Things you take for granted before having kids. An uninterrupted nights sleep. Naps. Just you and your husband in bed. Sleeping a weekend away. Can you tell I miss my sleep? Waking up slowly. Showering every day, or at least whenever you wanted. Brushing your teeth in the morning. Going to the bathroom alone or uninterrupted. "Mommy, what are you doing?" "Daddy, where's Mommy?" followed by knocking on the bathroom door. Riding in the car with the windows down. Eating a meal while it's still hot. It never fails, somebody is going to need something just as you are about to take your first bite. Being able to drop everything and go somewhere without planning it in advance. Running in to multiple stores in one shopping trip. Peace and quiet. Why do I feel the need to end this with a qualifier stating that of course I love my children and all of these are small sacrifices that I would make again in a minute. Isn't that already known?!

Margot loves Nolan, and I couldn't be happier!  Her new thing is reading books to him.  Of course he doesn't know what is going on, but he loves watching/staring at her.  I hope that he will end up loving books as much as Margot does.

 

Our good friends Jeremy and April were in town over the holidays.  While here, Jeremy took some pictures of Margot and with them he created this awesome little video.  It's so awesome!

 

Have you ever thought about how uncomfortable it would be if while getting your teeth cleaned you just stared at the hygenist in the eyes?  

I wonder what the percentage increase has been for "eat my shit" pies, since the movie The Help has come out.

Lately it seems like all I am saying to Margot is "NO, don't do that", "Margot, look at me", "Are you supposed to be doing that", "HEY, I'M TALKING TO YOU", "You aren't listening".  She seems to be right on track when it comes to testing her boundaries and doing whatever she pleases.  It is so tiring to constantly be "fighting" with her.  I'm torn between continuing it or putting her out on the street with the recycleables.  I mean, she can be turned into a nice coaster, right?  No, seriously, I'm wondering if I'm just being overly critical, and should just let things go, like right now, she is behind me jumping on the couch.  What?  She's at least telling me "Mommy, I'm jumping".  

So for things like jumping on the couch/bed, do I tell her no and threaten to turn off what she's watching and then have to deal with a screaming kid, or do I just let her do it.  What's it really hurting, well except her if/when she falls off.  Then there's little things like walking on her books, toys or board games.  This seems like a no brainer.  Amy, just let it go, but I feel like she needs to be taught to respect her toys/books so they don't all turn in to trash.  Other annoyances, and maybe that's just what they should be, and I should just get over myself are when she has chalk and is scratching it under her fingernail, or writing all over herself with her markers.  Now, I don't care about that at all, but it was driving me up the wall today when she would make one tiny little mark and then want to run into the bathroom to wash it off.  So what's the problem you say, she just wants to be clean.  I DON"T KNOW!  I was just trying to get her to listen to me and to understand that she doesn't need to do it every time she wrote on herself, that we could do it at the end of playing.  That was like telling Cooper not to pee on his leg; it just wasn't getting through her thick skull, and ended up with her getting upset. 

All of this stuff is probably magnified because my quiet, sweet, liitle Nolan has over the past month turned in to a very vocal and opinionated little boy.  It's hold me, pay attention to me, hey, you with the boobs, yeah you, I'm hungry, all of the time, get over here and feed me now, or I'm going to let you know what I really think, and I doubt you'll like it.  I'm trying to take it day by day, and with the support of some great Mom's who have been there, or are there now, I'm getting through.  Seriously, as corny as it sounds, it does take a village to raise a kid hold the Mom back from jumping off of the ledge.

I like to make New Years resolutions.  I also like to try to keep them, even though it doesn't happen all of the time.  So here are the three main ones that I hope to accomplish this year

1) Read at least 12 books; one a month, shouldn't be hard.

2) Get back in to running and run a 10k (this was a goal for last year, but I got pregnant and didn't run during my pregnancy)

3) Make healthier meals and snacks for the family.

Of course I want to hug and kiss my kids as much as possible and be the best Mom I can be.  That's not a resolution though, that's just a way of life.

What are your resolutions this year?  I know at least one person reads this, so somebody better leave a comment!  Maybe THAT can be your resolution; to comment on our blog more often!

This is by far Margot's favorite song of the season.  We listen and dance to it at least ten times a day.

The month of December is always a crazy one.  This is the first year that Margot has started to understand Christmas and the hoopla surrounding it.  We've had fun doing lots of crafts and driving around looking at decorations. 

We started out with cutting out a Christmas tree and Margot decorated it.  This is the first time I've let her have full reign of the glue stick.  She did a great job and didn't eat it!  Along with the tree we made a snowman family and snowflakes, neither which I took pictures of.  The snowflakes are now hanging up in her playroom and when anyone comes in she proudly shows them.

Next we went out to find our Christmas tree.  Margot has been so excited about getting one, so when we told her we were going that's all she talked about.

Here are the kids sporting their holiday head gear.  Yes, I like to torture my kids. :)  I need plenty of bribery material for when they get older.

The next morning we decorated the tree in our pjs.  Surprisingly, Margot wasn't super excited about hanging the decorations on the tree.  She wanted us to do it and she supervised.  Well, except for a couple of them when Robbie lifted her up to put them on.

Next we made salt doough ornaments for her playgroup, and for us of course.  I mixed up the ingredients and rolled out the dough and Margot took it from there cutting out the ornaments with cookie cutters.  After we baked them and let them cool overnight, she started painting them.  She had a lot of fun with the paints, but absolutely LOVED the glitter!  We are going to be sparkling in this house for months to come with the amount that is sprinkled around.  

Finally it was time to celebrate at her playgroup's first Christmas party.  We made penguins out of footprints (I need to take a picture), ate some yummy food and exchanged gifts.  We were also successful in getting decent group pictures.

Last, but definitely not least, I took the kiddos to get Christmas pictures today.  Did I mention, I like to torture my kids?  Oh yeah, I do.  Robbie does not approve.

Here is a comparison of Margot at 4 weeks vs Nolan at 6 weeks.  They are both wearing the same onesie.  :)  Margot didn't plump up until 2-3 months, where Nolan is nice and chunky now!