Festivus!

Yesterday was a busy, busy, day. But, it was also a great, great, day!

Yesterday was the first annual "Festivus" cookie exchange held at my place. I just called it "Festivus" to be funny...not cuz' i'm a real scrooge or anything. The party was a lot of work to get ready for. I mean, in addition to baking the 6 dozen cookies in my awful oven (i am 100% serious when i tell you that i will preheat it to 350 and about 4 minutes into baking the temperature will shoot up past 450 on my oven thermometer...ya...makes baking a breezey fun time), I also had to clean up the house from top to bottom. Okay, I guess I didn't really have to clean out all under my bathroom cabinets, buy new storage bins to coral all our bath products, sterilize the inside of the microwave, clean off the top of the fridge, clean out the living room cupboard, organize my photos...ha ha ha! I'm still not kidding! Once I know people are coming over I go a little wacko and feel like every. single. thing. needs to be organized. Did anyone look at the top of my fridge? Look in my bathroom cupboards? Ask to see if my photos were organized? no.

dammit.

ha ha.

But, anyway...
I was pretty much exhausted by the time the party started, but once everyone got here I was all perked up again. So many ladies took the time to prepare, bake all the cookies, package everything up, get into their best Festivus outfits, and come out to my place. And, you know, that is really kinda' humbling. I am very lucky to have so many great girls in my life.

I should also give a shout out to the great guy in my life. The one who helped me clean all week, kept running out to the stores to fill my need for more butter and more storage bins. The one who even bought me a new storage chest for the kitchen! The day of the party he got up early, got the girls ready, drove them all over to his Mom's place, came back home, helped me do all the final cleaning (vacuuming, windows, floors, polishing, etc.) and then when it was almost party time...he high-tailed it out of here so us girls could have a couple of hours to ourselves.

Now, that's a pretty terrific guy. Thanks Davey.

I can't say the party went off without a hitch (not too many of us got the "you need to bring a big enough container to bring all your cookies HOME in...not just the container(s) that you bring all the cookies to the party in...part), but that's okay. At least we all know what we are supposed to do for next year. And, I definitely will host Festivus again next year. After all...the top of my fridge is already cleaned off. ;-)

(p.s. After Festivus the party continued on at The Fairy Blogmother's place, where the girls showed the boys how you do Pictionary right).

(p.p.s. I'll have Festivus pics to share soon. For the rest of today, though, I'll be planting my buttocks firmly in a chair and watching the Food Network).

It's Hard Letting Go..

We have always had a plan when it came to the sleeping arrangements of our babies. Well, I always have had a plan and Dave has always gone along with it. From the time the babies are born they sleep in the bed with me. Even at the hospital. That made for very little sleep for me (read: none) as I held them tight against me in the little, narrow, hospital bed. But, once we get home it is much better and even easier to grab some sleep. When the baby needs to be fed, I just have to sit up and feed her, then go back to sleep. No need to even get up. But, that was never the real reason for it. SIDS was the real reason for it. I have always been terrified of SIDS (what mother isn't?) and I would never, ever, ever, get any sleep if the baby was in a different room from me. As it was, I needed to wake up and put a hand on the baby several times per night to make sure she was still breathing. And, in my mind, if the baby was right there with us - hearing us breathing - that would help her little body and mind remember to breathe, too. No exactly scientific, but just something I believe somewhere inside my bones.

At 4 months the odds of loosing a baby to SIDS goes down. So, at that point, we have always moved the baby to a crib right beside our bed. She is still in the room, right beside me, but she (and we) have a little more room and she can start getting used to being on her own a little bit. Then, at 6 months, the baby makes the big move to her own room. That's how it was for Maddie and that's how it was for Jamie.

Colie is now almost 6 months herself, but she had yet to leave our bed. There are many excuses, I mean reasons, for this: her crib is all set up in her room and won't come through the doors unless we take it apart again, her portable crib is at her Grandma's house and we keep `forgetting' to get it, and she just seems so happy in the bed with us. How can we boot the poor little kiddo out?

Well, this past Saturday - we gave it a shot. The baby fell asleep on our bed. In her spot. All comfy-cozy smack dab in the middle. But, we gently picked her up and brought her to her crib. Shockingly enough - she slept through the whole night! Not a peep from her! In fact, it was Dave who woke her up (bright and early in the morning).

Wow. That was much easier than we thought. She didn't seem to mind sleeping in her crib at all.

The next night, Dave brought her back to our bed. Yep, that's right. Dave.

And she has been there every night since.

Sometimes it's hard letting go...

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the great dads out there. I hope you get to spend your day just the way ya' like it.
(For my guy...it's out washing the truck...with a little shadow).

