a post

hi!  I thought I would just do a quick post.  I had a long draft of random stuff written up, but none of it seemed very interesting/important anymore, so I am starting over.  This last week, we were sick for a few days, I got my first period since before I was pregnant with Hailey (oh the joys of not breastfeeding anymore), and we ended up getting away for a night to the condos at Discovery Bay with some of Jeremy's family.  I have been mostly tired this week from being sick, taking care of sick children, and lack of sleep.  I have been feeling a little overwhelmed with housework for some reason.  I think part of this is just because we are still in such a state of limbo that I even feel disconnected with keeping our house tidy.  Kind of weird for me.  Thankfully, wanting to decorate for Christmas with Shea got me to do some cleaning, and I'm feeling a bit more energetic and motivated for the coming week.

My fabric and corn kernals came in the mail the other day, so I can finally get started making my warming pillows.  Although, as much as I want to start working them, I am trying to decide if I should hold off until January to really get going on it and promote it.  I have so many other loose-end projects and christmas stuff to finish, so we will see!  My friend is letting me borrow her sewing machine too - she doesn't need it until summer, at the least - so now I don't have to worry about borrowing my mom's and I don't need to buy one right away.

Shea had a major, major melt down tonight.  It is so crazy.  He was so, so good today, and then he just gets crazy.  He wanted to use this thing of his that Hailey happened to be walking around with, and he went up and grabbed it out of her hand.  Jeremy wanted him to try getting it from her nicely, by either giving her something else or asking her, so he gave it back to Hailey so he could try again.  Shea went into the other room, grabbed a block and instead of offering it to her pulled it back to throw it at her and said, "NO, I will just KILL you instead!".  Yeah, so it was close enough to bed time that I said, "no way - you are going straight to bed" which turned into 20 minutes of him yelling like an insane person and throwing blankets and dolls everywhere.  He would not calm down!  I had to hold him, because I was sure he was going to hurt himself.  He finally calmed down and sat in his bed talking... then he went over and apologized to Hailey and he was mr. sweetie Shea again.

Yikes, these are the hardest parenting moments and I never feel like I am doing everything right!  He gets so stubborn and fixated on these things that it is really hard to snap him out of it and get him to listen.  But, once he finally relaxes and listens, he usually understands and is remorseful.  It doesn't help that he was up until 11PM at the condo on Friday night (after swimming for 2.5 hours) and had a late night last night too.  He was definitely over-tired, and I think he just hit his limit.  The hardest part for me is that I want to be demonstrating patience and gentleness toward him and it is a challenge to physically restrain someone gently.

Well, enough of that.  We are probably off to bed here soon.  Jeremy and I were watching Elf while I crocheted most of a bunny doll I am making for Hailey for Christmas.

so I'll just finish up with my pictures.

Here are some of our simple christmas decorations!  We have gotten two Christmas cards so far (one is Angela's - I was laughing, because you had pictures of your baby instead of your cats this year!), I don't know if we will get that many, since our address is different, but I'm hoping I can stretch them across the wall ha ha.  And I finally made some simple felt ornaments for the kids to decorate their felt tree with.  Most of the time, they are just all over the floor, because Hailey pulls them down.

And yes ,a little bit of cheer in the bathroom.  I had a christmas towel up the other day, and Shea walked in the bathroom and said, "WOW Mom!!!  I can't believe you even put some Christmas in the bathroom!!" That comment made me want to get a silly christmas soap dispenser.  Maybe next year.

This is our make-shift advent wreath.  I don't have any candlesticks, so I just put our tapers in this jars and put the words around them.  We lit the second (peace) candle tonight with dinner, and read part of Matthew.

Shea's village is back this year.  I put it on a tray so he can take it down and play with it when Hailey isn't up.  He got a couple of new little village people and a snowman as an advent surprise one morning.  But, most days there are lots of other strange animals in the town.

Here are the kids coloring.  Hailey looooves to color and will sit and work on it for a long time.

And here are a few pictures from our trip.  Hailey didn't really like the pool at all, but Shea started "swimming" around on his own for the first time.  Someone gave us these great life jackets that are suits with the floats around the middle.  He basically just bobbed around treading water, but it was a great step!  And he was so proud of himself.  It was so funny - he wanted me to make a video of him going across the pool - it took FOREVER, because he is moving so slowly ha.

We were up there with Jeremy's brother, Tim, his family, and Jeremy's parents.  Tim's family went for the weekend to celebrate their son, John's birthday (Shea's best friend).  It was a little hectic at times though, because when you have all the kids together in one condo unit and a newborn is sleeping so everyone has to be quiet and its below freezing out so no one wants to go outside, you have to do SOMETHING to keep them busy.  Jeremy just kept teaching them new games to play.  I am so thankful he did, or I think we would have all lost our minds!  Shea was did really well all weekend - he was just so thankful and excited to be there.  I am so thankful our kids have become such good travelers.