Christmas Wrap Up. Better Late Than Never.

I am late to things these days. Time slips away from me and I am constantly playing catch up! I guess that is life with an 11 month old. So I am late with my holiday post but I am posting it anyway!

It has been more than a week since we all said "Merry Christmas!" and wrote about our holiday with family and friends. I am doing it today because I can.

We don't have family in LA or California for that matter so we flew to Texas for Christmas with the families! We spent our days visiting lots family and friends. Our nights were spent eating home cooked meals and drinking wine. We baked, we ate the baked goods, we made more. We shopped on the dreaded Eve of Christmas and survived to tell about it. Parking mayhem at its best! We talked about our past Christmases and just enjoyed watching the baby look at the Christmas tree and lights.

Gifts we wrapped and tucked under the tree. I was so giddy it was ridiculous. This was Baby D's first Christmas and I had high hopes of some crazy excitement from this kid. Then I realized he is 11 months old! He doesn't know what's up! All the paper was piled in the center of the floor after all the gifts were unwrapped and he liked playing with that better than tearing it up. Did he like opening gifts? Hell no! He didn't even bother with ripping paper! How could he not want to rip something? He is 11 months old AND a boy! Don't they destroy everything????? He rips my magazines up like he's a human paper shredder!

I grew up opening presents under this tree. There was something special about having Baby D do the same.

This year we added one more stocking to the mantel.

We also started the tradition of leaving cookies for Santa. The hubs and I took these down like champs!

Santa left a letter for D and an ornament.

After time in South Texas we went on to Dallas to visit B's family. Traveling with an 11 month old is nuts. He doesn't like to sit still these days and would rather roam the plane then sit on my lap and play with the food tray. We do what we can!

He is a trooper though. He has been on 6 planes in the last month and a half. Needless to say we are ready to hunker down at home for awhile!

While in Dallas we visited the Gaylord Texan Hotel. This place is AMAZING at Christmas. It was gorgeous! They had so much to do for little kids. We will definitely be back there when he is a little older.

He did enjoy all the lights and the trains though!

Christmas 2010 is in the books and it was a wonderful one full of memories to last a lifetime. And actually I couldn't ask for anything more.

The Great SPACE Debate.

This is my second guest blogger since I started this little blog of mine!!

I heart Jenny more than wine and chocolate. AND that is a lot! We have become Twitter friends and my go to for advice when it comes to babies. We have little guys about a month apart. I was thrilled when she said she would guest blog for me because I think she is one smart mama, as well as a great business woman!

Check out the super adorable shoes she makes for babies and kids and give her some love on this post!

The Great Space Debate!

I remember thinking back after my first daughter was born about when to have the next one. I enjoyed having her all to myself so much - it was a tough call, but I guess God decided for us and BAM, a second little girl and 19 months from her older sister. Fast forward to the future and 9 years after I had my very first daughter and I am at it all over again – he just turned 1. I think I’ve seen both sides pretty well – so call me an “expert” on the subject. HA!

So the great space debate…Have them close together or far apart? I’ve got both going on here and I seriously cannot even decide which is better, so let me weigh your options for you and YOU can make the decision on what is best for you. My first two babies were 19 months apart. When my first daughter Rose was 10 months old, I was knocked up again. Which, for me, equals sheer exhaustion, pukiness, the crankies, etc. And it also meant carrying around 2 babies (one on the front and one in my arms) – until Rose FINALLY decided to walk at 16 months (and at that point I was 6 months preggo). I’ve always harbored some guilt because I felt like I jipped Rose out of being an amazing parent to her only for a couple of years, since I felt like crap and couldn't really function to my fullest {Martha Stewart} potential. On top of all that, life was just a giant cluster-eff and I fell into depression while pregnant with Ella. Which meant more doctor visits and B 12 shots weekly. I don’t remember too much of that pregnancy and that part of Rose’s life (the whoa-is-me part will end shortly, I promise). Fast forward to Ella’s birth – a great birth and a great baby. So easy going, so mellow, so go-with-the-flow – a dream really! But again, they will ask questions of their childhood and I feel like I have no recollection of it. No joke - I remember cancelling my Martha Stewart Living subscription because it would come every month, mocking me, and it destroyed me that I just didn’t have the time to do any of it. It wasn’t until Ella was able to interact with Rose and they could “play” together – at about 18 months. They were able to pre-occupy each other for longer bits of time giving me a chance to get something done, here and there.

