Why, hello!

Pookie still likes to get up for middle of the night feedings.  On a good night, he gets up before I go to bed.  On a bad night I have just fallen asleep.  The other night he had woken up around midnight.  I picked him up and brought him into the kitchen.  Over the sink we have a mirror.  I know, it's a little awkward, but it comes in handy from time to time.  As I am moving through the kitchen, Pookie sees his reflection in the mirror.  He perks up, smiles and then waves.  As if to say, Oh, your up too?  So good to see you here.  Isn't a good time to have a midnight snack?  See you tomorrow night, same time?  Okay, bye!  My funny little guy!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is over, the house is a mess and I'm in my comfy cloths.  Life is good!  Everyone has really outdone themselves this year.  My in-laws like to give us our gifts before the 25th, even though we go to their house for Christmas day.  That way we can open our presents at home and not have to lug everything from one house to another.  This year we spent Christmas Eve at Rob's aunt and uncle's home.  Normally we spend it with my side of the family, but things got a little reorganized this year.  As we were leaving on Christmas Eve, my father-in-law transferred gifts from his car to ours.  He was a little concerned that they weren't all going to fit.  After he finished, he let us know that there were more gifts at their house.  Holy Cannoli!  How many gifts did they get?  All in all, it wasn't too bad.  My in-laws showed a lot of restraint in buying Pookie gifts.  The thing that I got the biggest chuckle out of was when my mother-in-law was opening her gifts and telling Rob that he had spent too much money.  Kettle.  Pot.  Black.  That's all I have to say about that!

Pookie opening a gift

If you press it, it makes noise!

Pookie had a great time opening gifts.  Although, by the end of the night, he was on a toy overload.  Poor kid, he just didn't know what to do with himself.  I got him a rocking moose from IKEA that seems to be a big hit with him.  The rocking moose is a little to big for him, but that's something that he can grow into. 



Daddy and Uncle helping Pookie open a gift.

By the way, Pookie is in a Christmas sweater that his Godmother picked out for him.  She likes to say it's an ugly Christmas sweater, but I think it's adorable!  I think both my guys looked very snazzy in their sweater vests!

Pookie, no!

I get a chuckle out of Rob and Pookie's interactions.  Pookie, as I have mentioned quite a few times, gets into everything.  Especially the stuff that you don't want him to get into.  That really is part and parcel with being a baby/toddler and exploring the world.  Rob really hasn't figured out yet that you have to redirect Pookies attention, when he is getting into something.  If you replace what Pookie wants to get into with something else that is even more interesting, then Pookie won't get into so much trouble. 

I've been closing doors so Pookie won't get into something that I don't want him to.  If Pookie is playing and Rob is in the office, I will encourage Rob to keep the door closed, so Pookie will stay out.  Well, earlier, Rob was keeping Pookie entertained for a minute so I could get dressed in peace.  Floating from the office I hear:
Pookie, no.
Pookie, No!
POOKIE, NO!
I peek around the corner and Rob has Pookie sitting on his lap.  The two of them are watching a video of a truck plowing snow and Pookie is trying to attack the keyboard.  It was hard to keep my laughter to myself.

The Check-out Lady

Pookie likes to make an impression on people.  He has managed to win over one of the check out ladies at the grocery store.  In fact, this particular lady (let's call her COL) has come back from break slightly early, just so she could ring me up and see Pookie.  Or Blue Eyes as she likes to call him.  COL not only remembers Pookie's name, she also remembered that I needed to ship packages back to Michigan.  This lady has quite the memory!

Now that Rob has finished the fall clean-ups, he has a little more time on his hands.  For someone who has finished the season, he is a really busy guy.  I have decided to take advantage of the fact that Rob is home a little more often.  Which means that I get to leave the house, by myself!  Woo Hoo!  That makes me feel foot loose and fancy free!  I get to do things, like grocery shopping, by myself.  Yay!  Two weeks ago I went shopping without Pookie.  I happened to get into COL's line and she was rather saddened that I had left Pookie at home.  I promised her that I would bring him the following week. 

Here I am, battling crazy holiday shoppers, with Pookie in tow.  Off to go grocery shopping.  Pookie spent a good deal of time trying to get out of the cart.  One day he is going to fall on his head and crack it open.  Although, Pookie will probably land on his feet.  He's that kind of kid.  COL was so excited to see Pookie and Pookie was quite excited to see COL.  In fact for the entire duration of checking out, Pookie was trying desperately to get out of the cart.  They had quite the love fest going on. 

Dinner, KABOOM!

Dinnertime is generally a hectic time in our household.  Pookie likes to be nursed around 5pm, which puts a small kink in my dinner making plans.  Especially considering Rob is hungry by about 5:30.  My goal is to get Pookie situated and dinner on the table by a reasonable time.  Some days are better than others.  Today, Pookie has been a little picky about what he is eating.  I can understand, finger foods generally feel different from their pureed format.  For dinner, I was making taco's for Rob and myself.  Pookie doesn't like rice, and I thought the taco's would be a little too spicy for him.  So, I figured I would make him something different.  Stop and Shop had these really cute little mini sweet potatoes.  They are just Pookie sized!  I stuck one in the microwave to heat up, while I cut up some blueberries for Pookie.  Pookie is a little on the fence about blueberries, but considering the list of red foods that he is having problems with, I'm trying to push the blueberries. 

