On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me
One purple unicorn pillow pet...
It's the end of the first post-holiday week. We had a whirlwind two weeks of family and friends, sugar and butter, wine and wrapping paper galore. Then it was back to preschool, The YMCA and getting my house in order. Normally, I would have the house back to it's usual state of obsessive cleanliness but I've been a bit under the weather all week. I've been chasing my vitamins down with Airborne, eating garlic, and making my raw green smoothies with extra spinach and kale. But the migraines brought on my jaw have been to intense for me to function very well, let alone post on the ole' blog. My table is still piled up with Christmas presents and the laundry is starting to pile up. But I have accomplished some this week. I made almond make and afterwords, cleaned out my fridge...because that's what you do when you've been on the couch with a migraine all day, realize you have no groceries and decide, since you're going to get groceries anyway, you might as well clean out the fridge first, which turns out to be disgusting and the o.c.d. you wishes the fridge could be taken outside and hosed down. Please don't even bother pointing out the punctuation errors I just made. I'm not in the mood. After cleaning out the fridge, you pile the kids in the car at eight in the evening and go to Meijers. Your children behave well. It's weird. After the kids go to bed, you call your husband at work and tell him that the kids were good at the store. He says, "That's weird." Yah, I know.
I love when my children behave and are 'good' in public. And we totally have a balance. Izzie is usually good and Noah is usually a beast. Once in a great while the tables are turned; not so weird. Once in a great awhile, I am accompanied by angelic creatures, weird, and other parents look at me with jealousy, wishing their children behaved so well in public. Okay, so maybe they're wishing my children would quite down a little. Even when they're angelic, they're still loud...in a good way. Who doesn't want to be serenaded with 'Away in a Manger' and 'Twinkle, Twinkle', while they're out running mundane errands.
Something else that made our out-of-body experience at Meijer weird is that it was later at night and the kids had not taken a good nap. Plus, Noah was having a rough week. He wasn't sleeping sleeping and spent most of his day in a state of crankiness. In the end though, I just chalked it up to a strange occurrence. a blessing from God because I wasn't feeling well. no big deal.
Two days later, as I was contemplating how best to slice my jaw off, Kris and Noah picked Izzie up and went to Costco. Kris must have been in a great mood to take both of them. He also has seen how much pain I've been in, and has been just a peach to me. The kids got back from Costco and started playing in the avalanche of toys and legos in the living room. Kris told me something weird happened. The kids were both really good at Costco. I said, "That is weird. Two days in one week." He said, "Yah, I know, weird." Noah walked around the store, then asked to sit up in the cart. Izzie and Noah both sang songs and everyone thought they were so cute. Noah didn't have any outbursts. He didn't start beasting. He said hi to the checkout girl and said thank you every time she put an item in the cart. Later in the afternoon, Uncle Adam came over to play with the kids before he heads back to school tomorrow. They were good. They played together great. They didn't even have a nap, and were still good, which could partly be contributed to the sugary fruit smoothie they had when they were done shopping at Costco.
Stranger still is that they ate a good dinner, had a nice bath, picked up their toys and are sweetly tucked in bed, all without any meltdowns or objections. I seriously feel like I'm in the twilight zone because Noah has violently objected to bedtime every night this week, whether he's had a nap or not. And he usually cries at least once or twice or three times before he goes to sleep, but I haven't heard a peep from him. Okay, I just heard a peep, but he's talking and I can live with that. Except now his peep has turned into, "Mom? Mom? Mom?"
I wonder what tomorrow will bring?
It would take me hours to recount every moment of our holiday experience. So instead, I decided to do a top ten, or maybe a top twenty. We'll see how many top moments there were. Numbers one and two were the top two moments, but the rest are pretty much in random order.
- My dear sister Melody came home from South Korea for the holidays. Most of the family hadn't seen her in over a year so it was wonderful and yes, it was loud.
- Izzie received the one thing she wanted most for Christmas: A Purple Unicorn Pillow (Mel, the space between 1 and 2 here is huge. Izzie was way more excited about seeing you than receiving her beloved pillow pet.)
- Izzie and I spent an afternoon with my dear friend Sarah. She has a sweet boy, who just turned three. She also has twins, a boy and a girl, who just turned one. She's one busy mama and it was so nice catching up with her. I always leave our visits wishing I could move back to the west side. Oh, and Izzie and Peter were too cute. I will be posting some pics later of their adorableness.
