2014: The Year We Do More than Just Survive.

So!  It's pretty late to be talking about resolutions, etc. but here we are.....

2013 was the Year of Upgrades.  And we made some HUGE ones:

June 2013:  He was so little and smooshy!!!!

Aaaand now he's big enough to terrorize the dog.  They grow so fast!

The kids hanging out in our new basement.  500 square feet of demo/renovation.  (I'll post about it all eventually but here's a little bit about the playroom)

But with all the upgrades everything else kindof fell to shit.  I mean when you have a newborn (and 2 other kids OMG) or you're super pregnant tearing apart half your house, you go into SURVIVAL MODE.  You do ONLY WHAT YOU NEED TO SURVIVE*  House wise, life wise, everything.  I've gotten really good at prioritizing and ignoring and just getting through.  And I'm sick of it.  SO!

I hereby declare that 2014 will be the Year that We do More Than Just Survive.

Really it's just simple stuff like:

• I want to get the kids back into swimming lessons - something that I think is really important but got dropped last year during the major home renovations never to be picked up again.
• I want to purge/update my wardrobe which has been in a state of "just buy a couple of cheap things to get you through this season b/c God knows what size/shape your body will be in once this current fuckery is over" since 2008.
• I want to take a trip somewhere with just the 5 of us.
• I want creativity to be a part of my life again.  I realize that we're still along way from a place where I would be able to maintain Destination Yarn or do anything professional but it's not unrealistic to think that I could start knitting again on a regular basis.  Maybe even design a pattern or two.
• I want to go visit some of our out of town friends who for the last couple of years have always come here because we were too in survival mode to be able to go to them.

I could telescope this thought out to just about anything. And obviously I know we're not ready to do most of this yet (see also: 7 month old baby who still wakes me up at night.  Not much is possible other than survival when you're really sleep deprived).  And with the Little Guy seconds away from crawling I know I will spend the next few months doing nothing but chase a baby yelling "OMG DON'T PUT THAT IN YOUR MOUTH AAARRUGH GROSS."

He started across the room and army crawled / scooted himself right into the center of the fun.

But a year is a long time.  So my goal is that when we ring in 2015 I can say that we are finally out of survival mode.

What about you guys?  What are your big plans for 2014?

*Bonus points if you get that reference.

Polar Vortex.

So.  You guys.  Did you see the sky today?  Talk about cold.

Obligatory photos of the weather channel app, iphone weather, and car dash thermometer.

It's crazy cold.  Insane cold.  Lake Erie doing weird things cold.  Luckily I have a dad who is committed to this lake photography thing and he took these amazing pictures of what's going on:

That would be Lake Erie steaming.  STEAMING.  Because the air temp (-3 in these photos taken yesterday) is less than the temperature of the water.  I've never seen the lake do that before.  INSANITY:

And even more crazy to compare with these pictures taken today.  The lake is now cold enough that it's not steaming anymore.  Here's a video by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showing how quickly the lake froze over.  Insane.

Insanity is a good way to put it.  I'm SO not cut out for this trapped at  home all the time with the kids thing.  Luckily temps are supposed to soar into the teens tomorrow and school/regular life should resume.  Another couple of days of this and I'd be staging the Hunger Games with my children:

Pictured:  The female and male tributes from the first floor bedroom.

Unfortunately for this district the tributes are old friends. 

The kids aren't cut out for this stuck at home thing either.  It's been Christmas break, followed by being down with the flu, followed by me leaving for a couple days, followed by being trapped indoors due to the vortex.  They have gone FERAL. 

New Years Day.  The last time they really played outside.

We've done every puzzle.  More than once.  Painted. Played games (or tried to anyways).  And even busted out my nemesis, playdough:

THE COLORS ARE MIXING AND GETTING EVERYWHERE AND AAAAAAAH OCD.

I'm OVER IT.  I've given up on trying to tame them for today.  Instead I built them a kick-ass blanket fort, aimed the space heater into it, and turned on a movie.

Pictured:  something that will keep them entertained for all of 30 minutes.

Fingers crossed the Longest Christmas Break in the History of the World ends tomorrow.  Or be ready to start the betting on your favorite tribute.

Happy Hunger Games.  And may the Odds be Ever in Your Favor.

Don't discount the littlest one, or the furry one.  In the time it took me to write this post they realized the warmth of the shelter and claimed both the blanket fort and the snacks from the career tributes. 

STEALTHY.

Seriously I need to get these kids out of the house tomorrow.

The Snowman at Chagrin Valley Little Theatre.

