What I did on my Christmas vacation

I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, I have just been on vacation!  I spent the last 3 weeks visiting my wonderful family back in the US. Now I am back to the real world, trying so hard to get back into the swing of things where washing dishes and laundry and general cleaning must be done--by me! A few of my/Gus's favourite things from our trip:

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Gus's absolute favourite game while we were there was the "where is it?" game. He started making a sign for where (arms out from the elbows, palms facing up) the last couple of weeks before we went to the US. But when we got to my parents' house, he was having some separation issues (new environment + jet lag = a little boy who did not like his mother to leave his sight even to use the toilet), so my mom picked up on this and started a game with him of looking for me when I left the room. Where's Mama? Is she under the couch? No.

Oh my goodness, he loved this game. They would look in one place, and he would shake his head back and forth (long hair going every which way!), then point to a new place to look. After a while, he would play it pretty much any time he saw my mom, and she never knew what they were looking for if he started a game.

He now also loves to shake his head no, which I think he largely learned from this game. Usually he shakes his head because he really doesn't want whatever is on offer, although I think sometimes he does it just to feel his hair move around.

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At our house, the garbage can is locked away under the sink, so Gus doesn't really ever see or use it. At my parents' house, the garbage can is just tucked away at the side of the kitchen, but freely accessible. Gus was very interested in this. At first he just sort of looked at it or tried to take things out of it, but he soon learned what it was for and how to use it. He thought throwing things away was one of the best things ever. I remember one day he found a scrap of paper on the floor. When I told him it was garbage and he could throw it in the bin, his face just lit up and he raced out to the kitchen to take care of it. We did have to watch him closely though--his definition of garbage was not always the same as ours!

Really, he just loved (loves) putting things in and taking them out in general. He is great help with the laundry, and he does like tidying his toys, although keeping them tidied is a different matter. He spent ages putting various toys in the laundry baskets and pushing them around. He comes up with the funniest games sometimes!

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We had snow a few days before we left. I was really happy about it--I am a snow lover, although I don't really like to go out in the snow. Mostly I like to look at the snow, then curl up in the warm house with a cup of tea and a book. I did take Gus out in the snow a couple of times. He seemed to like it, although he wasn't really interested in doing anything with it. We went for a walk with him in the stroller, and he seemed to have a great time looking at the world covered in snow. However. Every single time we walked to the river near my parents' house, there were no geese! We saw them plenty of times while driving past, so I think they may have been avoiding us.

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Gus loved spending time with his cousins (ages 10, 6, 2, and 3 months). He is a pretty quiet guy when he's around other children, often just watching the action. So he did a lot of watching. The older girls were really good at playing with him, and he started to become more comfortable and join in. And I think he learned a few things from Ben (the 2-year-old). Especially about climbing!  The two of them were very sweet together; Jon and I took them on a walk one day, and Ben took Gus's hand while we were in the street. So adorable!  

My mom has a little old-fashioned cast-iron stove that her dad had made for us grandkids when we were little (Grandpa Dave was a pattern maker so could do cool things like that). All 4 of the big kids really liked playing with it. They made many a dish together, often made using the birds from the nativity set, although one day I kept being served shoe soup--not really my favourite. Gus certainly enjoyed "tasting" all their creations!

Gus wasn't really sure about baby Luke, though. Luke still couldn't control his body very well, so he often made kind of jerky motions. And he is very vocal--lots of squeaks and squeals!  Gus didn't like that so much.

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My favourite thing Gus has learned in the past couple of weeks is kissing. I die!  We ask him if he wants to give either me or Jon a kiss, and he either shakes his head no (which we love anyway) or leans in a plants a wet one right on our lips!  I don't know where he learned that kisses go on lips, because we generally don't kiss him on the lips. Jon thinks it might be because he often kisses his reflection in the mirror, and that is obviously a kiss on the lips. I don't know, but it is super cute.

I'll leave you with a picture from this evening: Gus reading his book. While sitting in a box. Obviously. And I just noticed, it looks like the duck is listening very attentively!

7 Quick Takes (volume 13)

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Christmas vacation has begun!  Jon was supposed to work this morning, but decided yesterday that he had finished what needed to be done before his break and took all of today off. So we are officially relaxing :)  Well, we will be relaxing once I get all my packing done. Plus I still have gifts to buy/make/wrap. Whatever--Jon is done with work, so we are officially on holiday!

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Also, cannot believe that Christmas is already here. The fact that it was 50 degrees F today certainly didn't help that. And all my high hopes for making this a spiritual Advent season came to nothing. I didn't even try to plan too much: just Advent candles on the table for meals and a Jesse tree with a Bible story for Gus every morning. The Jesse tree didn't get made, the Bible stories lasted less than a week, and the Advent candles fizzled out around the third / Gaudete Sunday. I know Gus is young, but I wanted to start some traditions. But I seem to be physically incapable of doing the same thing day after day. Even my novenas--which are sent to me every day by email!--get patchy around day 4 or 5. New Year's resolution?

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I did, however, have a lovely Christmas treats swap party this weeks with some mom and baby friends. I invited a load of people, assuming that most would be unable to attend, but in the end we had 10 mother/baby (really I should say toddler probably!) pairs. In my little house! It was busy, but I was able to clear some things away in the living room and there ended up being plenty of room for them to run/crawl around. I had a really good time, and I think everyone else did too. But, man alive, just watching all those kiddos play is exhausting!

