The Best Laid Plans

Right now Adam's work schedule is anything but traditional.  He works most weekend's and I never know if he'll be home for dinner each evening.  He takes days off during the week to make up for the fact that we haven't had a Friday night - Saturday - Sunday weekend since sometime in early September, but I'm not used to it yet.  I feel like I'm his secretary scheduling a meeting with him when we sit down with our calendars to discuss which days in the upcoming week would be the optimal days for family time.  To be honest, I hate it, and he knows it, but there's nothing we can do about it right now.  He is able to get in family time with us so I need to get over the fact that it's not traditional.

I was on cloud nine thinking about the fact that he had Tuesday, Wednesday, Thanksgiving, and Sunday off of last week.  Oh the possibilities!!!  We got the house cleaned.  I forgot how nice it was to have help with this and how much quicker it could be done with a second pair of hands!  Laundry was done.  We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with my family.  And we had big, big plans for Sunday.

To Do List

Watch last F1 race of the season
Get out Christmas decorations
Decorate tree & house
Dinner at my parents
Bonus: put up lights around garage

In preparation for our big day of Christmas decorating we upgraded to shatterproof toddler friendly ornaments.  We picked up some new fabric for our tree sashes.  The hope and joy of Christmas decorating!

And then I caught the stomach flu Saturday evening, and our Sunday went from looking like a beautiful day, to a day of recovery and hoping Sebastian could entertain himself most of the day while we rested and wished we were dead, because by then, Adam had caught it too.

Our new Christmas decorations look lovely sitting on the floor of our entry, still in the boxes and bags from when we purchased them last week.  Sometimes life has other plans for you and Sunday, November 25 was not the day for us to do our Christmas decorating.  Adam is off this coming Sunday, so we joke that we just pushed it back a week since it's not even December yet.  Dear life: please don't disrupt our plans this time.  Adam's other days off are spoken for and attempting to coordinate Christmas shopping was a whole other level of crazy and I don't want to have to reschedule that item.

Pumpkin Pie & Christmas Movies

In 33 years I have never once been alone or without my family on Thanksgiving (maybe because I went to college about 10 minutes from home).  I've never had to cook for Thanksgiving (I'm terrified of the turkey guts and have no idea how it's even humanly possible to have all the delicious Thanksgiving dishes ready at the same time). The only prep I have for turkey day is to ensure Adam, Seb and I get to my parents house in one piece and to make sure we leave with leftovers for lunch the next day.

Adam's actually had the last two days off this week and its allowed me to direct my focus to Christmas.  Shutterfly had a great deal going on so our cards have been ordered.  I put together our gift budget, and today we updated our ornaments to the oh-so-kid-friendly 'shatterproof' version.  I found the local radio station that's already broadcasting holiday tunes, as well as the satellite radio stations; and I started thinking about holiday movies.

There are 3 movies that are my holiday essentials and they illustrate how my tastes have changed as I've grown up.  When I was little I adored A Charlie Brown Christmas.  I always felt like it was officially Christmas-time when it was aired on TV.  I love when Linus explains the true meaning of Christmas to Charlie Brown and references the bible passage in Luke.  I still keep an eye out for the annual airing and we bought Seb a Charlie Brown Christmas t-shirt at Target today even though he has no idea who Charlie Brown is.  While Charlie Brown is great, it is a bit dated and from way before I was born.  My next movie is the Christmas movie for my generation.

Home Alone came out when I was 11 or 12 and I think I actually saw it in the theater with my family.  It's perfect for both adults and kids.  What kid didn't love all the stunts Kevin pulled on Harry and Marv?!  I can quote so much of the movie, and it has an awesome soundtrack.  I'm pretty sure, since it is THE Christmas movie, it'll be aired on some channel tomorrow evening, better set the DVR.  What better way to wash down the turkey and pumpkin pie than with a little Kevin McAllister antics.

The last movie in my Christmas trilogy is The Holiday.  I love, love, love this movie.  I own it on DVD but the recording's also sitting on my DVR from last year.  In fact, I think I'll go watch it after I search for (and most likely find) and set the box to record Home Alone tomorrow.  I love the story and can't argue with a nice dose of Jude Law.  Bonus: it's one of the few movies where Jack Black's character doesn't annoy the heck out of me.  I also happen to adore the sound track.  Adam and I used a bunch of the songs as the prelude music at our wedding ceremony, the music is just that good.

