Amberism

Me halls, they be decked!

This weekend I put up the Christmas tree and decorations. There are people out there that hate me right now. In my own defense, I did it because we're leaving for Calgary before Christmas so this way we get a month's worth of decked halls. I have no idea why I thought I needed a month's worth, because usually after a week I'm all decorated out and want to put it away but we don't reason with a pregnant woman's mind, we just accept.

Besides, it snowed yesterday so its all pretty and Christmasy. The perfect time to deck the halls.

I also just realized that today is my anniversary, and I suspect Steve also forgot this since there was no mention of it this morning so I feel no guilt. We actually celebrated a couple of weekends ago with a nice dinner out and a symphony concert. It was really nice, beisdes the kid crying in the table not far from us. When you're out for an expensive meal sans child, you don't really want to listen to someone else's child either.

I had much more to wax poetic on, but my kid no longer allows me to spend more than 5 seconds doing anything, so I must go....

A case of the I wants...

I flipped through the Lee Valley Christmas Catalogue tonight. I am now suffering from a severe case of the "I wants..." and having to hold myself back from buying my son a ridiculous number of items.

Today I was thinking about how this pregnancy is whipping by me. I'm 5.5 months pregnant this weekend and up until this evening I was thinking I was 4.5 months pregnant. I lost an entire month somewhere. I hate it when that happens.

well, damn.

Last week while at dinner at a friend's house Callum developed a facial rash. It went away over the course of the evening and we didn't give it another thought. To be honest, I didn't give it any thought when it happened either, but Steve did.

Today another rash developed at dinner. When Steve got home I mentioned it, casually, and said I didn't know what it was, figured maybe he burnt himself on his eggroll. Steve brought up last week's rash and then we started to try and narrow down if maybe it was a food allergy.

Narrowing down a food allergy when you're not exactly narrowing down the food intake is ridiculous. Especially today when the kid had toast, eggs, peanut butter, peanuts themselves, store-bought eggrolls, steamed veggies (with onions something he doesn't have often), wild rice, random fish crackers and Baby Mum Mums and another cracker that was in Jill's kid's lunch, cream cheese, apple-curry soup, plum sauce, rice, etc, etc

... holy crap my kid eats a lot...

Part way through this process I gave up, and Steve is convinced its MSG (although nothing had MSG tonight, which is miraculous considering we had store-bought eggrolls). Not that there is anything wrong with a diet of whole foods, that's the best way to go I'm sure, but the reality is I'm not really prepared to NEVER have a convenient meal. I LIKE store-bought eggrolls.

The rash is fading anyway. But now what? Should I start eliminating something and reintroducing it? Honestly, all this stuff he's had before so I'm not entirely sure how to proceed or if I should just chalk it up to he's a kid. Kid's have weird reactions to things.

And here I was thinking I was a bad Mom today because I was letting him scoop plum sauce up like it was a food group with his carrot. Never ate the carrot, just used it as a plum sauce carrier.

The Art of Giving...

In light of recent toy recalls, and just generally being more mindful of everything that I bring into my house and my family's life I've become more and more critical of the toys that land in Callum's hands. Right from the beginning Steve and I had hoped to limit the amount of "plastic" in our home. We never once suggested that we'd eliminate it completely because we knew that was unrealistic, but we did hope to encourage our family and friends to maybe sway from the plastic toys in lieu of natural materials, books or something that would inspire creative and imaginative play.

man, that sounded hippy and a little hoity-toity. My apologies.

Those closest to me have been amazing about honoring this request, especially considering I wasn't exactly mindful of the toys I've given to the children in my life in the past. The books and toys that Callum has gotten have been fantastic, and with the exception of a few choice pieces, most of the plastic toys in our house are recycled favorites from Michelle's kids or Steve's niece and nephew. Those plastics that haven't been favoured by Callum, or are missing parts, have been donated to our local thrift store (I don't see a point in a toy with missing parts). There is also the fact that our house is small, we don't and won't have a playroom and the toys have to be in my living room so I can't amass tons and tons of toys if I want to remain relatively sane over the next several years. My kids are just going to have play make-believe or go outside.

Yes, I'm that selfish.

In that theme, I've been trying to be really considerate in my gift giving this Christmas. Its been really hard, especially for the older boys, to fight that urge to just hop into WalMart and pick something up. That would be so easy and cheap and I'd be done with it but if I'm going to be picky about my own house and kid I feel like I should extend that to my loved ones, too.

