Christmas Card Rejects

The Christmas Card. It is no secret that I am a fan of pictures, especially of my munchkins. So, nevertheless, I am going to send out a picture card for my holiday greetings. Yes, every year. You can expect it! Of note, I also love receiving the picture cards of all the families and kids and animals, too. Please keep sending them to me.

I am not organized enough to have a professional picture taken and order a gazillion christmas cards and expect to have them out by Christmas. I am also one of those mothers who has visions of my little darlings looking clean, cute and directly at the camera with perfect ear-to-ear grins. However, I am more often the mom who struggles with getting the kids to sit down, to sit together, to look at the camera, to not make goofy faces, to not put things in their noses and all the while try not to raise my voice inevitably resulting in someone crying. As usual, my pictures were on a whim this year. I was cutting it close as we were nearing single digit days left until Christmas. So, after cousin Cole was gone from our fun weekend, it was picture time. I completely banked on getting one of those lay-outs in which you could use a couple different shots and not have to have the one, single, money-shot. Our card turned out pretty cute considering I only snapped a record SIX shots in a fifteen minute session and was off to the nearest Kodak machine. So, here are the couple reject shots. Still cute, but didn't make the cut. You'll notice also that my flying-by-seat-of-my-pants procrastination led me to send out a holiday card with my son dressed in a shirt that has a skull on it. Nice.

Cousin Cole's Visit

Cousin Cole came 'up north' for a visit this past weekend. The kids played and played and played. They were all so good! Troy and I were wondering if we could make arrangements to have Cole every weekend! No one cried and whined and neither Troy nor I had to play GeoTrax once all weekend! Sunday morning involved a trip up to the Dexter bakery for some donuts. Who doesn't love a chocolate donut with sprinkles? And, reading the newspaper with a warm sippy cup of hot chocolate?

Winter Wonderland.

Gramma Char came up this week and spent some time getting the Baughman household in holiday shape. Last year, we had just moved in and didn't even get a chance to really deck the halls at our new pad. At that same time last year, I complimented Gramma Char on one of her many Christmas trees in her home. It was swirled and twirled with peppermint candy decorations and I loved it. I initially tried to take advantage of the holiday season and my mom's generous nature and merely suggest that she just give that tree to me. Well, she wasn't down for that and it worked out to my advantage because the tree would have looked quite small in our new house. However, I did manage to get her creative juices flowing. We all know the woman likes to shop. So, she went on a post holiday sale rampage and got all kinds of holiday decor, including an incredible deal on a 10 foot, prelit wonder. We had to wait all year to really see what we got, though. Well, after a couple days of bow-tying and garland-twisting and wreath-hanging, the outcome was great! It's hard to capture the magic in a picture. Take it from me, it looks grand. Thank goodness she had the foresight to get shatterproof bulbs!


This tree below is our "old" tree. A Big Lots, maybe 6' special. Troy couldn't believe how Charlie Brown it looks now. We used to complain about having to find space for the tree every year.

Gingerbread Train Derailed.

We got in to the holiday spirit this week by making a Gingerbread Train (a new era version of the gingerbread house). Nate sorted and directed. Tessa mostly tried to sneak the candy in her mouth before it made it to it's designated spot on the frosted and candied structure. We enjoyed the train for about a day and a half. Well, Nate and Tessa enjoyed it a little more than anyone as we kept noticing less wheels, bells, whistles and decorations on the train and more and more green, red and white lips, tongues and fingers in the house. Now it is a pathetic, finger-licked compilation of gingerbread forms and scant frosting. So much for taking pride in your work.

Another one bites the dust.

The birth of this blog marked Nate's debut in developmental kindergarten (DK), remember? Well, little sis, Tessa, has joined the ranks and started preschool (one class below DK). And, let me tell you, it couldn't have been any different. Night and day. We are chalking it up to second child status. Her second child status is the exact reason why she is already in preschool at the ripe age of 2 1/2. Now I'm getting the hairy-eyeball from all the moms that say you should stay at home with your kids and why would you send a "baby" to a public daycare center (every day of the week, no less)! You can't win.

Troy's morning drop off routine was taking him 45 minutes to an hour to get the kids in the right locations and himself to work (thank god for the flexibility of government work). In the best interest of the family, but mostly so that her dad could keep his sanity, save some gas and his job, we decided to take Tessa from the comforts of her private home daycare to public preschool. Of course we had many conversations and debates about this situation. We would have never ever even thought to do this to Nate. But, Tessa, well, the times are changing, girlfriend. This is the life of a second child. Being the awesome parents that we are, we even signed a waiver that would put her in the preschool class rather than the toddler class. There are some laws about teacher-student ratios and the younger the child the more teachers there are supposed to be in the classroom. The close financial analysis conducted by the family's CFO, Troy, revealed that we could save some cash by advancing her to the preschool class and signing this waiver. She could handle it, what's a few more kids? We convinced ourselves those older children in the classroom would be good role models for her. So, we did it and Tessa is the youngest person in her class, because we had to wait until she was exactly 30 months to even be eligible to sign the waiver (she was enrolled the day after). And, even better news was that she didn't have to potty trained! We're not doing so great with that developmental milestone right now.

