Merry Christmas!

A little wish from our family to yours....

Discovering the ornaments

It's been fascinating watching B this time of year. Lights and fans have always been his favorite. But this time of year has just been so funny.  B didn't really seem to think too much of our tree until we put lights up. Then he liked pointing to them. And soon after...he would screech at them. And then, my proudest mama moment yet [ahem] my one year old learned how to plug the lights in. Yep, one morning while I was making breakfast the lights on our tree turned on. Mhmmm....that's my boy!  And now, it's all he wants to do. Melt down city when you remove B from behind the tree and don't let him touch the lights. It's been fun! Finding this hard to believe? I caught the little devil in action for you... 

And then there were the ornaments. You may remember that we didn't decorate our tree until 5 days before Christmas...that meant that Saturday morning was the first morning that B had ever seen our tree decorated had access to ornaments. He ignores them at daycare (too many other kids and toys to play with I guess). I could pretty much repeat what I wrote before. The pointing, the screeching, the touching...and then came the grabbing....

I guess it's not actually a bad thing that our tree won't be decorated for that long. Hopefully it's less of an opportunity for broken ornaments!

We met Santa today

Today was one of those days where we did way too much shopping.  But let's be real, the mall had some pretty amazing deals.  B woke up at 5 this morning...had a bottle and slept until 8.  I mean, that's pretty awesome, especially considering it was the only time he woke up last night.  Unfortunately, at some point between 5 and 8 BMan must have gotten sick (as in coughed to point that he threw up) and Eric and I slept through it [parents of the year] BUT so did BMan.  Wasn't quite a happy camper when he woke up with dried...regurgitated....milk. If that's not yummy....moving on. BMan got a bath this morning and once everyone was ready, we headed out the door a little after 9, not bad if I do say so myself.  We ended up shopping until almost 2 PM! That is a long time for a little bug to go without taking a nap. I was so impressed though, he only had one meltdown and it was at the very end of our trip!  Before we got to the end of our trip, we searched for Santa....which took hours. The mall we were at was huge and it seemed like Santa was hidden in a far away corner...but don't be fooled...it took hours because of the multiple pit stops we made along the way. And multiple purchases.  Oops! Once we finally found Santa, it was quite the site!

 We touched lights and trees, played with a little girl and explored the area line.

And finally, it was our turn to see Santa. Now, when we took B to see the Easter bunny in the spring, he was fine. He just kind of stared. Really, he was too little to know what was going on. I figured that for sure this time he would have a full on melt down.  Much to my surprise, our little bug did just fine! He looked a little confused at first, but he actually cracked a little grin for us!

Look at that little leg just hanging out. He wasn't even squirming, just making himself right at home! And for that, BMan, we thank you!  

Tree Decorating

I've recently come to accept something.  It's something I never thought I would be...and something I'd never thought I'd accept.  I'm a slob.  There's something you need to know, too.  I grew up in a house where everything was clean and tidy. Everything had it's place. I can't recall too many times where I was told to clean my room because it was typically pretty clean.  Well, let's discuss a few things that have changed since those times.  Having two working parents, one wild one year old and a home to maintain makes for a house that is...not at all what I grew up in.  When Eric first met me, I couldn't sleep unless the room was clean.  Now, you're lucky if I do laundry and iron once a week. And vacuuming? The good news is that we're not home all day all the time so vacuuming is more of an option than an actual necessity in our typically week, right? Probably not....but now that we have a Christmas tree up (yes, 5 days before Christmas it's finally decorated) I'm forced to vacuum! Let's take a step back a minute - I'm accepting that my house isn't clean. And I don't really mean it's dirty. It's just messy. It's not that we're slobs that live in filth. No, no. Everything is clean, but a mess.  Eric actually asked me the other day when the homemaker was coming. Ha! It makes me laugh out loud when I even type it. We don't have a homemaker. I'm assuming some of you all are reading this saying "he must have some nerve! How could Eric even say that?" But fear not my friends. I have proof. I understand why he asks. It's because on your average afternoon, after work and daycare, our house looks like this:

...and this is a clean picture! When he really gets going, we have pieces and parts that are all over the living room, kitchen, etc.

Anyways, back to my main point. That I can't keep our house "clean"....I'm so disorganized.  We couldn't even get our tree up and decorated until 5 days before Christmas...who am I?? The good news is, I actually love my life. I love that this house wasn't founded on perfection.  (That's a good saying, am I right? Thanks, toots...I wish I could take all the credit, but it's safe to assume that most things witty on this blog are stolen from the hubs).  I love that 5 days before Christmas we can decorate our tree, and pretty quickly, and still love everything about it. It didn't feel rushed, it looks beautiful...no complaining from this wifey!

First picture...and right after snapping it I noticed how sad the bottom string of lights looked...

Enter, handy hubby...

 Did I mention we can't find our tree skirt? That's a tablecloth...surrounding our tree

 Every year these silver, glittery ornaments get me

 I bought this to stick on a stocking for B last year....yet another DIY project I never finished...but it looks pretty great on the tree this year!

