December 30, 2008 at 4:26 pm (holidays)
It was a whirlwind past 7 days. I don’t know why I didn’t take this whole week off just to relax, but here I am at work, struggling to actually get things done.
Here’s a quick montage of the holiday weekend.
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and we wish all of our friends a Happy New Year!
December 23, 2008 at 4:47 pm (holidays)
We have been so incredibly busy. Work is crazy lately and I really want to use up some of my 17 remaining vacation days, but it’s not looking so good for any time off anytime soon.
I don’t think we’ve been in bed before 11 or 12 every night for over a week. Last night, we were baking “for fun” until after 10:30 or so. I still have a bunch of things to wrap and with Shmoo going to sleep at 10:30 or later, it’s impossible to get much done before 11.
We got pummeled with snow this weekend. While Connecticut does get a decent amount of snow over the winter, it seems early. I think we got about 11 inches in 2 days.
Around here, normal people stay inside, but we were out and about through pretty much all of it.
On Saturday, Shmoo was a rockstar and he went to 2 long parties, both which were attended by Santa.
Here’s a few pictures from the holiday party at his indoor playscape. Mema and Pop-pop take him here a ton, so he’s totally at home.
After seeing Santa about 5 times now, I think he’s getting a little better. He still won’t sit in his lap, but he gets a few feet closer every time. He also gets that Santa gives him presents. He’s made out like a bandit and it’s not even Christmas yet.
This is from the cupcakes with Santa portion of the party.
Here’s a video of the Shmoo playing Wii (boxing) with his cousin. I think we should have started him with a less violent game, but this is pretty funny.
I got some video of him dancing like a lunatic on Saturday night but haven’t had a chance to upload them. One of the things that cracked everyone up was that he would spin and spin until he got so dizzy that he’d fall over and over again. Some kids will get tired of this after 2-3 times. Shmoo did it approximately 30 times.
We did get a family photo in front of the tree at the late party. It was about 10 pm and we’d been out in the snow all day, so we’re not looking our best (me especially).
I’m very excited about this Christmas. I just can’t wait to see how he reacts all day.
While work and life has been stressful and busy lately, I am just so thankful for my wonderful family and friends.
To all of my friends out there –
Have a wonderful and safe holiday! Best Wishes!
Peace,
Holly, Lois and the Shmoo!
December 16, 2008 at 2:05 pm (laughter)
I haven’t been very good about pictures or video lately. I wish I could get everything that Shmoo does on tape.
A few weeks ago, I turned to Lo and said “don’t you wish you could just video tape him all day?!” Everything he does is funny. And he totally cracks himself up all the time.
Friends of ours came over for dinner on Friday night and they have a daughter the same age as Shmoo. They were flabbergasted with how active Shmoo is and the husband turned to me and said “you should just video tape him all day long!” I KNOW!
We laugh because on his daily reports from day care, they always put something in the comments section about how he “cracked himself up” about this and that. He’s a very funny kid.
The other day, he was looking out of our bay window and was watching me get some things out of my car. He was laughing so hard, waving his arms and dancing around. Lo didn’t know what he found so funny, then she realized that he was hysterical over the reindeer antlers that I had put on my car (a picture is forthcoming, don’t worry).
He loves playing in the sink in the bathroom, so when we are RIGHT THERE, we let him hang out on the counter. The other night, he kept tickling himself with the electric toothbrush and he was just laughing his little butt off. I ran to get the video camera and got the tail end of it.
December 11, 2008 at 5:16 pm (updates)
I am pretty proud of myself for the shopping I’ve done so far. Unfortunately, I haven’t done much in the way of my family. But I scored last night getting stuff for my “adopted” kids from family services. I’m so excited to wrap everything tonight!
The Shmoo was poking in the bags this morning and I tried explaining to him that Christmas was about giving so we needed to make sure that other children get presents too. I don’t think he got it.
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For a totally random tidbit, I realize that I really haven’t updated much on how the Shmoo is talking. We still have a long, long way to go before we are actually communicating at a level we can call “talking.”
But last night, he crawled up onto the chair at the dining room table, pointed at the fruit basket and said “ba-na-na!” clear as day! Poor kid, we made him say it about 5 more times. Then we said, “can you say, PLEASE?” and he grinned, clasped his hands and said, “peeeeeese.”
Frickin’ adorable. How can you say no?!
- – - – - – - – - –
Because I’m a forgetful tool who never seems to be organized enough when it comes to money and everything else, I was just “surprised” by found money.
