So done with 2012

I am sooo done with 2012.  Looking back over the year I can see that we've been through a lot, especially in the last six months.

Things that happened in 2012:

• our house got broken into
• an estrangement
• car run off the road
• car bumper fell off on the freeway
• infertility
• miscarriage, followed by D and C
• water damage to basement requiring a new outside drainage system, basement demolition, and remodel
• Linus got his adenoids and tonsils removed
• Eileen got tubes in her ears

It's almost overwhelming when you look at it.  Once you get away from all the drama, a lot of good happened too.

• Eileen finally walked at 15.5 months
• Linus started a new school
• family vacation to San Diego
• weekend getaways to Canada and Long Beach
• I officially resigned my teaching position in order to stay at home with the kids 
• lots and lots of little adventures 
• we get to do lots of upgrades on our house that we would have perpetually put off for years if not propelled to do so by water damage.

Since I am writing this post, the world must not have ended on December 21, 2012 as predicted.  A lot of things that really really sucked happened in 2012.  I am grateful that I can look at my little family and know that we came through the other side stronger. I'm excited about the possibilities that the next year holds.

Bring it 2013.

From the Mouths of Babes in December

Eileen:  I'm making Christmas.  I'm making fa la la.

Linus: (to me) If you don't make me a bat box I'll die.
Eileen:  No Linus. Don't die.

Linus:  Mommy, is there something strange in your neighborhood.  Who are you going to call?
Me: Ghostbusters?
Linus:  Mm hmm.

Linus: (to his friend)  Ari, can I snuggle you? I promise to keep you warm and cozy.
Ari: No.

Eileen:  Coffee is poisonous Mama.

Happy Holidays 2012

The Christmas rush is finally over.  The cookies have been eaten.  The guests have left.  We still are planning to get together with Dave's family for New Years but otherwise the festivities are over.  I now have enough time to breathe and post a few pics.

I went to my first Christmas concert as a parent.  Linus' school was all about efficiency.  The school does three separate concerts due the lack of space to house all those parents and kids.  The preschoolers and kindergartners do a concert together, preschoolers first.  After the preschoolers performed, we got to leave and pick up our kids and leave.  The kindergarten parents then get our seats up front. Total concert time for us: 20 minutes.

One of the smallest, Linus was easy to spot up front and on the end.

I have tried to shield Eileen from princess culture to no avail.  She will paw princess clothes and toys at Target.  Luckily, she has yet to fall prey to the Disney princesses and is inspired by Princess Pea from Super Why.

"With the power to read!" --Eileen as Princess Pea

Rainy weather, cozy Christmas decorations, and lots of Christmas movies meant lots of time snuggling on the couch.  We spent December perfecting the art of snuggling under blankets.

We simplified Christmas even further this year, limiting it to one day of craziness. Christmas Eve we went to the zoo in the morning, had a nap, and went to mass.  I tried to get some pics of the kids in their Christmas finery.

Linus can really pull off a bow tie and velvet blazer.

Eileen did not sleep all night.  She woke up at 1 AM ready for Christmas and stayed ready until 6 AM.  We finally stumbled down the stairs at 7 AM to learn what Santa brought.

 As he opened presents, Linus screamed, "I was a good boy! I wasn't on the naughty list!"

Using boxes to build a castle for his new Playmobile knights.

Multiple relatives gave Eileen princess gear.  Santa caved and gave Eileen the Disney princess slippers she had been coveting at Target.  For that matter, Santa gave Linus the Playmobile Future Planet set that Mommy said he couldn't have.  Hmmmm.

Dressed up in all her finery.  You will note she even has earrings and a giant ring.

My sister, Beth, and her family stayed with us for a few days after Christmas.  Everyone had a good time and we were sad to see them go.  As their car pulled away, Eileen exclaimed, "I love you Uncle Chris!"

Now it's time for the annual post-Christmas festivities naps.

December Madness

It's been a busy December full of merry making.

We decorated the house and wore our Santa jammies.

Visited the reindeer and camel at Swanson's Nursery (twice).

Listened to lots of Christmas music.  My sister, Beth, makes an awesome mix CD every year.  2008 and 2010 are my favorites thus far.

Attended a gingerbread house decorating party.

Made Christmas crafts, read Christmas books, and watched lots of old Christmas television specials.  I happen to own almost all of them. I'm still on the hunt for the old Alvin and the Chipmunks, Smurfs Christmas, Snow White Christmas, and Claymation Christmas. Anyone? Anyone?

Made our annual downtown monorail trip.  This year we visited the Gingerbread houses at the Sheraton and the Teddy Bear Suite at the Fairmount. Linus was mad when he was told he wasn't allowed to go on the bed. We looked at the winter village at the Seattle Center and even got a turn driving the trains.

