Christmas--Part I

Okay, with all the action going on around here, I've not been able to keep up with the blog. We've been too busy living our lives to document it. Apologies to all! I promise to try to catch up by next week. In the meanwhile, I'm going to post a few photos:




Hunter's homemade Saint's sign. Unfortuately her fantastic creativity didn't secure the win for the boys in black and gold. We are sad that playoffs are no longer a possibility. There's always next year.

Dad puts the angel atop the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. We all took turns putting on ornaments and bows. Hunter and I drank tons of eggnog and sang Christmas songs.

The Holy Family continued to mysteriously travel around the house and "arrived" at the nativity stable Christmas Day. When Tim, Susan and Hunter each denied moving any of the figurines, Hunter decided to fingerprint us and see if there were any matching prints on them. Result: no fingerprints at all! Determination: the spirit of Christmas must be responsible!

We're in the Army now!

Well, Army crawling at least!

Bad Mama!

Xavier is right on the cusp of learning to crawl these days. He does a lot of rolling and scootching around on the carpet. Most of the time instead of pushing forward with his legs, he just keeps pushing himself backwards with his arms. He always seems a little perplexed that he is getting further from the object of his desire the more effort he puts towards getting closer to it. But the sweet disposition of this little boy can overcome all. I give you exhibit A:

Now I don't know which is more adorable: the fact that he has yet again found himself wedged under furniture or the fact that he managed to wait patiently while his laughing mama took a picture of the event for all posterity.

St. Nicholas Day

Tim and I have always given a lot of thought to the type of Christmas we would like to celebrate as a family. We don't want to let the Christmas merchandising machine take over what for us is a very special and spiritual time of year. Too many gifts, too much emphasis on Santa, too many things that you have to do. Here are some of the traditions we have thus far:


1. Observe Advent. Prior to Christmas Eve, we pretty much banish all things Christmas from our home and play up advent. We usually do a weekly prayer and scripture reading as a family as we light advent candles. The readings are a wonderful way to set up the anticipation of the birth of our Lord. There is a lot of references to light coming into the darkness and it just fits with the shorter days this time of year.





This year I also put up a wreath on our door. For the first two weeks of advent we have a purple bow, the third week we have pink, and then back to that last week of purple before Christmas.

For fun, during the last week or so, we set up the nativity scene in the living room (this year on the mantle). At first we just set up the barn and animals. Mary and Joseph "travel" around the house on that last week from room to room as they make their way to Bethleham. We have a lot of fun surprising each other with them in silly places. Mary and Joseph in the pantry. Mary and Joseph running off with the remote control. etc. On Christmas Eve they arrive at the barn.


2. Celebrate 12 Days of Christmas

Then on Christmas Eve, we decorate the tree and go to Mass. Mary and Joseph are in the nativity at that point. Christmas morning the baby Jesus appears as do the shepards and angels. After opening gifts, we go for a hike in the national park near our house. We continue to celebrate Christmas with food and Christmas decorations until Epiphany (Jan. 6). Oh, and after Christmas Day the three wise men statues start making their way across the house too.


At Epiphany the wise men make it to the nativity scene, we clean up the holiday decorations and celebrate with a King Cake.


3. St. Nicholas Replaces Santa Claus


This is our first year with kids in the house at Christmastime. In lieu of Santa we have decided to observe St. Nicholas Feast Day. So last night Xavier put his little shoe out for St. Nick to fill with a toy or goodie. St. Nicholas also left a letter complimenting him and his behaviour and giving a little hint as to what to keep working on (this will obviously become more relavent as he gets older).

As for Christmas gifts, we intend to keep it to three per kid...that's how many presents Jesus got. As a guide for the types of gifts, we've used the old Yankee poem:

Something you want,
Something you need,
Something to wear,
And something to read.


with a few modifications to get the number from four to three it has become:


Something you want,
Something you need,
Like something to wear,
And something to read.


Of course the kids will still get plenty of gifts from extended family and that is great. Our aim isn't to eliminate gifts altogether but to keep the primary focus on the meaning of the holidays. The best memories I have of Christmastime are of the small things we did together like making Chex mix with my mother, sneaking off to see the Pontchatoula aligator with my sisters, and bringing presents to other families.

