Selfie?

So apparently the word of the year is "selfie". I certainly don't think I have done the word of the year justice in my own life this year. As defined, a selfie is

a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website. 

I'll be real here, I hardly ever take pictures of myself...that's what husbands are for. And honestly, I am pretty sure people would rather see pictures of my adorable children than "sefies" I took. And really, I don't want to see uninteresting head shots anyone took of themselves day after day. Maybe every once in a while, but certainly not all the time. I'm thinking this is just another sign that I am getting old.

Either way, in the spirit of the word of the year (which I am still shaking my head about), I took a selfie of me and Isla. My hands are holding out the camera and everything. The only problem is I didn't upload it to facebook, but I am thinking my blog should count. Now I am all hip and on trend. And I realize calling myself hip makes myself even less so. But you know what? I really don't care. I'm fine with my practically selfie-less self.

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50/52

I feel like I have become such a perfectionist with pictures that it sometimes takes the joy out of a photo for me. Rather than enjoying the picture that my daughter is actually smiling in, I focus on the fact that we are out of focus and the tv is on in the background. Three years ago, none of that would have even mattered to me and I would have just enjoyed the picture. Note to self, take a chill pill!!!


This past week:

• Since I was born in California, I do consider myself a native, even though I spent much of my childhood in another state. Either way, I still got a kick out of these California sayings. And I totally didn't know that people refer to California as "Cali"....hmmm.

• After watching Isla dump a hot chocolate down herself, I learned her jacket is dry clean only. Really?! A toddlers jacket is dry clean only?! I never would have bought it if I knew that. 

• A child size sink made Isla about the most excited I have ever seen her. And there were totally tears when I finally made her stop "wash hands". 

• Connor has started to build his own lego creations. I totally love watching his little imagination at work. 

• This video totally made me want to move to Canada. If you haven't seen the West Jet Christmas miracle video, watch it. And if you are like me at all, you may tear up. 

I just realized Christmas is 9 (well, practically 8 now) days away...say what?! I really need to get going on things. I have yet to wrap one single present and still have more shopping to do. Oh, and I hate shopping in crowds. 

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Christmas Train

Last year my mom and I took the kids up to the Christmas train at Railtown 1897 and this year we did it as a family. I don't know if it was because we took the train at noon or what but there was literally no one on our train. I'm not complaining though...I'll take no crowd to crowds any day.

Though the highlight was seeing santa on the train, I'll be honest, my kids really don't know who santa is. Even the other day, I pointed at a picture of santa and asked Connor who it was and he said "the man who brings presents to kids." It's not that I don't like santa, I just don't overly push him in my house. Back to our train adventure...really, the kids were looking forward to the train ride.

Besides santa being on the train, there were some other cute Christmasy touches as well. There was an elf going around and putting glitter stars on everyones cheeks. She put them on me and Ian too...of course, the kids just thought it was fun wiping them off, but whatever, I liked it! There also was a man who went around playing Christmas songs on a violin and it was fun when everyone on the train would start to sing along.

But santa, he was the main event. Neither Connor or Isla would get near santa. They wouldn't shake his hands or give him a high five. This hilarious picture about sums it all up.

They did warm up to the point that they would smile at santa, but neither of them ever talked to him. And it was hard just getting Connor to nicely accept a candy cane from santa's elf. Thankfully Isla was a little better with the elf.

 

I'm glad we went and I'm glad the kids had fun...even if they aren't too sure about santa. But I'll be honest, I am never too sure about santa either (the santa figure in general, not the usually sweet old men who play him)!

After the train ride, we found the smallest of patches of snow for the kids to play on. Connor didn't seem too impressed. He said "it's ice" and we tried explaining to him that, well, snow is basically ice. But, Isla was loving stomping around in the practically non-existant snow.

Now that we have done a Christmas activity, I am finally feeling like the Christmas season is upon us. I still have a few more things I would like to do with the kids before Christmas. Hopefully we can cram it all in the next week and a half. Seriously, why has Christmas snuck up on me this year?!

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Keepin It Real

Within minutes of picking up Connor last night, he was back to torturing Isla. In fact, it may not have been minutes. It may have been seconds. And the girl always plays quite the victim with her high pitched scream. Yeah, no "he just loves and protects his sister so much" type of siblings here. I have my doubts as to whether those types of siblings truly exist, but whatever.

Here is a little scene that played out in my house this morning. Within seconds of turning the camera off, Connor literally pushed Isla across the room. Aww, such beautiful sibling love.

At least when they are older they will have someone to complain to about their parents.