Went to Wildlights at the Woodland Park Zoo.  Overall, it was a bit of a disappointment. Lights were sparse in comparison to zoolights. We liked the fake snow at entrance and carolers.  Building your own snowmen and throwing snowballs at Snowmazium was a good idea but totally crazy with hoards of people.

Lots of cookie baking and cozy family time upstairs. The upside to having our basement out of commission has been all the increased opportunities for fort building.  The house feels more cozy in a good way, not in a cramped way.

My brother and Dad have been coming up to help us repair the basement.  They've been a Godsend.

Tim was great and let Linus in on the action installing drywall.

Visited Santa.  The picture doesn't do the kids justice with how cute they look in the Christmas outfits.  I was impressed.  There were no tears.  Eileen walked right up to Santa and gave him a hug when he asked.  She was able to tell him she wanted a dolphin, although Linus was ready to help her out in case she was scared.

Drove around Olympic Manor to look at Christmas lights and then get holiday cupcakes at Cupcake Royale (Eileen's idea).

heading out for some light viewing there was a lot of love and jingle bells

Practiced driving a one horse open sleigh.

He used Dave's belt as a whip.

Taught baby bear how to fly a remote controlled helicopter we got during white elephant exchange at my extended family's Christmas party.

Linus came up with his own helicopter pilot uniform.  Personally, I think he looks like Murdock from the A-Team.

Finally, I took a few head shots of Eileen in an attempt to have a picture to give relatives along with Linus' school picture.  It was also to commemorate Eileen's hair before I chopped off her mullet, leaving her with a short bob.

she loves her pooh bear and lovey

Next up this week we have Linus' first Christmas pageant.  He won't tell me what he is singing and wants it to be a surprise.  I plan to do some more cookie baking as well.  The kids have been awesome recently, minus a weekend of puking.  I don't know what it is about the holidays but it just seems to put everyone in a good mood. I'm loving it.

Walk like an Egyptian

In case you did not know this about my son, Linus is very creative.  He's other things too: smart, witty, and funny come to mind.  But it is his creativity and vivid imagination that really define him.  Sometimes it is exhausting and other times it makes my heart sing. Tonight it was the latter.

Linus has had a fascination with mummies and ancient Egypt especially for several months now.  My friend, Heather, gave him a National Geographic kids book about Mummies and it is well loved.  While I was cooking dinner tonight Linus walked into the kitchen in just his underwear and told me he was in his pharaoh costume.  He asked me whether or not the ancient Egyptians would have eaten ibex and then left.  I walked out a few minutes later and found him stripping Eileen so she could be an Egyptian too.  After compiling the rest of his costume, Linus asked me to make him a pharaoh crown.  He grabbed his mummy book so I would have a reference.  I must admit I am pretty impressed with myself with how the crown turned out.  Linus insisted on a mini photoshoot.

"I'm not a pharaoh.  I'm just a boy pretending to be a pharaoh."

"Do I look like a sphinx?"

"Make sure to get my claws."

Eileen the slave is rowing the pharaoh in a boat.

Sometimes my kids are just too dang cute.

Last day of soccer

Today was the last day of soccer.  We'll pick it up again in the spring.  I can't believe how much both kids improved during the season, Eileen especially.  I don't think the kids fully comprehend they aren't going to soccer for several months. 

We got to pick up team pics today.

Afterwards, our friends, Colleen, Ari, and Vivian came over to play.  It was a great playdate.  The kids played well together while mommies talked. 

Eileen really loved Vivian.  She couldn't stop snuggling her.

Vivian, for her part, was willing to play along during a variety activities like building a spaceship.

Linus repeatedly asked to hold Vivian.  He even cleaned up all the mess (and there was a lot) in order to hold her one last time.

It's the days like these that don't make me miss working at all.

From the Mouths of Babes in November

Linus:  We need to hide the (Halloween) candy when Grandpa comes.  I don't want Grandpa to eat all the candy.

Linus:  I will get so angry if we don't get snow this winter that I will cancel winter.  Okay? All year. And if we get snow I will play in it.

Eileen:  I poopy. No fair. No fair.

Linus: I need to go outside and collect samples so I can learn about the world.

Dave: Night night Eileen.  Don't let the bed bugs bite.
Eileen:  Adios amigos.  See you soon.

Amid the drama of water damage in the basement, we've managed to have a lot of good family playtime this month.  There has been lots of Legos, wrestling, and pretend play.  Eileen is really beginning to hold her own.