Squash!

Xavier is just getting over a nasty cold that he's had for four days. We celebrated his soon-to-be recovery with a healthy lunch of homemade butternut and acorn squash. Xavier decided that feeding himself is much more fun than waiting around for Mom. Mom was just glad not to spend yet another lunch hour playing Spoon Wrestling Smackdown.

God is trying to tell you somethin'

I haven't posted in a while. Tim was away in Africa at a conference for a week and Xavier and I decided to head over to Mandeville to visit with friends and family while he was away. After a week apart, it was so wonderful to see each other again and compare stories from our trips. However, the biggest surprise when I came home was this:

A little back story may be in order. Ever since we moved into our home in February 2006, our neighbor behind us has been doing home renovations. Half of our back fence is the back half of his side fence--our lots are perpendicular to one another. Both of our back fences square up to the massive drainage area behind our homes. The local drainage district folks keeps this area nice and mowed and it is a wonderful place for birds and wildlife.

Soon after beginning renovations, said neighbor started pitching junk over his back fence. At first it was relatively small stuff like chunks of jackhammered concrete. Then it got to be bigger pieces of wood. In the fall of last year, he drove across the right of way that is usually our front lawn to put a trailer behind his back fence. The pile grew and grew to about six feet tall. Unfortunately so did the sticker bushes and weeds since the public works folks could no longer mow around it.

I cannot overstate how much I let this situation drive me crazy. If I was having a difficult day, all I had to do was look at the backyard and I'd be off the races in frustration and indignation. How dare they be so selfish and self-centered! The two dozen or so other houses that had views of the drainage area only had to look at the mess, I had to suffer the mice and thorns creeping over and under our fence! I'm ashamed to admit that I had daydreams of throwing all the junk back over their fence in the middle of the night or hauling the trailer of junk to their front yard or worse.

Sometimes I got spiritual about it. When a mentor advised that I pray for God's will about the situation, I prayed for good things to happen to my neighbor. I prayed that he would win the lottery, want to sell his house and buy a bigger one, and he moved the junk to get top dollar. Not exactly a selfless prayer there, Susan. I also worked on accepting the fact that since he wasn't dumping on MY property, I really couldn't tell him what to do. I kept praying for grace to get past my anger and for a solution to present itself that didn't involve me turning into a vindictive Mrs. Kravitz.

Finally in September, after a hurricane blew through and rattled the junk heap a little too much for my comfort and the water didn't drain properly from our yard due to the weeds, I decided to call the drainage people. I mentioned that there was "some debris" that seemed to be preventing them from mowing part of their property and it was causing some drainage and vermin issues for me. They said they would clear it within 30-45 days. I marked my calendar for the follow-up call and turned it over (finally!) to God.

I also decided to "clean up my side of the street" by chopping down all the creeping jasmine that had come from my yard and was spilling over the back fence onto the trailer--making it an even bigger mess. I kept hacking and hacking at it until I realized there was something beneath the vine. When I cleared it entirely I discovered a beautiful four-foot-tall wrought iron cross underneath. At least everytime I looked in my back yard now, when I saw the cross, I had a physical reminder to offer up my suffering and desire to control this situation to God.

Well, wouldn't you know the drainage people did clear it after all? Of course, by clear I mean that somehow said trailer and trash is all in my neighbor's back yard again now. I am curious as to how all this went down (were fines involved? did he not have permission to drive it back through the right of way? did they just move it to the guy's yard?) but really that is none of my business.

In retrospect, I can't believe I let this make me so crazy for so long. I think if I had been less emotional from the beginning about all of this, I would have stumbled across the solution a lot sooner.

Happy Halloween!

I spend most of yesterday evening revamping Xavier's Halloween costume. It was supposed to be a peanut. I bought a giraffe print fabric thinking it would be sufficiently peanut-like. I made a cute little sleep sack like shape but it wasn't peanutty enough in shape. It did, however, look like a costume and not just a clothing item. I thought about making a tag that said "Found a peanut!" but thought that a costume that needs an explanation was pathetic. So after much eyerolling and sighing, I decided to make a little hat with ears and horns and make him a giraffe. Happy Halloween.

