Merry Christmas

From our family to yours, we hope you have a happy and healthy holiday.

 See you in the new year!

Book Nook | Christmas Additions

Sharing a few new-to-us books added to our Christmas book nook this year.

Back in August we found some kids books at my parents house that my mom must have gotten second-hand to have for the kids at her house, a few of them were Christmas books. I took them home with us. A special surprise gift from her.

This next group is an assortment of finds from Walmart or Amazon.

The Dinosaur that Poop Christmas is from Aunt Kandi and Aunt Judy. They got Kip the whole series for his birthday and let me tell you, these books were made for 5 year old boys. They are hilariously disgusting. 

A World of Cookies for Santa is a beautifully illustrated book with a bit of information about how Christmas is celebrated around the world with cookie recipes from different countries.

As Cool as it Gets is about gift giving and the importance of the thought behind the gift and not just whatever the gift is. Christmas Train is a countdown to Christmas and Santa Mouse is a classic.

Terri Mom gave each of the kids a copy of this The Night Before Christmas book which is a recording of her reading the story! Such a keepsake. I wish I had something like this from my mom but I am grateful we have Terri mom.

Merry reading!

Weekending it

New week. New virus. 

It is definitely a weary world over here, and no rejoicing. I had a minor mental breakdown on Saturday night when Kip woke up with a croupy cough and tears. And since the universe likes to jab me, I dropped a lid down the shower drain while I was trying to recaulk our shower at 11 PM and then screamed at Dan for not helping me. It was a real low point which I regret. We are all just so tired of so much sickness and it's not like we aren't trying to do what we can to stay healthy. We still wear masks while indoors, Dan, Mandy and I all wear masks when we go to work, the kids are forced to wash their hands excessively, they take vitamins and immune support, they sleep 10-12 hours a night. We eat relatively healthy and stay active. It doesn't matter. Kids get sick.

Most schools are out for winter break already but we still have a full week left which means more sick absences for Kip. Hopefully he will be better enough in time for his class party on Friday which I've spent a small fortune on and our guests arrive Friday as well. I really want to enjoy this season as much as possible and I think we've done our best trying to balance getting back to life mid-pandemic while taking direct hits from every virus circulating at school right now. It's exhausting.

This weekend, before Kip started feeling sick, we took the kids to the garden center to see the winter wonderland and Santa. We went here last year and it was just as sweet. 

This Santa was not as chatty as the real Santa at Storybook Land, but not having to be near him was much more comfortable for Ivy.

We walked through the store and then went back through the displays and saw Santa again since it wasn't crowded.

I am grateful we've at least managed to do some fun stuff in between these sicknesses which never give us more than 5-7 days between each other. Summer save us!!

Peeks from the Week

I cannot believe that Christmas is next week!!!!! Eeeeek. So much left to do!

This week has been busy. On Monday night, Santa came through the neighborhood on the local firetruck. The kids bundled-up and waited in the garage for the sound of Christmas music and sirens. So fun! (sorry for the blurry photo)

On Tuesday, Dan and I took Ivy to the orthopedic surgeon for an evaluation. She has a slight gross motor delay which is not significant enough to qualify for early intervention services. However, we were referred to an orthopedic surgeon to have her hips checked. She got an x-ray (which she hated) and fortunately everything checked-out fine. As of now, the consensus is hypotonia (low muscle tone) and potentially flat feet. She pronates both feet so we will take her to a podiatrist to see what they recommend. Low muscle tone is not super uncommon and it means she is extra flexible and that can lead to some instability. Right now, it is only slowing Ivy's development with running and jumping (she cannot do either) but has not interfered with her ability to pedal a bike, climb, or walk. The PT we saw at the early intervention evaluation said that her muscle groups appear to have developed a bit unevenly. I've been expressing concerns to the pediatricians since she was an infant but I was always told it was fine or minor. I guess that is true but it still doesn't feel right so we will continue to follow-up. 

On Wednesday, our letters from Santa arrived filled with remembering dust (super fine glitter)!!! A total stranger in town helps Santa with these letters and it is just so sweet for the kids in the area.

Brave girl has had such a big week. On Thursday Ivy had her lip tie clipped at the dentist. Ivy had a very significant lip tie at birth which did not interfere with her ability to breastfeed so we never noticed it until her front teeth came in with a large gap between them. The dentist suggested we take care of it now because it is easier to do the procedure on young kids and before they lose their baby teeth. We knew Ivy would hate every second of it (she screamed bloody murder for 20 minutes) so she was rewarded with the Gabby Dollhouse Kitty Fairy tree house. 

Even though I love her gappy grin, I know clipping the tie will be better for her teeth alignment when she gets older. 

I'll spare you a photo of what it looks like right now because it's gross. Ivy has been a real trooper this week and rewarded with many gummies and popsicles.

There is still loads to do before Christmas, including ALL THE WRAPPING, teacher gifts, class party, and getting ready to host the holiday.

Gingerbread Houses

I'm not sure I will ever add decorating gingerbread houses as an actual tradition, but it is fun to do on occasion. 

I bought a kit from Target with four mini houses. The problem is, there is a lot to be desired on the store bought kits. Not enough frosting. Not enough candy. And the house pieces have to be snapped apart before being assembled. I practically obliterated two of the houses before finding a sufficient method for getting the pieces apart without breaking the whole thing. And don't get me started on trying to use frosting to hold the house together!!! It's impossible. Tip #1, hot glue the houses together BEFORE the kids even see the activity. I also added extra candy we had on hand.

We broke the activity into two days. Two houses to decorate with Mom and Dad and two houses to decorate with Mandy. The smaller houses limited the time of the activity and by hot gluing the houses together, it saved sanity AND frosting to use for the decorating. 

Ivy was hilarious, she barely assisted but was super pleased to have access to several bowls full of candy. She kept saying, "ooh, I hun-gee for candy."

The kids had fun and it was a festive activity to fill a couple of afternoons.

Yum!