Happy Birthday, Henry!

Is it Really??

Can Christmas really be THIS Sunday?!?! It's not that I don't have everything done, because I do.

I guess I'm just in shock that it is almost over. My favorite time of the year is coming and going in the blink of an eye.

It was just Halloween yesterday, right? I guess being pregnant and having a little boy that is loving the holidays made it go so fast. I just want it to last forever.

I know we will have our hands full after the holidays but I guess I need to sit back and enjoy these next few days and take it all in.

As Charlie would say "This is our LAST" (that is for you Nadine and Mom N) Christmas as a family of 3, so I better enjoy these moments. I know next year will be just as special but I need to slow down and take it all in!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Nursery

Here I am at almost 34 weeks and the nursery is complete - well for the most part.

Charlie hung everything I had ready on the walls yesterday and I have to say I am in love with our work.

Here is her crib wall. We hung her letters over crib and this is really the only place I might add something. I have what needs to be added but I have not finished it yet.

This is what I call her bird wall.

This is Henry's old dresser that he gifted to his sister. I changed the knobs to pink glass to spruce it up a little. I also took hanging baskets and filled one with her lovies and the other with two little toys.

Finally this is her changing area. That changing table was once brown but we primed and painted it lavender. We also hung a mirror and added her bow hanger from her Auntie Robyn.

Now, all we have to do is get some last minute things and wash some of her clothes and we will be all set.

33 Weeks

Yes, you read that right - 33 weeks. That means 7 weeks, maybe less to go. UMMMM - WOW, is really all I can say about that.

December has been so busy that the time is flying. We have one week until Christmas, two weeks until Henry's Birthday, and three weeks until his Mickey party. That gets me to 36 weeks, one week from there I will be full term.

I can't believe it is almost over. My doctor appointments are every two weeks now and soon they will be every week!

Ahhhhhhhh, I'm going to enjoy my last few weeks of being pregnant because most likely this will be the last time I am pregnant. I would love a gaggle of kids but honestly, two will be just fine.

Here is my 33 week belly shot.

Always Remembered

So no lies, the house is lonely without Ellie. There is no one licking the water out of the dishwasher, there is no one to greet you when you get home and there is no one at your feet begging for food.

I know it's only been since Monday and Ellie went out in true Ellie fashion - her own way. We never put her to sleep, she passed on her own. Charlie came home from work to take her but was going to give her a hot dog and sit on the couch with her until it was time, but Ellie had her own agenda.

Charlie came in and she greeted him, he let her out and she came back in but then wanted out again, so he let her out, it was the last time.....10 mins later they were at the vet and she had a faint heartbeat but passed soon after. Charlie was able to go back and say goodbye to her.

Today, I went to the mailbox to find something from the Vet. I just assumed it was a bill but it wasn't. It was a card that the Vet hand written and they also sent us this.

Of course I started to cry and was just so happy that the Vet sent it to us. It was such a sincere gesture that we never expected. I am so happy that we will have this for years to come.

No Sleep for YOU!

Something about the month of December and my child sleeping that do not mix.

Let's go back.....Before Henry turned 1 on Dec 31st he took a 3 week break from sleeping. At that time he decided 4:30am was the time to get up for the day. I remember us having to watch Family Matters on Nick at Night because for some reason that kept him quiet. I remember his first Christmas started at 4am because he didn't want to sleep and he decided to hit the corner of the bed frame and scrape his eye. During this time is when Henry was also learning how to walk. He took his first steps on December 2nd, 2009.

Last year in December, Henry decided the crib had to go. Along with the crib went his napping at home. For three weeks in December he wouldn't go to sleep at night and just wanted to stay up. This was real fun because we weren't even in our own house, we were living with Charlie's dad at the time. Bedtime became a nightmare for all of us. The crib was so easy, the mattress on the floor, not so much. By the time we moved into the new house he was sleeping in a bed but still not napping for us. It was a very tiresome Christmas that year.

Now that brings me to this year. This year we are sleeping in the bed and going to bed on time but we have fully cut out naps for the most part. The fun part, when Henry wakes in the middle of the night he comes to our room. Yes, he does fall back asleep but he can be heard running to our room anywhere from 2am to 5am. Then he decides to get up at 6am for the day. He used to sleep until 6:45am/7am. This year in December Henry is learning to potty train. He is doing GREAT during the day and at night still wears a diaper, just in case. I have noticed though that is diaper has been dry in the mornings, and at 6am he asks to go potty.

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that when a child is trying to master a new thing, their sleep gets all whacked out. From the three examples that I just gave, it seems to hold true in my house. I don't know, if it meant for 3 year olds or infants but obviously him learning something new has effects on my child.

It should only be a few more weeks before my child gets back to his normal sleep patterns or at least I hope! Mommy was really looking forward to sleeping the last seven weeks of her pregnancy and I know Daddy was too!

HO HO HO

I was flipping through pictures the other day and found all of Henry's Santa pictures. Apparently, he was never afraid of Santa. You know I always wanted the picture of the screaming kid on Santa's lap, maybe Mary will produce one of those for me.

Henry at 11 months, so serious.

Henry at 23 months, loving it!

Henry this year, almost bigger then Santa.

I can't wait until next year when he is sitting there on Santa's lap with his sister. I wonder if he will still be smiling.

Ellie

It breaks my heart to write this post and I sit here and cry as I write it.  My sweet baby girl is very sick and it is only a matter of time before we have to say good bye.

We took her to the vet yesterday because she keeps having mini strokes. She is already on medicine for her heart condition and now her lungs are really filling it up with fluids. The vet agreed with us that it is almost time to say good bye. He told us she will only continue to go downhill.

Today, she is doing better then yesterday but we just never know and our biggest fear is for us to walk in the house with Henry and find her just laying in the kitchen not moving.