It’s not that much of a jackpot find because the money is mine. It’s just money that I forgot completely about. Money that will help us a teeny bit with Christmas but will basically pay our January 1st property tax bill.
I looked back at past paychecks recently, when everyone was bitched about the crappy raises here. I realized that my pay never went up from December 2007 to January 2008. I figured that I never got any raise at all.
Well….
Fast forward to 12 months later. I get an email from our accounting department.
They want to know if and when I am going to put in for any reimbursements for my Dependent Care/Child Care Flexible Spending Account.
Wait a second…
As the fuzzy memory starts coming back to me….
Wait…
Wait…
There it is.
In December, I decided to take the max amount allowable for child care out of my income pre-taxed. Of course, it is nowhere near covering what we actually spent on child care this year, but it’s more money than I currently have sitting in my savings account.
I rushed to print out a stack of cancelled checks to day care from my online banking site to submit to accounting ASAP for reimbursement!
I sent an email Lo. She was stuck between “what the hell?!!?” and “aren’t you the ass….”
Fair enough.
I’m currently waiting for my check.
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Last, but not least…I got stuck on the phone with my overly dramatic sister for about 45 minutes last night as I was trying to leave work. It’s becoming harder to talk to her lately. In the past, you could do other things while she was talking and every so often, just say “uh huh.” Unfortunately, she’s caught onto this and now poses questions through the conversation that are not answerable by yes or no.
I listened for a while something she said actually caught my attention. Now, I love my nephew dearly (her 13 year old son), but he definitely marches to the beat of his own drummer.
My sister tells me that his teacher is slightly concerned because when asked what he wants to be when he grows up, he responded, “A Marine sniper, so I can kill people.”
Hmmmm…..
I would be slightly concerned as well. Fortunately, they closely watch what he does and what he gets into. For example, like when he discovered that dryer lint is a good fire starter. (Caught that one before it turned ugly).
It makes me nervous that I will have a teenage boy some day that will have a mind completely of his own (damn it, why can’t we control their every thought and action?).
I guess all you can do is try to guide them to make some smart decisions every once in a while. I don’t have the answer.
December 9, 2008 at 6:51 pm (fabulous photography, holidays)
Here we are again. Another week gone by with little word from lame ass Holly. I’m working on it. The good news is that work is busy. Busy in this market is good, I guess. You can tell when I’m on a long client conference call because I get to post and comment in blogland. I’m almost into hour # 3 of this call on transmission lines. yawn.
I’m also still being subcontracted out as in-house counsel for a local corporation a few days a week. I say still because when I started there March 1st, it was supposed to last 2-3 months. Anyhoo, being on the inside of a corporation that is in full-panic-layoff-sell everything mode is an experience that I can’t put into words. It’s scary. Awful. Bizarre. I am very thankful that I have a job right now. Very thankful.
Things are well with us. Still no time for rest. I’m now on week 3 or 4 of this cold/allergy/sickness and may be willing to actually go to my doctor. Yes, the doc that I hate, but I am admitting that I need a Zpac or something!
This weekend flew by, as they all seem to do lately.
This weekend, I did a cookie baking adventure at a local catering place with my mom and her two BFFs. Most of the dough is pre-mixed and we actually just put things together, put them in the oven and drink mimosas. But we tell everyone we “made” them.
We did a holiday party at my parents’ golf club on Sunday and the Shmoo was in rare form, especially since he had not napped. He kept wanting to see Santa but once he got within 10 feet, he’d run away. I had to drag him up kicking and screaming to Santa to get his present.
The present thing was so funny. He looked at it, thought about it and knew he was supposed to take the paper off. He was so excited when he opened it and it was this Ernie (Sesame.Street) K’nex thing. He walked around with it proudly. You should have seen his eyes when I showed him that the container opened and there was an Ernie you can build inside of it!
I did finally order Christmas cards. I’m hoping to have them this weekend. I might end up with some extra, so if anyone wants a card from us, feel free to email me your snail mail address and I’ll see what I can do!
Here’s the sneak peak of the card pictures. We tried for hours over a few days to get pictures of Shmoo in front of the tree or fire place. He absolutely refused to be photographed, the celebrity snob. But once you put the camera down, he’d come over, pick it up, stick it in his face and say “CHEESE!” Little stinker.
And our attempt at a picture with Santa this weekend.
I’ve having fun catching up with my blog world buddies. I’m glad I’m not the only one who seems so busy lately.
