Christmas Presents

I hid Scott's Christmas presents behind all the cleaning supplies.  I thought he would NEVER find them there.  I forgot a little thing called the light bulbs were right next to them and I sent him off to change a lamp and boom!  He came directly back saying he found a bag with some stuff but he didn't look inside.  I need a better location...we are in a new house this year so I need to get creative.  He's not one to snoop, (that is me!) but I want to find a place that he will never look.

More shopping left to do.

So much wrapping to do.

coupons!

sales!

lists!

budgets!

It's fun, but every few days I have to get a grip on myself and pause to catch a breath.


p.s. Kai woke up at 4:30 this morning!  But went back to sleep.  I was very grumpy there for a bit when I thought he was done snoozing.

p.s.s. We are going to one of TWO of Scott's work Christmas parties tomorrow.  I'm excited! There are supposed to be a ton of people there, and all I have to do is look good.

Crackin' me up

So there are two days left in November, and I've only posted a handful of times this month! Blerg.  Right now, I want to write to Kai.

Dear Big Baby,

You are doing the funniest things these days.

Every time I give a big belly laugh, you laugh right along with me.

You started clicking your tongue yesterday and we will have nice long tongue clicking conversations together.

You have, fairly successfully, moved over to sippy cups!  We didn't use a paci very long with you and have tried to keep the bottle time-span short as well.  It makes a mama and daddy so happy to put those bottles away, especially since we bought the ones with 5 parts a piece.

You are still "reading" every chance you get.

You are playing a version of peek-a-boo.  We thought you understood the game because you played it multiple times with a blankey but we quickly realized that you didn't quite get the rules.  All you do is lift a blankey or toy up over your head and then pop it back down quickly.  When you first started doing it the item was hiding your face, but now you will just play with anything.  I can see your face, but I still say, "where's Kai?" because I just can't bear to not play this silly game.

Whenever you wake up from a long nap you sit up quickly, but then proceed to tip over as you fall back into a nap induced stupor.

Your smile always makes me melt, even when I know you've been a stinker at school.  I feel bad for your teachers because I come in being all cute with you, when they have had to deal with your moodiness all day long!  You hide it well when mama's face shows up in your classroom, my dear.

I posted this on Instagram the other day, entitled: little baby, big world.

Love you!

ELECTION!

I'M WATCHING CNN AND IT FEELS LIKE EVERYTHING THAT I WRITE SHOULD BE IN A SHOUTING TONE!

Wolf Blitzer is updating us by the second on who is leading and where.  Florida is so super tight right now!  Maybe I need some more drama in my life but I find this stuff really fun.  I just really enjoy watching these reporters pee their pants about the county map of each state, and press all the little buttons on the screen so fast that my eyeballs can't keep up.

I really wish that Texas was a swing or critical state, because there would be some really awesome interviews from people out in west or south Texas that want to secede from the Union.  Plus, there are so many counties in Texas!  I can't even imagine watching them wrap their brains around analyzing each county surrounding our fair little burg.

One of my sweet friends straight up asked me who I voted for today.  I hadn't had anyone actually ask me...People are so careful not to step on toes these days that I feel like we don't end up actually discussing candidates, we just proclaim on Facebook (if that is how you are), forward slanted emails,  tell people to ambiguously GO  VOTE!, or generally just dance around the topic.  Back to my friend asking me... we ended up having a nice, albeit quick, convo about some of our views on things.  It was good to discuss some issues with a reasonable person.

While we were talking, I did find myself kind of saying things that weren't terribly strong.  I kind of backed off from some of my views, because I didn't want her to judge me.  However, I am also the type of person that picks a lot from the left and the right so it can be hard for me to form a decent answer as to why I voted the way I did (wink).  I wish we could vote on issues sometimes instead of one person who is supposed to embody everything that we believe in.

oh, Wolf just called Florida a squeaker contest...weird!

Safety Not Guaranteed

Saw a great movie the other night!

Safety Not Guaranteed with Aubrey Plaza and Jake Johnson.  I love me some Aubrey...she is just so quirky and seems like she would be fun to hang around.  Watching her on Parks and Rec, it seems like she is a very surprising person and you can't really tell what she is going to say next.  Can you tell she's my girl/celebrity crush right now?

I would also re-cast her as Snow White in the recent KStew movie.  Though I'm not sure how much really dramatic work she has done, I just think she fits the look perfectly.

