Happy Holidays! :)

Thanksgiving has passed so it is officially the Christmas season!! Wow that went fast! 🙂

Thanksgiving went without any hitches! Woo-hoo! We hosted for 5 other friends and I was a little nervous about it all going over well (my first time to host for people other than family!). I *might* have went a little crazy with the planning…Dan still ridicules me about my down to the minute timeline…but it worked and the day went smooth with everything coming out on time AND I actually got to relax and enjoy the day as well! I am going to be doing my insane timeline EVERY year from now on! We even had the challenge of making a completely gluten-free Turkey Day and I enjoyed finding new recipes and tinkering with old ones! The only things that didn’t turn out all that great were the dinner rolls. Without the gluten you just can’t get a nice firm dough! They still tasted decent….but they left a lot to be desired in the looks area.

The Little Turkey!

Now though I need to focus on Christmas! We are headed out this next week to find our perfect Christmas tree….seriously one of my favorite traditions. I am a little bummed that due to the insane drought we had the crops don’t allow for cutting them ourselves this year :*(  Oh well we will still load up on hot cider and goodies while we pick it out. Poor Dan is already scared because I keep measuring the area we have to determine exactly how big we can go….I do love me a HUGE tree! I know some people love fake trees for the ease….but it just isn’t Christmas without a gorgeous real tree. It is a million times better for the environment too so that makes me feel even better! 🙂

I’ve already started stocking up on Christmas gifts for Harper with the after Turkey Day sales. We tend to go overboard at Christmas but with her birthday and Christmas exactly 6 months apart we tend to not buy her new toys until it gets so close to the big day that it makes more sense to just hold out and go big! Next year will probably be the last year we do that since I don’t want her expectations to be set at 20+gifts a year! 🙂

Here is what is on our list for the little Princess:

Play kitchen built by Dan – This will be her big gift from Santa (Santa typically only brings one large unwrapped gift in our home). I can NOT wait for it to be completed! The play kitchen I originally wanted was selling for almost $900 (yeah that is not going to happen!) and Dan said he could easily build me something just as nice for a heck of a lot less. We scoured the internet for pictures of different play kitchens, took the designs we liked and I drew out some plans on what I was wanting. I have faith that it is going to be great…and a LOT more special since it will be built by daddy!

Learning Tower – Harper is very into wanting to do everything with mommy and we have slowly been working on learning to pour/mix so she can help in the kitchen. This will be perfect for her!

Doll Stroller

Stella Doll

Tea Set

Melissa & Doug Shopping Cart – Harper LOVES to play in the grocery area at the Children’s Museum….she is going to be so excited to have her own cart to push at home!

Multiple Puzzles

Wooden Play Food – I got several different sets of food for her kitchen. I especially love the one that has fruits & veggies that you can practice cutting on (held together with velcro!)

Melissa & Doug Lacing Beads

Pots/Pans/Spatulas – What is a play kitchen without something to cook with?

Mega Bloks 

Geometric Stacker

Plus tons of new clothes, coloring books, play-dough, etc! Spoiled oh spoiled! 🙂

I love it though. The holidays are so amazing with kids!! I have a ton of cute little projects lined up for the month….snowflake cut-outs for the playroom, making salt dough ornaments, etc. I feel so blessed to have an adorable daughter AND to get to stay at home with her and enjoy all these little moments.

Now just to figure out what the heck to get my husband……

Unplugging

When I was pregnant I read all the studies showing that TV before 2 can be harmful to babies growing brains & development. I swore that my child would not be introduced until after the age of two. After all “how hard is it to actually engage with your child?”……oh the smugness of a non-parent! 😉  I can honestly say that I did keep Harper away from TV for the first year but slowly it made it’s way into our life.

At first it was a quick Sesame Street episode so I could shower or cook dinner really fast. Then we both got sick and I put on movies for us to watch while we recovered on the couch. Harper quickly become fascinated with the movie Tangled. Fascinated! Soon after I was putting Tangled on every day at some point to either get stuff done or just for a few minutes of quiet “me” time. She never sat down and watched the entire movie….but she would stay in the living room and watch spurts of it between playing.

Then we went on vacation. To prepare for the 11 hr flight there we bought a portable DVD player and brought Tangled with us. It was a lifesaver both on the plane and at the apartment the first few nights when Harper woke at 2am ready to play (we would put on the movie and let her sit on the bed watching it while we slept). After the DVD player died and I realized we left the charger at home (ugh!) we decided to buy it and a few sesame street episodes on our iPhones. It was great! We had quick easy entertainment for the flights/train/bus rides (asking a toddler to sit for a 5hr train ride is not going to happen!). We also had quick entertainment when out to eat. Restaurants in Europe do not function like here in the states. They are slow….very slow. They are not interested in a quick turnover. People expect to go and spend a long leisurely time eating/drinking. A simple meal can easily take 2+hrs. Before we had Harper we LOVED this about Europe! It was so nice to be able to sit and slowly sip your after dinner coffee without a waiter giving you the evil eye. Now that Harper has joined us for our travels though this does not work. She is pretty fantastic in restaurants (for a toddler) here in the US. She has learned that she has to stay in her high chair and wait for food (we don’t give snacks at the table unless service is really crappy). She isn’t a complete angel but we don’t really hesitate to go out to eat with her in tow. 2+ hrs though…..yeah right! With our movie laden phones though we were able to semi-enjoy the long dinners some nights on vacation.

