Boxing Day

 

Whee! Sleep!

 

 

In years past, I have experienced the ‘Boxing Day’ sadness. Too much anticipation of the day prior, which leads to understanding feelings of sadness the day following.

This year,it wasn’t the same. I was anticipating it, yes. But this morning when I woke up, apart from a crappy nights sleep and some bruised ribs from being kicked repeatedly by my precious little angel, things were good. In fact, I enjoyed my 6:30 wakeup kick and cry festival.

And I enjoyed the rest of the day in all of it’s chaos. Even the lack of naps, total house destruction, fighting, timeouts and general disarray. It was all good.

Pretty much it seems that I no longer have time for any kind of post-Christmas emotional wallow. I am in high demand around my castle and as much as I would love to indulge, it just isn’t prudent.

So today, V and I got up at 6:30, had toast and yogurt, went to target, went to BestBuy, stopped by the in-laws for a quick visit, came home, ran 3.5 miles, did laundry, cleaned and rearranged the upstairs.

V was just a wee bit spoiled this year. Unbeknownst to me, Edward had bought a whole other complete set of gifts for Little Man. So while I was under the impression that I was shopping for both of us (as I normally do), he was going to town. End result was small toy shop vomiting in living-room Christmas morning. So my reasonable amount of presents was doubled and then tripled by the time we left Sassy and PopPop’s.

I devoted the remainder of my day today to cleaning out V’s toys. He’s at the age now where he is only interested in cars. Cars and action figures. HotWheels, Toy Story figures, more cars, more things based on Toy Story and some more cars. Oh and some dinosaurs. And some snakes.

Elmo is right out. Plex from Yo Gabba Gabba is in. Little People are out. Batman and the Joker are SO in. As are cars. And cars. Oh, and cars.

Funny, eh? So the house has been purged of baby toys and I formally have a non-baby. I have a son. Not a baby, no no no. A very big boy. Practically a teenager, in fact.

It’s sad and exciting at the same time. I feel sad saying goodbye to his babyness, but this next stage is so exciting and fun. And challenging. And filled with constant fighting. Oh challenges, how I love thee. And man, that little man of mine is one heck of a challenge.

Edward has one more week of Christmas holiday, which means I have one more week of sleeping in until 6:30 on a work day. I think I’ll make the most of it!!

xoxo a.m.

3 more sleeps

To be honest, I am not sure if I am really prepared. And also is it really Christmas on Saturday? I’m feeling a little unnerved by that.

Usually I am more organized. I always send cards out on time, I make a lot of lists (which annoy my husband), I get a little whirlwindish. This year I am the Queen of Lackadaisical-land. I am halfheartedly mailing Christmas cards. I am feeling slightly detached from all of this.

And at the same time? Super involved in it for Vince’s sake. Multiple attempts to see Santa, lots of shopping, many hiding places around the house, tons of lights, tree up since pre-Thanksgiving, too many singing animals and one ‘Santa Paws’ aka ‘Kwismas Dog moobi’.

It’s almost like I am two separate people.

Tomorrow is my last day of work this week. It’s been a LONG week so far. Working in the type of industry that I do, this time of year is a time of desperately needy people who NEED to have emergent surgery for issues that have been plaguing them for months. Mostly because they have met their insurance deductible. Forgetting, of course, that hundreds of other people have had the same brilliant idea way earlier than them. It’s just weeks of constant arguing and really crappy attitudes.

Ugh. Ok, enough of a mope Jame!

Tomorrow can’t come fast enough though.

Anyways. Mope finished. I do deserve a high-five for mailing my Canada packages out in time (or so Edward says anyways).

I have half of my presents wrapped and all my shopping done. I am 3/4 finished mailing holiday cards. I have successfully visited Santa with my son. I am going running tomorrow (and by writing that down, that means it’s true).

This evening, V turned to me and said “Mummy? Tell Santa am I good boy.” Wow. An almost grammatically correct sentence. “Well honey, if you can be a good boy, I’ll tell him”.

“Mummy. Am I good boy” (This is how V says ‘I am’). But sentences like these are often followed by complete and total out of control bad boy behavior. And, in this particular case, by Vince’s new favorite sentence:

“Mummy? Am I poopin’!!!!”

“You are?”

“Yes!! Need change!”

Damn that makes me laugh!

Oh V-monster, how I love thee. You cannot help but lift my spirits with every little thing you utter…

3 more sleeps, my sweets. Santas coming!

xoxo a.m.

Broken

The end of another busy weekend, which was at the tail end of a very busy week which was at the end of another busy weekend. Busy. Things are buys. This time of year is busy. V is busy. Edward is finally not busy (Winter holiday). Everything else seems to be getting increasingly busy.

Last weekend my most lovely in-laws took my exhausting son to SeaWorld and I went finished my Christmas shopping. How delightful.

Last week was the beginning of that wonderful time of year where absolutely everyone attempts to take a holiday at the same time at the office, which results in never enough people to cover everywhere, which makes things feel a little frantic.

