I'll be Home for Christmas

This year started the controversial and interesting Mouse Family Christmas Tradition. After the previous few years of disappointing one set of relatives by not being at their house on Christmas morning, we decided to disappoint all of our relatives by spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at our house.

This was the first year Santa Mouse was going to make a grand and big debut and while it's difficult to travel with one little mouse, it would be downright impossible to travel with both of them. (Ok, we could have done it, but we [read: I] chose not to this year. We see our families pretty frequently and we will see them much more when we move in a few months.) So we spent the afternoon before Christmas hanging out as a family. The Christmas tree had been decorated, the presents purchased and wrapped and there wasn't much to do other than just sit around and enjoy each other's company. I prepared a special meal (roast chicken, scalloped potatoes and green beans. Please don't ask me why this was special, it just was. I cook like this all the time, but I actually put it on the table to serve rather than us fixing our plates straight off the stove.) LM sat in her high chair for the first time! After we ate, we read Jesus' birth story from Luke and then some age appropriate bible stories about Christmas for BigM, who was practically bored senseless from the real Bible.

(You can't tell from this picture, it looks like LM is the one bored senseless.) I pray they will someday treasure those words, but at 2 1/2 and six months, I'm not concerned. Then we set out the cookies and milk for Santa (see?) and put the kiddos to bed.

On Christmas morning, the kids slept in! I guess BigM forgot Santa was coming, because we finally woke her up around 8. (Her Christmas gift to us was not waking up at her normal 6:30. So thoughtful!) After a gentle reminder that Santa may have left her some presents in the living room, she slowly meandered down the hall and found all kinds of gifts just for her! Her reaction? (Very bored voice), "Wook, Mama. Woller skates and a bouncy ball. Why isn't it a pink bouncy ball? I wanted a pink one." Sure, Santa got her EXACTLY what she asked for, but where's the enthusiasm, kiddo? After that thrilling escapade, we ate breakfast and LM got to try rice cereal for the very first time. She liked it. There's not much of a story there.

BigM and I baked cookies and we took her outside to try out her new roller skates. She looks really cute in them, but she definitely needs to practice a lot more before she can go out on the open road.

Merry Christmas, friends!

One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Four...

You don't know a lot about me (or maybe you do, but humor me here.)

A few facts:
1. I consider myself green ("lime" if you're going to make me pick a shade) and taking care of our planet is very imporant to me.
1a. I cloth diaper, and I love it.
1b. I use only organic cleaners (except that stuff you squirt in the toilet bowl, we have well water and the only way to keep the potty white is to use the blue Lysol cleaner. The green one with bleach doesn't work, go figure.)
1c. I recycle everything my recycling center accepts.
1d. I am so adamantly pro-breastfeeding... but I will never judge or think badly of you if you choose not to or if you can't or if you just you don't want to. And it's a good thing I am such a wholehearted supporter, because I could nurse quadruplets without supplementing. Lucky me with my oversupply. (I am possibly fanatic and now I am interested in checking out being some type of educator like my friend, Jackie (ironic for those of you who "really" know me.) Although with my track record on a followthrough for most of my ideas, I'll probably just stick with being fanatic for now.)

Expanding on 1d: I am so excited that we made it almost the full 6 months without starting solids that I don't know what to do with myself. I don't feel like going into why it's "green" to breastfeed but the real reason and entire point I want to make is to mark a big occasion in LM's life:

LM had her first solids today: sweet potatoes. Yum.

I'm Watching You...

LM just adores her big sister. I actually think they adore each other, which surprises me. I have a younger mouse brother, and I can say without a doubt as a child, I did not adore him. I'm pretty familiar with sibling rivalry. My mom loves to tell me about the time someone asked me if I was excited to have a little brother and I said, "I'd rather have kittens." Given my history with cats, you know that's pretty big.

Anyway, LM has these huge blue eyes and no matter what BigM is doing, LM is always watching her with such admiration. And a lot of the times, BigM is not doing something worth admiring. Give her a break, she's only 2 and she's going through one of those independent streaks. So the majority of my day is spent saying, "BigM, why did I put you in time out?" Her rote answer is, "Betause I was a bad wistener." Even if she received said time out for hitting me or throwing her toys... she has learned that the reason for her punishment is "because she was a bad listener." Apparently that is an overused phrase in our household. But no one can make LM laugh like BigM can and she just looks at BigM like she's the most interesting creature on the face of the earth. (Actually, she probably is. The rest of us are giants.)

