When merry and Christmas come together

A good time was had by all in our Christmas celebrations!

and in other news, Des totally went POTTY today in his potty! Woo-woo! We're not really potty training right now but I figure we could get well acquainted with mr. potty while the newness is still a good thing. We have community potty time...'nuf said.  And today it worked.

It was our birthday the other day

Thanks to everyone who sent happy birthday messages. I successfully did not respond to a single one of them (unless you called me on the phone). Sorry. But I did appreciate them all.

First thing I did was bake our cake (its Kolt's bday on the very same day if you didn't know! It made for some good conversation the first date we figured it out. I thought he was lying...)

And by bake I mean slave over a somewhat ridiculous Martha Stewart recipe, have the cakes totally not work out at all (think boil-over all in the oven then sink like horrible volcanoes of despair), have the frosting turn out reaaaaaally goopy, and then some how find the courage to carry on (thanks, mom!) and cut off large portions of uneven cake, slather on way too much goopy frosting, and some how pull out a pretty nice looking cake. There were times when I wanted to cry. But didn't. *whew.*

A pink candle for me, a blue one for kolt.

Des and me. Because we're never in the same pic. Ever.

Des blew out our candles for us.

I bought me a birthday dress! And I loooooove it!

 

Des liked the cake a bunch. He buzzed around the house for a good 15 minutes after, though. It may have contained a bit too much sugar for a pre-bedtime snack!

And then today we played in the snow for the first time! Of course he found his bike and tried to drive around.  It didn't go so well....

And as for my tie totals from the other day, it went something like this:

• 1,188 hits on my webpage (which is usually around 20)
• Sold something like 15 bowties (which is pretty much awesome for a day and a half!)

Thanks to Nie Nie I have a little more spending money for crafts. or ties. but probably crafts! Woo-woo!!

I MADE IT!!

What a surprise! I got up this morning and checked my BabyWindsor email and I had not one, not two, but FIVE new orders! At 8:30 in the morning. So then I checked Nie Nie and I MADE IT!! She posted about my bowties just this morning (although she used the wrong picture because the neckstrap is most definately not a babywindsor...I sort of feel bad about that) BUT we made it. Oh man. Now I hope I can keep up with the orders as her thousands of readers (803,429 average profile views to be exact) read today's post. I'll let you know what the numbers end up being by the end of today. Might just be the five I got (and I'm totally happy with that!) but I think it may be a bit more!

Just some thoughts

As I wait for my laundry to finish so I can go to bed, I figured I could write a quick something down. Maybe post some random pics...

Something I learned this week: When they say, "never punish your child by making their bed a time-out," they're right. I knew this. I've known this. Why did I do it anyway? Because I'm dumb. So it caught up to me this past week when Des decided that he would have NOTHING to do with mom putting him down for bedtime. He would scream. He would cry. He would try to climb out, run away, ask for milp (that would be how he says milk), ask for bread, and cry some more. For an hour. So then Dad shows up on the scene and in two minutes flat Des is out cold. Snoring peacefully.

Then one night Des started saying, "Niiiice. Niicce, "  which is what he says after he's ready to come out of time-out and be nice. And I said, "Des, you're not in trouble, we're just trying to..." Aw crap. Dumb mom. The light-bulb came on. So we've changed the time-out venue to a couch downstairs (which doesn't get used very often because he really is a nice little dude) and in THREE days he's already back to going right to bed for me. Gotta love that.

In other randomness, here's a picture of Des last year in January!

his hair is now a tiny bit lighter (plus it was wet in the pic) and he's looking less baby but still pretty much the same! Chubby, chubby, chubby. And he still sucks on everything...but that mostly has to do with the remaining four teeth he's trying to cut. Then he's DONE! for a while...

and a final little tid-bit: I sent some ties to Nie Nie in hopes she posts about them on her blog. She did another ladies bow-ties today so I'm feeling like maybe I won't make it. But you should keep watching just in case!! Besides, mine were all Christmas-y and the ones today totally were not.

If only I spoke German

I came across a lovely blog today called Domestic Candy and I'm in love! Their house/sense of style is pretty much where I want to be these days. Too bad it's all in German. But the pictures! This is my favorite post about their little boy's room (I think, at least!) And when he grew up a bit, they gave him a bunk bed with, ready for this, A SLIDE. Here's the post with the evidence. Someday Des will too have a bed with a slide. But the overall natural light, and sort of mismatch-y feel of it all and sort of simplicity just makes me so happy. Ultimately I'd probably add some sort of color to the walls--like a light blue-gray or other nice neutral--but take a look around. Its worth it. (and its suuuper light reading!!)  haha  :D

Oh and I guess she has a store.But I bet she doesn't deliver to us here in the good ol' US of A. And its also in German. But she has some pretty cute designs!

The tree is up

Even if I had very little to do with it (I was baking candy cane cookies at the time) our tree is up! There are some perks in living with the folks. Dishes--I don't have to do 'em very often, and the Christmas tree gets set up and decorated while you watch. Its very, very sweet!

Uh, he did this all by himself. It's his "thinking pose". Contemplating all the gifts he's going to get, I'm sure.

This is what he does now: "Cheeeese!"

In case you couldn't tell, its my mom's Snowman Tree. She has three different themed trees. This one had fewer breakable ornaments so we went with it.

Uh, 20 months. Really?!

 Des is officially 20 months today. Helllo???! Where is the time going? This was him last year at this time:

Des with Santa

opening presents on Christmas Day

Its crazy that this chuck of a kid started out so tiny...and full of tubes...but mostly tiny. 

I miss the sweet little moments you can have with a baby that you don't really get anymore when they're all too cool for mommy. But he's still mostly sweet and his tantrums are pretty mild compared to some kid's I've witnessed. I guess that just comes with practice (the quality of the tantrums, that is). I did get a little cuddle time when we came home from our date night and he was crying in his bed for mommy. I just got to hold him and rock him and baby him a little more than I usually do. So that was nice.  I just can't believe that we're entering into potty training and big-boy beds so soon.

Sometimes I hold him like a baby and tell him to say, "Goo-goo, Ga-Ga". And he does. and it makes me laugh. And then I remember how fun it is to have a talking/playing/creative almost-two year old.