A Very Healthy Christmas

I would just like to say in my defense that it has not yet been a full year since Christmas. So this post isn't too tardy. Also, my life is complete chaos, all the time. So...I think you should stop complaining and feel pretty lucky this blog still exists.

Our Christmas, if I remember correctly, was fairly lovely. Christmas Eve was a bit of a flurry of busyness. We spent the better part of the day with my dad and his side of the family. Well, we spent a decent chunk of time in the car, then we spent time with my family. It was probably the biggest Christmas gathering we've had in quite a while. I got to see many of my cousins from that side, which is rare. Normally it's just my brother and I. We have the littlest kids, by a long shot. But there was a little boy there who was I think five or six, so Ben had a little pal. And Miss Emma just got passed around.

Once the kids started melting down, we hopped back in the car and headed back to our corner of the world, straight to church, which was not the plan, but whatever. The service was lovely. I think we may have had dinner at some point, but I'm not sure. Then we drank hot chocolate and opened our Christmas jammies, a new tradition. Too bad it was so late and we rushed through everything so we could get our overtired little ones to bed. But I took a picture the next morning, so there you go.

Christmas morning we opened a veritable Mt. Everest of gifts. Matt's family mailed all the kiddos' presents down, so there was a lot of loot. Ben was gracious enough to help Emma open and play with all of her presents. What a giver. The rest of the morning was spent playing and cooking.

That evening my mom and her side of the family came over. It was small but nice. I decided to start a new tradition (kind of inspired by my sister-in-law--thanks Becki!). I had everyone write down their favorite part of the year and what they were most looking forward to in the next year, and at dinner we all shared. Then we went to town on the presents. I had a little theme for gifts this year (at least for this group) of gifts that give back. The ladies got jewelry from 31 Bits (except my mom, who got Toms because that's what she wanted, and it worked with my theme anyway), and the gentlemen got hats from Krochet Kids. I was busy cooking and child-wrangling, so my brother's girlfriend (Dare I say future sister-in-law? No pressure or anything, J, but seriously...please marry her. Or whatever, it's up to you.), who is a photographer, took pictures. I took some too, but we're mostly going to focus on hers. She also gave me a bunch of filters for my camera and taught me how to use them. Have I mentioned yet that I like her? But no pressure.

So that's Christmas. Or at least what I remember. The best part? No one was sick. No ERs, no Urgent Care. Suck it, holiday plagues.

State of the Union

Confession: I did not watch the State of the Union Address last night. I know, I know. I should get my history credential revoked. But I was too busy holding a crabby Emma while trying to play board games with Ben during the early evening. After the kids went down I watched two TV comedies and went to bed at 8:45. And you know what? I don't even feel bad. And I wish I could get the gist of what was said, but the only things I'm seeing on facebook are comments about Hilary's headband, as well as a hefty amount of bad-mouthing the leader of the free world, but for nothing specific other than "Obama sucks." Obviously my friends are very educated. (Sorry if that is offensive to you. But seriously--have whatever opinion you want. Just make sure you back it up with reasons.) So today during my lunch I'll just have to read the thing. I'm sure it's somewhere on the internet. That's what the internet is for, right? That and twitter, I guess.

Let's talk about playing board games with Ben. I know he's three, so my expectations should be pretty low. But it's interesting to see which parts of Ben's split personality appear in which aspects of life. He's pretty OCD. Everything in the house has a place, and God help you if you ever reorganize. Since birth, you could set your watch to his sleep/eat/whatever rhythms (his sister, on the other hand, will laugh in your face if you ever try to so much as find a pattern in her day much less a schedule). If any part of his day changes, he will talk about it all day, and probably for the next week. He loves rules and order. BUT there's also a feisty independent streak in there. If he doesn't like the existing rule, he will change it. And by that I mean, he will literally make a new rule. Like, if I say we don't eat on the couch, he will say, "No, little boys need to eat on the couch because they need to." Then he will go in the kitchen, get a snack, sit on the couch, and look me straight in the eye while he takes a bite. Then he'll say, "See? I told you." Anyway, back to the board games. He's very much a "we play my way" kind of kid. Any time we play with his toys and take liberties, he freaks out and tells us that's not how to do it. Since he's little and sensitive, we often don't push it. But more and more we're trying to get him to play our way. Not because we play with dinosaurs better than him, but because he needs to learn to be less, um, controlling, and play the way others want to play. Because if he doesn't, he won't have any friends. Board games is a great opportunity to practice this. So last night we're playing Chutes and Ladders. The OCD side of him wants to put all the player pieces on the board where he sees pictures of that player. But I had to get him to spin the spinner, count out his spaces, and just leave his player piece there. It was a little like doing that thing where the pigs are running around all muddy and you have to catch them. Every time he'd start to move all the pieces to what he believed to be their designated spots, I'd remind him that we have to leave the pieces alone and only move them where the spinner tells us to move them. Then he'd argue. Then I'd stand up with Emma and tell him that if he didn't play by the rules I didn't want to play with him. Then he'd cry and tell me to sit down. Then we'd try again. After about five or six rounds of that, he settled into a good playing rhythm. Then he lost the game. I thought we were going to have a def-con five meltdown, like on Sunday when he popped his balloon and sobbed "I'll never be happy again." But he was good. He just wanted to play daddy, so that "I can win and daddy can lose."

Let's see...what else...