- Izzie and I went out to breakfast with an old friend of mine I hadn't seen in almost five years. Fawn, it was great seeing you and Mackenzie, who has grown so much. I can't wait to get together again.
- We had a party for Melody one night so that everyone could come over and see her, rather than her trying to hop around to everyone's house. Yah, it was a great idea and we all had a blast. I caught up with friends I hadn't seen in awhile as well. I see a theme here of catching up with friends. It happens when you live on the other side of the state:)
- We had four wonderful Christmas celebrations. That also means we had at least four wonderful meals. Noah ate and ate and ate. But oddly, he actually lost a little weight. No lie. He didn't have much of an appetite this week. I weighed him today and he's lost a little bit of weight. So has Izzie, but she ate like a horse this week. I think she's going through a growth spurt.
- Noah loves hummus. He really loves hummus. We spent nearly two weeks at my parents house and he ate hummus almost every day. It was amazing. He would scoop up gobs of hummus on a chip and suck it off the chip.
- My parents, Melody, Jordan and I spent New Year's Eve at the house. Jordan and I made lots of yummy food and Melody took beautiful pictures of the food with her new camera. I can't wait to see the pictures.
- We had waffles and fillets at Gigi's house on Christmas morning. I didn't actually eat a fillet, but I have in years past and they're always delicious.
- Aunt Rhonda and the twins, Christian and Alexander, were here for Christmas this year. It had been over a year since we saw them last. Izzie had a great time playing with the twins and was sad to see them leave.
- My sister and I went out to lunch with my mom. I can't remember the last time we spent a couple of hours together.
- Speaking of sibling gatherings, all nine of my siblings and I were under one roof at my parents house. It was only for a short time, but it was a moment to be remembered.
- Kris and I had a wonderful time watching the kids open their presents Christmas morning. It was fascinating to see the kids go from pure joy to 'Mine! Mine! Mine!'.
- We had a great time at Grandma and Bepa's house the day after Christmas. Adam bought Izzie and Noah a large doodle pad. There were these little shapes on the side of it which Noah decided to hide. I think there were four, maybe six, pieces and we looked everywhere for them. We ended up leaving knowing they would turn up sooner or later. Bepa investigated the Christmas tree again after we left and, what do you know, he found all the pieces in various parts of the tree. Clever Noah, very clever.
- I had almost everything packed up to head back to the east side. I couldn't find my gym shoes. As I looked everywhere, more and more family members started helping out in the search. After about an hour, I found my shoes on Steven's dresser. I jokingly said, "Steven's in trouble for stealing my shoes." My dad came in and noticed some little Christmas trees laying next to the shoes. He knew right away who the culprit was. Noah had been carrying those little Christmas trees around with him all week. Shortly after I found my gym shoes, I couldn't find my phone. The search was on again, and my phone was eventually located hidden underneath a pillow. Very clever Noah. You would think that he didn't want to leave Nana and Papa's house except, all the while I was packing, he was following me around with his shoes whining. He always acts like I'm going to leave without him, silly boy. Okay, so I did leave without when I went out with friends or whatever. Every time I left, he acted as if I was abandoning him. I love my sweet baby boy.
- I took a nap on my parents couch with Kris. We rarely get to sleep in the same bed, or couch, at the same time so it was nice.
- I saw family I haven't seen in awhile as well. My Aunt Diane and all three of her children came over for Melody's party. It was wonderful. I love family.
- I was so excited about one of the gifts I purchased for Kris this year. I know, I know, it's not about money and presents. He didn't ask for anything and he had absolutely no idea what I was getting him. He was surprised and loved his gift.
- My brother Jordan gave Kris and I one of the best presents I've ever received. He did two sketches each of Izzie and Noah. My parents were in on the gift as well. They had the pictures beautifully framed in one giant frame that is still wondering what space of wall it will call home. My lil' brother Jordan is so talented and I cannot wait to see how his talent with evolve over the coming years. (I just felt strange typing the word evolve.)
- I felt so blessed this year. Last year Kris was laid off and I was still struggling with postpartum depression along with some other health problems. There just wasn't as much joy in our lives. We're so thankful for all God has done in our lives and everything he's brought us through.
I am off to medicate myself some more and cuddle with my heating pad.
Love to all...
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