Her protective older brother assured us that he would dutifully show Tessa the bench where he sat "when he was sad when he started school." We chuckled and somehow knew that Miss T would not be needing the bench spot. We labeled every piece of clothing she owns with her initials, attained all the items on the classroom list, packed her lunch and sent her sailing. And, as expected the crazy-haired munchkin ran in to the classroom and wouldn't even take off her coat before she started conversing and playing with the other kids. She also hugs everyone before she leaves at pick up. She's gonna do just fine.

We dearly miss Brooke, Papa and the dogs! We owe Brooke so much for loving, hugging, potty training (Nate), teaching and disciplining our kiddos all the while their mom and dad were at work.

Foofy's Official Retirement.

Howdy! I've been busy as you can probably tell that I haven't blogged. I've more so found myself at the grocery store at 11p, going to meetings, balancing two jobs, compiling christmas lists, wrangling two kids, and home improving with my hubby than sitting in front of the computer blabbering about my family. This, however, does not mean that I don't have anything to report (or as some may perceive 'brag') about during this time.

Remember when I said that Tessa's dearest and beloved pacifier (otherwise known as Foofy around these parts) would be taken from her over her mother's dead body? Well, I might not have been that dramatic about it here, but it is quite possible that I muttered those exact words to her father at some time or another when he'd threaten to cut them or throw them all away. About 10 days ago we were having one of our typical busy evenings in the Baughman household and the Foofy population had dwindled to a critical number of one. Tyler and Cameron had come over to get some drywall, molding and tools for The Robot Store's holiday window. Little did we know that their visit would be so monumental in our little diva's toddlerhood.

It was bedtime and there was no Foofy to be found. You're picturing sheer panic right? Tearing the cushions off of the couch, tossing toys, peering into every historical favorite stash spot in desperate search of the foofy. Troy, being the superdad that he is, very matter of fact told his daughter that Tyler and Camera (that is what Nate and Tessa call Cameron) had taken her Foofies to give to the baby robots at The Robot Store. I laughed at this, but it was ingenious of Troy because he had tapped into the softest spot of my dear little daughter's heart. She has a mild to moderate obsession with babies. And, robot babies sounded interesting. Would it work? Did a crying fit ensue? Yes and Nope. Our Tessa repeated the words baby robots, had a moment of silence (for which her mother believes she was saying "goodbye" to her longtime companion, Foofy), and ROLLED OVER AND WENT TO SLEEP. A couple days later there was some random mention of the beloved Foofy but her dad and I reassured her that they were with the baby robots. And, that's the end of the story. Therefore, it is official. The Foofy is retired. Tessa still goes to bed, not as easily as we'd like, but she does and sleeps through the night. Mommy's fears of naps coming to a screeching halt were calmed. The only problem now is that she chatters constantly in the car!

So, a big thank you to Tyler and Camera and the baby robots. We're thinking the baby robots are gonna need some DIAPERS soon too?!

The Germs Crawl In. The Germs Crawl Out.

Happy Halloween! One thing is for sure, we are happy around here that the germies seemed to have finally exited from the Baughman household. We had a rough week with ailing munchkins. There were little brains frying, lots of snot, hacking, sleepless nights, and workless days for mommy and daddy. By Saturday though, most of the ugly stuff was out of the way and they were healthy enough to get all gussied up to go door to door begging for sweet treats.

Gramma G had inspired Nate to be a pirate on an earlier trip this season to a haunted train ride. He was very concerned that he wouldn't be able to see where he was going with his eyepatch . No worries, though, he did just fine zooming from house to house. He also informed us that he was a "matey" and not the captain pirate. That is why he had to have a skinny mustache and wouldn't wear the parrot on his shoulder or the hook on his hand. Come on, you all knew that? Well, mommy didn't get that until she got the lecture from her "matey."

Tessa was a princess kitty complete with a tiara and pink sparkley "clicking" shoes, as she refers to any shoe that has a heel and makes any noise when walking on a hard surface. She growled (not meowed, full out raarrrhh !) at the first few doors but then morphed into the sweet little kitty that she appeared to be and would manage to say thank you, please, happy halloween and trick or treat before she would even get up to the porch. Given the choice of treat out of many large bowls, she collected a number of suckers.

Our tradition is to hit Brooke's house first and then walk around her neighborhood a bit. The night was windy and chilly and our little t-o-ters were barely 100%, so we made it about an hour. We finished the night out with some pizza at John, Naomi and Allie's (Piglet) house. The kids got to hand out some candy from their door too. It was a Happy Halloween.