Scott has a man crush on Jake Johnson right now so this movie worked out well for both of us!

Anyhoo, the cast of characters are reporters that go seek out a lead on a story about a man who is trying to travel back in time.  He seems like a nutter so they were going to do this as a mission to sort of poke fun at him and see what he has to say.  They meet him, and Aubrey Plaza's character is the one who gets into his life to research the story. Eventually she falls in love with the guy.... BUT you will have to see if they actually time travel!

This is an awkward picture of Aubrey, but in my opinion the best scene of the movie!

p.s. Go vote! But only if you've done your homework!

Currently Reading

My son woke up at five this morning (darn that daylight saving time!) So I'm sitting here listening and watching via our video monitor as he protests waiting until six to get up and out of that crib.  There are moments I think he'll go back to sleep, but then...NOPE!

So here I am to tell you about my current book.

11/22/63 by Stephen King.

I started it way back in September when we went to Cali, and I'm just now coming back around to it.  I re-started the Harry Potter series and I'm also working my way through a couple of teaching type books for my 30 before 30 list, as well as a book about the Paleo Diet.  I've been interested to hear the science behind it.  Anyone have any feedback on it, good or bad?  (We aren't dieters per se, but I do like to know what real research says and best practices on getting a little healthier!)  Oh! And I'm also close to finishing Soul Revolution by our Pastor at church.

So this book...

Good schtuff so far.  The set up was a little slow, but the main character, Jake, finds a port back in time through this older gentleman who owns a diner.  He travels back to 1958 to prevent the JFK assassination, so it seems as though he is going to have to live a few years in the past in order to get to 11/22/63.  Then he should be able to get back to the port and walk back into 2012 like it was 2 seconds later and have a cup of coffee with the old man that showed him the port in the first place.  At least that's the plan!  I will say that I'm waiting for some creepy Stephen King plot lines though.  I can't tell if this is going to be scary/suspenseful or just good ole regular suspense.

yay books.

Note: It sounds like I'm reading a lot, and I do...however, it's in the little moments that I can grab.  Dishes and laundry tend to get back burnered by me quite frequently.

Halloweener

This year for Halloween, our big baby isn't old enough to trick or treat so we opted to host a Halloweener at our home!  It was such a great idea.  We had neighbors come visit that we hadn't met yet and just generally got to know our area a little better.  I would say about 40 people showed up not including the friends and family I invited.  Scott grilled hot dogs and we had a few side things thanks to some thoughtful neighbors that stopped by and asked if they could help with anything in the days leading up to the party.  Everyone said they wanted to do more events like this! So that is perfect.  I can't wait to get to know everyone even better.  There were some really nice folks.

I didn't take great pictures so here are the four that I did take!

Kai with a neighbor's grandson. 

Big baby in his ball pit!

 Neighbors and food!

Auntie Em's amazingly carved Puss 'N Boot's pumpkin! Impressive.

This was Kai the next day after baby school, he fell asleep within 3 minutes of being in the car...this was his second outfit of the day BTW!  He had pictures that day and may have been wearing a plaid shirt and a striped bow tie.

Leaving the diaper bag behind!

The onesie side of Kai's wardrobe is dwindling.

No more nursing, yay!

Almost full on walking now = shoes for big baby.

Parting little man's hair to the side. He needs a trim in the back, yikes!

Dog, more, dada, banana (nana) is the vocabulary.

All of these things add up to a grown up dude in our house.

Last week I left my loverly diaper bag behind.  This is a great bag, great brand, great product.  It was super pricey (thanks mama!) but I never had to buy another bag, nothing frayed and it had plenty of storage space and pockets.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:
This is our new bag!  It's a little Pottery Barn backpack (thanks Mutti!) and it is perfecto for our little man and his baby needs.  The front pocket there has spots in in for crayons.  hah!  Like a little pen spot in big people backpacks.  Love it.

I feel like this kid is moving forward much more quickly than I was prepared for.

Looking forward to the holidays!  We have a trip to Katy, a visit from Aunt Dee Dee (Devon), Thanksgiving, Black Friday (which is great to be over because it's the most intense day of Scott's jobber), a trip to Fort Worth, Christmas shopping, ChrisTAMS!, Boxing Day (which we won't be here for, but in which we will be participants) and finally NYE.

I'm sure NYE will be much like last year...cheesecake and the baby monitor roaring at us.