am hoping to catch up with blogging once things get back to normal. I send my best wishes to you all for a Happy New Year and I hope that 2009 is filled with happiness, peace and love, from our house to yours!

Are we there yet?

Now that we have this sleeping thing pretty much down, Lana knows the routine:
3 books,
2 songs,
lights out, ceiling fans and classical music on,
Big hug, kiss and squeeze
"goodnight Lana, see you in the morning"

Sometimes she tries to stall with,
"Mama, I got a question.."
"what is it, baby?"
"ummm, there is my play kitchen, my blocks, my books"
"that's not a question, now go to sleep" and I walk out.

Last night, she says,
"Mama, I got a question..."
"what is it baby?"
"Is Santa coming tonight?"
"nope, not till Wednesday night"
"what day is it now?"
"Saturday, we have 4 more days"
"only 4? That's not too bad" Then she smiles and rolls over, content as can be.

She is just getting cuter by the minute.

Unintended blogging break

Whoa, its been a while since my last post. I think of new things to blog about often, but I just have not had much time lately to sit down and type. I think its the holidays, coupled with the fact that during my downtime I have my mom to sit and chat with over a cup of coffee. Which, by the way, I love.

So this post will be a sort of hodge-podge of goings on here in our household.

Mom has been here a couple of weeks now and all is well. We chat all day long and watch girly tv during Lana's naps. My mom has been keeping my house all neat and clean even though I tell her to stop and sit down, but I am not complaining at all. She has even taught Lana how to pick up her toys which is something I have never been able to accomplish. We have also been Christmas shopping and errand running, well we were doing all of that until the storm hit.

We got a monster snow storm--about 4 inches of snow, which promptly turned into ice. 4 inches is not a lot of course, but it is if there are no snow plows or salt trucks! Holy hell, this town is incapacitated--schools have been closed all week and driving is like ice skating. I read in the paper that it hasn't been this cold in 10-20 years! My poor mom feels like she brought the cold weather from Buffalo. Lana is enjoying playing in the snow, making snow angels and just digging in it with her shovel from her sandbox. We spent a totally festive and fun day at my friend Jamie's house. She made cutout cookies and let the kids decorate them. Lana decorated 2 cookies and then started eating them. After we went sledding in their front yard. We all had so much fun, especially my mom.

Since then, we have pretty much been stuck in the house. Lana doesn't dig being at home for extended periods of time--she gets bored easily, so she has been whiny, which drives me bonkers! We made it to the Children's Museum today which helped burn off some steam.

All in all, we are doing well, despite feeling a little cooped up. It is so nice to have mom here. I hope her job search picks up after the holidays although as we are all too well aware of, this is clearly not the ideal time for job hunting. One funny thing that has been happening to my mom is that everywhere we go, random people have been commenting on how beautiful my mom is! Its happened more than once now and my mom is like, "Wow, people here are SO friendly!"

Update on the sleep issues we have been having: We finally just did CIO with Lana and it was so worth it! I was really resistant b/c when we tried before it was a disaster--she got out of bed and was rattling the gates and screaming like a banshee. This time, she stayed in her bed and screamed like a banshee. The difference was this time she only did that for ONE night. Okay, that one night was 30 minutes of pure hell for me, but it was only ONE night! The next night was 5 min and then it was 2 yells and that's it. To quote the Little Einsteins, "I cannot believe it!" My kid never does anything by the books. When we did CIO when she was an infant, it took like a month at least. Anyway, I write this not to brag b/c believe me, I have nothing to brag about--I have been doing all sorts of wacky things to get this kid to sleep for the past 9 months or so, but just in case anyone who reads this is wondering whether CIO would work on a toddler and they are just so frustrated with all the song and dance associated with getting their kid to "stop talking, put your head on the pillow and close your eyes before I lose my mind and start yelling". But it feels good to have made some progress on that front.

So that's it, my hodge-podge of a post.

The phase I have been dreading

Lana has recently formed the same response to the following statements:
Eat your dinner
Put on your shoes
Let's go potty
Grandma is resting
Baba is working
Brush your teeth
Your friend Alyson is sick
Pick out three books

Her response...WHY?

Not just a little curious "why?" Nope. Its an incessant string of WHY?WHY? WHY? Holy hell, I am losing my mind. After my third creative response to "WHY", you better believe I am saying, "because I said so" Oh jeez, I have really lost it now.

Getting ready for my mom

My mom is moving here in 2 days! When I say "here", I mean it literally, she is moving into our guest bedroom. She is looking for a job and already has an interview, which is pretty impressive given the state of the economy and joblessness. When she finds something stable we will help her find her own apartment, ideally somewhere close to both work and us, or maybe somewhere in between the two. I cannot express how happy I am to have her close, to have Lana grow up with her and for me to enjoy the relationship that I have always had with my mom.

I am cleaning/organizing as much as I can with a 2.5 year old in preparation. My mom is very organized and meticulously clean. I did not inherit these traits, but I don't want her to have a seizure when she walks into my house and sees the clutter, layers of dust and sheer disorganization, so I am trying to at least try.

My mom has never moved out of her hometown, so this is a HUGE move for her. She has only visited Seattle for one week in the middle of winter where it rained incessantly. Having moved myself so freakin many times, I know that when you first get to your new home, its weird. You don't know where you are going, where the grocery stores are, where the best place to get gas is, etc. It just feels uncomfortable for the first 6 months or so. I want to make the transition for mom a little easier and I will try to get her oriented with the layout of the land as best as I can. I also really want to have a festive holiday season this year. I want to take Lana to see Santa. I want to bake cookies, hang lights, decorate the tree, listen to holiday music. My mom has had a bunch of crappy Christmases so I want this one to be different.

Its not going to be all smooth sailing for her or for us as a family, I am sure. Living with another whole generation is a huge adjustment for all. Bill won't be able to walk around in his boxers, he will be eating a whole lot more salad than he would like to and we are going to have to get creative about TTC quietly (the whole concept of that totally weirds me out). But I know this is a great adventure and new start for my mom and this will be a new beginning for our family.