What a year!

From my giant jolly 5 month old to my ever-unhappy newborn.

We're Off!

..to a distant state for Christmas. Here is our packing list, to be shoved in the back of S.'s dad's 12-seater work van. I dare there to be any room left for passengers after we get through packing it up:

• one exersaucer - not collapsable
• at least 3 bags of groceries, just from our home, nevermind what S.'s parents are bringing
• several bags and 2 boxes of presents
• one huge bag just for Theo
• a suitcase for us
• a bag o'toys, blankets, etc...
• diaper bag plus our own personal purse-type bags (we barely carry purses anymore-anyone else have this issue? Bye-bye handbag obsession, hello diaper bag obsession!)

Ugh...and this is after S.'s parents have put their luggage, presents, and groceries in. Even with that long van, I predict it will be a squeeze. But all for love of family do we travel thus, right? This will be Theo's longest car ride yet--we'll see how he does. We leave tomorrow after school time, so most of the driving will correspond with sleepy time, in theory.

Here's Mr. Theo styling in his car seat last weekend. We hope he'll be that happy in it all week!

Always the eldest!

Theo's not the baby any longer. His cousin arrived Sunday evening. 

Meet Jackson Joseph - what a cutie!

We will be spending Christmas with him several states away. We can't wait to squish on him. Theo's going to look like the beast he has become next to this teenie-weenie. What special gifts we have this year.

A Weekend of Miracles

I am the bah-humbug of this family, but even I had to admit I was pleased with everything that happened this weekend while we were away. I was worried about numerous things, from packing up all our crap to traffic driving into the city on a Friday to a cranky baby in line at M@cy's to see Santa. Behold the miracles our magical trip contained:

1. NO TRAFFIC! Once we finally crossed the Triboro (I mean the "RFK Bridge"), I finally had to burst out "Where is everybody?!" which prompted a whack from S. because you never jinx a good streak like that.

2. Pete came down to both help us empty the car and give us his parking spot on his block. What a good friend.

3. We carried Theo around in the Ergo and he had zero meltdowns. Zero. He was amazing--either sleeping or taking in the sights of the city. And, the biggest miracle of all...

Theo totally dug Santa, and I really think we got the real one who totally dug Theo back. No screaming, no fussing. Not a peep. And the line was just not that long--half-hour tops.

4. Then we got to Soho, which on a normal Saturday would be obsurdly crowded. No one there. We were in and out of the Paul Frank store to pick up a couple of onesies for S.'s mom to give to Theo and his cousin (who is supposed to be born on Thursday!!). And they were 25% off. And they were serving milk and cookies.

5. We ate sushi. Theo stuck his hand in the soy sauce. He seemed to enjoy it.

6. There were some other boring things we did that went smoothly. We made it home and ate yummy pizza. We ate bagels and coffee for breakfast, went to Ikea, then went to visit more friends in CT.

The only bummer was the ride home in snow and non-plowed or salted roads. That really sucked and definitely added a bit onto our ride, not to mention was stressful as hell, but all in all I'd say the exhaustion was blissfully warm and squishy and sufficed to even get me to sing a Christmas carol or two in the car. S. declared me offically "in the Christmas spirit." The end.

And We're Off...

There isn't one weekend in December where we are not either going away or have something going on. This is the inaugural weekend of December insanity, and we're off to the city to stay with friends and maybe, just maybe, stand in line to get Theo's picture taken with the Macy's Santa Claus. This sounds like insanity to me, but S. insists we're "making memories!" It will be an adventure nevertheless, toting Theo around on the subway and down city streets. I'm kind of interested to see what our lives would have been like had we not moved out, and had to deal with the consequences of being city mamas. I know there are plenty of you out there whose blogs we read who deal with this everyday, so let's see if we have the muster to do it for even one weekend!