Jingle Bells!

Yesterday I got out the box of awesomeness (Christmas decorations). It's my tradition to put up this little silver tree right after Thanksgiving since I was in school and couldn't afford a real one. We will get a real tree in December sometime but I just LOVE to put on music and dig through this box and this year I got to involve Ara in my happy time. She is a little Christmas fairy full of enthusiasm and joy! She mimics me and cheers for Christmas every time we see a display in the stores and after the little tree went up she stood there touching the decorations and calling it beautiful. The tree itself used to be my Grandmother's when she was a girl because she had allergies to real trees (so sad) and I guess this is what artificial trees looked like back in the stone ages. I love this tree though. It is supposed to be taller but it's missing most of the base, it just looks like a little firework explosion to me and I love it ( I mentioned that already didn't I?).

It's funny how being a parent makes you feel older and places a whole different set of worries and cares on your shoulders... but at the same time you feel more like a kid than you have since you were a kid. I spent the day chasing birds, playing in the sand, skipping in the grass, and for lunch I had half a Lunchable. Ara and I had a great day at this little secret park we found. Well.. by secret I mean it had no freaky lurkers and no unleashed dogs. It did have a BUNCH of moms' and kids' around Ara's age. I think it must be a play group, I get e-mails from this group sometimes but it costs $80 to join and I never stick to social things so I don't pay. The cool thing is that it doesn't cost a thing to show up at the park and have Ara play with their kids!

Scooter

Scooter and Fuzzy... adorable and sweet!

Blah blah

Doing laundry at my Dad's house today and when the load in the dryer is done we will head home to clean. The house is an utter disaster after having all of us home since Wednesday. Ara and I just came in from playing the backyard. I played fetch with the old old family dog; Scooter. He is completely deaf now but he still has it when it comes to playing fetch! He is a mix of cocker spaniel and poodle and he has always been such a good dog. I hope there will be another dog in the world as sweet as Scooter when we are ready to get Ara a dog. Ara had me pick 3 grapefruits and a lemon and she is happily playing with her Momma, Daddy, Papa, and baby fruits lol. So cute.


Hmmm I was going to post some pictures but my free Flickr account has run out of space until I pay them a yearly fee for more. So sad. I think I will pay, I mean I like the convenience of uploading for prints and it's so compatible with my blogger engine.

I need to get back on track with my diet and exercise. I have to play a solo with my orchestra in a few months and I don't want to feel self conscience about my weight when I'm up there. The Piccolo Concerto is scary enough considering piccolo is not my main instrument and my actual piccolo is past it's prime. It's funny I don't even want to practice.. the piece really utilizes the upper register and anyone who has ever been in the same room as a pic in the high register knows.. it's just wrong! I used to hand out ear plugs and apologies when I played pic in orchestra. There is nothing like working so hard.. and pouring your heart into playing something.. that makes people cringe.

...

Bug or Windshield... why not both?

*Warning: this blog started off as a light hearted entry about Christmas shopping and went down hill from there. Be warned that with each new paragraph I get more and more emo.*

