Christmas 2013

Let's see if I can wrap up 2013 before it's February 2014!

Tulsa and Kansas Christmas:

Christmas this year was so much fun! Since driving went fairly well last year we decided that was the way to go again this year. Unfortunately, we were faced with a bit of crummy weather in the form of sleet and freezing rain but thankfully it didn't slow us down too much and the road conditions were fairly good. LB did amazing on the drive thanks to one of my best parenting decisions yet. Drumroll please. I put an end to the Ipad right after Halloween. I felt like it was getting out of control and was more of a pain than a help. Every time I told LB it was time to turn it off he would try and negotiate "five more minutes" or would just plain throw a fit. I love some of the educational games and puzzles we had for him on the Ipad but the netflix and movies would just suck him away from actual play. So I told him the Ipad was going bye bye until our drive to Tulsa. He shockingly handled it pretty well and didn't really bring it up that much. However, we hadn't even pulled out of the driveway and he asked for it. HA! But I didn't even care because it kept him so entertained. He did play with some of the other stuff we brought for the drive and did a little sleeping and snacking but mostly he was content to play with the Ipad and that was fine with us!

He was asleep when we pulled into the garage at my parents' house and I wish I could have captured his face when he woke up and saw my mom standing next to him! My parents and my sister doted on him the whole time we were there and LB was just as happy as can be.

The morning of Christmas Eve, my dad and LB were playing a fun game of hide and seek. My dad decided to hide in the closet where LB's gifts from Santa were hidden. (In my dad's defense, he was not aware that was the designated hiding place and was just being a good grandpa indulging LB in one of his fave games.) Well, LB found my dad and since he has excellent plane radar he spotted the planes right away! My dad felt badly but in the end it worked out. We told LB that Santa delivered some of his gifts early and LB played happily with his new planes until it was time to go to church. He didn't spot his drum that was also in there so he still got to be surprised by a Santa gift on Christmas morning.

LB continued his tradition of doing a great job at the Christmas Eve church service. He got a little antsy at times but I just gave him a snack and he was fine. He loves all the singing and that helps keep him happy. We sat next to my friend's family and her daughter and LB kept each other happy prior to the service.

At one point, the minister said "King of Jews" but all LB heard was juice, which he then exclaimed quite loudly. I hope I never forget that. Too funny. My mom got a nice shot of D and me as well.

Last year during the candle lighting, I got a really sweet picture of my mom and Ezra with their candles and this year it was D's turn to be with LB. All I can think of when I look at this picture is the line "Wonders of His Love" from the song "Joy to the World." Two of my loves.

Christmas morning was a lot of fun. LB got his drum and my parents spoiled the rest of us as well. We had a yummy breakfast and LB spent the entire day in his PJs. Perfection!

Before LB was in the picture, our family would make the trip to Kansas City to spend time with my mom's side of my family. Several of my Christmas memories from childhood are from time in Kansas City with my cousins and grandma. When LB came home, my aunt, uncle and cousins offered to come to Tulsa instead so we could limit our travel with the little one. We appreciated that so much but found after a few years we wanted to get back to Kansas. So this was the year. The day after Christmas we said goodbye to Tulsa and drove to KC. LB adores my cousins and aunt and uncle and includes them in his nightly prayers even though we usually only see them about once a year. They go all out and play with him from morning until night and it makes such a big impression on LB. Gathering around the table for a post Christmas meal with my family is always a little bittersweet for me. I think we all feel the loss of my Grandma Virginia and Uncle David but we bring up their names often as we happily look back and reminisce and that helps greatly. They would have both loved LB so much. I wish I would have taken more pictures but many memories were made and that's what matters.

Christmas in Yellow Springs:

We celebrated Christmas with D's side of the family the first weekend in January. D's cousins had already opened most of their gifts from Nana and Poppy on Christmas Day and they were very patient while LB opened most of his gifts. D's parents held back a few and we gave them gifts but it was mostly LB opening gifts. He got some great loot, including a scooter, and the kids had a fun afternoon playing together.

I love that the three cousins are so close in age. They are tight and watching them play brings me a lot of joy. I know that D's parents feel the same way. 

Christmas 2013 will be tough to top. This stage is so magical and I hope we have several more years of it.

End of 2013 Recap

So it appears any attempt to thoroughly recap 2013 is a lost cause. This will be my lame attempt and then it's time to move on to 2014.

