What we have been doing this week:

1. Working.

2. Christmas with my family.

3. Sledding.  (@ Leslie and Adam's with yummy dinner to follow).

4. Going to the movies.

5. Going to birthday parties and witnessing lots of people having babies.  

Gender Reveal

We had Christmas with my mom's family and as part of the surprise we did a gender reveal present to find out what we are having.  We took a quick poll prior to the opening and the majority said girl.  AND....

IT'S A BOY!

Secret Santa

So Santa isn't remembering to come every day, but when he does it is lots of fun.  

Today he didn't bring an ornament but a fun project that involved rolling marbles with paint and gluing on lot of odds and ends to make a snowman.

Maybe we will make a real snowman today too.  It snowed last night.  Makes me feel like Christmas break is here.  But I still have to work tomorrow so that puts a little cramp in the relaxation.

My birthing team had their home visit and I feel more prepared for the birth.  I have a great support network.  And though I am a little uncomfortable physically, I really like being this big with baby.

Dear Santa, Please don't bring

Link has been awesome this year about getting presents.  Every time he gets a gift he says "I'm so lucky," and he really means it.   He is also aware that not all kids have toys and that he has a lot.  We are starting to try to get rid of some toys but it is a struggle, for me more than him.  I love toys and have thought often of opening a toy store, but Link plays with mainly one or two things.  I also wonder if baby #2 might be interested in the toys.  So maybe storage is the best place for toys right now.

The thing that Link really wants this year is a C3P0 Lego figure, but he is working on getting one himself with tickets he receives for being helpful.  He is happy with whatever he gets though and when people ask me what he wants I often just think of things he wouldn't like.  There are a few sensitivities and lack of interest that he has that are pretty present.

So, if Link were to write a letter to Santa, I think it would go a lot like this.

Dear Santa,

I am so lucky, I have a lot of toys.  I don't really even need anything.  But, what I would really like to have is a Lego C3PO.  Please don't bring me any coloring books (I have yet to see him use more than one color or have any interest in staying in the lines), band-aids (We were able to get him to wear ones when he needed one by buying star wars band aids, but other than that he would rather not wear them), anything like slime or goo that would get my hands dirty (this kid doesn't even like finger paint, sand, or food that makes a mess, or bubble bath and bath toys (while baths have gotten a lot better, he has no desire to stay in water for long periods of time and won't even enter a tub with bubbles.

Santa questions

Here is a creepy photo Christmas photo of Link this year.

I was looking through some posts from last year and found some questions I asked Link about Santa.  So I thought I would do them again this year.  I think I liked last years better: Last Year's Answers


1. Have you ever met Santa?  No
2. Is Santa real or pretend? Pretend
3. Where does Santa live?  Don't know about that
4. Does Santa ride in a sleigh with reindeer? Yes
5. Do the reindeer fly? Yes
6. Does Santa bring you anything? Yes, but its a secret
7. When does Santa bring you gifts? Don't know about that question either
7. Does Santa ever come to your house when you are sleeping?  Yes
8. Does Santa leave presents under your tree? Yes
9. Who brings you other presents? I don't know
10. If you could ask Santa to bring you something what would you ask for? Lego C3po and Darth Vader with a Cape
11. What are elves?  Elves are elves

We have yet to visit Santa this year and I don't think Link minds.  They actually built him a little house in the park this year but we have been gone every time he has opened his door.

This Weekend

This weekend was pretty low key.  We decided not to go do anything out of town and just focus on hanging out with each other and some friends.  And Link decided to wear his hoodie everyday this weekend.

Paint Chip Trees with gem stickers.  Notice all Link's tree faces.

The Borax worked.  Crystal Snowflakes.  But it also ruined the glass jars.

The main thing I did this week was move a book shelf downstairs and paint our stairwell.  This stairwell is driving me crazy.  I can't get it right.  I painted it dark blue and I liked it but it seemed a little dark.  So I painted the lower portion this yellow-orange color and now I think it is too bright.  I do like the blue steps and I am wanting to do a yellow-orange chevron on the fronts of the steps.  But maybe this lower portion walls just needs to be white, or blue again.  I need some input before I throw myself down them.

The other thing we did this week was go to Brian and Frederique's Friend's Christmas Party.  We have gone almost every year and it always a lot of fun.  I love their retro apartment and I love Brian's cooking. We had things like venison on jelly and toast, smoked fish with radishes on crackers, etc.  We use to be much closer with this group but life has changed.  I think we are the only one with kid(s). One thing that remains the same is that this group always has the same sense of humor, which I love. It is a type of sarcasm that pierces but is just too funny.  Example: Brian was making coffee because there was a lot of beer sampling and some people had to drive home.  Chris Hadley, jokingly referring to himself says "Yes, some people have the minds of the future to mold tomorrow," and Jake, who actually just met Chris for the first time jumps right is "My. my, do we have someone who thinks highly of himself here." There are a lot of jabs that just make everyone crack up.

