Archives for December 2006

… my Hubby gave to me:

Ten sparkly daisies

(Actually – he brought home a dozen – but one is for The Princess and one is for Pumpkin… They are really very cute – all glittery and festive).

…my Hubby gave to me:

an Eleven dollar Target gift card

(I sure do love Target).

…my Hubby gave to me:

Twelve candy canes

I didn’t even know if Hubby was going to do the 12 Days of Christmas this year, but after I finished eating dinner, he had The Princess bring me my treat. And I adore candy canes, so I’m very happy! Some years, he starts with the “first day of Christmas” and counts up – some years he counts down. This is a “down” year.

When I said, “I didn’t know if you were doing this this year!” Hubby said, “There’s only ONE year I didn’t, and you seemed so upset, I wouldn’t make that mistake again!”

So… here we go! (I LOVE LOVE LOVE the 12 days of Christmas!)

I was up at 4:30 this morning to start the dough for my world-class caramel pecan sticky buns for Hubby to take to work. He’s still a newbie in the office, and the rest of the group is doing secret Santas this week. Of course, he’s so new, he doesn’t have anyone’s name – but someone has still been leaving treats for Hubby (obviously, they don’t know him well yet – they are food treats that he probably will end up giving away). It’s very sweet of them to do, so I wanted him to have something for them.

And I love baking.

This time of year, I really find I enjoy more than ever the smells of warm cinnamon wafting through my house. The warmth from the oven spreading through the house. Sugary smells and rolling dough.

This week, is definitely the huge kickoff to my baking season. Tomorrow, The Princess and I will be making about a hundred dozen cookies – both sugar and gingerbread – for the kids to decorate at our First Ever Holiday Cookie Decorating party on Friday. We have invited some of The Princess’s friends and we have got several decorating items (M&Ms, sprinkles, frosting, colored sugars). I found a nice style of goodie bag so each of the kids can take home their decorated treats (I get to bake AND we don’t have 3,000 cookies sitting around to eat when boredom strikes – Bonus!). Tomorrow, The Princess and I will be building a gingerbread house (okay – I totally cheated and bought the kit for this one), so that it can be decorated on Friday.

We’ll carry on the baking in the next week and a half until Christmas, finishing with the grand finale: monkey bread that we’ll make on Christmas eve to devour after opening presents on Christmas morning.

‘Tis the season….

After prefacing the joining of the Fantasy Football League by saying, “Oh, I’m just doing it to get to know the neighbors. I’m not going to be one of those guys who is trading players and all that…” Hubby proceeded to spend the season checking his stats on Yahoo every five minutes every Sunday, and on Monday nights, and trading players, and getting all wrapped up in the fantasy football ballyhoo… before placing… dead last… in the conference.

Hubby didn’t make playoffs. He is actually upset about this. Embarassed about his poor showing. And to be fair, he did get to know the guys in our neighborhood better (in fact, it was those very guys and their spouses who we went to that wretched restaurant with a few weeks ago), and made some buddies… so… it’s all good.

But: I’ve banned him from Fantasy Sports. It truly IS the jock version of Dungeons and Dragons.

Yesterday, the girls and I spent the bulk of our day trying to get our groove back (As Hubby said, “Oh-kay, Stella…”). After Hubby being home for a month, post-layoff, yesterday marked his return to the workforce at a new job. Hubby, while a wonderful husband and a terrific, involved father, is not the type of man cut out for being a stay at home parent. I know this, he knows this – so it’s not a huge shock that after being home for a month, he all but sprinted out the door while I pushed him!

The girls and I, when holding down the fort sans dad, get into our own routines, have a flow of doing things, and now we’re trying to find it again. However, yesterday, we didn’t quite find the groove.

Between being off kilter with our routines, me having a wicked case of PMS, The Princess not using her “listening ears”, frigid temperatures outside, having to go outside in those frigid temps to haul The Princess to dance class – well, it was not a day of limitless patience. Oh no, I found my limit. Unfortunately.