Photos!

More active baby these days means less time to type. Here's some photos from Xavier's first camping trip to Village Creek State Park. He LOVED it!

Food, glorious food!

Xavier has started dabbling with solid foods. At first he was more interested in the bib. But the mesh feeder has proven to be a great way for him to get started with a meal while Mommy and Daddy are still eating. We usually finish up with a few purees. Big hits: bananas and pears. Big misses: peas.

Well isn't that a kick in the head?!

Last Friday I made my very first panicked phone call to my pediatrician's office. It all started when I decided to dress up a bit to bring Xavier down to campus to visit with Dad at lunchtime. Instead of my very practical black mary jane flats I put on my styling brown mary janes with the three inch stacked heels. I like to make sure I'm one notch above student when it comes to heading down to campus.

Anyway, Dad had to cancel on us at the last minute and we came back home. Xavier was hanging out on a blanket on the floor in the living room and I was sitting on the floor eating a ham sandwich. Having finished my sandwich, I decided to help Xavier practice sitting up. As I swung my leg up and over the babe to straddle him, he lifted up on his arms, and I struck him squarely on the head with that blasted stacked heel.

The crying was heartbreaking. He had a scratch made visible by his cradle cap that went from the side of his head and across his front soft spot. A bit of nursing managed to calm little Xavier and I tilted him from side to side to make sure his eyes were dilating equally.

I was fairly certain that everything was okay but decided to call the pediatrician's nurse anyway. I was worried about the soft spot and I didn't want to head into the weekend without getting a little reassurance. As I waited to speak to the nurse, I was debating whether "I kicked him in the head" or "I hit him in the head with my shoe" were less likely to get me reported to child protective services.

The nurse was very understanding. After confirming twice that Xavier didn't FALL, she told me to watch his eating and sleeping habits and take him to the ER if anything changed significantly for the worse.

Needless to say, it is Monday now and Xavier was fine all weekend. Of course this afternoon he decided to headbutt me in the teeth while I was laughing. Yet another scrape in the cradle cap. No crying this time though.

Growing like a weed...

I can't believe how quickly Xavier is growing these days -- both physically and mentally. For the second time in three weeks, I've had to dip into the stash of presents-in-waiting and hand-me-downs from cousin Matthew to size up. Xavier is wearing 6-12 months depending on the make of the clothing. He's still small in girth but getting longer and longer. And of course, his cloth diapers tend to make his bottom larger than most.

As for cognitive leaps, there are two that stand out. When Tim came home from work on Saturday morning, Xavier was sitting on my lap while I checked my e-mail. The minute he saw his daddy, he lifted both arms up towards him in hopes of being picked up. It was a first! I must admit that I was a little jealous. Tim says that Xavier is much more likely to laugh at my antics though.

Xavier is also beginning to figure out this new Baby Einstein crib toy that Grandmother McNicholl sent to replace the moose mobile. If you touch the mirror it plays a cycle of classical music. Last night I woke up around 3 a.m. to the strangest sound coming out of the baby monitor. At first I just thought that I'd listened to the music clips so many times that they were echoing in my head. But I got up to check things out. Xavier was wide awake in his crib looking at himself in the mirror. As soon as the music stopped, he kicked the mirror to start it up again. It was like a reverse snooze alarm. I watched him do this three times and even considered sneaking back in with the video camera to prove to myself and the rest of the world that I wasn't dreaming this.

Since Xavier wasn't crying, I just left him to his fun and went back to bed. About an hour later he started fussing, ready for his middle-of-the-night feeding. Now, I can't wait until he's able to make it through the night without ANY feedings but for a kid who sleeps an average of 11.5 hours a night, that's a pretty tall order.

Whatcha doing?

