A Mama's Blog
Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having , in spirit, become a child again at Christmas time.– Laura Ingalls Wilder
Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for a Happy New Year!
Today, Ryan and I spent practically the entire day together, which has been what I think has been the first time this has happened since Cole was born- 19 months ago.
My mom is in “the big city” for a visit, so we met up with her, and my sister for some last minute shopping. My mom also didn’t do any Christmas shopping before she arrived, since she didn’t want to pack all that stuff!
Ryan told me before we left, that he really “needed some mama time.” We met my mom, sister, sister-in-law, and niece, at a pretty cool toy store.
Our local toy store has a train table set up, but this toy store, “downtown in the big city,” had a train table, a Lego table, a pirate ship table, and a doll house set up. Ryan was so happy just playing. Of course, it was crazy busy, and I didn’t venture away from where he was playing, so I didn’t get to look around too much, but did manage to find this neat, realistic toy trumpet for him, that I know he will love for his birthday. I even managed to “sneak” back and have it beautifully gift wrapped.
My mom and I wanted to get some play food for Cole, since he will be receiving a cash register from Santa 🙂 , and a shopping cart from my brother and sister-in-law. I had seen a play food set from Melissa & Doug at our local toy store about a month ago, and when I went in yesterday, they were completely sold out. I even tried a few more stores in my town with no luck.
So my mom and I weren’t very optimistic we would find the set we were looking for, but we were thrilled when we saw this: the set we were looking for. It even had 12 pieces, and the set I had seen previously, only had 10 pieces. I know this says for ages 3 and up, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what could be a choking hazard. Each piece is solid wood construction, and there aren’t any lids that come off, and the pieces are big. Maybe it is something on the crate. At any rate, I know Cole will just love playing with these.
Back to Ryan…we had so much fun together. He kept kissing me, holding my hand, and thanking me for bringing him along. He told me he was having a fun day. He was so good too- he didn’t cry, or otherwise fuss when it was time to leave the toy store. I told him we would go to Jamba Juice and get a smoothie, since that is his favorite treat.
We stopped where we thought there was one, but it had closed. So he had to wait, until we got to another mall, and he didn’t whine or fuss. He fell asleep on the way to the mall, so I stayed in the car for 15 minutes or so, and let him sleep a bit. When I woke him up, he was fine, and we went to get our smoothie.
He climbed up to a tall table, and kneeled on his knees, and just grinned from ear-to-ear. He would sip his smoothie, and smile at me. At one point he said, “I love you Mommy…this is the best day ever.” That just melted my heart.
Before we left to meet back up with our group, I realized how much I love this little boy. He means everything to me. As he grows, he doesn’t need me as much as he did, or even as much as Cole needs me now, but I am so happy that he can tell me when he does want to spend time with me. It is nice to be reminded that he still does need me, but now it is in different ways, and it is so fun to enjoy him as a little person- as a little boy now, instead of a baby.
I realized how much I miss us just having time one-on-one. We will definitely have to have another Mommy and Ryan day soon, but today was the highlight of the entire holiday season for me. Spending quality time, with my sweet boy- it doesn’t get better than that!
Our weather is calling for snow tomorrow, and then some on Sunday. We still have a few inches left on the ground from previous snowfalls, so by all accounts we will have a White Christmas! Yay!
I have been thinking a lot these last few weeks on how I can make our Christmas a little “greener” as well. It has always bothered me how much waste gets produced during the holidays, before it became “mainstream” so to speak. Whenever our families were done opening presents, there was at least one big, huge, trash-bag stuffed with wrapping paper and gift bags. Not to mention the bows, boxes, tissue papers, ribbons, and cards.
My mom was really good about teaching us to save ribbons and bows, so at least we would try to reuse these items. I guess it got in my blood, because I am always trying to scavenge the reusable bows, ribbons, and now gift bags (Gift bags weren’t used too much in the 70’s and 80’s when I was growing up 🙂 )
But, even with that, there is still a ton of waste. I could never save wrapping paper- let’s be honest. Unless there is a freak of nature unique person, who can open a present with out crumpling, tearing, or creasing wrapping paper, it just isn’t practical to save it and try to reuse it. It always looks horrible, and it is never the right size. Believe me, I’ve tried! This was before I had kids, and there is no way any wrapping paper that my boys even look at, let alone touch, will be in any shape to be reused.
Amy had a great post earlier this month, on all kinds Green Tips for the holidays. One of my favorite ones, was running used wrapping paper through your paper shredder, and using it to stuff gift bags. You could do this year round as well, and use the shredded wrapping paper in gift bags for birthdays, baby showers, etc. It occurred to me that even if you can’t use all the shredded wrapping paper in gift bags, it could be used as packing (instead of Styrofoam peanuts or bubble wrap) if you are shipping a package. I’m sure there are other uses for this idea too.
I really love using gift bags. Not only are they quick to assemble compared to wrapping, but they can be reused several times again. I doubt I have bought a gift bag in several years. I save all gifts bags given to me, and reuse them. This also can save you some money too.
Since I have used a lot of my “stash” up of gift bags, I realized I may be running low on gift bags and wrapping paper. I decided not to buy any more wrapping paper, and make due with what I have. I bought some gift boxes for a few presents, and wondered what kind of wrap I should do for them. Then I realized that they already had Christmas pictures on them, and they look nice without wrapping paper. Do I really need to “waste” paper for a box, that a kid will be ripping off in a few seconds anyway? No. So I am going to tape the boxes, and add a ribbon to them, and I am done, and hopefully saved a few resources in the process.