BigM could not be a sweeter big sister; even when LM scoots over and disturbs her toys or pulls her hair or does some equally annoying little sister thing, BigM rarely gets mad. And when LM cries, BigM is the first to run over and try and console her with a big kiss and a hug and if that fails, she'll yell, "Div her some Mommy Miwlk, she hungree," even if the reason she's upset is because I set her down right after nursing.

I really do hope they will become the best of friends. I'm charting new territory here- I adore my lil bro now, but we really didn't get along when we were kids- mostly because I was a snotty, mean older sister (I'll admit it. And I should probably call him and apologize now!)

Oh Christmas Tree

Anybody seen the Charlie Brown Christmas special yet? Well, regardless, I know you'll probably see it sometime this season. When you do, I want you to really think about what that "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" looks like and then imagine it without the sparse ornaments and Linus' blanket and the soft glow. THAT was our first tree.

I am a Mommy Mouse with grand grand ideas. Unfortunately, I am first just a Mommy Mouse so the kids and the housework take precedence to my grand ideas, but I still have them nonetheless. I've always had grand ideas but just lack the followthrough and the gumption to get them done. Which is why we ended up with a 9 foot Christmas tree the first year we were married. Did I mention we only had about 14 ornaments?

I do not want this to happen to my little mice so DM and I have started a tradition where we buy our mice an ornament each year. (I won't lie, we didn't do it last year so we got BigM 2 this year. Please don't tell her. In my defense, I was so sick from being pregnant with LM that the holidays passed and I don't think I noticed. Even with pictures I'm not positive they even happened at all.) This year, we have invited our extended families to participate in the ornament bestowing, so hopefully when my little mice have left the mouse nest (gulp!) and start their own little mouse families, they will be able to decorate their trees with something other than curling ribbon and pinecones they found in the backyard.

The Secret is in the Sauce

BigM is funny. (I think I could start every entry that way!) No really, she is hilarious. Over our Thanksgiving break, she was looking at a wildlife calendar with my mom and my mom was telling her what the different animals were. BigM was a little stumped on one she had never seen before, so my mom gave her a little animal lesson. Or maybe BigM gave my mom one...

BigM: What are dose, Sassy?
Sassy: Those are bison.
BigM: I see dose bi-sauces.
Sassy: No, sweetie, those are bison.
BigM: Bi-sauces.
Sassy: No, they are bison.
BigM: NO, Sassy! Dere are TWO of dem! BI-SAUCES!

I can't stop laughing.

Seeing Red

My husband said it best, "If you had asked me 2 years ago if I would ever go to a Wiggles concert, I would have said no and heck no." (Well, that's not exactly what he said but this is a G-rated blog.) Yes, we did it. We took BigM (and LM) to see the Wiggles yesterday. All I have to say is, "Wow."

Some highlights from the show:
1. Anthony (the blue Wiggle) got stuck in an accidental split.
2. Jeff fell asleep (anyone surprised?)
3. LM fell asleep (again, anyone surprised?)
4. Captain Feathersword sang an impromptu song about "biscuits, gravy and grits" with Little Miss Muppet that made him laugh so hard he barely sang the song.
5. Greg (the yellow Wiggle) is now Sam (the new? yellow Wiggle)
6. "J.T.," who sat three rows behind us made a sign that Murray (the red Wiggle) could not read from the stage (and I'm not surprised, our seats were so high up that I was getting lightheaded) so he made his way up to our seats so he could read it. Women, men and children practically stampeded each other just to get near him, touch him or take a picture of him. I kept waiting for some mom to take off her bra and throw it to him. Our BigM was not exactly impressed by his close proximity. I was proud. He's just a guy, he puts on his red striped pants on one leg at a time just like the rest of us, and according to BigM, "He sweating a wot, Mama." (She considered Dorothy the Dinosaur and the "big red car" much more impressive.)

All in all, we had a great time and I can now say I've eaten "Fruit Salad" and "Hot Potatoed" with the Wiggles- and not just in my living room in my pjs.

Little Einstein

BigM is so funny. I've enjoyed sending her to school because she learns so many cool things that I wouldn't have thought to teach her. Like drinking from a cup, I have to admit I am SO glad she learned that on someone else's floor. And she surprises me with lots of new phrases- which is also fun and entertaining. Well today is DM's 30th birthday, so I picked her up from school early so we could go have lunch with him. As we were driving there, she said something clever, so I told her she was smart.

I get back, "No Mama, I smarty pants."
"Well, BigM, you're right, you are a smarty pants." (Actually she was wearing a cute striped dress and some fashionable red tights.)
She responds, "No Mama, today I not smarty pants, I smarty tights!"