Random Thoughts, and a Christmas Play

Hi all!

As much as I hate to do this, the content of this post is going to be in bullet points....because that's about how my brain works at the moment!

We had a very nice Thanksgiving but it was BUSY, BUSY, BUSY with lots of time spent on the road. It was very nice to see our families, but also nice to be settled back in at home, only to gear up for the next big holiday.

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The past few years we have put up two Christmas trees - one that I have labeled our "fancy" tree with color coordinated adornments and the other our tree that is lovingly decorated with all of the ornaments we have acquired over the years. Well, the fancy tree broke when we were taking it down last year (we are an artificial tree family) and so we decided to just put up the one tree this year (and I'll buy a second one at a major discount after the holidays!). Alexandra has been intrigued by the tree - this is her first year to truly get into it. She loves checking out all the presents underneath the tree and playing with the ornaments...her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Sesame Street ornaments spend more time off the tree than on!


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Alexandra is growing and changing every day, so very much. She is such a smart little girl, and not a day goes by that she doesn't amaze me with some comment or observation (I'm pretty sure I didn't know what a hexagon or octagon was when I was 2 years old!). She is really quite funny and is quite the little character....though she is very much TWO and is prone to some toddler mood swings that I'm not really sure yet how to handle. Case in point...

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Alexandra's preschool has all kinds of little activities during the month of December to celebrate the Christmas holiday. Each Friday, a different age group will present to family members their Christmas program. The 2 year-olds started things off this past Friday. They had been practicing for a month or so....and it's been a lot of fun having Alexandra walk around the house singing Jingle Bells off-key while she pumps her little arms up and down in the air! Well, the "program" was interesting, to say the least....I'm not sure what we expected as parents and grandparents of two dozen 2 year-olds, but it was organized chaos and really more just a photo opp for the families. The first of two classes of 2 year-olds came out and half of them broke down in tears at the sight of the mob (and I only half-joke when I use that term, you should have seen some of the pushing and jostling by parents to get a good angle to take pictures!) that was watching their every movement. It then came time for Alexandra's class to enter the room. Here she is marching in line into the room....


Somehow, she was able to pick her Daddy out of the crowd immediately. She promptly lit up and yelled "Hi Daddy!" (which she is doing in these 2 shots).....



... before throwing herself down face first on the ground and starting to cry. Bless her heart, I'm still not sure if it was the crowd of strangers, the fact she saw us and couldn't get to us, or just the fact she was just plain tired - but she would have NONE of it. I had to walk up to the front, scoop her up, and take her out into the hallway to calm her down. It finally took some cajoling with a sucker to calm her down.


I was able to get her back into the room for the last song, but when I tried to get her to sing, another meltdown came. Oh well, maybe next year will be different!

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We have a scheduled date for my c-section, and I'm pleased to share that baby boy will be here in about 11 weeks or so! It was so funny to open my mail a couple of weeks ago and find a letter from my OB, simply stating that my c-section had been scheduled for this date and I needed to be at the hospital at this time. So simple and concise - no fuss, no muss! On the one hand, we will never experience that thrill of surprise when labor starts and we throw all our things together and race to the hospital. On the other hand, our life is crazy enough and it isn't so bad to try to have such a big event scheduled and planned!

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We are working hard toward finishing up Alexandra's big girl room so we can get her all settled in before working on her brother's nursery. I'm really tickled with how well everything is coming along so far. Remember that white dresser I grabbed off of Craigslist for $20??


Well, here it is after a makeover!




It's amazing what wonders a can of paint and some new hardware will do! I have to extend a huge THANK YOU to my sweet husband for painting the piece and dealing with the paint fumes, which were a big no no for me given the pregnancy.

More pictures of her room to follow as we wrap up more of the odds and ends....the next project on the horizon is her headboard, which I think we're going to try to make!