Standing!

Meg is now standing everywhere. It's been amazing how quickly she's picked it up. I turned around yesterday to find her standing in the kitchen holding on to the kid drawer with all the sippy cups in it. She then proceeded to stand there while she took each top out, licked it and threw it on the floor.

She has also figured out how to climb the landing step on our stairs and is already turning the corner gunning for the rest of them. Although I do have one baby gate that I keep at the top of the stairs, I had borrowed the others I used with Andy from a friend who has since relocated to Missouri. I am thinking I need to invest in a couple to put at the bottom of the stairs in the living room. Otherwise, I'm going to spend my time defending against the stairs.

The Christmas march is on and I am loving watching Andy really get into it. Some things he still finds a little hokey, like the 'Twas the Night Before Christmas special from 1974 narrated by Joel Grey. I can't say I blame him. It was pretty bad. We also watched the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer claymation show from 1964 (I know, 1964, and it still holds up). We liked that one a lot although Andy was really scared about the Abominable Snow monster to the point that he cried he was so scared. That prompted a nice talk afterwards about how monsters aren't real and it was just a TV show.

Meanwhile, I am a little confused how I'm going to pull off this Santa business. The theories just don't hold up -- I tell him the monster isn't real, but then he's to believe Santa and Rudolph are? That doesn't even touch on how to react when we see Santa in the mall. Is that the real Santa? What about the Santa that just drove through our neighborhood on a firetruck? Good thing he's not doing any logic theorems on this or I'd be busted in a heartbeat.

Christmas is coming!

It's so much fun watching Andy gear up for Christmas. There are still parts of it he doesn't get, but generally he's excited to help wrap presents and he loves putting presents under the tree. We have talked about Santa and he's dutifully opening his advent calendar, but I'm not sure he's put the whole thing together yet. That said, I can't wait for Christmas morning when he comes down to see that Santa has come. I'm even thinking we should leave some cookies out for Santa Christmas night to help get ready. Well, if I get around to making cookies.

It's been funny talking with Bjorn about Christmas traditions now that we have to worry about Andy remembering and getting it (or questioning us). His tradition is opening presents on Christmas Eve (when the Swedes traditionally celebrate). That evening, the jul tompte (Christmas elf) comes and leaves gifts for the children. There is usually a fun event when everyone goes out to look at Christmas lights or the moon or something and the jul tompte usually comes and leaves presents when we're gone. It's quite fun and involves lots of glogg (Christmas wine) drinking.

For my tradition though, we have stockings over the fireplace and we rush down Christmas morning to see what Santa has left us (assuming we've been good). Usually there are a few unwrapped presents from Santa and gifts in our stockings. Then we settle in to open presents from the family. Bjorn and I disagree on this part though -- I say there are Santa presents and then presents from family, but he says they're pretty much all Santa gifts. So much so that he wants to hide all the presents until that morning to make a bigger impact. You'd think we would have this all worked out with Mark and Jennifer, but by the time Bjorn and I got together seriously, they already knew about Santa so it wasn't a big deal. I think I'm okay with doing it his way...so long as he's the one moving all the presents. I'm not quiet as helpful in my enlarged state.

My cold/stuffed ear continue to nag me, which is making me more pregnant and cranky than I think I would be otherwise. My doctor said to take Sudafed as needed during the day and Benadryl at night to try and dry everything out. It is definitely improving my symptoms and I love that the Benadryl is helping me sleep. All the drying is unfortunately making my throat pretty dry, but I'll take that over the coughing and snot making any day.

Mean tricks to play on children

Yesterday we had a surprise birthday party for Mark, who turns 18 this week. My mother-in-law brought over her famous Swedish cake and we lit candles and sang as Mark blew out the candles. Funny thing was she had one of those re-lighting candles. They're totally annoying as an adult, but we showed Andy that it relit itself and he was shocked. "Oh no!" he cried. We encouraged him to blow it out, which he did (with our help). We praised him for a job well done and then, poof!, the candle was back on. "Oh no!" he cried once again. It went on like this for probably 6 or 7 minutes. I wished I'd had the video on because it was so funny time and time again to see his complete shock and surprise that the candle was back on. By the end of it, we were all in tears from laughing so hard.

The Christmas tree came down this weekend. I first moved it to the front yard and now it's out by the curb. Every day, several times a day, Andy races into the living room and shouts, "Gone! Christmas gone!" Then he has to peer out the window to look for it in the front yard. I started coming up with a lame story about how the tree has to go back to the North Pole and how it has to wait outside for Santa to come get it and take it home until next year. He's not old enough to get Santa, but it seemed like a better thing to say than, "Kid, Christmas is over and the tree is dead, really dead. In fact, it's so dead it's crispy and we have to get it outside before it spontaneously combusts." I have now told him the story about Santa coming to get the tree so many times that I now have a nice mental image of Santa on his sleigh riding through the neighborhoods collecting all the Christmas trees so they can relax and get bigger for next year. It just sounds better than going to the landfill to be turned into mulch.

Christmas after

I'm still sorting through everything. Take a look at this picture and you'll see there is a lot to get through. I'm still missing my new running shoes that I wore on Christmas morning. Certainly no one else wants them so they're clearly stuck under something in this house. I suppose that means I need to clean. With both of us just trying to get through the day all week, the house is a total mess - even more so than a regular Christmas. It's all good though. Hard to believe the long holiday week is almost over though and we have to go back to work on Tuesday. Sigh.

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Updated to add that I found my new shoes. They were under Bjorn's side of the bed, where I kicked them off while hanging my awesome new curtains that match my new duvet cover. Phew. The mystery of the missing shoes was really getting to me. Now if I could just find those wooden letters.

Eureka!

For the first time since Thanksgiving, Andy slept through the night. I feel like a whole new woman today. I put him down about 8 last night and kept telling him as hugged him and rubbed his back that I loved him and that his job was to sleep through the whole night and that I wouldn't see him until the morning. A friend says she tells her daughter every night that her job is to stay in her bed and sleep until morning so I tried that and it worked. That or he was so tired he finally gave up.

His vocabulary continues to evolve, must to our amazement. He does seem to put "nenen" at the end of some of his words. So the fire is really "fire-nen-nen." Christmas tree? "Chris-nen-nen. It's so cute I might have to gobble him up.

We saw Santa last night as he made his way through the neighborhood on a firetruck blasting Christmas music. Andy recognizes Santa, but doesn't get that he delivers presents or anything. We spent some time waving. It was very cute.