So!  Today is Epiphany.  The official last day of the Christmas season.  And I am SO far behind on my Christmas posting.  So I'll start with one of the coolest things we did this season:

 We went to see the Snowman with the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre:

I was nervous taking our little kids to see this - I mean it was a live orchestra concert!  But they LOVED it.  LOVED.

Especially the dude - he's my musical guy - he was on the edge of his seat the whole time.  And it's no wonder.  The concert was absolutely magical.  The Snowman is actually a book.  I was not familiar with it before this show but I'm so glad I am now.  The story is just illustrations.  Beautiful illustrations by Raymond Briggs, but only that.  No words.  So it inspires children to come up with their own stories.  Very cool idea.  From there an animated version was created.  Then a score followed.  So at this event the orchestra played with a big screen showing the animated version in the background.  The kids were enthralled:

The holiday concert also included some favorites like Sleighride, and a sing along complete with dancing elves.  Fun for all of us.

Afterwards we took the kids on a walk around Chagrin Falls to see all of the Christmas decorations:

We weren't able to go down to the falls - the steps were closed b/c of icy conditions:

But we did get to take them to a classic location:

For ice cream.  Seems legit on a freezing cold day!

It was a wonderful night out with our family.

I highly recommend the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre - They have a ton of great things coming up.  You can check out their calendar and purchase tickets here. Or follow them on Facebook and Twitter for updates.

The Snowman is a great winter story.  And I just got sucked into their website for a bit clicking around on the "activities" portion.  We'll be making some of the snowflakes tomorrow since we're home for another cold day.  Keep warm, everyone!!!

Disclosure:  Tickets to the Snowman were provided for me and my family.  As always opinions are all my own.

Wordless Wed: 2013.

2013 was by far one of the most difficult and awesome of my life.  Here's to 2014!

Fuss-Free Holiday with Pampers and CVS

So dude.  This time of year is CRA.  We have been going non stop for 2 weeks now and it won't let up until the New Year. Parties! and Events!  Out of town Guests! last minute shopping and wrapping!  I'm not sure if it was because of this being our first Christmas with 3 kids,the shortened length after Thanksgiving, or what but this year I was STRESSED.  Good stress is still stress!

 My daughter's preschool Christmas Concert.  SO MUCH ADORABLE!

And her cheering section.

There seemed to be a perfect storm of factors combining to really put on the pressure this year.  With Matt working so much leading up to the holiday, our friends coming to town before Christmas instead of afterwards, and my 2 yo being a 2yo well...

It took a lot to pull it all off.

But I think the trickiest part this year was balancing the things we wanted to do with our older children with the needs of our baby.  Especially for our 4 year old this is just a MAGICAL time.  With so many fun things to do:

Kringle's inventionasium - one of the top Santa experiences in the US!

Which meant our 6 month old got to come along, too.

I love how the baby looks like he's thinking "these people are insane."

Baby's first noodles at noodlecat.

I think the moment that put it into the sharpest perspective was this.

Santa Came!  Photo taken at 2AM.

Yes.  We were up until 2AM pulling off the Santa thing for the big kids.  And then the baby was up to nurse as per usual at 4.  And then again at 6.  So I got almost no sleep the night before Christmas.  But, Santa! 

So how about a list?

Ways to Survive Big Kid Holiday Fun with a Baby:

1.)  Carry them.  Seriously a good baby carrier makes things so much easier because then my hands are free for dealing with the other two kids.  We just strap him in and off we go!

2.)  Keep them on as much of a routine as possible.  Yeah this might seem impossible.   But despite the holiday crazy I've tried to keep the main things at around the same times.  So I feed him when I normally feed him (nursing cover FTW!).  And have timed drives in the car when he would normally be napping - extending those drives by looking for Christmas decorations with the big kids.  A little bit of normalcy in routine can make all of the difference for a little one! 

3.)  Bring jammies everywhere.  That way if we end up out later than planned because we stopped to get the big kids ice cream I can still put my little guy to bed in his carseat with a much easier transfer when we get home.

Mmmmmm... Ice Cream.

4.)  CVS.  So with remembering everything for the big kids sometimes I forget something for the little one.  Like Diapers.  AHEM.

 CVS is is super convenient for those last minute issues.  Like when you're on your way to your kid's holiday concert and while you remembered the cookies, and your camera, and your video camera, and the teacher gifts, and the 2 year old's blanket, and an outfit change for the 4 year old for afterwards, and snacks for everyone, etc. etc. etc. you forgot to bring diapers.  OOPS.  Also the CVS near to me has the cleanest, nicest bathroom around.  Which is a random thing to know but key when you're out running errands with a recently potty trained 2yo.