There are days like yesterday where I feel that I spent the whole day setting boundaries and telling my girls what to do, and putting The Princess in timeout, and asking her to “PLEASE PAY ATTENTION JUST ONCE!” I feel like my patience is wiped out, my mood is shot, and at the end of the day? I feel horrible!

Admittedly, yesterday was that kind of day. By the time I went to tuck The Princess in, I felt rotten about the tone of the day. Yes, I’m the parent, and yes, it is my job to teach her the rules, and how to behave – but even though The Princess is going through a streak of non-compliance, I’m sure it would not have been as bad, had I had more patience. As I sat by her bed, I said to my Princess, “We had a rough day today, didn’t we?” She said to me, “Yeah. Sometimes I’m a big grump and sometimes you’re a big grump.”

I laughed, “I know it. Mommy’s really sorry for being so grouchy. How can we have a better day tomorrow?” We sat, and started making plans for today, and how we were going to have a better day, and try harder to use our listening ears, and be more patient, and use our inside voices. I realize I don’t remember my mom ever apologizing for having a bad day, for losing her patience. But – I do think it’s important. I am not sorry for telling The Princess to stop jumping on the sofa – but I am sorry for my tone. And my mood. I know there are more effective ways of getting through to her than a raised voice, and my lack of patience was not entirely her fault.

Today, we’re off to a great start. She’s in a fantastic mood and so am I, and we have plans to go to the library.

I think we’re getting our groove back.

For some reason, there have been several swim diapers mixed in with Pumpkin’s regular diapers in our basket in the living room. Every time we tell her we’re going to change her diaper, Pumpkin toddles over to the diapers, and grabs the Winnie the Pooh swim pants. Hubby and I then use our amazing powers of distraction to toss the swim diaper out of sight, and put a regular diaper on Pumpkin.

Last night, Hubby must have finally given in. I know this because when I went to get Pumpkin’s bath ready, I went to undress her, and her little jeans were soaked straight through. The seat of her pants down to her socks were soaked straight through with pee… And, when I removed the jeans: the offending swim diaper.

I guess it’s a good thing these are mostly used in a pool – because they do not absorb pee. I guess in my mind I always knew that pee wasn’t what they were trying to keep out of the pool. Really. But. Jeez. Yuck.

On the bright side, we’ve now purged all the swim diapers from the diaper basket. So hopefully, this won’t happen again.

Today, we put up the Christmas tree. A good third of the ornaments are still in the box though – as our tree is decorated in a child proof fashion to deter Pumpkin from pulling ornaments and knocking the tree over. Usually, I have the tree up the day after Thanksgiving, but Pumpkin is so curious and into everything, that I have just been afraid to put the darn thing up.

Wish us luck. So far, so good.

I added a LINK! I found this awesome website called Pandora the other day. Basically, you type in the name of a song or an artist that you dig, and it creates what is essentially a radio station playing similar tunes for you online. And it’s FREE. Since I found it, I’ve found some really amazing new music I had never heard of, and that’s always cool.

Anyways, my link section is pretty lame now – so if you read me and I read you, can you let me know if it’s okay to link you?

(And check out Pandora…)

Today, in a fit to get more Christmas shopping done, I gathered up both girls and headed to the city to Barnes & Noble. I’m not overly-optimistic – I knew one store with two kids was a limit, and that it would be straining at that limit anyway. Odds are good when you are outnumbered by kids that it won’t be the most pleasant shopping experience.

My parking spot was about a half mile from the store, and after carrying Pumpkin and holding The Princess’s hand so she didn’t slide on the icy parking lot, I was exhausted by the time we reached the door. Add to the mix chasing Pumpkin around the store while looking for a calendar for my dad – and oy.

Thirty minutes later we were done – all I bought was one gift card, and I’ll be darned if I couldn’t have just done that online.

But I no longer need to get on the treadmill today. I think my cardio needs have been met.