Twice in the past week, the subject of how I describe my current employment has come up. One friend asked if I considered the term "housewife" offensive. Another person asked how the transition to "stay at home mom" (or SAHM for short) is going after the wild world of PR and publishing. Then of course there is the never ending stream of, "So, what do you do?" that happens when I meet people.



Lady of the house. Homemaker. Domestic engineer. Housewife. SAHM. SAHP (the gender neutral version). They all mean basically the same thing. A (usually) woman whose primary role in the family is devoted to keeping the household running smoothly and childcare. The various progression of monikers as a result of each generation's attempt to be more respectable then the last seems to me to indicate the overall lack of status this employment has in our society.



Doctors and laywers have always been doctors and lawyers. But secretaries became administrative assistants and then executive assistants and then office managers. Aides became nursing aides and then nursing assistants. Janitors became custodians and maids became housekeepers then house cleaners.



As a student of public relations, I can confirm that often a good name change actually does result in a newfound respect for less glamourous positions. Unfortunately it is all too often accompanied by an eye roll and accusations of political correctness on one side and easily offended sensibilities on the other. Within ten years or so, you need a new name change just to keep up with the cynicism. In the end you have job title inflation rather than any long term respect increase.



For the record I call myself a homemaker when describing what I do now. I do more than just kid care and the phrase SAHM just feels like a false dichotomy with work outside the home moms (WOHM) and fans the flames of the so-called mommy wars. But really, I'm not that sensitive. You can call me what you want...just say it with respect.

Songs for Diaper Changing

Xavier seems to love having songs sung to him. He does not, however, care for songs being sung to him while he is trying to go to sleep. Nope. No lullabyes for him. Instead, he loves to hear songs when he is getting his diaper changed. His absolute favorite is a rendition of Queen's "We Will Rock You" with the following lyrics:

You got milk on your face,
You big disgrace,
Pooping your pants
All over the place

We will, we will, change you (Sing it!)

Sometimes this devolves into a remix version with Nelly's "Hot in Here" with these lyrics:

It's gettin' wet in here,
So take off all your clothes...

These two never fail to get a smile out of him even if he starts out in tears. Its amazing how many contemporary songs can be used for baby entertainment with or without lyric changes. I have a CD of songs (that are not by the original artists) intended to be used for bedtime. The worst song on there is "Sweet Child of Mine." Yes, the Guns n Roses version. Except this rendition is done as a folk song. Blech.

When it comes to bedtime routines, Xavier much prefers music without lyrics. His current favorite is a CD of world flute music a la a massage therapist's office.

Baptism

Here's baby Xavier with his MaMere and Momo. He's wearing the adorable bonnet that Aunt Mary Jane and Uncle Bobby gave him. It turns into a hankerchief that can be given to the bride to carry when he gets married. Daddy says it makes him look Amish.



Xavier was all bright eyes right up until Father poured the water on his head.
He howled for the remainder of the baptismal service. Daddy and Godfather Steve try to cheer him up to no avail.

Here's the lovely cake that Xavier's godparents brought to the reception.

Speaking of godparents, here's Steve and Alex posing with Xavier, who is still crying.

Baby's First Hurricane

Now that's a page they don't often have in baby books! Thursday morning around 3:30 a.m. Xavier, Tim and I awoke to the sounds of Hurricane Humberto rolling through Beaumont. Lots of wind, lots of rain, and the occaisional empty garbage can rolling down the street. Since none of us could sleep, we decided to go in the living room and watch the coverage on TV.

One of our local stations recently hired two very good looking but non-native anchors for the morning show. They flanked the seasoned weatherman who was trying to impart important information to the poor folks hunkered down in low lying areas. When anchor McHunky asked the weatherman if hurricanes sped up or slowed down when they hit land, the poor man rolled his eyes, didn't acknowledge the question, and took a phone call from a viewer. At another point when the radar weathermap was on screen he asked what the three blue dots signified. Weatherman drily replied, "That's Beaumont, Orange and Port Arthur."

Our home was unscathed save for a bit of water that blew under the back door. Xavier's four-month check up was postponed until today because the pediatrician's office was without power for most of the day. He's now 26 inches long (70th percentile) and 14.5 pounds (30th percentile). Just call him Stringbean McNicholl. If you look closely you can see his matching band-aids where he got his shots.