I wonder, when Seb's my age, what movies will make up his ultimate Christmas collection.  :)

House of the Mouse

If you live in OC, the odds are pretty high you have a Disneyland annual pass.  Adam and I have both had them on and off over the years, and since neither of us are playing hockey right now, we've got em.  Today we took advantage of Adam's mid-week day off and took Sebastian for his first visit to the Magic Kingdom.

Only...someone forgot to tell him it was supposed to be a place of fun.  To him, it was the Tragic Kingdom.

I thought I went in with realistic expectations, we have passes, so there's no need to cram everything into one visit.  Hit up a few rides, have lunch, head home.  Feel Seb out.  If he does good, maybe spend a little time there after lunch.  Yeah...notsomuch.

Disneyland's kinda hard to enjoy if your kid's afraid of the rides.  We went on Peter Pan and Dumbo.  He cried on Peter Pan, I think it was too dark.  We experienced an epic meltdown in line for Dumbo.  He calmed down while on the ride, only to resume the meltdown once the ride was over. I'm talking full on, snot shooting out of his nose, cry so hard he shakes, guests looking at you wondering if your kid's hurt they're crying so hard, meltdown.  And nothing we tried would calm him down.  :(  Eventually we threw in the towel and decided to head out.  I took a risk and changed him before we left, breaking out into a sweaty mess from changing a 22 lb crying, snotty, hysterical toddler, while Adam waited in line to buy a nice cool Dole Whip refreshment (which I soooo needed by the time I was done with Seb).

In the end, I must applaud Disneyland for having rolls of toilet paper mounted on the wall next to the changing tables.  Once he had a dry diaper, I was desperate to calm Seb down (and wipe off his face), so I yanked on the roll and let him have at it.  At home he loves to shred paper towel, baby wipes, and toilet paper, and THIS, was what calmed him down.  Should I start carrying an emergency roll of TP in the diaper bag???

Once we emerged, Adam further distracted him with a few bites of Whip, and we were able to make it out of the park and even grab lunch at Downtown Disney without further incident (just a really, really tired kiddo) who fell asleep before we even got him strapped into his car seat.

I almost think, at his age, he's better suited to walking around and enjoying the 'park' aspect of Disneyland rather than the 'amusement' side of things.  We did get to kinda enjoy the holiday decorations, which I think just got put up a few days ago?  But the visit was pretty much a hot mess once we stepped off Main Street into Fantasyland.

Main Street Christmas Tree (pre-meltdown)

When we got home I told Adam that Sebastian didn't like the rides or the waiting in line part.  He laughed at me and said, "that's what Disneyland is!"  Maybe I need to Google how I explain this to a 15-month-old?  :D  I'd love to try again, but want more success the next go around.

Flashback

Thanksgiving is in a few weeks and it wasn't until yesterday that we knew our holiday plans.  It became a complex mathematical equation: balancing our Christmas plans, taking grandparents and Sebastian into consideration, and figuring out Adam's work schedule.  I was never any good with math and now we had to factor in X, Y, and Z, I thought we were going to have to call in some NASA scientists to help us figure out where we were going.

Thanksgiving 2011

After all was said and done, we're staying put.  I'm excited for Sebastian to experience his first Thanksgiving dinner.  Last year he was just discovering his hands, this year, table food.  :)  I hope he saves room for pumpkin pie!

Do As I Say

I learned a very important mom lesson yesterday: when you least expect it, your kid will do exactly what you tell them.  Literally.  I was trying to wash some dishes and Seb kept crawling in my legs and pulling on my pants pockets so I handed him a pair of socks to distract him for a few more minutes, saying, "Here is a pair of socks, put them on your feet."  I said it because I'm trying to teach him his body parts and it was a good opportunity to link the feet and socks together.  He took the socks from me and I finished with the dishes.  When I bent down to pick him up, he was sitting there, looking at me, with a sock draped on top of each foot.  :)

Thank you for listening and doing exactly what I asked.  I wish I could say the same for other things we're working on learning.  Like "stop" and "no."  Those words seem to fall into the selective hearing category.

A Month of Thanks

November 1st hits and suddenly the remaining Halloween items in stores are on clearance and our minds move to thoughts of turkey and Christmas.  I only have 53 shopping days before Christmas, ohno!  Haha.  How about I focus on the time change this coming weekend?  How about I enjoy all things pumpkin: bread, beverages, and home decor, before everything becomes peppermint?

I stumbled upon this November Thankful Challenge and I'm participating to slow down and enjoy the spirit of this month. 

Day #1 - I am thankful for chubby toddler feet peeking out from beneath the highchair :)