December (thus far) in Pictures

Our attempt at a Christmas card photo, taken on Thanksgiving. Our posed shots never work. The Husband looks drugged.



This is a whole series I took of the girls while we were waiting for the Christmas parade to start. Once again, we did not purposely coordinate their outfits, but I swear they look like they're in the middle of a professional photo shoot here.





This is the first year we didn't have massive Santa Anxiety. She wouldn't talk...she had her fingers in her mouth the whole time...but she seemed happy about it!

My Advent calendar! I didn't have the magnets on the backs yet when I took this photo, but it's on my fridge now. See all those perfect little letters? Cut out of silver cardstock with what is one of the best gifts I've ever received: A Silhouette digital paper cutter. Man, I love that thing. So, the Adventivities are written on little slips of paper inside the tins, but you could put chocolate in there, too, or even little tiny gifts or ornaments.


This is the giant snowflake I made out of paint stirrers and popsicle sticks and hung on my front door. The Husband's coat caught on it and broke some of the pieces off. Which the dog promptly ate. So right now it's on my dining room table, but I have spare parts, so I think I can repair it.


This is what happens when you let a three-year-old "dust" the cookies with sugar.

My FAVORITE Christmas food! Clementines make me so happy.

This is meant to serve as photographic evidence that I got her into at least ONE of the six holiday dresses she has. She's on an anti-dress kick, though I may have finally figured out how to thwart her: I think it's the tights she hates, not so much the dresses. I need to stock up on leggings.

Naptime on the couch. I love sleeping kiddos.


Please make special note of the coconut snow, the caramel chimney, and the cinnamon firewood. And that's supposed to be a sled that the giant snowman is riding, though, proportionally, it looks more like a flatbed. I dig it.

Nutcrackers

One of the Liliputians holiday book is the Little Golden Book version of The Nutcracker.
We've been reading it a lot, and, of course, she keeps seeing nutcracker decorations in the stores and outside people's homes. We drove past one this morning and she pointed it out to me.

I told her, "You know who has a lot of nutcrackers? The [Ouisers]. Uncle M used to collect them when he was a kid and he still has them all. Maybe we can go over there soon and S will show them to you."

"Yeah! ... I wish I had a nutcracker. All we have is crackers."

Angels

THANK YOU all for your words of support. I know everyone goes through this stuff, but, man, some days you just want to rip your hair out. It helps to hear the encouragement.

And then there are moments like these, while we were having lunch together at Whole Foods on Wedneday:

Liliputian: "Mommy, what's an angel?"

Mommy: thoughts racing about how my daughter is entirely uneducated about Christianity and how the HECK do you explain angels without that referential context?!? "Angels are God's helpers and they have wings and white robes and are very beautiful and sing and they help people and watch over people. Some people think angels are pretend. Some people think they're real. Mommy doesn't know if they're real or pretend. Do you understand?"

L: "Yes, Mommy. Sometimes, when you're playing in the street, and angel might come and you can catch it and eat it."

I was laughing so hard, I couldn't even correct her. Plus, I can't say for sure that I know her to be wrong.

Vent

Not to be confused with AD-vent.

We had a GREAT morning over here. We're going through all that "Hey, now that I'm three, I think I'll test you at every turn and defy your every command just for the sake of being obstinate" stuff, and the back talk and whining is driving me INSANE. And it's awful because after the Liliputian gets in trouble she does this whole "Mommy, I love you!" with sincere tears thing, NOT being willfully manipulative (despite what I know some of our family thinks: that she IS being manipulative, but I stand by my gut), but truly needing the reassurance that we love her...and I know this because I'm the same way - I struggle with reconciling how someone can be angry with me and still love me at the same time. And yes, I've already considered that I could be projecting, and to the best of my soul-searching ability, I really don't think that I am. So we've been working a LOT on trying to teach her that we always love her, even if we're angry...and we try to point out to her if she (oops) sees the husband and I argue that even if we're fighting and angry, we still all love each other because we're a family, blah, blah, blah. So, I think that's getting better.

But this morning she wanted to put socks on over her tights, and I should have just said yes because who cares? But I said no because I keep trying to dress her the way I want her to be dressed (I need to let go of that with this child who is clearly as strong-willed as I am about everything, including clothes), and then it became one of those things where you HAVE to follow through to make a Point, even thought you start wishing you'd just let her have her way in the first place because OMIGOD you don't CARE, but jebus the WHINING and the NOT RESPECTING MY AUTHORITAY!

We went through this whole long series of time-outs that escalated into losing all sorts of toys and it wasn't until The Husband threatened taking away the tv that she finally gave in and, wow, THAT makes me feel like a great mother. The only currency you care about is the tv?!? She doesn't even WATCH that much tv! She always asks for it, but then she leaves the room and hardly even WATCHES it! Unless I'm totally out of touch with how much she's actually watching and am lying to myself about it so I can justify it as a babysitter allowing me to get my own things done. Adulthood SUCKS, yo!

The end.