 Here's to wishing our tree a solid ten days of decorated life!

When you live in New England....

Your deck may look like this...
It's been a snowy few days here.  Our recent adventures have included half hour trips to get to the train station (should take 12 minutes) and the spedometer on our car reaching 50 mph in the snow when we were moving at about 0.5 mph in the snow up a hill.  What's that? Not exciting enough?  Well BMan has had his first official bout with pink eye.  And that has been a job!  B got his 12 month shots just about a week and a half ago.  Now, I think I've done relatively well not being a paranoid new mom and I haven't cried once when B's gotten any shots (I know, gold star, right?) so when the doctor said he needed three sets of vaccines and a flu shot, I felt bad for my little bug, but it wasn't the end of the world.  I knew he'd scream from the shots and figured he'd be fine soon.  The doctor said in about 10 days he'd probably run a fever and as long as it was low grade, there was nothing to worry about.  Well, about 6 or 7 days after the shots, the little guy had a low grade fever but seemed super uncomfortable.  About 10 days after his shots, his eyes were a little puffy, but I assumed it was just a side effect of one of the shots he had gotten.  I showed up to daycare...and our daycare provider's first words that morning were: "WOW, well somebody has pink eye!" I'm pretty sure I just stared.  His eyes weren't red, they weren't pink, sure they were a little puffy...but there was no way he had pink eye.  Luckily for me, there weren't any other kids coming to daycare so she was able to take B for a half day until I could get him to the doctor.  We got to the doctor, and on first glance, his doctor said he didn't think it was pink eye.  And then....he pulled down his eye lid.  And I have never seen the lower part of the eye that red and that puffy.  The poor little guy. Luckily his doctor was able to call in a prescription that I was able to pick up later that day. I can now say, two full days later, B's giggly and funny personality is finally back.  But the on-going application of antibiotic ointment into a toddler's eyes, well that has been fun. One thing I will give B credit for, he's turned into a great faker. This past week I think we've heard lots of screaming and shrieking, which at first was very concerning. It made me feel awful the first time we had to put ointment into his eyes...Eric had to pin him down and because he screamed so much he squeezed his eyes shut so this mamma had to pull down his little eye lids and get the goopy ointment into his eyes.  I was concerned. B's screams...my poor little BMan, I thought I might have hurt him. But let me tell you. As soon as I picked that little bug up, he was just fine. Happy as a clam.  So, I think it's fair to say we've mastered the art of fake screaming. And so has gone our pink eye adventure....

In other news, I love snow, but my poor hubby has done way more than his fair share of shoveling lately!  It snowed for hours over the weekend, and for hours yesterday...it seemed like it was never going to end...

And wouldn't you know it, 10 PM and the hubs is outside shoveling, making sure that we can easily get out of the driveway in the morning.

I know I've talked before about how much we love the holidays around here.  but, for one reason or another we've been struggling this year!  We just got our tree this past weekend (yep, a week and a half before Christmas...) and our tree isn't even fully decorated yet!  It's up and standing, we've got a few ornaments on it as well as the lights. We went to put the rest of the ornaments on the tree last night, but we couldn't even find the ornament hooks!  We found them today, but B had such a rough night last night that it's 9 o'clock, we're both lying in bed and getting ready to go to sleep.  I guess tomorrow (6 days before Christmas) we'll finally finish decorating our tree. For now, at least our tree doesn't look like this anymore...

 It looks like this...

Just a few little ornaments...but none of our bulbs are up.  Here's to decorating tomorrow...!

Let's call it history

We took a little trip today....a trip to visit Eric's Grandma.  We hadn't seen her in well over three years.  But today is history.  Brady has met all of his living great-grandparents. And while we're sure he won't remember the first time he met them all, it's pretty cool.  Back in March, we drove from Arizona out to California and we were able to spend some time with my mom's parents.  Grandma and Grandpa, it was so good to see you then!  Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of Grandpa! Look at how tiny the little guy was back then, and look at those poses!

He was such a tiny tike! When we left from Arizona to come home, my parents were kind enough to fly home with the B-Man, and when we got home, my Nagymama was there bonding with the little guy!

Once we were back on the east coast, he hung out with another great-Grandma (Eric's mom's mom) and even shared a couple of toys!

And today....despite feeling a little sick from his first flu shot, he managed to sneak in a few smiles with Eric's dad's mom....he has now officially met all of his living great-Grandparents.

Bug, you're one lucky guy.

In other news, some people have commented that BMan might be a little ginger. Others have just said that he looks strawberry blonde.  Are you all wondering where it came from? Since Eric appears to have brown hair...and I was clearly a fake blonde (...don't remember that? Because it was before I started this blog...and I have very, very few pieces of evidence of this...but there is one...)

...but my natural color at this point is brown. So where is this red hair coming from, you ask?

Well, while we were at BMan's great-Grandma's house today, Eric snapped this little gem....

Have I ever mentioned that Eric's dad is a twin? Or that he had red hair when he was younger? Well, he is...and he did.  So is BMan a ginger?  Maybe not quite like his grandpa....but if there are hints of ginger in his hair...you now know why!