Halloween 

In the months leading up to Halloween, I was pretty sure LB was going to be a pilot. I had this super cute costume picked out and thought he would love it. As we got closer and started talking about it, he was not enthused about the pilot idea. I didn't get it. He's Mr. Plane. Right around that time we discovered the TV show "Jake and the Neverland Pirates." It's on the Disney Channel, which we don't have, but we found it on Netflix. This was also around the time that LB discovered the movie, Peter Pan, which he fell in love with. I did not remember all the sexist and racist comments in Peter Pan so I cringed through the first viewing and thought maybe LB wouldn't like it. WRONG. He's obsessed. He started to say that he wanted to be a pirate for Halloween. It was a tad confusing because his "r" sound still very much sounds likes a "l." So I kept clarifying by asking him, "You want to be a pirate like arrrghhh matey or a pilot that flies planes." He would always answer back "argghhh matey." I found a Jake costume online and showed it to him and we had a winner! As soon as we got it, he had to put it on right away and we also got him a little Jake kit from Tar.get that had a sword, spy glass, gold coins and a map. He was pumped.

Halloween morning they were having a parade at school and the kids were encouraged to wear costumes. I got his out and was super excited. LB decided he wanted nothing to do with it. I was all of a sudden devastated. He flat out refused to wear his Jake costume. My mom had come to town for the week (which was great since D was out of town) and she had brought with her a Pilot shirt from the new movie, Planes. She convinced him to be a pilot for the parade at school. Although he refused to even put the pilot shirt on until we got to school. In hindsight, I think he was overwhelmed by the idea of the parade and kids and teachers wearing costumes. But once he got to school and realized none of the costumes were scary he relaxed and seemed to enjoy it. I would also say that I set my expectations WAY too high for the day and didn't act with a whole lot of compassion towards his refusal to be Jake at school. Expectations always get me in trouble.
Here are a few pics from school:

Yes, his best bud was also Jake and they would have been SO CUTE together but oh well. He's a cute pilot too.

Thankfully, he totally embraced being Jake for trick or treat and he had such a blast that night. My mom is the most amazing grandma and dressed up like the Cat in the Hat. LB has the coolest grandma ever. We have a tradition of trick or treating at our friend's house with another family and they have the perfect street for the kids. Lots of street lights and friendly neighbors. It was such a fun evening! Oh and D made it back in time for trick or treat, which was nice!

November

I tried to do some cute Thanksgiving crafts with LB in the week leading up to the big day and I would say our favorite one was his thankful turkey that we made out of a paper plate. I cut out the feathers and asked him to list 5 things he was thankful for and I wrote them on the feathers. I also cut out the other parts to the turkey and then LB glued everything together. He was really proud of it and we had it displayed in the living room through Christmas.

The weekend before Thanksgiving we met LB's cousins at the zoo for the holiday light show. It was freezing but we endured the cold and had a fun night. The kids also got to see Santa, which ended up being a nice reprieve from the cold, and since not too many people were brave (or stupid) enough to be out in the cold we didn't have to wait in a long line. LB asked Santa for "a plane and a drum." I didn't realize you could ask Santa for two things but I guess LB decided it was okay. He stayed consistent with those requests all through December. (Confession: We ended up seeing Santa 4 times before the big day. LB is a fan.)

Actual Thanksgiving day was a bit of a bust. D's parents were hosting Thanksgiving but not until Friday to accommodate every one's schedules. So our plan was to chill at home on Thursday and put up all our Christmas decorations. It was a good plan but LB woke up in a foul mood and I think I was in a bad mood too. I was missing my family and just felt blah about the whole thing. So the tree got put up and we did some fun Christmas crafts but overall it was just an okay today. Not what I hoped. Thankfully, Friday was fun and we stuffed our faces and LB played with his cousins. Somehow I managed to take zero photos. I must have been too busy eating and drinking.

December

We got a fair amount of snow in early December and LB had more stamina this year in terms of being willing to play in the snow. And he has learned to put his gloves on all by himself which meant I cursed much less this year. Is there anything more annoying than trying to get gloves on a toddler? I think not. 

We had several fun playdates with old friends and new friends. I have loved watching LB develop good friendships at preschool this year and to see him seek out his special friends.

LB had his Christmas program and party at school. I was in love with the shirt I bought him for it. I'm biased but he was so darn cute.

Okay, so I lied. I have rambled enough and I still need to recap our trip to Tulsa for Christmas. That will have to come later. 

Until then..... I hope January is treating you well, friends!

Update Time

Is anyone still out there? I can't believe I haven't posted since October 14th. It wasn't intentional. Life got busy. And a certain three year old decided he no longer needs naps. Yes, we are going through the dreaded transition of not napping. My typical time to sit down and read other blogs and update my own was beloved nap time. That only happens a few days a week and it seems I have twenty things to get accomplished during that precious free time. Here is a quick update of the past 6 weeks and hopefully I'll find new motivation to blog at night because I do miss this space.

