You Know Dasher & Dancer & Insta-Friday & Vixen

Time to bring back an old school report of the week, instagram style. Except I didn’t put any of these on instagram. 

I wonder what our children are going to think someday with all the self-taken photos their parents take of themselves with them. I think I would enjoy seeing pictures of my mom with me like this.

And I mean, cute photos like this wouldn’t happen unless we were taking pictures of ourselves a lot.

This is Gwyneth nowadays. Nonstop talking. I’ve always said I couldn’t wait for her to start talking, and I  admit it’s pretty amusing, for the most part. During the car ride to Thanksgiving I sat in the backseat in between her and Norah. Gwyneth chats a lot in the back seat anyways but we kind of don’t hear her. With me being next to her she was a mad woman incessantly talking the entire way. She talked about the birds being awake, where they live, how it’s not dark outside or is dark, about the birds at our house, the bird that just flew by and did I mention the birds? It was an hour of nonstop narration by Gwyneth and by the time we came home we were both glad to put that kid to bed just for a break from all that talking.

On a regular basis she says some pretty ridiculously cute stuff. My favorite is when she asks if I’m ok, or informs me that Norah is sleepy and needs to take a nap so she can watch Mickey. My least favorite is the bossy pants she has recently tried on for size. The kid seems to be drunk with power lately, barking demands like, “read it!” or ” I want fresh milk in the butterfly cup in the living room.” That’s a fun new development.

Cuties.

The polka dot rain boots. When living in Nevada they are quite ridiculous to have. But then when it comes time,  once or twice a year, man are they helpful. I use them mainly as snow boots. 

Oh babies. Such hard work trying to figure you out. Just when things are going well they throw you a curve ball. The good news is that the baby stage is fleeting, which is a relief to us. I know most people live for the baby stage and we are just not those people. All I can say is she’s lucky she’s so gosh darn cute.

Cute nakie baby snuggles in a robe I got from dragging two friends to a horrendous Mary Kay party type deal 10 years ago. God, that was torturous, but man is the robe nice.

Finally, four months later, the child lets her father put her to sleep.

For Thanksgiving dinner I brought this dice that I got off a preschool curriculum website. It has clip art on all the sides and a chart that she tracks what we roll on. It’s basically the only game she’ll play, if you can call it that. So I brought it with us to Thanksgiving and everyone humored the toddler and played a preschool learning lesson with us. Gwyneth loved every second of it. On Black Friday I wound up at Walmart at 10:30 at night and noticed all the classic kid games on sale. I got all of them with plans for birthday and Christmas presents but couldn’t not bust out Cootie with the kid. She enjoys the bugs and will tolerate it for a short period of time but let me say this; it’s so nice to finally have a game to play with her. Free ball playing is getting pretty boring nowadays and having something with structure, a beginning and an end is quite a relief. 

And while we’ve been doing SO GOOD about not eating out, we all just needed an excuse to leave the house and not have to do three loads of dishes for one day. So we ventured to In-N-Out because we’re addicts and their fries don’t have soy. We packed Gwyneth some chicken and made sure no soy is in their fries and had ourselves a nice little escape from the house.

And that’s been our week. But wait! We’re missing the mass amounts of Christmas crafts we’ve been busting out. Christmas provides such a bounty of ideas for crafts and we’ve been blowing through a ton during Norah’s naps. Glitter snowflakes- Norah has had a speck of glitter on her constantly since we’ve made them. What’s with babies attracting glitter? Bingo dauber Christmas lights on houses, fuzz ball ornaments on construction paper trees, abstract Picasso snowmen and a hybrid version of this recycled Christmas village are just a few that we’ve banged out this week.

On a whim at Michael’s I bought a little foam Christmas house kit for Gwen. She picked out which one she wanted from the display, carried it in the cart and gave it to the cashier. She asked to make it when we got home and I anticipated an overly complicated mess of a project that she wouldn’t pay attention to. It was the opposite. It held her attention more than any project we’ve ever done. We had to take a break when Norah got fussy and then she showed it to Jake later and they resumed construction until it was bath time. It is on her bookshelf in her bedroom for the evening after she requested it come with her to bed. It’s a big deal to that little girl and I’m so glad I got that instead of the gingerbread house kits everywhere. Not only was it  cheaper ($4.50!) I don’t have to worry about Gwen eating any of it (duh). Seemed like a no-brainer.

Let’s go back to Michael’s for a minute. What is with that place during the holidays? They never have enough cashiers and it’s like a war zone every year. How are they not prepared and what is the deal with that place just making everyone evil? It was honestly like the scene in A Christmas Story when they’re at the mall going to visit Santa when there are kids screaming as they wait in a long line. I don’t know what was up with this family, but the kids were SCREAMING at the top of their lungs for the entire time (20 minutes) I was at that store and it was seriously as if I was right there alongside Ralphie and his brother. It was absolutely ridiculous. I hope to not have to go back there this holiday season because that place is the worst.

We’ve got a lot of plans this weekend, which include Santa pictures, visiting family, a college graduation and a wreath party. ‘Tis the Season!

Then on Monday I have to go to the stupid dentist. Blerg.

But today we’re venturing out in the cold to go to Target to exchange a Darth Vader stocking for a Wookie one and also to pickup a gift I ordered online and just received an email stating it won’t be here until a week later than anticipated. The item is at the store, so I suppose we’ll just pick it up right alongside the Wookie stocking. That’s the problem with online shopping, the whole shipping debacle.

Also, here are a few links I’ve enjoyed this week:

• Holidays Traditions I Just Can’t via Life Rearranged – totally inspired me to not get the gingerbread house kit. Whew!
• Excited to partake in Santa pictures down the street at Recycled Rugrats tomorrow. The girls and I went down and signed up for Saturday. Yippee! More info can be found here. 
• Loved the idea for making cardboard boxes into a cute little village. I would’ve never thought how to make this an actual cute thing rather than looking like a pile of boxes from recycling via Paging Supermom. The printable windows really take it up a notch .