Makes some people a little cranky. I, however, have been annoyingly chipper which probably means some coworkers are cursing me. I am on a vitamin/exercise high, man! I am running like a freak, doing daily vitamin D and flax seed oil and am getting B12 injections. I feel freaking amazing. And have a retardo amount of energy. And have no patience for people being shitty or cranky (unless I like you).Then you can be shitty or cranky all you like, I’ll just laugh at you a lot more. But still love you.

Anyways. Busy. Things are busy.

My son is quite busy. Here are some things that are increasing his busyness:

“Mummy!! No kisses! No like it!!”

“Mummy!! No hold a hand! No like it!”

“Mummy, am I good boy!!!”

“Uh-oh. I broked it.”

“Mummy? It’s broken”

“Mummy? Chewie broke it”

Our poor Christmas tree. It is slowly getting denuded.Well, the top is decorated with everything really fragile and the bottom holds the majority of the non-breakables. Or so I thought.  I had to trash 3 ornaments this week because they were broken beyond fixing. One Chihuahua with absolutely no legs (and I don’t know where the legs are). One snowflake. One train with numerous missing pieces.

And, brave soul that I am, I put presents from his Auntie Tamsin under the tree. So far they have survived 2 days of not being opened (apart for that one I opened as it clearly was Cheezies and I needed to eat them).

Edward gave me the raised eyebrow when he saw that. And also an almost undertone “Are you a crazy person?” chuckle. Well I’m not! NOT!! So there! They are still there. Even the one that makes noise, that got accidentally kicked this evening. And then kicked again so it made more noise. And then kicked one more time, at which point it was removed from the general vicinity to curious eyes and will not be seen again until this coming Saturday.

Anyways. I am about to embark on a super busy 2 weeks. Will post more.

love you! xoxo a.m.

 

 

Ornamental

I honestly cannot believe that Christmas is 2 weeks away.

Last weekend, my in-laws took V to SeaWorld for hours. I went shopping. And today my father-in-law did the same thing. I went shopping again. So I am now feeling like I am capable of facing the holidays with shopping under my belt. I might have even finished it all. Not really sure, as I sort of threw it all in the closet upstairs without looking at it and rushed to grab my vacuum and clean my sofa before V was dropped off.

But I think I am on the right track. Now if only I can get my Christmas cards in the mail the beginning of this week and also send things to Canada in time for my family to open them, I’ll be set!!

So our tree has been up for about 2 weeks now and is substantially less decorated than it was last year. This is something that has slowly happened over the course of the last 2 weeks. Sadly some of our special holiday gifts to each other have bit the dust.

The beer mug, the glass pickle, something else that was unrecognizable as it was in such small pieces. This morning V asked me “Where his leg? Where is it?” while holding R2D2 (don’t judge). And indeed he was missing a leg. Poor R2.

Hopefully this year’s ugly ornament contest will remedy the damage that V has caused. Not that I really mind. We didn’t really need to have a complete set of StarWars figurines hanging on our tree anyways. There are many, many, many more ugly things that one could hang from their tree anyways.

And I might have found the ugliest of them all today by random. Who knew that JC Penny’s was such a treasure trove of the hideous?! I can’t believe I overlooked them for years.

I am feeling confident. Could I win 2 years in a row? Could I be on a streak? Could I be jeopardizing my win by talking about winning right now? Am I now not going to win at all??

xoxo a.m.

Delightful V

Ever since V was born, Christmas as been a real trip.

2008 he was 6 months old. I snugged him up in the cutest red plaid pj’s you have ever seen and we admired the tree and it’s twinkley lights together. We ignored my morning hair.

2009, V was 18 months and had been walking for about 2 of those. That year, we got a real tree. And put it up on a table to avoid curious fingers. We had a Christmas Elmo doll and V was spoiled rotten by everyone. And we ignored my morning hair again.

Here we are again. V is 2 1/2. Our fake tree has made a reappearance. All of my ‘special’ ornaments (the ones that my Grandmothers both gave me as a little girl) are on our mini-tree that is WAY up high on the top of a bookcase.

“Santa’s coming Mummy!!”

“Mummy look!! Santa lights!!”

“Mummy? Santa, reindeer, snowman, candy, two three FOUR!!”

“Mummy? Am I good boy!”

“Chewie good boy too. Santa coming!”

Honestly, he never stops talking about anything ever. But Santa is a new, interesting and obsessive development. He sees Santa everywhere. And he wants to ‘find’ him everywhere we go. Either him or The Grinch. Although, we are only allowed to just find The Grinch. God forbid that we should watch a movie with him. Or see him in person. We are only allowed to see him on billboards and look at him on the Christmas tree.

This is the year that I think will be completely different from the last 2. And I am pretty excited to be honest.

The baby is finally not a baby anymore. He is a miniature person, with big big thoughts and ideas. With curious eyes and mind. Watching him, you can literally see the creation of ideas, dreams and memories.

What a marvelous time of year to be a child! All I want to do is spend every minute of this lovely season with him. Building gingerbread trains, Xmas painting, cold late night walks for Santa light viewing, hot chocolate with marshmallows, endless never-ending cold weather snuggles…

Oh god, I love this time of the year…

xoxo a.m.

ps: I haven’t forgotten my morning hair. Although this year, there will be two of us with matching locks that are mess-tastic… Finally my son, finally…