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Long Days

I feel like I really should title this "how to entertain a toddler strapped in a stroller all day", but you know...it doesn't have the right ring to it! So my dad had surgery (spinal surgery) yesterday and Isla and I spent all day at the hospital with my mom...well and a while with my dad. His surgery ended up being majorly delayed. And the hospital personal couldn't quite make up their minds as to whether Isla was allowed to be at the hospital. I called the hospital ahead of time to confirm kids are allowed in the waiting rooms, just not patient rooms. AND there is a sign at the elevators confirming this. However, some of the workers didn't seem to get the memo, but whateves. It is what it is. Because of this, I only let Isla out of her stroller once during the whole freaking day, in the cafeteria. The rest of the time was spent like this.

^^ Isla and my dad coloring, pre-surgery.


It worked in my favor that Isla's stroller fit perfectly up to the side tables in the waiting room. I then made it into her own activity table, given that I was armed with coloring books/crayons, duplos, a doll and some books. Well, and an iphone, but I tried hard to interact with her rather than let her play with the phone all day, which she would have preferred.

In all honesty, I think Isla provided quite the distraction during my dad's surgery. I certainly didn't even have a chance to get bored. I brought four magazines and only managed to open one. Isla never napped, so yeah, that was fun.

After watching the sun set from the hospital, my dad finally made it out of surgery and into recovery about 7pm. We were able to go see him a little while later and then I packed Isla up and headed back to my parents for the evening.

Today wasn't quite as bad, but Isla still clocked a lot of "butt time". I don't have the heart to break it to her that after another hospital visit in the morning, we will be making the long trip home. Poor girl his been such a trooper. She definitely deserves to run around to her heart's content on Friday.

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49/52

I can't believe that the year is almost over. It has flown and also gone by so slowly. I didn't think the kids grew that much, but looking back, it seems Isla went from baby to teenager toddler in the course of a year. We are on the cusp of switching her out of her crib. After living life in baby mode for the past four years, it's kind of weird that we are growing out of that stage.


This week:

• After realizing my friend got her son (who is younger than Isla) his first Starbucks, I decided to get Isla her first this week. She has already had two! 

• Such a funny Jimmy Kimmel clip about people in LA freaking out over a little rain. The funny part is, it is SO TRUE. I remember it from when I lived down there.

• Connor has baby fever. He held a little baby for like 20 minutes the other day and I literally had to pry the baby out of his hands. If only he realized that babies grow up and become little siblings that anger you when they mess up your legos! 

• I ordered our Christmas cards. I had the place address and mail out the cards as well. It's so weird to think of sending out Christmas cards that I haven't even seen in the flesh or held in my hands! 

Isla and I are headed to LA this week as my dad is having back surgery. Connor will be staying behind in Modesto so he can attend his first ever school Christmas party. I'm feeling antsy about leaving Connor behind, but also about having to entertain a toddler during a few hour surgery at a hospital. If I'm a little silent this week, well that's why. 

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Decorated for Christmas

I really strive to make my home a place that my kids feel comfortable in. I do this not only for them, but for my own sanity. I don't want to have to worry about keeping them off a certain piece of furniture or keeping them from breaking an overpriced keepsake. I want them to be able to explore and enjoy our home. Don't worry, there still are limits. And I have discovered in order to keep this trend going with Christmas, I needed to scale back my decorations. 

On the Christmas tree, there are no breakable ornaments below 4'. Of course, I managed to break a special ornament when I was unpacking the decorations. It was the ornament Ian and I got on our honeymoon 10 years ago. Oh well. At least we got to enjoy it for 10 years! I let the kids decorate the lower part of the tree. Connor wasn't really into it, but Isla more than made up for his lack of enthusiasm. She didn't do the best at spreading things out, so most things got clumped together.

I even decided to scale back the mantle this year. Connor managed to get the fake snow everywhere last year, so I decided to keep it confined to vases this year.

^^ So I totally use the same candles year after year. Some of them are on their last leg though, so it looks like I will have to spring for new candles next year! 

And even though our book advent was a hit last year, I never got around to wrapping all the books ahead of time. I really feel like the Christmas season just creeped up on me this year and I was totally unprepared.  So instead, I threw all the Christmas books in a basket and put it next to the Christmas tree. And the kids totally love going through the books, so it is still a win. 

Two years ago, Ian's aunt gave the kids a Veggie Tales nativity set. They both like it, but Connor spends a while playing with it each day. And a kid friendly nativity set sure beats an expensive one that gets played with and broken, which totally happened last year.

The biggest change I did this year you can't even see because, well I just didn't decorate. That would be in the dining room. I used to get the table all fancy and decorated. But to be honest, we use the table three times a day and at each meal, it gets pretty messy, so a fancy table just wasn't practical. And to be honest, it doesn't even bother me that it isn't decorated. I put up some of Connor's Christmas preschool art in the dining room instead and it makes me way more happy. 

Please someone tell me that they also spend way too much time staring at their Christmas tree?! Our living room is currently my favorite place in the house. The lit up tree just makes me so happy...it's always the little things with me! 

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