Christmas Spectacular

Christmas Eve Morning: 

Dad had to work, so Cecily decided it would be a good idea to get into some mischief.  She is really really good at it, so why not? 

She found the green bottle of food coloring off the stove.  Note to self:  If ever you are making christmas goodies which require it, put the green food coloring away when finished. 

Luckily, it came out of her clothes and she didn't get it in her hair or on her face.  She just squirted it on the kitchen floor and a bit on the entertainment center-  easy to clean up.  A Christmas Miracle.  She was my little green hulk for a few days.  PS- these pics were taken AFTER multiple washings of the hands.   

And, just for good measure, lets dump out a box of packing peanuts by mom's bed before dad get's home, shall we?

Christmas Eve Night:

Dad got home from work around 2, we did some shopping, then came home to have a fabulous ham dinner with rolls and potatos, followed by the first annual (Vincent) lighting of the wisemen.  (It's been going on in the lay household for 42 Christmases already.)

mmmmm, dinner

                                 

After Cecily went to bed (well, sortof went to bed- other than the 3,482 times she got up asking us to either tickle her, or let her open presents from Santa) we had my cute Aunt Diane over.  Mike brought home a projector from work, so we watched "Star Trek" really big on our wall.  Not very "christmas-ey"  but it was fun anyway. 

Christmas Morning:

Cecily got a brand- spankin- new shiny red tricycle.  Oh, how she loved it.   Santa knows what these kiddo's want, I tell ya. (She may have hinted to Santa EVERY time we were in Wal-Mart and she HAD to go sit on one and try to ride it around the store............ probably his first clue........).

the loot, 2009

Chritmas Evening we went to my brother Jeff's house for dinner with he, his wife, his sweet kids, and Celina's parents and grandma.  It was DE- LISH and a good time was had by all, I think. 

We had a wonderful christmas together, although we did miss being with Mike's extended family in California.  I'm too far along in my pregnancy to travel anywhere, but we sure would have loved to get in line for some See's candy if we could have. 

Hope yours was merry and bright. 

completely. totally. insane.

I think I might be going nuts........  Have you heard of "nesting"?  It's like a strange, uncontrollable disease, and I've got it B A D.

I've recently become somewhat of a neurotic mess, and I look back at my days and ask myself  "Who is this woman and when is the real Wendy coming back?"  Then I think "5 weeks and she'll be back, hang on 5 weeks."

Then I think I'm crazy because I'm having conversations in my head (and now I'm blogging about it- someone stop me..........).

Here's the other reasons why I'm crazy:

We have a tiny (but lovely) apartment which is shrinking daily as we add more and more stuff to it. Plus, we have SO much to do before the little man gets here- and it feels like SO little time, and I am becoming a bit of a weirdo. Where did the past 8 months go, I ask you?
I am making about 397 "TO-DO" lists per day, and only a few things from one of them gets done.  I have this obsessive need to write down all the stuff I need to do- even if it's already on a list.  NUTSO.

The little dude will share a room with us for the first while, then bunk with Cecily in a few months.  That is the part where the panic sets in.

Want a laugh?

This is what I did the other day:

If you are wondering what it is- it's a scale model of Cecily's room made out of butcher and construction paper, with scale models of furniture so that I can move it around and re-arrange without throwing out my back.

I've come to two conclusions after looking this over:

1- I'm nuts

and 2- we need to get rid of some furniture before I explode.

4 years and 1.5 babies later

I am in love with this guy: 

And 4 years ago today I married him. 

(ps- isn't this picture of him SO hot?)

  

           He gave me this cute girl:                                            And we're working on a cute boy to add to the mix:

   

                                                                                                 (That's me at 31 weeks, and I'm still getting bigger, don't you worry)

Below are the pretty flowers I got on monday so I could "enjoy them for our entire anniversary week" as Mike put it.  I was playing with my camera and thought the blurry shot was fun, so there you go. 

 

  I am a really lucky gal. Although, luck didn't have everything to do with it. I tend to think God and good choices have more to do with how our lives turn out then luck........... and I made a good choice to marry Michael. He and I are a matched set, and I'm looking forward to the rest of our crazy life together, as well as eternity.

 Here we are, in all our cuteness 4 years ago:

    

..the story of a girl..