My Christmas presents have come early this year and I have been spoiled! I inherited A's old monitor when he got a new one for Father's Day and I've been complaining ever since! I like to do graphics and the old monitor was very dim and had a little shake to it. So... for an early Christmas present I got to go to Comp USA and pick out my new and beautiful flat/wide screen Samsung (I don't know all the "terms" to describe it). It's very pretty! I also got a season of my secret-favorite-show-that-everyone-makes-fun-of-me for; Gilmore Girls (on sale at Target on black Friday for $14 originally $44). I got a Christmas movie, the Polar Express (I love Christmas movies!). Then last night I got the (newish) Tomb Raider game. I used to love Tomb Raider, although I could never play the scary levels alone because I would jump at every noise. The new game plus the new monitor made me very happy until I realized that the way the game views swing around was making me nauseous! I mean seriously like amagod I need a pregnancy test kind of nauseous. Have to say, relieved it was the game lol! The game is fun though, it's sort of a mystery, puzzle, shoot some stuff kind of game, a far cry from the online games we usually play. Ara will be making out like a little bandit this year too.. actually who am I kidding.. "this year" pshhh as if she won't have a whole new wardrobe and toy box filled by the end of the holiday! We got her an electronic keyboard last night and she loooooves it, she played with it in the cart and then after we got home. I am hoping once I wrap it she will suddenly forget that she has already seen it! We also got her favorite train in the special wooden model (James), and Thomas the Train bath toys that squirt (I will pay for this once I'm sure). While we were in the Walmart toy section discussing her "big present" she looked up at those giant battery cars that kids can drive in and squealed with delight. She may be small.. but she knows what is expensive and ridiculous! I'm sorry but I don't want her to be one of "those" kids with $300 toys sitting in he backyard forgotten and ill used. I simply must draw the line at $200, wait... that makes me better than the other parents right? No? Well just let me think so! Anyway... I was thinking of a basket ball hoop for the patio or maybe one of those play kitchens.. Yeah I just heard myself and I DO realize I am not better. She still isn't getting the car! I got presents for my brother and sister but I still have a lot of shopping to do, I meant to have everything ordered while the post-Thanksgiving sales were still happening.. but I had the "I wants" apparently. *hangs head in shame*. I am so excited it is Christmas time.. I have been feeling a little blue and the idea of lights and trees and presents makes me feel optimistic. A and I have been fighting a lot but I actually prefer that to the strained silence. He has been really trying to express what he is thinking and feeling which is a big help to me. I have been feeling like he expects me to read his mind and let's face it.. I am not the best at "noticing stuff"! I think we both feel like we have something worth working on and it's nice to know we are on the same page.

Today I am watching my nephew and that means I had to wake up at 6 am /whine. I meant to do laundry while I was here but I forgot to bring the clothes! I blame lack of sleep. In an hour I think I will go get the clothes and take them and my lucky nephew to the land of coin operated washing machines. I cannot wait to move into a place with laundry machines... and more space.. with a closet... and a yard... and NO MORE FREAKY NEIGHBORS.

Thanks

Thanksgiving this year was a special event because it was the first time we have ever had it at our house. We have so much family in town that usually holidays' are spent on the road to and from A's family and my family. So this year we decided to start our own traditions and that grand tradition was... ordering our dinner from the deli at our local grocery store! In my head I was picturing them handing me a steaming juicy turkey meal but when we went to pick it up today it was a cold turkey in a bag and a cold box filled with side dishes. I looked at the lady in surprise and asked if I had to like cook it, trying to keep the alarm in my voice at a minimum. Raw gross turkey.. not me! Well it was fully cooked but we had to dust off the old oven and re-heat it for 2 hours, along with the many side dishes. All in all it was about 2.5 hours of prep and the food was pretty good. The only weird part were the mashed potatoes which seem to have been made from rubber potatoes. We had a nice day, Ara had her first Thanksgiving at home and I am happy.

Dreams

I had a stress dream again last night and the night before. They are always the same theme, I am trying to get somewhere but I can't or I'm driving and the brakes don't work. Last night was that I had an unorganized list of students I needed to teach and I couldn't focus on it to figure out when I had to be where. In my dream the night before I was looking at this awesome house we were going to move into. I mean it was crazy, it had a ballroom and the master bedroom had a wall of glass that looked onto the dance floor. I always have awesome architecture in my dreams lol. Well for some reason they wanted me to leave Ara there while I went somewhere and I started to leave and then I realized that I didn't want to leave her there so I tried to go back. No matter how fast I tried to get back to her people kept delaying me and my brakes didn't work. I kept looking at the clock and thinking it was her dinner time. Anyway, I guess the moral of the story is that I am stressed.

Funny diet part of the dream though was when I spilled my candy and when I looked at the table I couldn't tell which was candy and which were cherry tomato's'!

We have a work dinner tonight and I don't have anything to wear. It doesn't matter though, because we are taking Ara and no one looks at the person holding the adorable girl just the cutey!