For those of you that don't know, Ellie was a gift from Charlie for my college graduation. I probably asked my whole life for a dog and no one ever gave me one. I must have mentioned that to Charlie so as he is sitting at my graduation he is conspiring with my two friends on how they are going to go get me one.

Ellie comes from Gilbert, SC. She was rescued from a trailer park with a pool and a limo in the front yard. The three of them telling this story is pretty funny.  They got lost, called from a pay phone, picked the runt of the liter and apparently, they gave Ellie shots on the kitchen table while their kids were eating cereal. It's hard to believe she has AKC papers.

They took her back home to get her cleaned up because she was apparently covered in dog poop and dirt. Our friend Amanda helped clean Ellie and somewhere there is a picture of Ellie in an oven mitt.

All this time I am getting a little annoyed because we are suppose to be going to dinner and I could not find Charlie. I go over to the Commons to pick him up and there he is sitting on the couch with this little sweet puppy wearing a pink ribbon.

My first reaction... "You got me a dog, a dog, what am I suppose to do with a dog." I can still remember the look on Charlie's face, it was like I slapped him. My other reaction was "My mother is going to kill you and me." You have to understand we NEVER had a pet growing up, never not ever even a thought.

So after that initial reaction I warmed up to the idea but told Charlie he had to tell my mom at dinner what he did. We went to dinner and finally at the end he told her. Her face was priceless, I'm pretty sure my dad laughed along with my brother. We ended up bringing them over to Charlie's apartment to meet her. As soon as my mom saw her sweet face she was in love! We all were.

Ellie spent her growing up years in college houses, drinking beers and eating random items off the floor. She took trips to the grocery store in shopping carts for beer, she played horseshoe while manning the keg in a dirt pool, she attended Halloween parties and so much more.

She has had an amazing life and I could go on and on about all the things she has been here for but there is one thing I am very saddened about.....that she won't be here when we bring Mary home from the hospital. Just walking in the door and having Ellie greet us, is the way it is suppose to be and I know it is not going to happen.

Right now we are going to just enjoy our last days with her, spoil her rotten and just maybe she will make it a little longer.

We love you Ellie dog!

Holiday Crafting

I'm kind of addicted to a site called Pinterest. It is so fun to pin things that you would like to make, buy or even cook. Pinterest is where I found the idea for the North Pole Breakfast and my latest holiday craft. I do find that I pin a lot of things that I will never use but just love.

I had pinned this ornament wreath months ago and thought I would probably never make it. It didn't look hard, it's just that I don't have a lot of time these days, but I MADE the time, and I have to say I am pretty happy that I did.

Here is how the wreath started:

You take a wire hanger and ornaments that do not shatter and thread them onto the hanger. I went to the Dollar store and just picked through what they had. I bought about three different sizes and used red, green, silver and gold. In the tutorial they say to hot glue the tops on but I couldn't get them off to glue them. I did lose some ornaments later when I was moving them around but only about three popped off. I couldn't see a hole so I just let it go.

This is what the wreath looked like when I ran out of ornaments:

Back to the Dollar store I went hoping they still had some more ornaments that I had bought. Thank goodness they did and here is what the finished wreath looks like:

I just used a command strip to hang the wreath over the fireplace. I know it turned out great when even Charlie is impressed with my work. He even brought Henry over to look at it.

The whole project probably cost me under $10 and maybe took me less then an hour. I used close to 80 ornaments but they were all in packs of 5's or 7's and then the really small ones I used as fillers were packs of 14.

I'm really happy I decided to do this craft. It was fun, easy, cheap and looks great!

North Pole Breakfast

This morning we started a new tradition in our house and had our first North Pole Breakfast. I have to say I got the idea from this blog that I found on Pinterest. We were introducing the Elf on the Shelf this year and thought this was a great way to introduce him.

Here are the pictures......

Henry coming down the steps to see what Santa had done.

Loving the small Elf snowballs and snow covered donuts.

Daddy even made a snowman pancake!

After reading the book he named his Elf Donald. Really Donald Duck but he was happy to keep it just at Donald.

Finally he got to open a gift that Santa sent from the North Pole.

After breakfast we hung the ornament that Santa gave him and decorated the rest of the tree.

It was such a fun morning and I think Henry loved every minute of it. He was really excited about everything and his face lit up many times. I know this is going to be an annual tradition in our house!

CHRISTMASTIME!!!

Our house is buzzing with Christmas activity and I could not be happier. The fact that Henry actually "gets" it this year makes everything so much more fun.

Yesterday, I introduced the Advent calendar. I thought the kid was going to fall off the chair when I allowed him to eat the little chocolate that he found behind door number one. Of course last night when he came home he wanted another door but I explained to him we have to wait.

We decorated the outside of the house and every night when we get home he goes and runs to turn them on. Then as Santa is blowing up, he stands right there to watch and gives him a high five when he is all up.

He loves the tree and we haven't even decorated it yet. We will be doing that tomorrow morning after our special North Pole Breakfast. This is the first year for the breakfast and we will be introducing his Elf from the North Pole. He knows Santa is sending someone special to see him. His face just lights up when we talk about it. I can't wait until tomorrow morning!

Of course at night we have been reading Christmas books. Last night I pulled out Twas the Night Before Christmas. Aunt Deanie gave it to him on his first Christmas. It is one of those voice books from Hallmark. The kid about peed his pants when he heard Aunt Deanie reading to him. He loved it! We had to read it three times last night.

I guess I'm a kid at heart because I might be just as excited as Henry is this year.  Henry makes everything so much more fun and brings me back to my childhood. Just watching his face light up when he sees Santa on TV or when he finds a new decoration in the house is just priceless and makes my heart smile. I love every minute of it and honestly I hope the month goes slowly because I don't want it to end.