Post Christmas Blues

We're home from our Christmas trip to Texas with the Reeves, Cary's back at work, Nate and I both have lame colds, and we've got ourselves a little case of the post-Christmas blues! The best cure I know of for the ol' PCB is to spend a day watching movies, eating treats, and reliving highlights of my favorite time of the year. So let's dive in, shall we?

We started off our Christmas season by going to a walk through Bethlehem put on by the Seventh Day Adventist church in our area. It was really awesome and such a great way to start off the Christmas season! Seeing the Christmas story brought to life was really cool, and I am forever grateful for that little baby born in a stable. 

Nate got this little truck from Grandma for Christmas and he is OBSESSED. He spends hours climbing all over that thing. When we got home from Texas, he literally squealed in excitement when we walked in the door and ran right over to his truck and clambered in. He kills me! 

Nothing I love more than finding this little babykins buried in books! It makes my little mama heart burst. 

Christmas magic, decorating the tree! Seeing the magic of Christmas in Nate's big brown eyes is just the best. He loved all of the lights and found a new purpose for his life- running away with an ornament. I'm going to miss our tree when we take it down at the end of this week, but I have to be honest and say I will not miss running constant tree interference. 

We went to see a cool light show that a family in our neighborhood does, and Nate was mesmerized! 

My poor sick little dude. We survived our first round of the stomach flu. Fun fact about me: I am TERRIFIED of throw up. Afraid of anyone around me throwing up, and straight up terrified of throwing up myself. But luckily, mom-instinct kicked in and I was able to take care of my miserable little baby and only had half of a panic attack. Phew. And Cary won husband and dad of the year that night, because he took care of all of the nasty laundry and cleaning while I covered myself in every towel in the house and held Nate. Woof. 

Finger puppet nipple clamps! HA. A great blackmail picture for when he's grown up. 

Target buddies! We ended up getting this little shopping cart for Nate because I just couldn't stand how cute it is! 

I took my favorite nerd to go see Star Wars! He looooves taking selfies. I thought the movie was entertaining, Cary was very troubled by its lack of respect for the expanded Star Wars universe. He tried to talk to me about it but ohmygosh, so bored. 

Traveling to Texas time! We spent the week of Christmas in Texas with Cary's family. The journey from Spokane to Dallas was long and obnoxious, but it was worth it to be there. We went on 4 airplanes, Nate pooped on every single one, and Cary changed every single diaper. Husband of the year, yet again. Both days involved 2 over 2 hour flights and a 3 hour layover each time, and Nate slept approximately 20 minutes of both days. Yikes. But thanks to the good folks at the USO, we survived! The USO is seriously the business, guys. Drinks, food, space for energetic little legs to run around- we may not have survived without it. Also, on our last flight, I had a movie playing on my iPad, which entertained Nate for about 10 minutes. After we landed, the lady in the row next to me said, "I can't believe you let him watch movies at such a young age." How does one even respond to that? "Yup, I sure do! I let him smoke cigarettes too!"

A bunch of cuties all cuddled up for a Christmas movie! Nate made himself right at home with the Reeves. As I peruse all of the pictures from Christmas, I am realizing that 99% them are of Nate. Whoops. Everyone else was there too, and they were all delightful! 

Climbing on frogs with Dad at the Perot Museum! I missed the snow and skiing like crazy, but we did enjoy having some nice weather while we were in Texas! It felt so un-Christmassy to be in short sleeves, but I tried to enjoy it anyway. 

The Perot Museum had a kid's place and Nate had died and gone to heaven at this water table! He played there for ages. And every time we picked him up and went somewhere else, he turned around and beelined to go back to the water. He was soaking wet by the end. It made me laugh, because when I was a kid, I was a water magnet. I remember going places and finding a stream or a fountain or anywhere with water and my mom saying "DO NOT GET WET" and I would inevitably end up soaking wet. I guess he comes by it naturally! 

Behind bars with his cousin Matthew, who is one week older than him! These two were pretty funny together! Nate is a little bit timid, and hasn't spent a lot of time with babies older than him, and Matthew has an older sister, so he is a little bit more rough and tumble. It was a little funny watching Nate try to play with him while also a little bit scared of him! Funny cousins. 

"Share a Diet Coke with Someone Naughty." Don't mind if I do!

We went to the ice exhibit at the Gaylord Texan Hotel! The ice exhibit was awesome, and it was 10 degrees inside, which the girl in line front of me told me no less than 20 times. The whole resort was so cool, and we loved walking around and looking at everything and eating lunch at a restaurant inside the hotel, with a little riverwalk and everything!

This picture deserves an explanation- They day before we went to the ice exhibit at the Gaylord Texan, Cary's dad hurt his ankle, so he was in a wheelchair for the exhibit. We all went to ride down the ice slide they had the exhibit, and Grandpa held Nate. I returned to this pathetic looking duo and couldn't resist snapping a picture of this sad looking old man holding a sad looking baby! But in real life, they were happy as clams. 