For Ryan and Cole’s presents, as well as a few others, they are in large boxes. I cleaned out my brown paper bag stash, which multiplies faster than rabbits, under my kitchen sink. I am going to cut them all up, and tape them to fit the boxes, and then put ribbons on them as well. I’ll have “brown paper packages tied up in strings,” and will be reusing something. Hopefully, I’ll be saving a few more resources.
If you have any other “green” holiday tips, I’d love to hear them. I think a lot of people doing a few little things, can make a big difference.
Finally, if you get a Christmas present from me without wrapping paper, or wrapped in brown “recycled” grocery bags, no- I didn’t procrastinate and run out of paper, but you will know ahead of time, why your gift is wrapped this way, and hopefully you will be happy, you are a participant in my green Christmas. 🙂
I attended our annual cookie exchange on Sunday. My sister started this, what we figured out, seven years ago. We always have the “die-hard” people that attend practically every year, (unless they are sick, or working) and then there are some people that have come off and on over the years, and there is always someone new, that someone else invites. It is a nice chance to catch up with people, that I don’t see very often, and meet new people too.
My brother’s ex-girlfriend, C., hosted the party at her house this year, and it was a lot of fun! C., and my sister worked really hard to make sure there was lots of snacks, wine, and oh yeah- sugar cookies to decorate.
We didn’t have as large of a turn-out as we have had in years past, but it gave us more room to work, and it was a nice chance to talk to people longer. I always feel the need to talk to everyone at parties, so this gave me the chance to do that. My 8 month-old niece also showed up for the last half, and I was thrilled I got to hold and play with her.
The exchange works like this: each person is asked to bring 3-dozen cookies that are already done, and ready to exchange. Then at the party, sugar Christmas cookies are baked, and then the group sits and eats, drinks, and talks, while we decorate the sugar cookies. We have really gotten this part down to a science- at the very first party, we actually tried to BAKE everything at once. I think that first party was like seven hours, because we all had to wait to use the oven. We even did this the next year, until my sister had the stroke of genius to figure out to have everyone bake their cookies BEFORE the party. 🙂
When all the sugar cookies have been decorated, all the yummy snacks are eaten, and the bottles of wine are gone- the party is over. Then we all load up our containers, and plates with the cookies. They make great gifts to give to co-workers, neighbors, friends, and people that you want to do something nice for. I usually leave a big tin for our milkman and give a plate to our tenant as well. This year, C. made some beautiful favors in holiday mugs, with candy, and I think I will end up giving that to one of Ryan’s teacher’s aides at pre-school.
I love having some home-baked goodies to give to people on hand, and there is NO way I would have time to make all the different goodies that show up. I was up to 2am one night this week, working on my cookies as it was. I decided to do something a little extra special this year, and made gingerbread snowflake cookies, with homemade lemon icing. I have made these before a few years ago for my family, and it required me to purchase a pastry bag for the icing. I never used one prior to this, and haven’t since. It makes me feel very Martha Stewart-ish.
Joe was out of town all last week for work, and I wanted to start on them sooner, but I just knew, the moment I started decorating them, one of the boys would wake up, and then I’d be in a mess. So I waited until Friday night, when Joe was home, to make and decorate all of the snowflake cookies in one session- whew! I ended up with 4 dozen of them, and here they are: (drum roll please!)
The second picture are of my two favorites. I intended to do a different design on each cookie, but after about half an hour into designing them, I was running out of ideas, and started to repeat the designs I really liked. Still, no two were the same.
On Saturday night, I made two batches of toffee, one with nuts, and one without. I think that is my favorite- it is so good, and so easy!
I was really happy everyone at the party liked the gingerbread cookies, and I hope whomever ends up with my snowflake cookies enjoys eating them too.
I am beyond being in disbelief, but Cole is sick again. He started on Sunday night with a high fever. At one point it was around 103. It finally broke Monday night, and then on Tuesday, he started to break out in a rash around his mouth and diaper area only.
He actually had his follow up appointment that was rescheduled from last week, for his croup and lung issues on Tuesday. His lungs had cleared up, and our doctor, Dr. B., said the rash looked like a yeast infection from the antibiotics. He suggested I give him some Kefir, to bring up the good bacteria count in his gut. He noticed that his tonsils were inflamed and debated doing a step throat culture, but we decided not to right now. Most babies don’t get strep throat before age 2, according to Dr. B.
I am supposed to call Dr. B., back tomorrow and let him know how Cole is doing. He said if he still had a temperature, and seemed like his throat was still sore, he’d call in another antibiotic, but at this point I think he is over the worse of the sore throat, and he hasn’t had a fever again.
The rash is bugging me though. Yesterday it started to appear on his back and upper legs, but very faintly. My mother-in-law pointed out there are a lot of baby viruses that result in rashes, and we probably just have to wait it out. The good news is, the rash isn’t bothering Cole at all. He is totally happy, and doesn’t even know the rash is there- he isn’t trying to scratch or pick at it. I guess this is a case where it truly looks worse than it is.
After telling one of my friends about this today, she pointed out that it could be roseola. After reading up on it, it probably is- but maybe a milder version, since Cole doesn’t have the rash over his entire body, and only around his mouth and diaper area, is the rash red. So maybe he does have roseola, and then the yeast infection on top of that as well- who knows anymore!
I am at my wits end with Cole getting, what seems like every illness! He just gets better and then one day later he is down with something else. Roseola says kids come down with it 10 days after they are exposed. I don’t even remember what or where we even were, where he could have been exposed.
I am going to work with my friend who is an herbalist, in trying to build his immunity up. She mentioned that he may just need some more immune support, and when I told my boss today what was happening, she reminded me how weak babies this age immune systems can be.
She said her nephew who is three now, was sick every week from the time he was 1 until he was 2.5- she said she wasn’t kidding. That made me feel a bit better, but I hope that is not in store for Cole. This really bites, one sickness after another.