Plus they carry gift cards - perfect for that last minute gift that you completely forgot you needed to buy:

And groceries for when you're out of bread and milk (I'm ALWAYS out of bread and milk) but don't want to brave the crazy that is a grocery store during the holidays:

5.)  Use a diaper you trust.  Yeah the last thing you need to be worried about when rushing off to a holiday party is changing a set of sheets because the diaper didn't hold.  That actually happened to us this year making us super late to the family Christmas Eve celebration.  Never. Again.

Daddy and Baby DONE on Christmas Eve.  Both the big kids were still going strong.

Pampers has recently come out with some great innovations to prevent such a situation from happening.  Their baby dry diapers offer 12 hours of leak-free protection.  So you won't have to get up at 3am for an unexpected diaper change!  My personal favorite, though, is that they now carry the swaddlers line - the incredibly soft and wonderful diapers that were previously just for newborns - up to a size 5!  All of these pampers products are available at CVS!

To celebrate their new innovations Pampers is offering a giveaway!  Enter below to win a coupon for a package of diapers and wipes!  Super excited to be sharing this with you:

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

5 Years of Mall Santas.

So this year was the 5th (!) year off doing this whole Mall Santa thing.  Seemed like a good time for a recap and some comparison photos. 

2009 - The girl is 9 months.

Baby's First Mall Santa!  And the first time I got to Mall Santa as a mom!  Very exciting stuff.  She's wearing a dress that I wore at my first Christmas that was made out of material from my mother's wedding (it was the '70's.  Her bridesmaids wore plaid).  All very sentimental.  And adorable.  And she was decidedly nonplussed.  I posted about that first Christmas here.

2010 - the Girl is 21 months

Mall Santa Round 2.  This time in a dress my grandmother made her for the holiday season.  She was terrified.  And NOT INTERESTED.  This was as close as she would get.

The Dude is 8 months The Girl is 2.5 years.

That would be my favorite Santa photo of all of them.  I blogged about the whole ridiculous experience here but the bottom line was that The Girl was TWO.  Really Two.  And Santa was NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.  Really any time that I'm getting frustrated with The Dude I need to come back and look at this picture because as ridiculous as he's been lately he can't hold a candle to the insanity that was his sister at this age.  2011 also produced this awesome:

Me in 1908, my son in 2011.  We were almost the same age here to the day.  LOVE. IT.

The next year the Santa pics are Instagrammed.  Of course they are.  2012 might as well be known as the Year I Instagrammed ALL OF THE THINGS:

2012 - The Girl is 3.5 years and the Dude is 20 months.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES!  Seriously.  Everyone was really into it this year.  Although I was not thrilled with The Girl's fashion choices overall it was a pretty easy situation.  No tears, no woe.  Just happy holiday memories.  She told Santa that she wanted My Little Pony ponies and all was good.  Also:

2012 - The Girl is 3.5 years and the Dude is 20 months.

Santa was so fun we went for a round 2 at the Kringle Inventionasium in Tower City.  Once again The Girl insisted on animal print but whatever.  Since then the Inventionasium has been named one of the 11 Best Santa's by Time Magazine.  We're going back again this year and I can't wait.  Although according to my daughter "Santa does NOT wear Overalls. He should be in a Red Suit."  I can't disagree with her....

The Girl is 4.5, the Dude is 2.5 and the Little Guy is 6 months.

And finally, this year.  We have officially exceeded the maximum capacity of Santa's Lap.  But all three of them are looking at the camera!  I count that as a major win.  I love the expression on the girl's face.  She's all... what up.  And the little guy is clearly thinking "what nonsense are they making me do now?"  The dude is all of two right now but thanks to the magic of an older sibling we had no issues with getting him on Santa's lap.  I think he'd walk through fire if his sister told him to.  Although he had issues with the mall's choice of music arching his back and screaming NO WANT JINGLE BELLS!! NO WANT!!

I will never get tired of this picture.

Also he was NOT going to wear his red tie to match his siblings.  Instead he opted for the "DADDY TIE" - it's striped like daddy's ties are striped.  I'll allow it because ADORABLE.

The girl asked Santa for "palace pets and barbies"  The dude asked for "PRESENTS"  both will be getting what they want under the tree this year.

Yay for Mall Santas!  And seriously can you believe that this is our 5th year doing the Christmas thing as parents?  Time flies, my friends!