*I got a job!!! Oh yeah, another big reason life got busy. Well, it's a super part time job. I work for a non-profit, Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services (ETSS), and am part of their after school tutoring program. ETSS started out as serving the Ethiopian immigrant community in Columbus but have expanded their services across the city and serve a wide variety of immigrants and refugees. I know the director of the non-profit because of some volunteering I did for ETSS a few years ago. I emailed him to let him know I was interested in applying for any positions pertaining to teaching English as a second language. He let me know those positions had been filled for the school year but he would keep my resume on file. That was ideal because I wasn't really looking for this school year but wanted him to know I was still interested for next year. About a week later, I got an email from the manager of the after school tutoring program and he said he needed to fill some positions and asked me if I was interested. I decided it didn't hurt to interview and see what they were looking for. I wasn't sure we would be able to make it work in terms of child care but wanted to get my foot in the door. I interviewed and it couldn't have worked out more perfectly. The position is only 9 hours a week and 6 of those hours are spent on site twice a week. The other 3 hours are for prep time that I can do at home. I work at their East side location which serves the children of Ethiopian immigrants! The other great part is that the site is about 5 minutes from D's office. So twice a week I drop off LB with D at his office and then I head to work and they head home. I started a few weeks and so far I love it. I did get puked on by a kindergartener on my third day and also caught a cold from one of them but I guess that is what you expect when you work with little kids. But I love being surrounded by kids who look like mine and share his culture. I will probably learn a lot from them as well. I'm enjoying meeting their parents and hopefully I can be of some help in terms of communicating with schools and providing tutors with extra resources. It's a good outlet for me and I feel really lucky. I also feel like LB is in part responsible for this job. I love how his adoption has had ripple effects on our life.

*LB is going to be 4 years old in two months! I can't believe it. He continues to go to school twice a week and it's been going well so far. There have been a few mornings when he's said he doesn't want to go but he eventually comes around and drop offs have been tear free! I had my first parent teacher conference about a month ago. I was nervous! But it was fine. They have him nailed to a tee! His teachers described him as joyful, social, smart, easily distracted and a bit wild. He also struggles with "walking feet" in the classroom. No shock there. But I love that he has some favorite friends and that they get excited when they see each other. It's especially great when we run into these friends outside of school and they go nuts with excitement. I worry a bit (a lot) about how small he is compared to the kids in his class and most of these friends are actually several months younger than him. But for the moment he seems to hold his own and doesn't let it hold him back. I've been happy with his school. I wish there were more diversity but his teachers have been working with preschoolers for a long time and seem to do a great job with the kids. He comes home with cool crafts and stories of looking at bugs on the playground or pretending to be rabbits with his best buddy. The teachers send me a photo about once a week of LB doing one of the scheduled activities and they post their lesson plans online as well so we can see what they are learning. I'll say it again. I wish there were more diversity. I suppose no school is perfect. Here's his school picture.

*My mom came to visit Halloween week and we had a lot of fun. I hope to do a separate post on Halloween. The timing of her trip was great because D was in California for work and it also ended up being the week I had my interview so her help was a huge gift! We went to the zoo, the OSU airport and she bought LB a new bike. A few weeks before her visit, I was backing out of the garage and clipped the side of his bike. It was officially broken. I felt like the worst mom EVER! LB handled it pretty well. Thank goodness Meemaw came to the rescue.

*So back to this no napping nonsense. In a nutshell, it sucks. The silver lining is that he goes to bed at 7pm on the days he doesn't nap and it's nice to have a full evening to relax with D. One of the first nights he went to bed to 7pm, D and I looked at each other around 8:30pm and couldn't believe how early it still was. I also like not feeling rushed to get back to the house around lunchtime so he can be down for a nap by 1pm. He'll go about 2 or 3 days without a nap and then be in desperate need of one. That seems to be our current pattern. The days feel long that's for sure. I'm working on implementing some quiet time to replace the nap so that I can still get a little break mid-day and he can do something restful. I recently tried to explain quiet time to him and we were brainstorming activities he could do. One of his suggestions was "playing my drums." Clearly, the concept went a bit over his head. We're still working on it. LB has always been such a good napper and I was convinced he would be a regular napper until kindergarten. Sigh. But I should be grateful he lasted this long as I know some kids who gave up their nap at 2. I'm trying to count my blessings. Here he is asleep on the way to the grocery store on a no nap day. It's tough being 3.

*We continue to do music class weekly and we both absolutely love it. The final session for the year was the week before Thanksgiving and I am not sure how we will make it to January. Music is becoming a really big part of his life. I found out about a marching band competition going on at the high school in our neighborhood a few weeks ago and we took LB. It was cold that day but he loved it. We sat in a stadium for 2 hours watching marching bands and he still talks about it. We kept asking him if he was too cold and wanted to go home but he insisted on staying. On Thanksgiving, we were watching the parade and sadly they didn't show too many bands but when he got a glimpse of one he would get really excited and he kept asking us to "check and see" if there were any bands we could go see that day. I'm constantly scouring the internet for cheap and/or free musical events going on around town. I'm excited to take him to Tuba Christmas again in a few weeks. I also can't wait to see how this love of music continues to develop and what it means for him. Maybe nothing. Maybe something big.

