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!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween isn't as big a holiday here in England as it is in the US, but I couldn't let such a fun day pass without a bit of a celebration.

I has originally hoped to make Gus a duck costume, seeing as he loves ducks so much at the moment. But I never got a chance to get to the fabric store and pick up some material. I was talking to my mom and sister Kelly on the phone on Saturday and lamenting that I felt like such a bad mother for not having a costume for Gus's first Halloween. They reminded me that we had previously talked about making him a little costume to be Gus-Gus the mouse from Cinderella. I could do that! So last night I cut apart a sweater that I never wear anymore and made a little set of ears and a tail. (I also stayed up way too late making a matching pair of trousers, which I didn't finish. Note: setting up the sewing machine is NOT more trouble than it is worth. Hand-sewing takes forever, even when just making a pair of baby-sized trousers.) We didn't have anywhere to go today except a monthly play / moms' group, but I dressed him up for that anyway.

what a sweet wee mouse!

I dressed up as well--Cinderella, to go along with the theme. I forgot to take a picture, but I pretty much looked exactly like this:

Sans the housework. Obviously. Interestingly, this is the second time I have dressed up as Cinderella for Halloween. The first time was when I was about 7, and loved the movie. My mom made me a costume, again, much like the one above. I even had a little stuffed bird perched on my shoulder. I didn't think to do that this time. Maybe because I had my shoulders full, what with a baby strapped to my chest and all.


We carved a pumpkin yesterday. I was sure that Gus would love squishing his hands through the innards and have a grand old time. Yeah, not so much. I think I disturbed a very important game he was playing, or something, because it took a lot of convincing to get him to even have a look at what we were doing. He picked up one tiny piece, tasted it, spit it out (because it was disgusting, I am sure), and went back to his game. Oh well, I had fun.

Oh wait, that's Gus again.
He's better looking than the pumpkin I carved anyway

Finally, I made a spooky dinner. I made pepper-o-lanterns, inspired by these, twice-baked potato ghosts, and melted witches, aka guacamole with a felt hat to decorate. Now that I am writing this, I realise I should have done something "bloody" with the beetroot in the refrigerator. That probably would have been gross, rather than spooky. Anyway, it was both fun and delicious. I have a picture, but I am a bit embarrassed to post it, due to its poor quality. How do food bloggers a) get proper lighting for dinner shots when the sun sets at 5pm or b) take the time to actually take a nice photo, 'cause I do not like anything to come between me and my food once dinner is ready! 

Spooky!

Hope you had a fun day!

I see London, I see France

Luckily for you, this post is not about underpants :)

We were recently extremely blessed to be able to spend a week with Jon's family in the South of France. Provence, to be exact. I now know why the British are all so obsessed with holidaying in France.  My favorite part? The temperature was in the 80s every day, nice and sunny, and NO HUMIDITY! Being from the Midwestern USA, I did not know that such a thing was possible. It was like a whole new world opened up to me. We sat outside for hours at a time, and it was enjoyable. I didn't feel like I was going to suffocate. The house didn't even have air conditioning, and that was OK. Sorry, we did do more that just marvel at the lack of humidity for a week straight. I'll try and move on.

There and back again

My poor neglected little blog! I can't believe it has been over a month since I last posted.

Our trip to the US has come and gone. It was a great time. Although poor Gussy had a bit of a hard time of it at first. The plane trip was fine (the Moby wrap made the journey super-easy again, and he slept a lot, which is always good!), and jet lag wasn't an issue, but he is not used to having so many people around. In England, when we all get together with Jon's family, there are 10 adults and Gus. In the US, just my immediate family is 8 adults and 4 children. Then add in the aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, friends and their kids; it's a bit of a zoo!  We arrived to my parents' house at about 3pm Illinois time, which was basically bedtime English time. So he was pretty sleepy. I knew my brother, SIL, and their three kids were coming over for dinner, so I decided to pop into the shower quickly before they arrived. And of course, they get there just as I turn the water on. By the time I got out, Gus was crying his little heart out.That's pretty much how the first few days were: (mostly) happy to have other people around if Mama's holding him, but not so much otherwise. But he did get more and more used to all the new people, and by the end, he spent a large portion of a big family reunion with my parents and sisters, and even fell asleep in my sister's arms!

Gus and his favourite toy at Grandma and Grandpa's--
a toy box/house with a roof that opened and closed!

We saw again how blessed we are to have such an easy-going baby. Apart from his initial issues with the crowds, Gus took everything in his stride. He loved exploring my parents' and grandma's houses. He had no problems sleeping in planes, cars, and strange beds. I even got a bit more sleep than I normally do when I am home, as I occasionally went to bed at Gus's bedtime rather than staying up to the wee hours talking (okay, so there weren't a lot of early nights, and half of them were the "early to bed, but stay awake late reading The Hunger Games" sort of nights, but still, an improvement). He was a bit more fussy than normal, but nothing too horrible. And nothing that couldn't be fixed by a cuddle with Mama!

Gus and Ben

So anyway, it was a great trip. It is so nice to spend time with the family. We got to see my parents run their first 5k (go Mom and Dad!). We had some playdates with my best friend and her son. We met up with my cousin who was born on the same day as Gus and compared notes (but got no good pictures of them together, as Gus kept crawling away to play with their dog!), as well as lots of other, bigger cousins. And Gus and his cousins got on really well after his initial warming-up period. (Well, Gus was decidedly not interesting enough for my very active 2-year-old nephew Ben. Ben would try to play with Gus, rattling one of the toys or rolling the ball, but after a few minutes, Ben would decide that Gus's smiles weren't exciting enough and would give him a shove to try and liven things up a bit! Sorry, Ben; maybe Gus will play a bit more next time!). Oh, and the highlight of Jon's summer trip every year: singing America, the Beautiful at church on the Sunday before the Fourth ;)

But now, we are back home, back to everyday life, and--hopefully--back to blogging!

Valentine's Love

It's Valentine's Day!


OK, to be honest, this is not really a day that fills me with excitement. I do like doing something special for my love once in a while, and this is as good an excuse as any. But I don't really go in for busy restaurants and overpriced roses. And Jon and I hardly get each other gifts at Christmas, so I certainly don't expect anything on February 14.


However, I do have a pretty amazing husband, and I thought I should take the opportunity to express that. I decided, rather than buy a Hallmark card, I would make a little something from Gus to his daddy. And...

It's surprisingly difficult to cut straight lines while holding an infant.

voila! An I love my daddy paper chain (patent pending). This was a super easy "craft" that, I hope, can grow with Gus. I didn't actually have any craft supplies in the house and was too lazy to go out and buy some, so this year, I just typed up 8 phrases that all start with "I love my Pa when / because".  Then I thought of things that Gus and Jon do together to finish the phrase.  Cut the strips out and tape them together, and you've got your craft!  I hope that I can save this, and next year we can add onto it.  As Gus grows, he will be able to have more input into the phrases and decorations (can't wait till the year of glitter!). I'll write the year on each strip, and we can look back at it as a little snapshot of what Gus was doing with Daddy over the years. Love, craft, decoration, and memories all rolled into one easy package--how can you go wrong?


Hope you have (had) a fantastic Valentine's Day, full of love and chocolate!


PS.  Jon loved it!