Toddler Rampage

So this week Ara has changed her nap time ritual from making a cute little blanket nest by the door and sleeping to completely ransacking her room and not sleeping at all. I think it was Wednesday when I heard a weird sound and opened her door. She was dancing on top of a dresser drawer with her curtain rod. Yes, she pulled out her drawers and pulled down the curtains. I realized she was climbing onto her little table to reach the curtains.. once she had light it was free play time. The room was amazing, I mean I have no idea how one little girl could destroy a room so quickly and quietly. She emptied a box of wipes, every dresser drawer and all the clothes inside, all of her toys were out of their boxes, the dirty clothes were everywhere. It looked like some sort of natural disaster. Being the noob Mom that I am this happened twice before I had to take drastic action. On Friday I put her down like usual. I read her two books, put her down, kissed her and said "goodnight sweetie". She looked angelic and sleepy. I closed the door but stayed in the room silent. She hopped up immediately to get out of bed and was so surprised to find me there. It was actually really cute the way she said, "Mama?" like she was happy to see me there for play time. I stood like a silent statue in her room for an hour and a half gently putting her back down every time she got up. She sang, cried, played pretend with her dolls (in the bed), cried some more, tried to get me to laugh.. Eventually though she tired of the game and started to drift off. I slipped out of the room and she was quiet for about 15 minutes and then I heard her again.. out of bed! I only had to go back in once though and she slept in her bed! I was so proud (and tired) of myself! The battle continues everyday but it is getting easier.

Catch-up

It's been a while since I updated...

How many blogs open with that sentence I wonder?

M&M Day has come and gone and I think it's catching on. By now when I say "M&M day" my students, family, and friends all know what I'm talking about. I'll go to explain and get interrupted with "oh yeah M&M day". Megan and I went to Sauce which was, as Ara would say "nummy" and yet another thing I can miss on my low carb lifestyle. Megan is the only person I still have in my life from high school career, both here and in California. Well, besides my cousin who I never see. We talked about relationships, family, jobs... pretty much everything. It was nice to sit outside at a restaurant and have adult conversation. Actually I don't care that it was adult as long as it was conversation!

I took Ara to a pumpkin patch where we actually rode a carriage pulled by horses into a field and picked our own misshapen pumpkins! We also did a corn field maze and ate cold hot dogs that cost too much. It was really nice and I hope to make it a tradition every October.

Halloween was last night and it was a wonderful night. I made Ara's costume (Minnie Mouse) by ironing on circles cut from a tee-shirt onto a little pink skirt. It was cute but she didn't look all that mousie lol. We stopped off at my Dad's to take pictures and then we went to a children's museum. I saw their event advertised as a non-scary Halloween event for preschoolers. Ara has been declaring a lot of things "scary" and I didn't want to take her to a place where there were crowds dressed in scary costumes. The museum was actually really fun. There was an interactive jungle room that had things to climb and build, a room for crafts (ara painted a pumpkin that was a challenge to carry the rest of the night), a plastic food grocery store, a train room (!), shadow room, music room, puppet room.... the list goes on and on. We had a lovely time and I felt so good about taking her there instead of trick or treating.

As as side note, I misspelled every single instance of pumpkin on this page (thank you spell check).

I want to get out my Christmas decorations today... I asked Ara and she seemed to imply that she was pro-anything that makes Mommy smile lol!

One last thing, I've been trying to remember to write this down because I thought it was so cute;

We went out to eat and Ara leaned back in her high chair as this girl was walking by and said, "Hi, sweetie!". I think she is under the impression that is what you say to girls since everyone says it to her!

Oh and every time A and I touch each other, like when I touch his hair in the car or we hug, Ara gets so mad. Yesterday she yelled, "no! bubies!" (which is what her daddy calls her). Is she afraid if we love each other that we don't love her or maybe just that we should be giving her our attention? Or maybe her Daddy is only allowed to love one girl? Not a serious issue, but perplexing all the same.