Thankful Thursday

Well, I do believe the Fairy Blogmother has challenged me? Dared me? Double-dog dared me? to start hosting Thankful Thursdays here at The Mommy Project. I think she thinks this will encourage me to be a more consistent blogger, perhaps. Yes, I can see right through your mommy-nature Mrs. Blogmother. So, I take up your challenge! Now...let's just see if I can figure out how to work all the widgets and linky's and whatever the heck else I need to make this work {Hey! As a side note...apparently "Thankful Thursday" isn't my idea. When I went to set up my Mr. Linky code there was already one there for "Thankful Thursday". Hmmm. Hope that's okay. Jeez...whenever I have a lightbulb moment it seems that lightbulb has already gone off above someone else's head. Ah well...).

So, here is my list of 5 things I am Thankful for this Thursday:

1) My bed. I love my bed. You may remember it is fairly new. It was a surprise from my darling hubby, Davey. It is huge and squishy and, as Little Miss Muffet may have said, "Just Right". I've always enjoyed bedtime (perhaps more than I should) and now that I am preggers and I have a little kiddo, literally, kicking me in my lower left ribs several times a day and just, generally, tuckering me out, I'm loving my bed even more. I love to get into my bed, turn on my reading light, and start into one of the 20-30 books I have on my bedside table. Unfortunately (or, fortunately...) I never get passed a page or two because before you know it, it's 4 in the morning and I'm getting up to go pee. Good thing Davey turns off my reading light for me every night.

2) Books. I love books. I love, love, love, any sort of craft book. I've learned all about stained glass arts, jewelry making, bead making, candle making, wreath making, soap making (bars and liquid), scrapbooking (paper and digital), pillows, quilting, knitting, loom knitting, photography, kids crafts, crafts for pets, crafts for babies, jeez...just about everything you can think of, I've "studied it". One day I will put my love of all things crafty to use. One day. But, until then I will just say that I am thankful for all my great books and also for...

3) The Public Library System. I cannot even believe that I can just go on the internet, do a search for whatever book I want, and they will kindly send my books to the most convenient local library of my choice. All for free. How great is that? Now, sometimes they don't have the book I really, really, want and, rarely, there may be a bit of a line forming under the "requests" function but for a completely free service it is unbelievable. Often I will find I love the book so much I just have to have my own copy and then I turn to my on-line shopping cart at Chapters (to whom I am also grateful for their free and speedy shipping). But, for today, my shout-out of gratefulness is to the Library.

4) My fireplace. I am so lucky that I have a house with a fireplace. There is nothing better than snuggling up on the couch, with my legs up on Davey's lap, reading one of my many craft books, in front of the hot, crackling, fire. Dave wants to change it over to gas and I guess that will be okay, too, but I sure do love a real fire. It is so pretty and so nice and I am really thankful to have it.

5) Davey. I am very thankful for Davey. He is the best. He is such a great father and he is so involved with his girls. He does so much for them (too much, at times...I think), and a lot for me too. He is just always willing to "do stuff" for us. He used to always run to Tim Hortons every morning to get me a coffee...and he doesn't even drink coffee. He would go all that way just for me. He lets me put my huge, heavy, legs on top of him every night when we sit in front of our fire. He always helps me get my huge, heavy, butt off that couch at the end of the night -- he always, always, always, comes over with his hand out to help me up (actually, he does that even when I'm not pregnant). If there is ever something we really want...he'll get it for us. Even if it isn't always terribly practical or very cheap (my new mixer, my new food processor, my glass grinder...). He works very, very, hard for a living and I definitely appreciate that he works that hard for us, his family. His girls. He is a really pretty special, wonderful, guy and I am very, very, thankful for him. Love you, Davey. xo.

And that's my Thankful Thursday list of 5. What's yours??

Christmas in July.

Okay...so Saturday I came home from work to find our new pool.
[Unfortunately, it's been too cold out ever since Dave bought it for me to get to use it...but he and the kids (along with their brand new life jackets and floating boat) went out yesterday. Crazy polar bears.]

Anyway...yesterday I came home from work to find this:



Now, this may not mean anything to you. It's just a picture of a bed, right? Wrong. This is my brand new, super-duper, comfortable...reminds me of Jamaica...bed that Dave picked up yesterday. Sorry the picture doesn't really do it justice because, you see, as soon as I saw it I hopped up into it (it's really high off the ground) and fell asleep! I took this picture just now, this morning, after just quickly trying to tidy it up a bit. Dave got all the new sheets, and bed skirt, and duvet cover and everything...and put it all on himself! Ahhhhh....what a great sleep I just had.

Our old bed was just that. O-L-D. And, it was cheap when it was purchased so you can just imagine how (incredibly not) comfy cozy that was. Not to mention it was a double. A double! That is basically a kids bed.

Ummm...yes...that is the old head-board just kinda' propped up behind the new bed. We'll have to pick a new one out together. Or, maybe we could just make something kinda' cool and country-ish. Whatever, I don't care. I love, love, love my new bed.

Is it time for a nap yet?