I am trying something new with the kids this Christmas season, in light of reading various blogs and talking with friends (thanks, Marjie!). I am trying to celebrate Advent.
Growing up, we did not generally have an advent calendar or do any activities associated with advent. I think we once had one of those boxes with the cut-outs that has chocolates behind each date...but I could be wrong. Anyway, I thought it sounded like fun, and after reading the different things people were doing with it, I thought, "hey, I can do that!"
We aren't doing anything fancy, and we're not giving gifts like some do for advent. That would have required more than that the 1.5 hours of planning that went into this project. I kept it simple, just making one small activity or fun thing each day...a little something for the kids to look forward to and a concentrated effort to spend time as a family.
Since we started yesterday, December 3, I labeled slips of paper that I stapled shut starting with "3" and ending at "25" when Christmas arrives. The little slips of paper are in a very un-fancy cookie tin on our table, but next year I hope to take more than a couple of hours from my school day for planning and actually wrap things and activity explanation in little boxes. It just wasn't happenin' this year.
Here is our list...if you see Connor, keep it quiet! Every day is a surprise. Grant totally doesn't get it, but will get in on some of the fun with us.
December 3
Watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and make a Christmas Chain
December 4
Wrap Gifts for teachers to put under the tree and gifts from the Gingerbread Shoppe
December 5
Get picked up from Kindergarten—no Kids’ Country in the afternoon…then have a sleepover at Grandma’s!
December 6
Go See Christmas In the Park
December 7
Watch a Christmas movie and eat popcorn
December 8
Pick out a gift to give off the Angel Tree at Wal-Mart
December 9
Craft: Create Christmas cards for your teachers
December 10
Read Christmas stories
December 11
Make Christmas cookies for sharing
December 12
Go see Christmas lights
December 13
Go see Mr. Stinky Feet’s Christmas concert at Crown Center
December 14
Bake blueberry loaves for your teachers, wrap them up to take
the next day
December 15
Watch “I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown” on TV
December 16
Bake Christmas cookies for sharing
December 17
Deliver Christmas cookies
December 18
Camp out in front of the Christmas tree and read Jesus’ Christmas story
December 19
Mom and Dad celebrate being married for 10 years! Special dinner
December 20
Trip to McDonald’s!
December 21
Go see Christmas lights
December 22
Sleepover at Grandma’s
December 23
Family game night
December 24
To Aunt Marsha’s to celebrate Christmas eve…you may open one of your gifts
December 25
Breakfast at Grandma Pam’s for Christmas day, spend the afternoon at Grandma Gayle’s
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Overheard
Overheard, by my older cousin, during our big Italian-cookie making fest, which, shockingly, I attend much less for the cookies (try to contain your amazement) than for the socialization with my aunts and cousins.
Connor was sitting at a table eating lunch with my cousins's kids who are all about 5-7 years older than him.
"Guys, I need to talk to you about something."
"What is it, Connor?"
"Guys, I need to know WHY my mom's baby has to be a GIRL?!?"
The explanation from my cousin's 12 year old daughter that God wanted our family to have a little girl was sufficient for him, but he isn't accepting this without a fight.
Connor was sitting at a table eating lunch with my cousins's kids who are all about 5-7 years older than him.
"Guys, I need to talk to you about something."
"What is it, Connor?"
"Guys, I need to know WHY my mom's baby has to be a GIRL?!?"
The explanation from my cousin's 12 year old daughter that God wanted our family to have a little girl was sufficient for him, but he isn't accepting this without a fight.
More on baby
So I was going to post sonogram pictures of baby girl, but decided against it, as most of the pictures are just confirming her gender. And someday she won't like that her goods were all over the blogosphere.
If you know me, you know that I have a little trouble when there is nothing in my life to worry about. It's true. If there's nothing to worry about, I will invent something to obsess over. Thus my obsession over whether or not I am actually having a girl and not another boy.
So it should come as no surprise that after the sonogram we had on that Friday, I started to have doubts.
Serious doubts.