That's our past six weeks with a few holes that I plan on filling in soon! I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! One more picture before I let you go.

New Mexico Vacation 2013

I haven't done as thorough a job as I would have liked documenting our summer but LB started preschool this week so I'm feeling the need to move on. However, I can't move on without posting about the absolute highlight of our summer. At the end of July, we boarded a plane for New Mexico and LB had the time of his life. We met my parents and my sister there and we all stayed in a rented house together. This was our first real vacation with LB. We have a traveled a ton with him but mostly for visits to my parents, which is like a vacation but not officially, and he's been to Pennsylvania for my cousin's wedding and St. Louis for my sister's graduation and we went to Florida when he was 11 months old but none of that really counts. This was a true vacation. LB experienced so many firsts and he still talks about them. I think it helped for it to feel like a vacation for D and me since we had three other adults, who happen to love LB and he loves them, with us. I highly recommend the 5 to 1 adult to child ratio when going on vacation, especially since some of his favorite people were with us. I was usually number 5 on the adults he came to for something. I was able to read a whole book. I read, Wild by Cheryl Strayed, which I highly recommend. It was one of those books that I didn't want to end.

LB did great with all the traveling it took to get to Taos. We decided to take a direct flight to Denver and then drive 5 hours to Taos rather than take a connecting flight into Albuquerque and drive for 3 hours. We're still not sure if that was the way to go since the Denver airport was such a pain but that's what we did. LB had a moment during the drive that was unpleasant because he had to go to the bathroom and there was no exit in sight but other than that he handled it all like a trooper. Air travel isn't so bad when you have a child obsessed with airplanes. There was even a time on the plane where I got a glimpse into the future. I hadn't brought anything to entertain myself on the 3 hour flight to Denver because I assumed I would be keeping LB happy and occupied. Well, at one point I looked over at him and he had the Ipad in his lap and some pretzels in his hand and he was perfectly content. I thought to myself, "I should have brought a book!" and "I could have bought a trashy magazine!" It was a crazy thought. But one I welcome. Oh trashy magazines, I have missed you.

The house my parents rented was gorgeous and ended up working out perfectly. LB called it "New Mexico." He is still a little unclear on the whole concept of geography. We we would be out and about somewhere and he would say, " I want to go back to New Mexico." And when we'd pull in the driveway he would say, "There's New Mexico." It was so cute that I hesitated to correct him. 

LB woke up the first morning at 4:30am. That was not fun but we expected it would take some time to adjust to the 2 hour time difference. The second morning he was up at 5:30am and by the third morning he was up at his normal time of 6:30am. So it wasn't too bad. That first morning he made himself right at home and set up his planes on the table on the patio outside. His New Mexico runway had much better views than his Ohio runway.

That first morning he was also very eager to check out the hot tub. I think he convinced my dad to get in with him before 8am. He loved it and I'm not gonna lie some days the hot tub served as his bath.

The hot tub was one of several firsts for LB and he responded to all of them with such joy and excitement. He saw a rainbow in the sky, a glider and a hot air balloon. The below picture is right after the rainbow. You can't see the rainbow but you can see the happiness in his smile.

He went on his first hike, saw a waterfall, got to sit in a helicopter and saw all sorts of new bugs. The rest of us had been to Taos several times so I think we all enjoyed viewing it from his first time perspective. He also forced us to notice little things that normally we would walk on pass, like butterflies along the trail or a "really big rock." Some days we would be driving and he would shout "Look at that really big mountain." I loved being there with him.

The food in Taos is amazing and D and I were talking about it before we even got there. Since Taos is such a relaxed place most of the restaurants are very chill and kid friendly. Several of them even have these big outdoor areas where kids can run around and play while the adults finish their beers. And, of course, they all have amazing views.

LB really had a blast. He wasn't perfect. He is three. There were some bedtimes that were challenging and a few times he wanted things he couldn't have but those aren't the moments that I think of when I look back on our trip. I remember the good stuff because there was so much of it. My mom and my sister both came armed with bags of tricks for downtime at the house, which helped tremendously. I was really happy that he was so happy. I guess that's how it works.

On our last night there we went into town to the plaza and there was a bluegrass band playing. LB didn't hesitate and went straight to the area where people were dancing. My mom danced with him for a while but mostly we just watched him.

Here are a few more of my favorite pictures from the week.

Hopefully, we'll go again next year.