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As I was getting things ready for the party, I felt like I should organise some sort of activity for the children. In the end, I did not, as I wasn't sure what to put on for them. But at what age do you start planning activities for playdates? When we go around to friends' houses, Gus seems happy enough to just have the opportunity to play with new toys. But surely at some point we should be more proactive in their activities?

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I have been spending way too much time on Foodgawker recently. I just have an urge to bake cookies at Christmastime, but there aren't really enough people around when we're at Jon's family's to eat all the cookies I want to bake. So I am just living vicariously through food blogs instead. 

Also, this is why I have resisted signing up to Pinterest (so far!). This is my fear if I were to sign up:

(amount of time I spend on Foodgawker) x (all the other things, besides food, that are available on Pinterest) = completely abandoning my real life for a beautiful life on the internet

Well, it probably wouldn't be as bad as that, but I need me some limits.

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I mentioned last week that Gus now makes a sign for where. It has quickly turned into a new favourite game. He will hide something (e.g. put a rubber duck in a basket) then look at me at make the sign. Repeat, repeat, repeat. It really is very sweet, though.

He has also started making his first attempts at putting words/signs together. Once he made the where sign while saying Pa when we were upstairs and Jon was downstairs. A second time he was looking at a peekaboo book with a duck under the flap, and he signed duck then where. It's like you can see those little brains working right in front of you!

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Merry Christmas! Especially wishing safe travels to everyone. And if I had actually taken a photo for a Christmas card, I would leave you with that. But that is another pre-Christmas activity that did not happen, so you'll just have to imagine my little family smiling out at you :)

 Be sure to head over to Jen's for more Quick Takes!

7 Quick Takes (volume 3)

Man alive, it's been a long time since I last wrote.  There is a lot on my mind, but I can't seem to sit down and write it out, so I thought I would do a Quick Takes today just to do an update.  Hopefully I can write more in the next couple of days!

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We had a great Christmas!  The three of us travelled to the USA to visit my family, and it was definitely worth it.  We were a bit worried in the week leading up to the trip, as Heathrow was completely shut down due to snow only 6 days before we were scheduled to leave, and it took several days for it to get all the snow cleared and the planes back in place.  But the day that we left (Christmas Eve), almost all of the planes were going, and the airport actually seemed pretty quiet, although our flight was completely full.

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Gus did really well on his first flights--a good indication for things to come, I hope, as he will be making that journey regularly! I would definitely recommend flying with a newborn.  He mostly slept the whole way, although we did walk him up and down the aisles a bit (I guess we were lucky there were no long periods of turbulence).  Breastfeeding was a little tricky, trying to get a comfortable position where I wasn't flashing anyone and Gus wasn't kicking the man next to us!  We had an empty seat next to us on the way back, which made it a lot easier.  And I wore the Moby wrap the whole time, so I could just tuck him into it while he was sleeping and felt secure enough to get a bit of sleep myself (when I could get comfortable!).  I also liked to put him in it when the seatbelt light was on, as his only harness otherwise would be my arms.

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Everyone was so excited to meet him, as well.  He was the star of the show wherever he went, and he hardly had a moment to himself!  His cousin Ben (18 months old) was especially sweet.  One day when Ben was over, Gus started crying.  Ben saw Gus's pacifier laying on the table and brought it to him, then noticed Gus's blanket and brought that over as well.  He was so proud of himself for helping to comfort the baby!

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Gus is developing by leaps and bounds.  In the two weeks we were in the US, we all noticed changes. At about 7 weeks, he started really smiling a lot more, and in reaction to people.  Really exciting--and absolutely adorable! Also, from about 8 weeks, he has really started discovering his hands.  They are always in his mouth, sometimes the whole fist (or both!) and sometimes just the thumb. It was really sweet the first morning that I woke up and saw him lying next to me, just sucking away on his thumb, happy as could be.  And this week (9 weeks old), for the first time I took him out for a walk in the carrier, and instead of falling asleep within a few minutes, he kept his head up and looked around at the world.  It was probably 15 minutes before he decided to rest his head and go to sleep.  He is so curious.  Oh, and I almost forgot, yesterday he started rolling onto his side!  He has done it quite a few times now, so I don't think it was just a fluke, but I also am not sure if it is something he can do anytime he wants yet.  I thought maybe he would continue and roll onto his front, but it seemed his arm was in the way and he couldn't figure out how to get over it.  He didn't seem too fussed about it, though, and I am sure he will make it over soon enough!

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At the moment, I am quite pro thumb-sucking, although I am afraid I am going to live to regret it!  My theory is, if he sucks his thumb, he can comfort himself as needed, rather than me deciding when he needs comforting and how.  I also fear that if I use a pacifier too much, it will be used in place of actually attending to his real need.  This probably wouldn't happen, as I hope that I am a pretty attentive parent, but I do fear becoming lazy.   We do use the pacifier to help him go to sleep, as needed, though.  The sucking really seems to help him settle.  

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I still haven't ordered a stroller or cloth diapers, and Gus is 2 months old!  I really need to get on top of that, but they are both quite big expenses, and I hate to spend so much money in one go--I think Jon is rubbing off on me in that respect! I am planning on getting the Quinny Zapp Xtra stroller, which is suitable from birth to about 3-4 years old, has a seat that is forward- or parent-facing, and can be used with the carseat we have.  I haven't decided about diapers yet.  I think I might buy about 6 in two or three different styles and then get a few more of our favourite after a month or so.

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Pictures from Christmas!


Gus's first Christmas

Our family (oops, Jon's glasses are falling off!)

Four generations (my mom and her mom;  I don't seem to have a copy of the one with my dad and his dad, but will post it later)

Cousins