She didn't cry a river and drown the whole world, although sometimes I think it might happen.  I've been thinking a lot about my little girl, Cecily JeNae this week.  I love her. I'm borderline obsessed, which I should be.  All parents should feel that way about thier kids, I think. 

I've been struggling a bit lately with my cute girl.  I try (unsuccessfully at times) to keep my posts lighthearted and joyful becuase I hate coming off as ungrateful and I often feel like I can't express my frustration without sounding really whiney.  I have friends/ read blogs by people who can, but my writing skills lack, and I sometimes come off as a complainer.  Just know before you read on that I would not trade her for any child in the world, or a career, or my own private genie.

 That being said, CJ and I have had several battles of will lately which end in one (usually both) of us crying, angry, and frustrated.  I wish I could tell you that I've prayed and figured out a solution, but I am not that good yet.  I mostly just get sad and think I'm failing as a parent.  If  you know my girl, you know that she can be the sweetest, happiest girl on the block and can light up a room by walking in it, but she also has a temper equally as strong.  She can throw a tantrum like you've only seen on the movies.  No, really- I'm serious.  Kicking, screaming and shrieking at the top of her lungs, yelling, running, climbing up shelves, you name it- she's probably tried it.  We're doing the best we can- trying to speak calmly to her, trying to discipline when she needs it, trying to ignore the tantrum and not letting her get away with it..... all the things the books say to do.  (and ps- just so you know, I'm not asking for advice on how to deal with tantrums, I just need to write it down...)  Sometimes all the parenting tactics work, sometimes they don't.  I'm working on it, and that is the best I can do.  That is all I can do, and (in my rational moments) I know that time and love will take care of the rest. 

In the meantime, there are some amazing, wonderful, incredible moments that make me remember why it's ok that she throws tantrums.  It's ok that she won't eat vegetables.  It's ok that we sometimes have to exit public places out of embarrasment. 

It's ok because I know that this stage will pass, and I will miss it.  I will miss being a family of only 3.  I will miss not having to split my attention between my kids.  I will miss things like asking her to repeat the sentence she is saying 4 times so I can discipher all the words.  I will miss being able to pick her up, although technically I'm not supposed to be doing that right now...............

And the biggest reason that I love my little girl is because she is who she is.  I would rather have the kid who is not afraid to try things than the shrinking violet.  I would rather have the ball of energy who wants me to chase her and tickle her than the child who wants another movie.  I would rather have my girl-  becuase she's mine.  And she's perfect for me.  And she is teaching me things I need to know.

Here are some examples of her greatness:

Example #1

Above: When my sister Janet was here, she and I were reminiscing about how growing up, we both had messy rooms, but we dealt with it differently. Janet would pile things on her bed, then throw them all off at night when she had to go to sleep. I would pile things on my bed, then when it was time to sleep I'd just push them to the side and sleep next to them. Yes, Cecily is mine. And no, this wasn't becuase her room was messy.  She makes me laugh daily, and what's greater than that?

Example #2

Above:  Already a photographer extrordinaire at 2 years old.

Example #3

 She's not afraid to climb a tree- even if it means getting her bum dirty. 

Example #4

 She is oh so beautiful. 

adventures in sleep depravation

This is one of those silly things I want to remember, so I'm blogging about it. Hope you don't mind.

Last night mike and I got either food poisoning or the flu...... we're not sure. Luckily, Cecily was spared and hasn't shown any symptoms except a temper (which, by the way, is not that unusual- she's feisty). Cecily is actually the reason we thought it might be food poisoning- she refuses to eat every once in a while, and didn't consume the same stuff we did.

Anyway, Mike came home from work yesterday kind of queasy, but he layed down and tried to sleep it off............ didn't work. So, I was all over the place trying to take care of a sick hubs and do the laundry and keep my girl entertained. I ate at about 6:30 and played with CJ and then put her to bed around 8..... at which point I was WIPED OUT. I layed down on the bed and thought I'd fall asleep (hahaha- little did I know).