November Rain

"And when your fears subside and shadows still remain, oh yeah
I know that you can love me when there's no one left to blame
So never mind the darkness we still can find a way
Nothin' lasts forever even cold November rain"  --Guns N Roses

If you live in Western Washington then you know that we've had a lot of rain recently, hard pounding rain with blistering winds and occasional thunder and lightning.  Normally, I find this a little romantic and fun--a little hot cider, a cozy blanket, maybe some board games or a good movie.  It's not like we live in a valley or flood zone......

Backtrack.  A few weeks ago I noticed that the floor molding in the guest room was coming away from the wall. I was worried maybe something was wrong with the foundation.  I tried to get a hold of several contractors, but no one seemed to want to call me back.

Monday.   It rained and rained and rained and rained.  It was practically right out of "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh."  Monday afternoon I walked downstairs and I noticed foot prints in the carpet.  I thought to myself, "That's weird.  I hope no one broke in again, but why rob the mostly empty guest room?"  I went to investigate.  As I stepped onto the carpet, the squish it made beneath my feet became unmistakeable.  The guest room was wet.  Further investigation revealed that parts of the main room were wet too.  Panicked, I called Dave and then tried another contractor recommended by a friend.  Miracle of miracles, he answered the phone and offered to come out first thing in the morning. Meanwhile, it continued to rain and the basement got wetter.

The contractor determined we had drainage problems on the north side of the house and a back drain.  We needed to construct a new drainage system.  Tuesday night a guy from a water damage company came out to review the situation.  He told us it was a category three. I asked if that meant it was not so bad.  He responded, "Uh no, that's the worst."  Wednesday a sewer guy came to snake the back drain only to find that it didn't need to be snaked, because it was really just a hole to nowhere, hence why it always overflows in heavy rain.  He was nice enough to not charge us.

On Thursday morning (Thanksgiving) Dave and I moved everything out of the basement.  We got creative with where to put stuff.  We used it as an opportunity to lose some furniture we had been thinking of getting rid of and dust some of those hard to reach places.

Right now we are waiting for bids.  Unfortunately, this all happened the week of Thanksgiving so everyone is not working.  Additionally, since a giant rainstorm happened lots of other people are dealing with water damage too.  The house smells like old wet towels.  It's gross.  We are looking at costly repairs.  In addition to a new drainage system we need to get new carpeting, take the wall of the bedroom down to bedrock, remove all insulation, and rebuild.  Costly repairs, probably not covered by insurance (we are waiting to hear from the claims adjuster).

On this Thanksgiving evening, I am trying to remember to be thankful.  I am part of an amazing family, I am able to stay home with my kids, and we have a house to name a few.  I am hoping that the carpets will be removed soon because then I can work on the improving the smell.  I fear our basement may be out of commission for a while.  I'm trying to stay positive.  I had been thinking it would be nice to replace the carpet and put on some fresh paint downstairs.  Nature has just forced our hand a little.

Cozy Cabin

Your perspective on a lot of things changes when you are a parent, especially of young children.  One of those is how you view birthdays, presents, and celebrations in general.  Dave and I thought by virtue of being an aunt and uncle, we knew what to expect and what pitfalls to avoid when it came to celebrations.  Despite our best efforts, we had yet to perfect how to pass the different milestones in our children's lives.

Linus had a first birthday party.  There have been no official parties since.  When we first got married, we went to two Thanksgiving one year.  We now rotate.  We also learned that three days of Christmas in a row is two days too many.  What is fun and exciting for adults, is overstimulating and exhausting for little ones.  Kids become unappreciative, demanding, screaming tyrants.

Besides my family's three birthdays close together (myself, Linus, and Eileen), the day after Eileen's birthday is my nephew, Dylan's, and the following day is my brother-in-law, Chris'.  That's a whole lot of birthday.  In an effort to prevent over-stimulation and exhaustion for both kids and adults, my sister, Beth, and I decided to just rent a cabin for a weekend and skip big celebrations.  It was one of the best decisions we ever made.

After an initial slow start due to car troubles, we had an amazing weekend.  We rented a cabin in Long Beach with its own private trail to the beach.  We played lots of board games, drank mulled wine and hot cider, sat by the fire, watched the winter storms, ate birthday cake, and let the kids just be kids.  There was no cell service, no internet, and no dvd player.  It was old school and a perfect escape.  The kids played great together.

We braved pelting winds and rain one morning and headed to the beach.

Proof we made it to the beach.

The walk back.

Twister

A little bit of the action was caught on video.  I call it, "Parents talk, kids play."

Roughhousing

My mother asked me to take a picture of the kids all together.  Eileen didn't quite cooperate.

Sometimes you go into vacations with little kids with high hopes of relaxation that are quickly dashed by the realities of life with small children.  This weekend was not one of those times.  I think it may have to become a new tradition.  I don't think anyone would complain.