How good was the sonographer? Had she REALLY looked hard? She could have missed something. And the angle of the picture that I had was not too convincing.
I had my dr. appt this past Tuesday and I expressed the concerns above. Namely that
I CANNOT BE TOLD I AM HAVING A GIRL AND THEN FIND OUT IT IS NOT!!
My doctor understands how reasonable I am and invited me in for a "freebie" sonogram the next morning to CONFIRM what the sonographer says. She apparently has more faith in the sonographer in her office than I do.
So, hello, I was there bright and early Wednesday morning for more pics of what I hoped would continue to be baby girl.
I caught a little flack from the sonographer (have you noticed, I am trying to see how many times I can work the word "sonographer" into this post!) for not fully believing her the first time.
She just doesn't understand though. I NEVER thought I'd be able to have a little girl. Oh, I wanted one, but Jeff comes from a long line of boys-only families!
There are a couple of stray girls in there, which gave me a bit of hope, but it seemed to good to be true!
I hopped up on the table and we got down to the business of looking for girl parts. THIS time I am sure, the sonographer looked up, down, around, (baby girl was pretty active!) and found no extras! Hurray!
Now I can confidently buy pink, and Jeff can wallow in his fears of being a permissive father who can't say no to his little girl and her wedding. Yes, he's already worried about that.
I think I get the better end of this deal!
If you know me, you know that I have a little trouble when there is nothing in my life to worry about. It's true. If there's nothing to worry about, I will invent something to obsess over. Thus my obsession over whether or not I am actually having a girl and not another boy.
So it should come as no surprise that after the sonogram we had on that Friday, I started to have doubts.
Serious doubts.
How good was the sonographer? Had she REALLY looked hard? She could have missed something. And the angle of the picture that I had was not too convincing.
I had my dr. appt this past Tuesday and I expressed the concerns above. Namely that
I CANNOT BE TOLD I AM HAVING A GIRL AND THEN FIND OUT IT IS NOT!!
My doctor understands how reasonable I am and invited me in for a "freebie" sonogram the next morning to CONFIRM what the sonographer says. She apparently has more faith in the sonographer in her office than I do.
So, hello, I was there bright and early Wednesday morning for more pics of what I hoped would continue to be baby girl.
I caught a little flack from the sonographer (have you noticed, I am trying to see how many times I can work the word "sonographer" into this post!) for not fully believing her the first time.
She just doesn't understand though. I NEVER thought I'd be able to have a little girl. Oh, I wanted one, but Jeff comes from a long line of boys-only families!
There are a couple of stray girls in there, which gave me a bit of hope, but it seemed to good to be true!
I hopped up on the table and we got down to the business of looking for girl parts. THIS time I am sure, the sonographer looked up, down, around, (baby girl was pretty active!) and found no extras! Hurray!
Now I can confidently buy pink, and Jeff can wallow in his fears of being a permissive father who can't say no to his little girl and her wedding. Yes, he's already worried about that.
I think I get the better end of this deal!
Monday, November 24, 2008
It's A....
GIRL!
To say we were surprised would be quite the understatement. I made the sonographer look, look again, then look some more. I am still having a hard time believing it, but I have no reason to think otherwise.
I will post more on reactions when I (hopefully) put the sonogram pictures on here...but the general reaction was over-the-top excitement, but Marjie beat them all. She made me feel like I'd just won the gazillion dollar lottery with her ecstatic screams. Of course, this is way better than some stinking lottery.
We truly are blessed. Three healthy children...and we get to experience raising both boys and a girl. Thank you, Lord, for our life!
To say we were surprised would be quite the understatement. I made the sonographer look, look again, then look some more. I am still having a hard time believing it, but I have no reason to think otherwise.
I will post more on reactions when I (hopefully) put the sonogram pictures on here...but the general reaction was over-the-top excitement, but Marjie beat them all. She made me feel like I'd just won the gazillion dollar lottery with her ecstatic screams. Of course, this is way better than some stinking lottery.