I started barfing and barfing and barfing, and if any of you have barfed when you're 7 1/2 months along and you have a huge belly, you know that it's not the most fun. By 11 that night I was SO dehydrated and my contractions were so bad I decided to call my midwife, who told me to go to the hospital. Mike had to stay home with our girl, so I had to drive myself alone, which would have been fine, except he lost his phone this weekend, ugh. I had no way of communicating with him while I was there, which (can I just say) TOTALLY SUCKED. I called my poor mother at her house in MT bawling and crying at 1 in the morning because I just needed someone to tell me it would all be ok.

At the hospital they gave me an IV, a quick (cold) bag of fluid, which made me shiver and shiver, and then they gave me some meds. Oh, the meds. My contractions were pretty strong and only about 3-4 minutes apart, so they gave me something to stop them. The medicine made me SO shaky and made my heart pound and made me nauseous (yeah- counterproductive, I know). Then they gave me anti- nausea meds as well, hooked me up to 10,000 monitors and told me to sleep (ummm, excuse me? sleep? yeah right, lady). Anyway, I barfed my way through the night but by 6am I felt good enough to sit up and good enough to tell them that I REALLY wanted to go home to my hubbs. The second dose of the heart pounding shaky meds had worn off, and I wanted to leave - BAD.

Ok, I sound pretty ungrateful here, sorry. I really am glad I went to the hospital and got fluids put back into me and I'm SO SO SO glad that everything was ok with my baby boy. One thing I loved about being there was getting to hear the whoosh whoosh of his heartbeat almost all night. He is so perfect already. Plus, the staff was really nice to me, even though I kept asking for blankets from the warmer and kept calling them to unhook the monitors so I could go pee. They didn't mind and were nice. They kept asking me if I had a support person, then I'd tell them my hubs was sick and they'd thank me for not bringing him in :)

I really am grateful that things turned out ok and I feel SO much better today. Mike was home from work and our cute neighbor sent dinner over and my aunt diane brought over Ginger Ale. I slept probably 15 of the last 17 hours, and all is well. I think I have a love for sleep that cannot be explained. It's amazing. The little dude is kicking happily on my bladder like a champ, so I can't complain.

We have lots to be grateful for.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Oh, the things rushing around my head lately...... here's just a few:

1. Baby boy names. Boy names are hard! On the day of our ultrasound to find out what we were having I picked out a girl name 'cause I was SURE it was a girl. :) I was wrong and now I have no idea. Any suggestions?

2. Nesting. How do you get everything ready when most of your baby stuff is packed up in your detached garage? And its really cold? And, how do you keep from going crazy every day when you realize your due date is approaching and you have nothing done?

3. Trees. We got a Christmas tree tonight. It's fake. Fake. Fake. Fake. I'm not a fan of fake trees. When we were in Target (buying the plastic monstrocity) Mike said "what do you have against unreal trees that don't die?" to which I replied "I'm from Montana. In montana you go out into your back yard and get a yummy smelling, shaggy, charlie brown looking tree and it's amazing. Then you get to smell it all month." But, in the end, I got an evergreen candle and mike got a fake tree. In all honesty, it's a good one (it doesn't look like "shredded PVC" as mike puts it) and I'm sure it will be pretty when we decorate it.

4. Coupons. Frankly, I hate coupons, but I love the satisfaction I get from using them. Especially when I get a screamin' deal on something I want. I'm not good at "super couponing" and getting 786 dollars worth of groceries for $5.19, but I saved about 20 bucks tonight on stuff I actually need and will use. Yay.

5. Paranoia. Does anyone else become a crazy super paranoid person when they're pregnant? It seems like I freak out a lot lately. More than usual I'm gasping and clutching the oh crap handle in the car when mike is driving. He LOVES that.




6. Carols. Cecily's new favorite song is the chipmunks christmas song. She was at the dinner table tonight singing "TIME FOR CHEER! TIME FOR CHEER! ME WANT OOOO-YA- HOOP!" We sang christmas songs all night long. Priceless.






So, anyway. That's life. This is one of those posts that won't be interesting to anyone but me, but thanks for letting me get it all out of my head. That's why I blog, I guess.




I'm sending out christmas cards in the mail this week hopefully so look for yours! Then, send me one from your fam. Love you all. Miss you all. Merry Christmas.





Post Edit: I can't get the stupid formatting to work, so this has no spaces between paragraphs.......... any suggestions about how to fix this problem? ?? I don't even know where to begin!