Holiday Hangover

The house is a mess, Lily is jacked up on

chocolate and present overload, Daisy is slightly over stimulated and I am ready to curl up into a corner and ignore it all.

All in all it was a great Christmas. It was complete with all the essential "F's" - Family, Food, Fun and a couple f bombs along the way. It was a little cr

owded and a little chaotic at times but we managed to host a pretty darn good Christmas dinner.

I tried my darnedest to plant the Christmas magic seed in Lily's little imagination. She put out toast with peanut butter :shrug shoulders: , milk and carrots for the reindeer.

"Santa" left a trail of magic glitter dust around the presents and footsteps in the snow. I'm not entirely sure she fully believed (she thought aunty and uncle had left the presents) but the sparkle was in her eyes as she saw all the stockings full of goodies and the

presents under the tree. She was a little concerned

about who ate the toast and thought we should make some more. She was a pro UN-wrapper in minut

es and helped everyone open their presents. She exclaimed

with excitement after each one "Oh, that's my favorite" or "just what I needed" or "that's my very best ". Of course Daisy just took it all in as only a 3 (almost four) month old can. She smiled at all the right times and slept when needed.

My favorite part was the moments where I found myself just watching with pure joy and contentment. The moments where I realized that everything that I have ever needed and dreamed of was right here. The Keurig and Lululemon gift card rounded it out ♥

Christmas Crack

Sugar, presents, sugar, excitement, sugar, parties, sugar, decorations, baking, shopping .... It all adds up to children (& adults too) cracked out on Christmas. This week the daycare kiddos and my sweet angel(?) have been manic!! It has been an exhausting week. Between Christmas stress preparations and diffusing the constant melt downs, I am ready for a stiff egg nog.
Every year I tell myself "Next year I will simplify. Next year I will be better organized. Next year I will not get caught up in the hustle and bustle if commercialism. Next year I will not get stressed about the little things". But when December 1st rolls around, last years craziness has been forgotten like the workout DVD's from resolutions past. It is a vicious cycle.
Push all that aside I really do love Christmas. The lights, the music, the excitement. This year is bound to be the best yet. Lily "gets" it more this year and has been excited about Santa. She loves all the lights and decorations. She's been on a sugar high from us baking together for weeks.
I want to start some great holiday traditions with the girls. Things that as the years go by they can always rely on. I never really had that and it's really important to me that they do. If anyone actually reads this I would love for you to leave some of your favorite holiday traditions in the comment box!
Cheers and Merry Christmas!



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Is there an Exorcist in the house?

Dear Mommy Gods, please give me strength, patience, and an unlimited supply of booze.
We are in nighttime H-E- double hockey sticks. Lily used to be such a great sleeper. She would pretty much put herself to bed much to our delight. For 1.5 years I would nod sympathetically while friends would yawn through their night time struggles, while I was bursting at the seams with delight and pride. I guess all the wood I knocked on must have been particle board. A series of events (and maybe a little karma) have turned my night time angel into a night time devil. I literally thought her head was going to start spinning in circles on Saturday. I've never witnessed a freak out to that extreme. There was screaming, hitting, kicking, rolling, running, and pure chaos. She would cry for me then scream at me to get out. Only daddy was finally able to calm her and even then he was not able to leave her room. She has taken to needing someone (actual C.only) sleeping with her. Her sleeps are restless and it takes a good 1-2 hours for the whole bedtime routine and laying beside her while she falls asleep. It's draining on us and Lily is not recharging the way her little body needs. I keep reminding myself that she is only 2 and repeating the mommy mantra "This too shall pass."
Otherwise we had a pretty good weekend. We had some friends over for cards and it was great to do adult things. Something we need to do more often as we seem to forget ourselves being so busy. We also took Lily to Dinobouncers for the first time. She loved it. Of course the giant slide was her favorite. "That's my very best mom". I have a video of her coming down the slide with C but we are having technical difficulties.
Daisy is becoming more and more active everyday. I fear look forward to having another live wire like Lil.
Well better sign off. I have a list as long as Santa's naughty list to complete.

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Let's try this again ....

Time flies when you are busy.

3 months have passed since my last post. I swear I thought of you periodically dear blog. There were fleeting moments of "I really should write this moment on my blog" and "Crap, I'm going to forget this". But as quickly as the thought entered my mind, the moment would pass and there would be a diaper to changed, a nose to wipe and a baby demanding boob. Now. My darling baby Daisy is very fond of her boob milk. So much in fact, she has decided that all milk must come directly from the source. The first couple of times we offered her boob milk from a bottle she drank it with little fuss. There was a strange look of confusion as she stared up at C as if trying to figure out where all the facial hair suddenly came from. Then suddenly something clicked and she decided that she only likes fresh milk.

No amount of warming, unwarming, different bottles, different nipples, waiting, or trying has changed her mind. This has limited any sans baby excursion to 1-2 hrs. This dairy cow mommy must be within suckling distance at all times.

When I don't have a sweet baby attached to me I am busy watching for any sign of impending pee and poop. Ugh. Potty training. It has been easily

the most frustrating part of parenting thus far. I know she gets it. I know she can do it. I just can't figure out how to get her to do it. Honestly, I don't think we train them. They train us. I've tried every trick in the book. Some would win me parenting awards - some would win me a trip to Social Services. I've spent her little education savings that we had on m&m's, stickers, and little toys. I've cried, screamed, laughed and drank. I will say that we are about 75% there. With poop being our biggest battle yet. I comfort myself in the fact that humans have been using toilets for a few years now - she will too. *Shit* . Be right back ...........

So as I was saying ..... potty training has been the most frustrating part of parenting.

Thankfully there has been some sweet moments that don't drive me to drink. Watching Lily and Daisy grow up together has been a true joy. I turn to these moments whenever I start having flashes of the teenage years to come. [insert some dramatic horror piano music here]. And it melts my heart every time I see C coo'ing over Daisy or playing with Lil. So far we are surviving being a family of 4 and once a week or so I calculate in my head when the best time would be to start trying for #3.