We truly are blessed. Three healthy children...and we get to experience raising both boys and a girl. Thank you, Lord, for our life!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Kisses Make It Better
Grant always has been a slightly more affectionate child than his older brother. Jeff and I have attributed that to Connor being more "prickly" like me, while Grant is more outgoing and physical, like Jeff. Grant will hug me for no reason and kisses are available on demand.
I have noticed in recent weeks a trend with Grant.
Every time he bumps into something or thinks he is hurt, he comes running to me for a kiss. I will then kiss said owie (which has only posed a problem once--when he hurt his bottom), ask him if it's all better, and he replies "yes!" and runs back to playing.
I love this age and stage.
Yes, we sometimes (though less frequently now) have dinner battles, I have to provide him a choice about everything including which shoe he would like to put on first, and he can get whiny.
But he still believes that his parents can fix anything. And that is special.
I still remember being sad the first time Connor told me that my kiss didn't make his owie feel better.
I just hope Grant doesn't realize it for a while yet.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Connor's take on Baby 3
One of Connor's after-school teachers pulled me aside the other day and told me about a funny conversation she had with Connor.
She prefaced it by saying that Connor is usually very subdued and quiet in the after-school program and generally doesn't talk much to the grownups.
She was talking with him about our family and if we were going to have another baby ever (I suspect b/c they've noticed my expanding waistline and got curious!) and Connor immediately piped up:
"Yes and we find out what it is in TWO WEEKS!"
She then asked him if he wanted a boy or a girl.
Connor replied, "I want a boy."
Teacher: "Why?"
"Because if we have a girl, we're going to have to take her to ballet and stuff. Yuck."
She prefaced it by saying that Connor is usually very subdued and quiet in the after-school program and generally doesn't talk much to the grownups.
She was talking with him about our family and if we were going to have another baby ever (I suspect b/c they've noticed my expanding waistline and got curious!) and Connor immediately piped up:
"Yes and we find out what it is in TWO WEEKS!"
She then asked him if he wanted a boy or a girl.
Connor replied, "I want a boy."
Teacher: "Why?"
"Because if we have a girl, we're going to have to take her to ballet and stuff. Yuck."
Waiting
Here at our house, we're on a countdown. Ok, it's just me. No one else seems nearly as concerned as I am with the possibly life-altering information we will find out next week.
I might be a touch on the over-dramatic side on this.
Next Friday, we find out what our baby is. Of course, this is depending on baby's cooperation, I've been told. I am leaving nothing to chance, and having a big caffeinated drink before we go for our sonogram. That kid is gonna be hyped up and moving so we can see the parts!
Everyone here is rooting for a boy. Except for mom of course. It would be really nice to have someone on my side (besides the dog, who is also a girl). The boys spend most of their time with Jeff arguing about who gets to be on his "team" for various activities.
We were in the car the other day, and I kid you not, the kids were screaming at each other over who got to be on dad's team. We weren't playing a game, we weren't even TALKING about playing a game, but by golly, they were each going to be on dad's team!!
I would like for someone to want to be on MY team once in a while. Not that a girl necessarily would. And boys are great...truly. I've always said I'd take a house full of boys over a house full of girls any day, and I mean that.
I just kinda want to buy pink this time.
I might be a touch on the over-dramatic side on this.
Next Friday, we find out what our baby is. Of course, this is depending on baby's cooperation, I've been told. I am leaving nothing to chance, and having a big caffeinated drink before we go for our sonogram. That kid is gonna be hyped up and moving so we can see the parts!
Everyone here is rooting for a boy. Except for mom of course. It would be really nice to have someone on my side (besides the dog, who is also a girl). The boys spend most of their time with Jeff arguing about who gets to be on his "team" for various activities.
We were in the car the other day, and I kid you not, the kids were screaming at each other over who got to be on dad's team. We weren't playing a game, we weren't even TALKING about playing a game, but by golly, they were each going to be on dad's team!!
I would like for someone to want to be on MY team once in a while. Not that a girl necessarily would. And boys are great...truly. I've always said I'd take a house full of boys over a house full of girls any day, and I mean that.
I just kinda want to buy pink this time.
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