I'm starting to convert to The Dark Side. I feel dirty. Hopefully by the time our contract is up in November I will have slept some more, and I will be thinking clearly once again. Or...maybe it will get worse. Let's just see what happens.

Work is kicking my butt. Teaching all day, coming home to small children (one of whom is, to say it nicely, "high-maintenance"...), and generally attempting to manage my life is exhausting. I really wish Emma would sleep. I mean, that would solve a lot of issues. But about work...I'm trying some new things. I got fancy and made some powerpoints. I even uploaded them to my school website. I'm feeling pretty impressed with myself. Also, the Middle Ages is in full swing, which means things are generally insane. And the jog-a-thon is coming up. I think we all know how excited I am about that.

I have two days off coming in February. I think for one of them I'll play with my kids, and for the other I will drop them off somewhere else for the day and sleep for eight hours.

Last week I sat in front of the TV with the rest of the uncooked cookie dough and ate it while I watched Teen Mom. And I feel no shame.

My Random Things I Need to Do list is pretty staggering (and eclectic) these days. A sample:

-upload pics onto Costco
-print out pics for framing
-print out pics for album
-go to Costco and pick up all the pics
-start Emma's scrapbook
-mail packages that have been sitting by the door since before Christmas (yes, I live across the street from the post office, shut up)
-knit something for the 46 friends that are pregnant or just had babies (or buy a bunch of Target gift cards? Maybe I can underachieve just this once...)
-buy a soccer ball for Ben's new soccer "team"
-order t-shirts for homeroom
-put together box with old Ben stuff and new gifts for friends who just had a baby
-clean and organize the many parts of the house that still haven't been properly moved into yet
-put together the Ikea thing for my closet
-go to Ikea/Target for the random stuff we need for the new house
-paint the new house
-first buy paint
-try to retrieve the pictures I accidentally deleted
-update my address on everything
-sort through Emma's old, current, and future clothes and box up and return/give away everything to its various destinations.

...and on and on FOREVER.

Now I'm going to go watch me some more Teen Mom. It kind of makes me feel better about myself.

January, Part A

Emma has an ear infection. Once we started the antibiotics and pumped her full of Tylenol the nights got better. Except last night, when she mistook 4:00am for an appropriate time to start her day. We played the "sooth then put back to bed (wide friggin' awake) ad nauseum" game until about 6, when she appeared to fall back asleep for reals. Just in time to sleep for 30 minutes or so until I need to wake her to leave. Awesome pants. But at least she's feeling better. In other news, a week or so ago I started to have this issue:

Turns out it's stress-induced eczema. And it hurts like Hades. The doctor prescribed an ointment and a reduction in stress. Hahahahaha. But this week while Emma was sleeping better I had no outbreaks. Until this morning. Maybe I should switch to this bedtime story.

Despite every last one of us being sick, we've actually had a pretty good week. Not that I have many pictures to prove it--I haven't used my big camera while we try one more thing to recover the lost pictures. But I have a few shots from the auxiliary camera.

B is on a robot kick.

Emma is on a cute kick.

Outside.

hugs

B rocking daddy's Krochet Kids hat.

Happy Friday!

A New Year

I don't have a lot of pictures of January so far. Not because I haven't taken many, but because I accidentally deleted them yesterday. Item #8745 on the list of "Strange Things That Shannon Has Done Lately." It's an extensive and eclectic list, including but not limited to: only shaving one leg and being confused because I was pretty sure I shaved both, putting the food processor together like a drunk person, and many other things, some of which I don't even remember. I'm trying to have a sense of humor about the whole thing. But on a more serious note, as it turns out, three fragmented hours of sleep a night for five and a half months will mess you up, and it can actually do some very real and not-so-funny damage to your mind and body. So Item #1 on my list of New Years Resolutions is to get help from the medical community.

But for now, instead of shame spiraling, I'm going to try to focus on the positive.

Let's spend a few moments talking about Matthew, Husband of the Year. His endless patience and nurturing have kept me from drowning, and I love him more every day. He has silently taken over dish duty, helped me de-tangle my yarn (I don't really know how to tell him that I've decided to scrap that project anyway...but either way, I will need to use the yarn on something, and I wouldn't be able to without his sacrifice), spent an enormous chunk of his precious freetime trying to find a way to recover my deleted pictures, and taken a lot of the nighttime Screaming Baby duty. Plus he's a smokin' hottie. I really scored, marriage-wise.


You'll be happy to know that Benjamin is slowly but surely recovering from the nightmare that was the final months of 2011. He is almost back to his wonderful self. The last day of this week I was able to just drop him off at preschool without him needing to be pryed off of me. He is willing to leave the house, and this morning he's even doing so without me, just him and Daddy. In light of where he was a month ago, that is huge. He still has some ugly bouts of general anxiety, sadness, and separation anxiety, but on the whole he is sleeping better and full of joy.

Miss Emma is a mixed bag. The nights are bad. Really bad. And she still hasn't put on an ounce of weight in the last few weeks. But there is positive...she's sitting up all on her own (an early sitter like her big brother). The last couple of days she has been eating a little bit of solids, so hopefully that will lead to some weight gain (and sleep?!?!?!).

And I haven't completely sucked. Once I re-acquainted myself with the food processor, I was able to whip up some baby food, should Emma decide she wants to eat. I've kept up with the laundry. And I read my Bible one day. So...winning.

Here's to a new, and hopefully better, year. Cheers.