Shmoo is still full of fun and energy. We are still exhausted. He loves being naked and discovered that he likes peeing without a diaper. Bad mix. Last night, we spent about 5-10 minutes chasing him from one bedroom to the next as he was totally naked, laughing, dancing, spinning, giggling, running around trying to pee on the carpet. It’s very hard not to laugh. Which makes him enjoy it even more!
The good news is that he tells us when he’s pooped and when he is running around naked trying to pee on the carpet, he will let us put him on the potty and he’ll try and try to push something out! Maybe there is hope for some potty training soon!
December 2, 2008 at 5:42 pm (holidays, sick)
I could go on and on about how sorry I am for not posting and how terrible a friend I am for not keeping up with my buddies’ blogs. I’m working on a schedule for myself that keeps me sane.
Here’s a quick visual reward for sticking with us during the lull.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a great time, although it wasn’t entirely restful.
We did the two families on Turkey Day, then drove up to my parents’ house on the shore Friday morning for the weekend.
We’ve been looking for a TV for Shmoo’s playroom and have been surprised to find that no one sells cheap boxy TVs anymore. Everything is HDTV, flat screen, LCD, etc. This might work better since putting it on the wall will give Shmoo more play area. However, we’ve been very shrewd about finding the best possible price for a 26-32 inch tv.
A quick background of my Christmas shopping outlook….
I worked retail pretty much all of my high school and college career. After college, I spent one holiday season managing the Holiday Shoppe at Blooming.dale’s in West.chester County, NY. Between the holiday music, the dancing Santa that played all day, the cheeriness of the customers (or lack thereof) and the abundance of scents and noises, I strongly dislike holiday shopping. I have zero patience for it. Zero.
My wife had her heart set on a tv at Tar.get that was a Black Friday special. We’ve never done Black Friday shopping before. She got up at the ass crack of dawn and went to fight for this tv set. Now, I know my wife is sometimes easily overwhelmed and not pushy enough for this, but I was supportive and let her go.
Needless to say, she was the only one at Tar.get at 6 am that didn’t get one. Every other person had one, two, three in their carts. My wife wandered around aimlessly and came home 90 minutes and 2 stores later with nothing. Don’t think we’ll be doing that again.
I must admit, however, that I am actually getting into this Christmas season. The wife is usually the reserved one when it comes to buying things but she’s excited too and we are pretty much done with the Shmoo’s presents and this kid is going to be set! One of the reasons we need a TV that goes on the wall is so we can set up the coolest Black.n.Decker tool bench – complete with a new tool set.
The rest of the weekend was nice since we spent time with my family. However, the Shmoo was super, super beasty.
He whiney and wanted to be held (which NEVER happens). We got up early Sunday morning to get him to the pediatrician and woke up to a mix between freezing rain and sleet. After a 2 hour white knuckled drive, we made it to the doctor to find out that he has his very first ear infection. Poor kid. We felt terrible that we didn’t get him in sooner, but he didn’t show any other signs.
We did get home early enough to take out some decorations. We pretty much just got the tree up. And we made a basic error. If you see from this video, we put some of the breakable balls on the toddler-reachable area of the tree. It didn’t occur to us that he would be interested in trying to eat them. There was momentarily panic as he tried to bite into one but due to our quick responses, no harm was inflicted. Don’t we feel dumb.
He’s recovering fine as of this morning, but we’ve not entered into another issue with him that is a sleeping problem. He’s back to not going to sleep until 10:30 pm or so and won’t go down in this crib. When we put him in there after he falls asleep, he wakes up at 3 am begging to come into bed with us. We need to put a stop to this soon.
As for me, my mother is trying to talk me into going to a doctor, but I think I am nearing the “clearing up” phase of whatever the heck I have. It’s been like the awful cough/no sleep/achy bones/runny nose/dry head/creepy crud for about 3 weeks. Ugh.
As I work on getting myself back to blogland, be patient with me as I catch up with everyone. I’ve missed my blog buddies and can’t wait to hear about everyone’s holiday season so far.
Last, but not least. To add to my fun time/work time scheduling overload, I just got the best early Christmas present ever! My brother is too consumed with his X.box and Play.station 3 and all of his other toys that he never uses his Wii. Guess who he is lending his Wii too!?!? OMG! This thing is way too much fun. I’ve only played it once and am not sure when I can play (especially with the Shmoo around) but I’m going to have to make more time for this!
Priorities, priorities.
 | Angele on 38 weeks |
 | M on slowing down |
 | ELLIE on slowing down |
 | Amy on maybe soon? |
 | E, SS and the Little… on maybe soon? |