Walking through ice tunnels and looking adorably like Ralphie from A Christmas Story. "I can't put my arms down!"

A terrible picture of my boys in front of some of the ice sculptures. I have a knack for making things that were really cool in person look absolutely terrible in pictures. 

We celebrated the Care Bear's birthday a little bit early with some Cheesecake Factory cheesecake! He was thrilled, despite photo evidence to the contrary. Happy Birthday, old man!

More cousins getting into mischief! 

We made gingerbread houses! I wish I'd taken a picture of the everyone's end result, because people really brought their A-game to this occasion! 

Christmas day! Nate was a little under the weather for Christmas, and wasn't all that enthused by the idea of opening presents, but he was super stoked when he saw some dum-dums in his stocking!

This about sums up Nate's feelings on being awake that morning. 

But he perked up a little later in the day!

Just can't get enough of that little plaid bum running away! Also, Nate went from taking 2 steps to full on walking in one day and has never looked back! He walks everywhere, and his little wobbly walk just kills me! Slow down, baby!

A very rare sighting of a sleeping Nate on a plane. This picture would be a lot cuter if it hadn't taken place about 5 minutes before we landed. Homeboy was ticked when he was abruptly woken up by the plane landing. Most of the Reeves caught a pretty nasty cold while were all together, and Nate and I fell victim right before we left, so it was a bit of a long travel day, especially for Cary who had to deal with our cranky selves all day! 

  We made it home at about 6:00 p.m. from our long day of traveling, and I left to go pick up Abby from the dog sitter's and get some groceries for our empty fridge. I came home to Nate happily asleep in bed, all of our suitcases completely unpacked, laundry started, and the all of Christmas presents we had left at home arranged under the Christmas tree! I was so surprised and so grateful for that sweet hubs of mine! 

This fuzzy head woke up every hour that night and woke for the day at 4 a.m., which I really could have done without, but he was much more excited about Christmas presents this go around! And that little chair is just the cutest! 

This is an absolutely horrendous picture of me and demonstrates how little sleep I got the night before, but it must be documented that Cary absolutely knocked it out of the park for Christmas gifts this year! He got me all of the equipment I need to start recording some music! Software, cables, a mic, etc! So get ready, people! Sweet jamz coming your way once I get over this stinkin cold. 

"Let me see that blue car go down the ramp again." This picture cracks me up, King Nate sitting on his throne and watching Dad entertain him, while Abby looks on. 

All of our phat loot from our stockings. I have to eat all of this before the New Year. That's what making a resolution to eat healthier is all about, right? 

Aside from being sick for what has felt like most of December, this holiday season has been a lovely one. And we are still looking forward to Cary's birthday, and New Years! We're planning on getting pretty wild for New Years this year. And by wild I mean playing mario kart, drinking sparkling cider, and going to bed by 10:30 p.m. Damn, it feels good to be a gangster.

Bloggin's a habit

The other day, while procrastinating doing anything productive with nap time, while taking some well planned time for self-reflection, I re-read most of my old blog entries. It was so fun, and a little weird, reading about all of the crazy shenanigans I've been up to for the last 5 and a half years. (And by crazy shenanigans I mostly been procrastinating, goofing around, and quitting and becoming re-addicted to Diet Coke in 5 different states and various different jobs.) It made me sad that I've dropped the ball in such a major way in the blogging game. Blogging really does serve as a journal of sorts, and I want to record how life is right now. Blogging has a way of helping me see all of the good stuff that's going on, and helping me laugh at some of the not-as-rosy parts.

If you are wondering why write in a public blog when I could write in a private journal, I would first ask why you why you even clicked this link if you don't like snooping through people's lives? Reading blogs is my favorite, and I wish everyone kept a blog. And none of this vague "November was a rough month" stuff, I want details, man! I'm nosy, alright?? And secondly, I have a regular journal I occasionally write in, but journal writing just isn't my gig, for several reasons:
1. My handwriting has rapidly declined since college.
2. I can only write about half of a page before my hand starts cramping.
3. I apparently only feel motivated to write in my journal when I'm feeling very emotional and hormonal. All of my journal entries from the past 10 years sound mostly like this "No one likes me and I'm so bad at life and I'm fat and what am I doing with my life and everything is haaaaard, wah wah wah." I am slightly less likely fall into such hysterics when on a public forum.

To sum up: I'm back to blogging, baby.

Let's just start with the here and now, shall we?

