The Beginning of Christmas

Today, with Thanksgiving behind us, my Christmas season begins. I don't get why Thanksgiving is getting shoved aside to make the Christmas season come earlier. I try to avoid Black Friday every year because people are generally rude in stores to begin with but they are worse during the holidays and, in my opinion, there are no sales worth dealing with those crowds. But I'm disgusted with the people that would skip Thanksgiving dinner with their families altogether to sit in a lawn chair outside Wal-mart so they can be one of the first ones sprinting toward the toy section to wrestle over sales. And it just seems to get worse every year. Thanksgiving is becoming less of a day about enjoying the company of your family and becoming more the day before Black Friday. I, for one, would rather pay full price than deal with those crowds and lines.

I loathe Christmas shopping. Because the same thing happens every year, every time. Every. Single. Time. I know what I'm going to get people (I generally even keep a list) and I head into a store for any given item on my list. I'm happy, upbeat, excited about seeing whoever the gift is for open their present on Christmas morning and then it happens. I get railroaded with the unhappy shoppers and rude people running into you without an "excuse me" or the person at the cash register that wants to complain about their day and how many hours are left in their shift and all my Christmas spirit is depleted for the rest of the day. When did that become the holiday norm?

BUT as much as I hate shopping for the items, I LOVE giving them (and wrapping them!). My mom had a knack for getting us things that we didn't ask for but they always perfect. And I love to try to do that too. And this year...I've started early! I've already gotten some Christmas shopping crossed off my list because I'm determined not to let the crowds get to me. I want to spend the holiday season being happy, decorating, playing with Grant, and doing some yummy holiday baking. The only problem with starting the shopping early is that I have to wait that much longer to give them. 

 So who out there has already started their shopping? And what is everyone asking for?

Thankful

I have had little ambition or opportunity to blog, so I've been taking a little break. I have plenty to write about (and pictures I want to post). But we have one computer and it's generally occupied. So I usually take that as a sign that I should be working on one of my many unfinished craft projects, watching something that's filling up the DVR, or reading.

But I saw something the other day that I wanted to share. I saw it on pinterest and at this time of year I find it especially important. Growing up, our family used to go around the table on Thanksgiving and we'd all have to say at least one thing we were thankful for. This reminds me of how thankful I am and should be.


 The past few years has been tough on my family. But as much as we've been through, I still know how lucky we are.

Although I no longer have either of my parents, I am thankful for the way they raised me and I hope that I'm becoming someone they would be proud of. And even though Grant will never know my parents (Nana and Grandpa to him) in person I hope that I can help him know who they were and how much they wanted to meet him. And I'm so thankful for the family I have that that can help me make my parents a part of Grant's life.

I'm thankful for health. Mine, my family's, and my friends. We've had had a year full of various sicknesses (mostly Grant) but, for the most part, it's all been pretty minor and I'm thankful for that. I know that there are so many people taking care of very sick loved ones and I'm thankful that all my loved ones are happy and healthy (Including Aunt Bonnie who had a procedure done yesterday and is now home resting. We're hoping that will take care of some recent problems for her).

That leads me to how thankful I am for my family friends. I'm so lucky to have a supportive husband, a sweet little boy, and loving family and friends. And I don't know where I'd be without all of them. They've all gotten me through so much.

I'm lucky to have the life that I have and all the people in it. People who love me and support me and make me want to be a better person...and some who make me see the person I don't want to be. I'm lucky that every night when I go to sleep it's in a warm house and in a comfy bed with a full belly.

I try to stay positive. It isn't always easy when you see people taking for granted all the things they have and hearing them complain about the most minimal things. But I try to stay thankful every day (not just at Thanksgiving) because, in spite of what the past two years have been like, I see something every day that makes me thankful for what I have.

The Halloween That Wasn't

I love Halloween. Mostly because it's in the fall and I LOVE fall. Unfortunately Halloween always gets put on the back burner. The state fair eats up what feels like most of my October and so I don't always have the opportunity to do all the fall decorating and baking that I'd really like to. And that happened this year too. But by Sunday, October 30th, I had the house decorated (or as decorated as it was going to get):

Kind of lame, I know, but I was short on time.

I had even carved a pumpkin...which is my least favorite part of Halloween. However I love my reward of harvesting the seeds and roasting them. Yum! :)

Level of difficulty: easy. I'm pretty bad at pumpkin carving.

I had even cooked Grant a spooky dinner on Sunday knowing I wouldn't have time to do it Monday with the trick-or-treaters coming.

Mummy dogs and mac-n-cheese!

He was only mildly interested in the hot dog. But the mac-n-cheese
was gone in roughly 3.5 seconds. He's all about some pasta.

I was still debating Sunday night whether we'd take Grant around the neighborhood Monday. But Grant decided for me. During his bath he got chills real bad and they didn't stop until after I had his PJ's on him and wrapped him in a blanket. His temp was 101 something. Around 3 a.m. Husband woke me up to tell me that Grant's temp had gone up to 103. So that was that. Grant stayed home from daycare (with Husband so I could go to the office) and he was feeling just as crumby when I got home as he was when I left. So we only had our porch light on for an hour or so and we only got three trick-or-treaters (all of which I think were teenagers). And, needless to say, Grant did not even get dressed up let alone parade around the neighborhood in all his cuteness. But if he had dressed up, he would have been a dragon:



Pretty much the cutest dragon ever.

Complete with wings and an adorable tail that
flops all over the place when he runs.

Today has brought some improvement with what the doctor says is a virus and an ear infection. Oh, and he's teething. This kid just doesn't half-ass anything, does he?

14 Months

As usual I'm late with my monthly updates on Grant. At least by now the few people that read this blog have most likely begun to expect it. I am amazingly busy for someone who is really quite boring. So without further ado, my 14 month old Peanut:

Seriously cute, right?

 Not much has changed since my last update. And this may be fairly quick because I'm taking care of my sick little guy today. Thanks to a doctor's appointment today we know that Grant weighs about 21.5 pounds. So at our next well visit (15 month check-up) we're going to get the doctor's opinion about changing Grant to forward facing in the car.

He seems to be going through a bit of an awkward phase with clothes. 12 month shirts are too small but most 18 months are too big. That's easy to deal with - we just roll the sleeves up. Pants are another story. Most of the 12 months are too short for his long legs but the waist is great because he's so damn scrawny. But if we do 18 months...they fall down when he walks. So for now we're just dealing with how he looks in the 12 months (when I say "we" I mean me because Husband doesn't care).

Grant is doing good with the whole milk now. We no longer have to flavor it to trick him into drinking it. Sometimes we still put stuff in it as a treat (he loooves some chocolate milk!) but at least now he'll drink it without any flavor stuff. And he's doing pretty well with food. He's becoming less picky - which I think we need to thank daycare for. However, if given the choice I think he'd eat macaroni & cheese (or any pasta dish, really) for every meal.

And we've begun Operation: Bye-Bye Paci. It's by no means in full swing, we still need it sometimes as much as Grant wants it. But we're starting small. Keeping it from him during the day. If he finds it and puts it in his own mouth, we take it away. If we're in a store or restaurant we don't let him have it unless he's tired or moody and about to cause a scene. Like I said, starting small. Right now we're just trying to get him used to not having it so much. We've regressed slightly in the past couple weeks because he hasn't felt well and the paci calms him when he's fussy. But we're all relying on it less, so that's good.

That's about all for now. I've got a sick toddler that needs to stay hydrated :) (Pedialyte is pretty awesome, by the way.)