Go Cowboys

Xavier and Tim have been enjoying watching the Houston Texans whomp the Kansas City Chiefs this afternoon. But Xavier really is looking forward to watching the Cowboys play. He's even wearing his Sunday dress clothes/Cowboys john-john. Thanks MaMere and MoMo for the adorable duds!

Moose on Parade

Hard to believe that Xavier is already four months old. He has exactly one month left to enjoy his Moosemobile that hangs over his crib. The powers that be inform me that mobiles are no longer safe for babies after that. I think it has something to do with their ability to sit up and grab it.

So for now, we enjoy the moose even more knowing that they will soon be gone. They are the first part of Xavier's bedtime routine each night. He gets a little naked time in the crib watching the moose while Mama runs his bath across the hall. The moose also help when Xavier is just inconsolable for no apparent reason. I wish I knew the moose's secret.

Ah Wilderness

Tim and I decided to celebrate Labor Day today by taking baby Xavier on his first hike in the Big Thicket woods. He's still too little for the baby backpack carrier so we tooled him around on the trails in the swanky Zooper Boogie that PawPaw and MiMi gave him.

At first Xavier was more interested in examining the interior of the stroller than gazing at the flora and fauna. After about five minutes or so, he seemed to realize that he was in a completely new place and not just strolling around the neighborhood or his backyard. Tim walked ahead of us and used a long stick to wipe away the cobwebs across the trail. Xavier went back and forth from looking at the trees and birds to looking at me and smiling.

About halfway through our short hike, we stopped to take in the view while Xavier had a little snack. Despite this, he started to cry a little before we got back to the trailhead. I imagine it gave all the animals in the woods a new experience to hear that! He needed a dry diaper and was due for a nap, both of which he got when we returned to the car.

All in all, it was a very successful trip. Considering Tim and I courted and honeymooned in the wilderness, it was a special experience to bring our son out there for the first time.

A good day to be a cat

Ever since my cat, Gus, was diagnosed with intestinal cancer 7 weeks ago, my husband and I have been coming to terms with the fact that his time with us is limited. His illness means that he is often nauseated and vomits a few times a week. But in between those times, he is his usual lovable, goofy self so we just haven't felt the need to put him down yet. Today I let him outside and took photos of him taking in the breeze.

My first taste of compacting--carrots!

I've been thinking more and more about compacting. With the new babe on the way I'm just not ready to commit to it wholesale.

All the same, I'm intrugued by the version of the compact posted by Changing Rhythm on her blog:

Our Pledge
1. We will actively search our souls and the thoughts of God through prayer, meditation, and the wisdom texts 2. We will buy everything (barring food, medication, and health related products such as soap, toothpaste, etc.) used if at all possible 3. We will only buy a product that replaces a product we already own which has worn out 4. Anything that does not meet the previous two criteria, will require both our approval and a mandatory 2-week waiting period (to assure need and outlive the want monster) 5. We will purge our home of all unused, unwanted, or extraneous clutter 6. We will purge our lifestyle of all unwanted, unhealthy, and extraneous clutter 7. We will learn to and teach our kids to lessen our impact on the earth 8. We will be excellent stewards of the home and possessions we have 9. We will share our journey with all who wish to join us or watch us in this quest

So I've decided to dip my toe into compacting, step by step. This week is the avoidance of prepackaged foods when I can...especially if it saves money. I'm not ready to give up peanut butter (although it is the natural kind!) or jelly yet, but I have given up bagged lettuce and mini carrots.

I realized that two pounds of mini carrots are sold for $1.99 while loose carrots are $0.79 per pound. It takes about five seconds to peel a carrot and another 15 to chop it into sticks. Not bad for a 75% savings. Even if I factor in my time at $10 an hour, it still is a fantastic deal.

Next up: salad dressing. We just used the last of our Kraft Italian stash last night. I saved the bottle and hopefully will find a better/more cost effective solution. I imagine it will be healthier too!