Lately I've been loving this site - Quiet Hours Toys. I'm trying to convince Steve that he needs to build Callum a barn similar to those on the site, and J a dollhouse :). He's not convinced that he has the time for that, but I know he could do it and it wouldn't cost $200. (Of course, we've been waiting for him to cut out a frame for J's mirror for what? Three years? He might have a point). And finding or making little wooden or felt dolls and animals to decorate would totally be up my alley. I love doing that sort of crap.

At any rate, I'm interested to hear of any sites or ideas that you have for mindful gift giving this Christmas. I love hand-made items, or items that will really stir a child's imagination. Especially something for boys beyond the age of 2.

Busy, busy

Callum is slowly trying to move from two naps a day, to one. This, as I was warned, has not been a smooth transition nor has it been exceptionally fun. On the whole, for a one year old, he isn't horrific when he's tired but one the whole, as an adult, any sort of whining or carrying on makes me insane. Ask Michelle. I can handle full on temper tantrums, but the whining? I want to rip my eyeballs out. Scream, yell, stomp your feet, throw things across the room, none of that is going to phase me but sit there and go "eh, eh, eh, eh" over and over again and its torture to my ears.

The whining is why the dog gets the brunt of my frustrations. That dog whines incessantly and he can whine for hours, nonstop. Everyday Steve and I have this conservation where I declare the dog must die, and he responds that I need to learn the art of ignoring. Why must I? Why doesn't the dog just_stop_the_whining? If he stopped whining he'd get what he wants that much faster and probably even be showered with hugs and kisses for his effort.

I know that every single living soul in this house whines because it works. Clearly it gets to me. Clearly they'll eventually get whatever it is they want just so that they shut the fuck up. Knowing this does not make it any easier on me. I might have a degree in engineering but underneath it all, I'm a moron.

This post wasn't going to be about the whining. It was going to be about the busy. The next couple of weeks I'm crazy busy sitting for a friend's kids a couple of mornings, meetings with my volunteer group, trying to get organized for Christmas, and social engagements. It's going to be fun but exhausting.

So exhausting I couldn't even stay awake to watch the last 20 minutes of Heros. Someone want to fill me in? I went to bed once D.L. saw the message on the mirror that Gya went to L.A....

The Sun, It Blinds Me...

Yet another truly gorgeous day. I'm beginning to think this is the Apocalypse. And I must say, if we're all going to die today, it might as well be warm and sunny.

Took a lovely stroll around the block and am thinking that a day like today might just call for an afternoon trip to the beach after Sir Callum has his nap. Which is likely going to be soon judging from the incessant whining happening at my feet...

Behold the Sequel

All seems well with the babe that's brewing. The only odd thing about this ultrasound was random questions about heart disease and other heart disease related comments. Was she trying to tell us something?! At any rate, I'm not going to read anything into it, probably just my over active imagination anyway. The due date was moved up one whole day - March 30th, 2008 - damn I'm good with the cycle count, and he/she is a fairly long little creature already scoring in the 75th percentile for height, like her/his big brother.

Does he/she look like Callum? :) (and why don't they just tell me the sex so I can stop with the he/she thing?!)

I get weekly emails letting me know the development of Callum, where he's at, what issues we might be having, etc, from Baby Centre. I signed up when I was pregnant because they'll send weekly emails about the development of the pregnancy. I give them a quick skim to see if there is anything of interest and then hit 'delete'. I should just unsubscribe, but you know, that's like work. There is almost never anything of interest in these emails. This week's email was about potty training. Seriously? Not even on the radar. A more appropriate topic might be how to deal with a time change. Who's in charge of this stuff?!

We're having yet another absolutely gorgeous fall day out here in Island Land. Its really weird to be at the beginning of November and have maybe seen two days of cloud and rain in weeks and weeks.

I've started my Christmas crafts, really late but I've started. I'm really excited about what I'm doing this year, so expect an update soon with some crafty goodness.

yeah, basically I have nothing to say :).

Winter is amoung us...

Its been very frosty and chilly in my part of the world. Enjoyable, actually, because even though its frosy its beautiful and sunny.

And I'm sitting here wishing for rain so my damn well would fill up.

Halloween was pretty good. We went to a pumpkin walk in our community and it was awesome. You walk through a trail in the trees lit only by pumpkins and paper laterns and along the way are 'spooks' doing their spooky thing and handing out candy to the wee ones. They spooks were amazing, really played it up and did a fantastic job. They had all sorts of things hanging in the trees, including an amazing spider, and at the end of the trail was a huge bonfire, free hot chocolate and then the night ended with fireworks. They even had a tent to showcase the pagen celebration of Halloween and you could learn a little about the history. I was really impressed, we live in a small, hippy community so I wasn't expecting ANYTHING like that.

I hope everyone else had a fantastic Halloween too.