For a weird change of pace, all 3 members of the Reeves family (plus Abby) are currently all residing in our house in Spokane! I've kind of forgotten what it's like to do the normal day-to-day stuff and have my husband go to work in the morning and come home in the evening. Sometimes I'll be juggling Nate and the diaper bag and carrying a million other things and Cary is like, "uh... Can I carry some of that for you??" And I'm like "Oh yeah! I don't have to do carry everything by myself all the time! Yessss." But, alas, I'd better keep my carrying-all-of-the-things arms in shape. Ugh everyone needs to stop fighting and trying to kill each other so my husband can stop being gone all of the time! Well and also because world peace and stuff. Anywho, for the time being, we are loving being a happy little family in our happy little house for a little while. Nate and I had a most excellent real-life sabbatical in Colorado for part of the time that Cary was away, but we're pretty fond of our gig out here in Spokane too. Aaaaand here comes some random pictures that haven't previously found their way on to the world wide web.

Oh Abby... you're the only one who gets me. 

I just love that sleeping baby. 

Just doing the gangsta lean at our happy place: Target

Reading a book with Grandpa!

Such a big boy!

This is how the cool kids drink their milk.

Looking out the window is a favorite past time around here. Mostly in hopes that I will stop paying attention long enough for him to take a splash bath in the dog water. 

So serious in his little baby couch! 

I post eleventy-billion pictures of my darling Nater-tot on instagram and what not, but I don't write much about who this little guy is. And I want to remember everything about my sweet little friend as he is right now, at almost 13 months old.

Nate is just pure sunshine. He brings so much joy and happiness and laughter to my life. He is so curious and so busy, but it just delights me. Of course he spends his days emptying my drawers, eating every crumb and clump of dog fur on the floor, and just generally getting into mischief, but he's one! That's just kind of the deal with one year olds! I read this article recently that was just endlessly bemoaning the many difficulties of having a one year old in the house and it just bummed me out. Yes, doing anything with Nate around takes about 3 times as long as it would if I were alone, but I am so lucky to have this little friend to distract me! If all you see is the tipped over trash can, hair shellacked with banana goop, and sticky finger prints on the windows, you are missing the good parts of having a tiny person live in your house! I see a little dude persistently trying to learn a new skill and being so thrilled when he figures it out, chubby fingers exploring what bananas feel like between them (and what they feel like in his hair, on his arms, and between his toes??) and it's just awesome. Don't get me wrong, sometimes I just want to unload the dang dishwasher and I feel like the wonder of crawling into the dishwasher has got to wear off someday and yet it does not, but at the end of the day, all of the busy-ness and messyness is so worth the fun. It is such a treat to have a front row seat to watching my baby boy explore the world. I love introducing him to new foods, sights, and experiences. The world is so big and exciting to this little guy, and it is incredible to see it all again through his big brown eyes.

Emptying all of the clothes from my drawers is another favorite hobby of Nate's.

As in playing the piano. I love this picture.

Silly baby!

Opening a package with dad!

Nate LOVED grandma's snack drawer, and I loved that he didn't know how to open the bounty of snacks within. 

My baby boy is growing up and learning more every single day. Nate says "mama" "dog-dog" "da-da" "ah-dah (all done)"and "ay-yo" (hello, my favorite!!). Recently, whenever someone says hi to him, he puts his hand up to his ear. I could not figure out what he was doing, until one day someone called my phone and I answered and said "hello?" and Nate immediately stuck his hand up to his ear like he was on the phone. I just think that is about the cutest thing in the world. If you hand him any object that is even remotely phone-shaped, he will immediately hold it up to his ear and say "ay-yo?" Goodness, it is just way too cute. Nate also enjoys communicating by clicking his tongue, blowing raspberries, and doing the bbbb-thing with his finger and lips. He also LOVES giving big, open mouth kisses. Oh be still my heart. He will often crawl into my lap, grab my face, and plant a big wet one right on my entire nose/mouth/chin area. It is so gross and SO cute.

Nate is in zero hurry to start walking. He can take about 3 steps, but will only do so if he's already standing and can walk a couple of steps to mom or dad. He crawls like a maniac and dang is he speedy! He can go up and down the stairs, both fairly terrifyingly. Nate absolutely loves to read books, but will not hesitate to tell you that you are reading far too slow for his taste and will flip the pages whenever he feels ready. He has his 2 bottom teeth and one canine tooth, with his other canine tooth and one bottom molar just about poke through; a very odd assortment of teeth.

Finally got this big guy a new car seat! 

I know I already posted this on facebook... but Nate in that hat is just way too cute. Just ignore Cary's creeper-stache. 

Waiting in line for the Journey to Bethlehem put on by the Seventh Day Adventists in our area. It was freezing cold and we waited for 2 hours, but it was such a great start to our Christmas season. 

My mom got Nate this little truck for his birthday and Nate LOVES it. 

I mean, seriously LOVES it. 

Cary and I are basically just trying to hang on through this insane ride we are currently on, courtesy of the Air Force. Cary spent less than 4 months in his own bed this year, and next year is very sadly going to be off to a very similar start. Cary and Nate try to cram in all of the fun they can have into the very short time we all have together, and those two are just the cutest and funniest little duo. I keep trying to wrap this up in a tidy package but it all sounds super cheesy so I'll end with this:

Life is weird and hard lots of times, but mostly it's really good.