Fairly Boring

This week hasn't been entirely eventful. If you read last week's post you'll know that we did Thanksgiving early with both sides of the family. So our Thanksgiving week was very relaxing and low stress.

We had some friends over for dinner on Monday, it was nice having some adults to talk to and hang out with. They have two little girls one older and one younger than X. So they ran around during dinner and got into all sorts of mischief. We adults tried to play a Harry Potter trivia board game afterwards but kiddos wanted to play too, so it was put away.

I am really hoping to find some Harry Potter  enthusiasts out in Maryland, mostly book but movie too. I'm not totally into knowing everything about the actor's lives, I'm more into the story and diving into fanfics and Pottermore and rereading the books. I  still like the movies and watch them frequently but the books are my safe place.

We had a small dinner outing on Thanksgiving Day with my Mom and sister (the kids call her Coco). We went to a buffet styled restaurant and I was swiftly reminded why I make my own food. It was fine but it wasn't as great as I remember from eight years ago. I'm pretty sure it's because my palate has developed and become kind of snobbish over time.

On Friday I did do some minor black Friday shopping. I didn't wait in lines or stay up all night. I went later in the day and found some great finds spending only $10/person. So, I say it's a win!

Hubby and I helped my mom set up her school's bookfair yesterday, she's a librarian. She had to reconfigure how she does it every year because Santa is taking over a portion of her library on Thursday for a few hours and she usually has that part of the library blocked off. So we spent at least three hours moving things around and trying to give the book fair some flow and still make it kid accessible and friendly. She was supposed to have more help but they all cancelled or forgot so it was just us, my Dad and her. The boys did pretty well, Baby A fed once and slept the rest of the time and X made himself at home, taking off his socks, looking at books, and running around.

Baby A is smiling when you make eye contact with him and smile at him. X is expanding his vocabulary and starting to be able to express his needs more and more every day. I don't have a good pic of X this week, but here's a cute on of A's smile.

'Til next time!
-TBC

Craziness and Growth

Baby A had a doctors appointment on Monday, he's a very big boy measuring the the 84% for height and weighing in in the 74%. He also received some shots and he took them pretty well. He didn't want any milk after them though so I had to use the binki to soothe him.

Baby A is starting to smile and laugh at will, it's infectious and I love trying to find things that please him. He also really likes to play with toys the best way a baby can play with toys. He wacks them with his fist and giggles while he's wacking. We have a play mat that we put him on that has toys dangling at various angles and he's in heaven while he's on there. He has all the signs of being an early crawler, he loves tummy time and would just like to play all day if he didn't take naps. :)

Mr. X and I went on a Mommy-Son date! We had so much fun! We visited Grammy (my mom) and then we went to the mall to play in the play center. But X had other plans, he grabbed my hand and walked all over the mall with me. We eventually made our way into the Disney store and he started gathering characters from The Adventures of Winnie The Pooh and acting out the scenes with the characters. So I bought him Piglet, who is one of the characters he didn't have yet. After that we went to a store that sells inexpensive soft serve ice cream and got that for our treat. We had a lot of fun and laughs and I really needed the one on one time with him. I've missed it just being the two of us.

Here's pictures of the boys showing some love:

With them in the bed, Hubby took A into X's room and plopped him in the bed and X affectionately say "Baby A!" and began to cuddle him. Then I asked X if he wanted to hug A, he said yes and the picture on the chair came to pass.

I'm very blessed to have these sweet boys in my life. I love how affectionate X is and how A always smiles for X.

This week I've been working like a mad woman to make the house presentable for people to come look at our apartment. We had an open house this week and two people showed up during the morning showing and the landlords sold our contract to one of the people who came. Then they spent the next half hour telling people that the apartment was taken. I'm glad it was solved so quickly because if our contract wasn't sold then we'd have to continue paying rent until someone did buy it, even after we've left. So it's a huge weight off my shoulders to have that done.

 Now I can focus on deep cleaning and packing because we are only about 1 month away from moving. Which isn't actually that long if you factor in the holidays and the time they take up. So, no rest for the wicked!!!

Today my family is having Thanksgiving dinner due to many of my family members being unable to come on the actual holiday. So I made the turkey by brining it ahead of time and my brother-in-law cooked it in his Traeger and it came out perfectly!!! I also made cranberry sauce from scratch, which is super easy, and a dressing from freshly crushed walnuts.

We're about to eat, so make sure to enjoy your time this week with your family and Happy Thanksgiving!!

-TBC

Happy Veterans Day! "Thank you, I enjoyed my freedom today!"

Our little family has had a bit of a rough week. Baby A wasn’t feeling his best earlier in the week and had a rough time sleeping at night. I was pretty sleep deprived but still had to continue getting the apartment ready for showings. 

I’ve been using this time to get rid of anything we don’t use much, pack away and reorganize. So I’ve been able to organize the pantry, craft closet, and almost all of the bedroom closet. This has been made possible by may father-in-law, his job involves him getting a lot of boxes and he so kindly saves me them (and the bubble wrap that comes) and gives it to me.