Enjoying a movie while waiting for dinner

While I don’t really feel bad about the amount of TV she watched on the trip (I mean it was only 3wks of her life and it was an unusual circumstance) it has been the effects seen AFTER the trip that have me unhappy. This past week we have all been sluggish and out of sorts. Real life is hard to get back into! Unfortunately that means we have spent a lot of time laying around watching TV/playing on the internet. Normally when Harper & I are home alone the TV is off for the majority of the day….and even when it is on she ignores it except for Tangled. Not anymore. Dan and I don’t really watch TV (I have no idea what people are talking about when they discuss shows) but we like it on for background noise. It’s a habit.  Now no matter what is on she is glued to it. She will sit down on the floor in front of it and just stare. Not cool. Worse is that she will grab the remote and bring it over signing “more” if the TV is off and throwing temper tantrums when we don’t turn it on! Oh hell no! I’ve also noticed that Dan and I don’t engage in each other or with Harper as a family as much. Someone is always on the computer (usually me) or playing games on a phone (Dan) or watching TV (Harper). Communication is breaking down over here!

Something has to change. Now. So starting tomorrow I am “unplugging” my family. That means no TV until 5:00.  None.  I am also slashing my computer/facebook time during the day as well.  I drain huge amounts of my day away checking email, skimming facebook, looking up something online. They are short moments usually but they add up quick. I fall behind on housework because of it and I’m not setting a good example for Harper. I love to read and Harper is already showing signs of loving to read (we read a lot together)….I want her to see mommy reading a book for fun not surfing the web or watching the tube! I’m also going to drastically cut down on the time I spend staring at the screen after she goes down on nights that Dan is home. Once upon a time we used to spend our nights doing puzzles or talking….time to get back to that!

I have a feeling this is not going to be easy. While I don’t really feel that TV watching is the huge deal it seemed to be when I was pregnant I don’t like what it has done in our household. I no longer feel that TV is “bad” or lazy parenting…engaging with your child 24/7 as a stay-at-home mom is harder than I could have imagined before I had a toddler…it is all about balance and not letting it (TV, internet) consume your life!

Wish me luck…I’m getting the shakes already!

Rainbow Connection

We have been back from our vacation for a little over a week (next blog post about what we did/learned with a toddler in Europe!) and life is s.l.o.w.l.y getting back to normal. I forgot how hard it is to return to real life after a long trip!

One of the hardest parts of coming home was Harper’s sleep. A time change of 8hrs is torture on a little girl (and her parents). It has taken a week but she seems to finally have made the switch. Unfortunately an even bigger sleep issue was how she had gotten used to sleeping with mommy & daddy while on the trip. All the apartments we rented were one bedroom and although she usually started out the night on her own bed we usually woke with her either between us or her & I sharing a bed. Sleeping with a toddler is a LOT harder than sleeping with a baby! 🙂  When we transitioned Harper out of our bed around 10 1/2 months it was incredibly easy…..this time not so much. The first two nights she freaked when we put her into her crib. We spent hours bent over the rails rubbing her back. Zombie parents X 2. After those nights she easily went into her crib and was content….as long as we stayed in the room. Once we left the hysterics came out.

A few nights ago after getting up for the 4th time that night and dealing with a hysterical baby I was at my breaking point (recovering from jet-lag with a non-sleeping baby is HELL). We have a playlist on our iPhones for Harper that we use in the car to calm her down when she is upset, out of desperation I grabbed my phone and started playing the list. Most songs on the playlist are upbeat kiddo songs (wheels on the bus, windshield wiper dance, etc…) so I picked the only slow song to play on repeat. Rainbow Connection by Willie Nelson. Instantly Harper grabbed the phone, laid down and cuddled with her monkey. I left the room and waited for the screaming to start. Nothing. Not a peep. I laid in bed tense, just waiting for the monitor to send me back across the house….but minutes passed and still no sound! She fell asleep! It’s a miracle! The next day the same scenario happened for naptime & bedtime…after crying and refusing to sleep I would get the phone, play the song and she would lay down and drift off to sleep.

I was confused but not about to complain!

I mentioned in passing how weird this was to Dan and his response was “you know I sing that to her everytime I put her down don’t you”. Um….no! I have heard him hum/sing it to her in passing every now and I do remember him singing it to my belly a few times when I was pregnant but I never really paid attention (I usually listened to my iPod when he was talking to my belly…..he seemed to relax more with the “privacy”). Apparently though he has been singing her that song since day one and I never even knew!!

My sweet little baby didn’t want to be alone at night and that song must make her feel like daddy is right there. :*(   So sweet! She is going to be a major daddy’s girl I think.

Now I just need to get a set of speakers for her room so I can set up my old iPod at night. I want my phone back! 🙂