But I will have you know that when both kiddos can talk – they will. And the demands will start, and won’t stop until they can do for themselves. And that is when I REALLY wanted to pull my hair out. Then there’s the mommy guilt from not giving the second sibling extra attention too. You just can’t split yourself into two people – so guess who gets all the guilt? *I’m raising my hand high in the sky*

Fast, Fast, Fast forward to just over 7 years after Ella was born and I’ve got two independent girls who are in school full time, who can get themselves dressed and get their own breakfast. Who require more emotional maintenance then they do physical and I’m back at square one, and with a boy no-less..changing diapers and dealing with the physical demands of boy baby-hood (those of you with boys – Get what I mean here!). Once again second guessing myself (it doesn’t stop just because you’ve had kiddos before – I think we will always do this as moms), deprived of sleep, poo on my fingers and sweet potatoes in my hair. But this time I feel blessed to have spent so much one on one time with Oscar for his first year. When I say one on one, I don’t mean Rose and Ella aren’t in the picture, it’s just different. The demands of a infant/toddler are way different than a pre-pubescent girl (Lord, help me!). That, and the girls LOVE to help – when they are around they would do anything for that little guy. It’s like he has 3 mommies. Is this route easier? Maybe, in the beginning it is instant gratification. Will it be easier when he is a full blown toddler or even at the age of 4 or 5, when he is home with me, doesn’t nap and will have ONLY me to entertain him since his waaaay older sisters are at school? Probably not! (Lord, help me again!)

So what is the right time? I guess you trade problems for problems with either option. But obviously I survived and am here to share my story with you. And in the end I am sooooo blessed to have 3 gorgeous, healthy, happy kiddos – so I must’ve done something right.

What did you decide to do? Or what are you contemplating doing? Any thoughts on my story?

Cookies and Milk For Santa.

Late last night we put out cookies, milk and a note for Santa from Baby D.

It was quiet and B and I sat together on the couch looking at the plate of cookies, knowing good and well we needed to eat them! After all, he would know that Santa hadn't been to our house if the cookies were still there!

Um, hello! He is 11 months old! He has no flippin clue!

We ate them anyway, downed the milk and sat back and looked at the fireplace and wondered what next year would be like. We will have an almost 2 year old who just might understand what Christmas means and what Santa might bring. The joy in his eyes when he sees presents under the tree for him! The traditions we will start that will be filed in the memory bank for a lifetime.

We also realized we will have to eat a lot of cookies FOR MANY YEARS!

This morning Baby D discovered that all the cookies were gone and Santa left a letter for him.

Santa, or mom and dad, need to get their ass to the gym after devouring all the cookies!

Merry Christmas friends!

xoxo

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree.

It's Christmas time in our little humble abode! This is my favorite holiday and I go ALL OUT every year. As I was growing up, my mom did the same. There was not a shortage of Christmas spirit in our house. Our house was lit up like the Griswalds. Well, maybe short a few strands of lights, but it was lit up!

We now have a baby and wow do things change.

Adding a baby to the family last January means that I have a little guy that is all over the place! And a little guy that has little hands that like to grab!

This year I decided I didn't want to mess with a big tree, worry about ornaments being broken, a tree knocked over and most off all I didn't want a freakin baby gate around my tree. Our place is SMALL and add a baby gate around a tree and we are talking claustrophobic.

So I dug out our small little "Charlie Brown" tree, as I so lovingly call it, and fluffed it up and made it a tree for Baby D!

I bought cheap, soft ornaments at Target and covered the tree with them in case we had a tree incident! I also had a few ornaments I bought when we found out we were having a baby.

I love owls and D's nursery is owl themed so there are a few of those on the tree, as well!

I will always have a tree for Baby D and any other kids we have. I love this tradition and want to keep it around for as long as they think it is cool! I am guessing the teen years will be hard to sell!

Baby D and his tree.

We called Baby D "The Peach" until he was born. I read Baby Center and The Bump while pregnant, and they always compared the baby week to week to fruits and veggies. I could never keep up with what he was from week to week so I went with "The Peach" from week 16 to week 40!

Target finds.

We all know and love Emily from Uff Da Designs. She makes super adorbs headbands, hats, and clips.

I was so excited when she agreed to make a little owl for Baby D!

More owl finds.

The little red owl on the left I found on Etsy.

The one in the middle was from Target in their big bin of cheap ornaments. I think this guy was a dolla! Holla!

The owl on the right was made by Robin also on Etsy.

Baby D got Elf on the Shelf for Christmas. I am so stoked to do this next year.

We are now in Texas and my mom decided she wanted to put up a big tree for the baby.

Guess who is distracting said baby from tree?

Not me!

Merry Christmas friends!

xoxo

Wordless Wednesday. Uh-Oh Spaghettio.