Mr. X has been wanting to act like a baby this week to get what he wants but wants all the things a toddler can have too. Well, we are teaching him the “You can’t have your cake and eat it too” mentality and trying to increase our attentions to him. He can trace the letter M almost perfectly, his fine motor skills are definitely increasing . He's also been improving his days of the week recognition. (He just barely lifted up his shirt and asked me if he could help then tried to lean over Baby A in an effort to feed him, haha, my little helper). He’s also improving on picking up toys when he’s done with them. That will definitely help with getting ready for the apartment yo be shown.

Hubby has had a fever the last couple of days on and off. This is pretty uncharacteristic for him, he’s a really quick healer. So he went to the doctor and found out he has strep! So he is currently taking some antibiotics for it but can’t give kisses or help with the kids at all until he is well. Touch is one mine and Hubby’s love languages though so it’ll be difficult for us while he’s sick. 

Tomorrow we are going to my brother-in-law’s home to celebrate Thanksgiving because my sister-in-law is in town and my mother- and father-in-law will be out of town during Thanksgiving. Unfortunately Hubby will not be able to join us, so I’ll be going alone with the boys. I’m going to bringing my fresh bake pumpkin pie (everything from scratch, even most of the spices are freshly ground, and the pumpkin roasted and pureed) and a sweet potato and apple casserole I make that Hubby is quite fond of.

My mom comes back into town on Monday after being gone for two weeks. She’s been with my dad during a work conference. I like the boys having the opportunity to be around grandparents as much as possible right now before we move. 

Happy Veterans Day, until next time,

TBC

P.S. In light of election results this week. Just a friendly reminder that we need to be kind to each other. And no one is superior or inferior because of their race, gender, or religion. If you see bullying please stand up and stop it, the bystander is just as guilty as the bully. I love you all.

Christmas and other fun times

Not much has happened these past few months concerning the pregnancy. I started to feel the little person move every now and then. Hubby thought he felt the baby move, he says it felt like "feeling a heartbeat".

My morning sickness has basically disappeared with a few exceptions of being nauseous because I might be sick. I still don't really like eating meat, I can eat some but not that much of it. Mostly red meats tend to bother me, but, I still will eat it if someone makes it for me.

Right now, I'm at 19 weeks (20 on Saturday), I'm a little under halfway done! I don't feel like I should be but I am! I also get to find out my little person's gender on Monday. I'm way excited! Guesses anyone?

I really want to do a reveal the gender party, but we'll see.

November was ok, I felt kind of queazy during Thanksgiving due to morning sickness. We had Thanksgiving Dinner up at my Brother- Wally's house. He is quite the cook! He made these fantastic cheese balls that were to die for. My other brother-Jar was the talk of the party because he brought tons of mini Martinellis. It was really fun, and a lot of people came.

Christmas! Christmas time was fun. I did the 12 Days of Christmas on Hubby this year, I was pretty proud of it.
Day 1- One face mask (he rides his bike to work/school everyday and his face is always freezing when he does)
Day 2- 2 cufflinks
Day 3- 3 raquetballs
Day 4- The Fantastic Four
Day 5- 5 oranges
Day 6- 6 Goldtoe Socks
Day 7- A lucky tie
Day 8- 8 pocket Kleenex
Day 9- a 9V battery
Day 10- 10 Facebook praises
Day 11- 11 songs that made me think of him
Day 12- Coupons for any time
Christmas Day- Shirts and movies

It was way fun, I found everything on Ebay & at Black Friday (I went after the crowds died down and it was really nice) and I spent $20 below my initial budget. I felt pretty proud about that :).

Christmas break was fun because we spent a lot of time with Hubby's family that were in town, so we got to play with little kids for most of break and work on puzzles. In Hubby's family it's a tradition (that no one knows how it got started) to have puzzles on a table in one of the rooms and they try to finish the puzzles that they get that year or didn't finish the previous year. I'm really bad at puzzles, so I have made the choice to practice puzzles. There were 1000 piece puzzles in my parent's basement so I snagged one and have been practicing. Hopefully next year, I can be helpful in the puzzle excitement.

Christmas Eve was delicious, my Mother-in-law is a really good cook so I enjoyed a very yummy meal.

Christmas Day is always interesting for Hubby and I, we spend some of the morning together, exchanging our gifts for each other. Then we went to my parent's house for the morning. Then we went to his parents house for the afternoon. We will switch it up every year because they only live a block or two from each other, so, not much traveling being done and we get to see everyone!

New Years Eve was exciting, the day before we had a fancy cheese dinner at my In-law's house which was fun, there were definitely some fun and interesting cheeses there. Then on the day of, we went to my parent's house and watched movies until midnight. Hubby & my mom took a nap around 11:00 PM so I was the only one awake and when midnight hit I woke people up, we cheered the New Year with Martinelli shots and stayed up for another hour or so.

Overall, a very good break. I also got a TON done. My pantry which was a total nightmare (we haven't touched it since we got married), I finally pulled out everything and redid the whole setup. We actually have a food storage space now, and can actually incorporate it into our meals now and rotate out old cans and such.

Thanks to everyone who helped make the year great (even if I didn't mention it) and I'm excited for what the New Year will bring!

-TBC