Let's travel back

I started this little blog back in July of this year.  Funny thing...I was talking with Eric about blogging earlier today and I said that I figured I had started blogging in September...oops!  Anyways, shortly before I started this blog, Eric and I took a little break.  We left the country. And left BMan here. I had SUCH mixed feelings.  I was happy to be getting away and spending some quality time just the hubby and I.  At the same time, leaving my little baby...my baby boy that no one could take care of quite like Mama?  So what did I do?  What any sane, normal and clearly stable mom would do.  Type up a 10 page document full of instructions as to what Brady eats, bedtime, bath time...how to make a bottle with formula...and then, to top it off...I printed it out, and yes, I emailed it to my in-laws. Don't believe me? Here's a quick screenshot from my email from July 5th...my sent items, to my inlaws:

Yep, no shame. I printed it out...and then emailed it, just in case they lost the printed copy. Anyways, an over-protective crazy mom wasn't quite the point of this post.  The point was, we left Brady with Eric's parents for a week and he had a great time, and so did we.  I was so nervous about leaving him for a whole week...but it was great that we did.  Eric and I had time to relax, gamble a little, wine and dine, hit the beach, explore and just be adults again.

We bought a timeshare a few years ago. With that, we're able to exchange it anywhere in the world within the hotels that are part of the timeshare. Now, I don't even remember exactly where we actually wanted to go this past year, but I feel like we kind of got "stuck" going to St. Maarten.  I know, I know...we're going to the Caribbean, how can we be complaining?  Because last year we got to go to Aruba...and it was a great hotel on a great island.  It was fabulous! So there were only a handful of places available in the Caribbean that were even available when we were looking to book and St Maarten was one of them, and within that, there were only a couple of resorts available.  Clearly we didn't have a whole lot to choose from, but we ended up settling on Oyster Bay Beach Resort which is technically on the Dutch side of the island, but about 30 seconds away from the French side.  Let's just say that it wasn't quite like Aruba (we stayed here in Aruba).  The hotel itself wasn't anything to write home about.  It looked like it had been updated in the 80's and hadn't been touched all too much since then. It was clean enough, but just kind of...bleh. Turns out I never even took pictures of the room itself...just of around the hotel.

Any time there's an ocean as gorgeous as that, it can't be a terrible trip! We actually didn't even spend all too much time around the hotel during the days.  But there were a few days where we drank wine, ate pancetta, cheese and crackers and just hung out in the room or on our balcony.  It was nice to have pretty much 0 responsibility for a week!

So the hotel itself wasn't great, and admittedly in Aruba we ate some of the BEST food we've ever had. But St. Maarten did have some pretty darn good food.  Luckily, we rented a car and explored the island...in this little thing! You can't really tell from the photo, but that's a Hyundai i10....and it's probably the smallest car I've ever been in.

Anyways, we explored the island and ate some really really good food. 

On our first day there we actually found a public beach near a big hotel that was virtually deserted...there was one other person on the beach with us. We had probably 300 feet of beachfront pretty much to ourselves...pretty nice way to start a vaca!

A few more scenes from the hotel...

 We were actually lucky enough to take a day trip to Anguilla, which was my favorite part of the vacation!

 Our lunch time restaurant...

 Our beach chairs

 

We also took a couple of drives around the island.  We went to Orient Beach, which is actually known for being a topless  beach.  I think we only saw one topless lady...until we walked down to the southern end of the beach...where we saw bunches of ladies with there tops of...but they were all probably in their 60's...maybe 70's.  Probably not quite what Eric had in mind when I told him we could go to a topless beach (hehe) but also not exactly what I expected either!  We also took a day trip to Marigot, which was about an hour away (on the opposite side of the island) and is the French capital of St. Martin.  There was lots of high end shopping, and we had a pretty good burger there.  Other than that, there wasn't a whole lot going on (I mean, we're excluding some of the near-death driving experiences...drivers there are crazy on the windy roads!).

It was definitely a pretty area..just not a whole lot to do unless you were looking to spend bundles of money on stuff that you can get in the States (we weren't...). But, another great part of the trip was that on the way back from Marigot, we stopped at a conservation area that we had seen when we were coming back from Orient Beach. The shallow waters and the tides were absolutely amazing.

 We walked across a large span of very shallow water to climb a mini hill.  It was beautiful and it was amazing to take our time and just relax and take in the scenery.  We also were able to hit several casinos while we were out there.  We drove to the Princess casino (also on the opposite side of the island, but still on the Dutch side) and Eric hit a jackpot there on a slot machine...we left as some pretty happy campers!  The Westin was also super close to where we were staying and they had a casino (and it was a GORGEOUS hotel...) so we ended up there most nights to play a few hands of Blackjack.  It was definitely a much-needed vacation and we have some great memories and gorgeous photos...I'm just not sure that I would go back.  I'll catch you all up some other time on my favorite vacations (Costa Rica & Aruba)!  However, if you're ever headed to St. Maarten let me know (and don't fly Spirit Air...which is yet another story for another day!!) because I'd be happy to provide recommendations!