Getting into the Christmas Spirit

With Christmas a week away, I can say we are actually ready for it this year. Decorations are up, tree is trimmed, holiday baking is complete, and shopping is done. I absolutely love Christmas, it's by far my favorite holiday. My parents always made this time of year so special for us. I have so many great memories that I hope to turn into family traditions for our own growing brood.

Reese is a little more aware of Christmas this year which has been fun. She's still quite easy to please and is only requesting a new Dora movie and 'treats', which can be interpreted as anything sweet, from Santa this year. I think that may be doable.

As always, we're missing our family, friends and home in general this time of year but are counting our blessings too!

Here are a few pics of some of our latest holiday fun.

Decorating the tree and loving it

Ready for the team Christmas party

Heading out to a Christmas party with friends sans Reese

Parenting: Reading between the lines.

With baby #2 due in less than 3 weeks (eek!), I've been thinking of the sleepless nights ahead of us and how we might handle them this time around. I have to admit, we've gotten so comfortable with having our evenings to ourselves and full nights' sleep that I know our systems are in for a real shock. Also, we got lucky with Reese in the sleep department. She's always been a great sleeper from baby onwards. Going down with ease and consistently sleeping through the night (minus the random hiccup here or there) since she was 4 or 5 months old. Having said that, I'm sure this one will be the complete opposite. And knowing myself and how I handle stress under pressure (not well), I need to think about how we might cope, or more accurately, how I might cope. Afterall, I am the crazy mom who recorded feeds until Reese was 6 months old. That's right, every. single. feed.

I know there are parenting books out there aplenty and as many differing opinions on them as there are parents. We found one that we could relate to and made sense with what we thought our parenting style might be. The Secrets of a Baby Whisperer. There are mixed reviews on her methods (as with any method I guess) but we found her guide to be helpful. Using it as a guide is the big lesson, at least it was for us and something I need to keep in the forefront of my mind this time around too. I like to follow something step by step but unfortunately that just doesn't work with babies. It's all about reading between the lines and figuring out what works best for your baby specifically, remembering all babies are different. It's something I need to remind myself of often. I'm hoping to help my own sanity (and everyone else's) by stepping back and taking a deep breath and figuring things out as we go. I want to enjoy the newborn moments more this time around by being less stressed. Afterall, I know too well how fast that time goes by!

Halloween

I love Halloween. I mean, it makes total sense since I'm addicted to candy of all kinds. A night dedicated to dressing up and going door to door collecting a huge variety of candy is right up my alley. So, you can understand my disappointment last year when I discovered there were zero trick-or-treater's for Reese's first Halloween. I can finally get back into the game of getting loads of candy under the guise of my baby trick-or-treating only to find out it wasn't happening in Cardiff. What?!

Based on that, I wasn't getting my hopes up this year but was thrilled to hear they do trick-or-treat in our area. So, we quickly found a costume and geared up for the big night. Let's just say Reese was less than impressed. She loved getting treats from the first handful of houses but then got spooked when a little boy handed out candy in his costume and mask. Spooked as in went running into my arms sobbing, saying 'home, home, home!'. So, home we went with a pretty bare bag of treats. Obviously, I wish we lasted a few more houses but it was not to be. On a brighter note, she did make for a pretty cute spider. There's always next year I guess.

Fall Fashion: Scarves

Shopping for myself these days is pretty limited. I'm just not into spending too much on clothes I'll likely only wear for the next few months. Plus, what may fit my ever expanding belly now may not fit in another month! Accessories, shoes and bags are the obvious exceptions. With fall weather upon us, I find myself reaching for a scarf these days more and more. Good thing for me, I can wear (and buy) cute scarves no matter what my size. Here are a few that have caught my eye lately.

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I also found this awesome video on how to wear a scarf (brilliant!) on one of my favorite blogs a few weeks ago.

Make these!

We celebrated Reese's birthday yesterday with a party here at our place. Of course, I made funfetti cupcakes for Reese and the kids to dig into but these really stole the show. Be warned, they are beyond delicious and definitely addictive! Recipe found here.

Another year makes 2.

I don't know if I'll ever stop saying it but time really does fly, and it seems like every time I turn around, Reese is changing. I can't believe our baby girl is 2 years old now. She amazes us every day with all of her new discoveries and watching her really come into her own little personality.

We celebrated on her actual birthday with bowling and dinner out and are planning a small birthday party for her this weekend.

Reese is saying so many new words and putting those words together to form sentences. She loves her baby dolls and always requests to sleep with 'two babies' along with a handful of other buddies. She's also recently started daycare two days a week and is loving it. I was a little nervous about the transition since she's never really been away from us for too long. She did great though, only crying a little the first couple days when she would realize we weren't there. I was a little sad the first day but know she needs the social interaction and it is a nice break for us too. The one thing I don't love is all the extra germs that come along with it! Oh well, guess it's either now or later.

We are officially crib-free now! At least for a few months anyway. Reese loves her 'new bed' and handled the transition much better than I anticipated. Although, we're holding our breath a little as we've heard the tough times come a little later once they really realize they can escape. For now, she's doing great in her new bed and fingers crossed it stays that way.

We've also started a naughty step for disciplining. We use it with a warning first when she acts out too aggressively (hitting, kicking, etc) or blatantly disobeys. She goes on the step a little too willingly though and we're not exactly sure why. There is nothing on the step for her to 'play' with but she will sometimes run there and stays the entire 2 minutes without a sound. Then we come get her and explain why she was there and she will say 'hit mama' as if she knows exactly what she did wrong. I'm just not sure it's effective in the way we had hoped, as in discouraging the bad behavior. Um, Super Nanny, what do we do with that?!

Hard to believe how much she has grown and changed over the last two years and we're trying to cherish every precious moment!

I'm back, finally.

Well, it has been quite a hiatus for me. At first, I decided to step away just for the summer since I was feeling a little too all over the place. Clearly, that has turned into months. In any case, I'm back and happy to be blogging again.

We are back in Cardiff now and just to recap, here is how all that went down. Most of you know the story by now but last time I was writing, we were packing up for France so obviously things changed. With my pregnancy out in the open, the team was having a hard time agreeing to issuing full health insurance for the entire time we would be in France. Obviously, this was a big problem since I would have been around 20 weeks when we arrived. It was an extremely frustrating process since we had agreed and signed a contract with the team stating full insurance would be issued for player and family. They basically tried getting around this by claiming pregnancy was not part of healthcare. Really?! I mean because that would make absolutely zero sense. Insert sarcasm. So with that big wrench thrown into our plans, we quickly worked toward a settlement and began our search for a new team. Since July is late in the game (for European hockey) and with the pregnancy well under way, we weren't in a position to sit around and wait. Unfortunately a common practice in this lifestyle. Luckily, Cardiff reached out to Scott expressing interest in having him back. A deal was struck, contract signed, and here we are, back in Cardiff. Happy to be back on familiar ground most definitely.