And the last thing I did this weekend was show Link some birthing videos.  I youtube-d videos where toddlers were watching births so I could make sure they were not too insane.  I wanted to know if Link wanted to be at this birth.  After watching them Link told me I could have the baby in the downstairs tub and he and dad would play legos upstairs.  Then they would come down.  After I told him Dad would be with me he decided a friend with Legos would be a better place to be.  However, watching the videos had a reverse effect on me.  I was reminded of that feeling to give birth and feel a little out of control.  And now I'm terrified and don't want to do it again.  The only time I really wanted to give birth again was the week after Link was born.  Having just done it I knew I could do it again.  Now it's been too long.  I don't remember a thing.

Link has been so sleepy this weekend.  We are all slightly battling some illness.  One night we laid down in bed and I told Link I would go get his pajamas.  I was gone about 30 seconds and when I came back he was asleep.  I thought he was faking it at first until I remembered he never fakes being asleep.  He slept through the night.

More Advent Ornaments

So I have not been keeping good track of the ornaments from which day we made them but we have been continuing to do them.  Successes include easy things like painting wood push puppet blanks and putting fruit loops on a pipe cleaner and bending it into a candy cane shape.

We tried salt dough which was pretty much a disaster.  Everything broke.  A week later they are still not hard and I cut the water content in half because the first recipe gave us salt and flour soup instead of dough.

Yesterday we made snow globe scenes using some village scene pieces, plastic cups and paper plates and cotton balls.

Tonight Link and I made pipe cleaner ornaments that you keep in borax overnight and they get crystals on them.  I guess we shall see.

P.S.- Whenever Link wears a shirt with a hood, he wears it all day.  And I thought to myself about how when this NKOTB shirt was bought some 20 years ago, I don't think I ever thought I would be wearing it over a big prego belly.

Found

I finally found my wallet.   I snuck into the school auditorium and checked where I had sat for a play three weeks ago.  Yup, there it was.  I had asked the school and they had foun nth in, but I was pretty sure it was there.  Link had been a squirmy butt that night and I left flustered.

I also cleaned a box out from he attic and found a tiny Lego light saber which I gave to Link.  He was so excited.  Probably about 5 times within an hour he said "thank you sooo much mama, I was looking for that alllll day."   Bryce is pretty sure he lst that particular Lego piece before link was even born.

Day 3 and 4

I didn't take pictures of day 3.  Link went with me to the office. We shredded pretty paper in the paper shredder and made a pattern paper chain.

Day 4 was reindeer candy canes.

Advent, Ornaments, Christmas Tree

Each advent I try to do something different with Link.  One year we did a new Christmas activity each day and kept a journal, last year we opened a new Christmas book each day and read it.  This year I wanted Link to do something with just me since he seems to be becoming more of a daddy's boy.  I've also always wanted to do crafts with Link but he doesn't like getting messy.  So what I came up with is making Christmas ornaments each day.

Day 1: Pipe cleaner trees with bell ornaments and a star

Day 2: Tape Resist Painted Candy Canes

A bag is left on the table each night with supplies and Link gets a note asking him to help make ornaments to give away and decorate the tree.  The first note was a little Santa heavy and I found myself changing the words as I read it to him.  I am not big into teaching that Santa is God-like and can see everything or sneaks into our house at night or things like that.  I prefer St. Nick as Santa and we treat him like St. Valentine and St. Patrick.  A legendary figure that people write about and dress up as.  Santa never brings Link presents, but St. Nick leaves items in his shoe or maybe stocking this year.  So far the ornaments have been a success.  I am also recycling books from last year and putting them in the bag to read when we are finished. 

Dad read the first book- Pop Up 12 Days of Christmas

Link's choice for a perfect tree.

TIMBER!

Also on the 1st of December we bought our families first real Christmas tree.  There is a local tree seller just down the road.  All trees only $30 no matter what size.  We were not sure how to do it, but the people there were super helpful.  I loved looking until we had to decide on actual tree.  I had Bryce almost cut down three trees and backed out.  Finally I just threw my hands up and said "Bryce, I probably won't like whatever we get when we get home anyway, so just get whatever."  He decided on a soft white pine.  And guess what?  I LOVE it.  It is the perfect height and is just beautiful.  When we got it home Link and I decorated the tree.  He was very excited to put on the star.  Every year we pick a theme to go with Christmas.  We have done Hawaiaan, Rudolph, The Grinch, Forest, and Charlie Brown.  I usually also have a substantial amount of decorations bought from throughout the year as well.  Well, not this year.  So as I went through the ornaments and thought of the advent activity I decided on a "Homemade" Theme.  Every ornament on our tree this year is either handmade or has some special touch from us. 

Star on Top

The other thing that we are working on this month is being helpful.  Link often says no when we ask for help, so we started giving him tickets when he is helpful.  He puts the tickets in a jar and when he fills the jar he will get a new Lego character.  Now he hears the word"'helpful" and jumps right on top of things.  He helped me wrap presents and put them under the tree.  The last present was already taped in a box so he didn't know what was inside when he wrapped it  When he went to write who it was too I told him it was for him.  In a round-a-bout way of asking to open it he looked over at the tree and said "I'm sorry, but there is no more room under the tree."  Unfortunately I found some room.