Merry Christmas

Introducing...Federico...

Which one to get?? Lots of options, but it is a little difficult to tell what they might look like in the house when they are all tied up like that. When I was growing up we would go to the country and run around the tree farm looking for the perfect shaped tree. Since the countryside is an hour away, we took Phoebe to the Home Depot to 'run around' and find that perfect tree.

We would all stand around the tree we liked the best - so that no one else would snatch it from us before we cut it down. I don't think anyone wanted our tree at the Depot- but we stood by it anyway.

Then the Mister strapped the tree to Jack...it was Jack's first Christmas tree too!

And now Phoebe and I play under Federico every morning. It is beautifully decorated with white lights and lots of ornaments; each with their own story.

And Federico has a story of his own too....we will leave the rest for another time.

Green Dreams

The little lady did not take her afternoon nap very seriously yesterday- and she is balking at it again today. Luckily for me we had errands to run yesterday; this allowed for some sleep in the car and an enjoyable baby every time we were out of the car thanks to her extroverted nature. However, today I was hoping to squeeze in a nap myself...not so much. After close to an hour of snuggling she had had enough and seemed to be done with anything resembling a nap. We switched gears. I thought we could work on our Christmas present project.

This, of course, involved too many steps for my dear sweet 6 month old. Getting the paint from the hand to the ready made surface was not working like I was imagining. I somehow pictured that the painted surface would look identical to her chubby little hand; no streaks, no drips, no difficulty, just a clear hand print. I applied the paint to the hand and wrestled my squirming, tight-fisted little baby to open her hand and make a print on the surface only to then realize the paint had dried and started to crumble, after a few rounds of this I decided we were done. We barely made it to the bath without getting green paint on everything and once we got there realized the bath should have been ready before this point...green paint on all of our hands and a baby in both of my green covered hands. Of course the whole time I am having an internal freak out wondering what type of toxins might be in the paint and what I need to do if she happens to shove her hand in her mouth - which is a very real possibility at this point. And now the water has a nice shade a green itself. So we drain the bath and draw a few more. Hopefully, this has, at the very least, made her a little more tired. The paint finally disappeared. And the babe is crying it out in her crib....(update no more crying)....sleeping.

At least now I can realize how lucky I am...if my present idea doesn't work this year...I have many more years of hand printed crafts to give as Christmas presents. I guess the dream isn't dead, just delayed!

This year, Grandmas, you might just have to go without one more thing with your grandchild's hand print. Phoebe's creative juices just aren't flowing. I am sure we will MORE than make up for it in the years to come.