I striped Pookie down.  That way I wouldn't have blueberry stains all over his cloths.  I plunked him in his chair, and gave him the bowl of blueberries.  I turned around to work on dinner and I heard a crash.  Apparently, Pookie had enough of the blueberries, and sent them flying.  As I was picking them up off the floor, I smelt something funny.  Yep, it was the sweet potato.  I turned around to see the microwave.  It was filled with smoke, with a plume wafting towards the ceiling.  Oh No!  I popped open the microwave, turned on the blower, turned on the ceiling fan, opened the door and flung open the window.  I turned to the microwave and pulled out this sad little potato.  It was shriveled up and smoking from one side.  It looked so sad.

With the sweet potato down the garbage, I went to the fridge and pulled out leftovers.  I re-heated some beef and vegetable potpie and gave it to Pookie.  Who proceeded to cover himself with it.  Then decided to play his favorite game of peek-a-boo, using his bib.  That was covered with bits of food, so every time he pulled it up to cover his face, food went flying.  Rob and I have decided that we need to install tile and a floor drain in a corner so we can just hose Pookie down when he finishes eating.

Checking it twice...

You may have noticed, I really love Christmas.  Not just December 25th.  I love the whole holiday season.  My jump off point is Thanksgiving.  I almost feel that Thanksgiving dinner is a relaxing day before jumping feet first into the madness that is the Christmas season.  It's not just the retailed up Christmas day, I love Advent and St. Nick's all the way through to the Epiphany.  For those of you who are not familiar with those three things, Advent is a liturgical season.  December 6th is the feast day of St. Nicholas, in many cultures it is a celebrated day.  When I grew up in Wisconsin, our neighbors introduced my mom to St. Nick's as a way to get the Christmas list from the kids and leave a little something in the stockings in return.  Some people use shoes instead of stockings.  Then the Epiphany is the 12th day of Christmas, when the Wise Men finally show up to visit Jesus and his parental units.  Traditionally Christmas is supposed to be celebrated from Dec. 25th through Jan. 6th.  However, because everyone is so burnt out from seeing Christmas decorations sense sometime in September, Christmas is done by about 6pm on the 25th.  (Okay, I'm done with my history lesson.)

This year I am determined to get my shopping done relatively early.  Especially with Pookie in tow.  Plus, I need to mail stuff out, and it would be nice if things actually made it to there destinations by Christmas.  I don't have the excuse that I'm working in retail this year.  So the other day I took stock of what I had purchased already and figured out what I still needed to get.  I realized that my list was a little longer than I thought.  Oops.  The best day to go shopping is Tuesday, because Tuesday's are the quietest day of the week.  So I shoved Pookie into his car seat, and off we went.  Poor kid, I had him all over the place.  Anytime he squawked, I would give him a snack.  That seemed to appease the crankiness.  After dragging him to at least 8 different stores and about 6 hours later, we finally made it home.  I am almost all done, I just need two more items and I am all set.  I just need to wrap up the goods and make a trip to the post office, and I am good to go.  My hubby on the other hand, has one gift.  The one I bought for myself and told him to give to me from Pookie.  I'm not too worried, Rob is an excellent Christmas Eve shopper!

Tree hunting



Pookie thinking that this is rather fun!



My husband's family has the tradition of cutting down your own tree, followed by lunch.  Seeing as it's Pookie's first Christmas, Rob was especially excited about getting a tree.  Our living room isn't very big.  And, I will admit it, we have a lot of furniture in the living room.  I've put the tree in different parts of the room, trying to figure out what spot works best.  This year, I have decided to squash the tree in a corner.  That way Pookie has fewer opportunities to pull it over.  Also, I can put a baby gate in front of it, if need be.  The corner that I put the tree in, isn't very big.  So before going to the tree farm, I gave Rob dimensions that the tree can not exceed.  Generally you have an idea of how big a tree you would like.  But when you actually get to the farm, all sense of space disappears.  Then you end up with a tree that over takes the room! 

This year I made sure Rob knew that we were looking for a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.  Of course, when I find the perfect tree, I hear faint grumblings of are you sure that's not too small.  Nope, it's perfect!

Our tree

Our tree all done up

 I decided to have a kid proof tree this year.  Well, as kid proof as you can make a tree, that is.  I made the garland as well as some of the ornaments.  Most of the ornaments are made of either felt or yarn.  However, I did make some out of orange slices.  It almost looks like stained glass if there is a light behind it.  I think that is pretty nifty!  I did go through some of the ornaments that I already had and I purchased a few others to get the look I was going for.

So far Pookie will go up to the tree and pat it.  I don't think he really knows what to make of it.  He really likes the lights though.  There is a section at the bottom that he keeps pulling down.  Then at night I tuck everything back into place. 

Swish

Pookie likes to try to eat anything that he can find.  Considering Rob tracks in a lot of debris, Pookie has options to chose from.  I try to stay on top of vacuuming, but Pookie will inevitably find that one thing that I missed.  The other day he was chomping on something.  So I swished my finger through his mouth to get out what ever he was attempting to eat.  Now that Pookie has acquired teeth, it is becoming increasingly difficult to swish out items.  I thought I did a good job trying to locate the item, but I was unable to find anything.  I figured that he had swallowed whatever it was that he was chewing on.  Pookie proceeded to give me a look.  Nothing like that look of ha ha mom, I pulled one over on you.  Then reached into his mouth and pulled out a twig.  Thank you, Pookie.