Christmas photo's

We're still here, I promise! We really enjoyed Asher's first Christmas, and are continuing to enjoy our vacation (Greg's off until next week, whoo hoo!). Until I get back into blogging for real, here are some pictures of our Christmas experience. Enjoy!

Monday's observations: Christmas memories edition

I know my posting has been infrequent over the last couple of weeks, and it will probably continue to be so over Christmas. It's such a busy time of year! Christmas has, obviously, been on my mind a lot lately, and here are some of the things I've found myself thinking...

* I still feel really giddy and excited this time of year.

* Christmastime always brings back childhood memories. It's funny the things that stick with you.

* One said memory is of the Alabama Christmas album that we used to own. I still remember most of the songs. My favorite was, of course, Thistlehair the Christmas bear. Does anyone else know this song?

* I still remember when I first started questioning whether Santa was real or not. It was a Christmas in Cape Breton at my nanny's and I was having a hard time going to sleep (hence the giddy and excited bit). So I came downstairs to ask my mom something, and I noticed that of all the stockings hung up, mine was the only one that was already filled. Strange. This was also the Christmas that Santa washed the dishes after he ate the cookies and milk that I left out for him. Boy, that Santa sure did seem to have lots of time on his hands. Wasn't he supposed to be busy on Christmas Eve?

* My mom was pretty clever once the Santa questioning started. When I found presents wrapped in her closet that said "To Amanda, Love Santa" she told me that sometimes Santa got her to help him wrap presents because he was so busy. Pretty creative, mom!

* The Christmas present that probably got me the most excited ever in my life was my lock-up jeans and combat boots. Man, was I cool.

* I actually did (on more than one occasion, sorry mom!) unwrap my Christmas presents before Christmas morning and then re-wrap them. I know, pretty terrible, huh?

* It makes me smile that my mom still puts the homemade Christmas ornament that I made in kindergarten on her tree every year.

* If you ever watch old Christmas movies that you used to love as a kid, you realize that they are actually pretty crappy. It's true that some things really are best left as memories.

* As a married adult, I've done most of the Christmas shopping for our family. This isn't so bad, I remind myself, once I remember that Greg did buy a cat figurine for our sister-in-law one year. Good thing I make him a list.

Merry Christmas everyone!

a Christmas photo shoot

This is what happens when Greg does Asher's hair...

How cute is this?!?! Santa baby...

And some outtakes. Being this cute is hard work you know!

Who said you can't dress up little boys!

Another Christmas Surprise

Asher opened his first Christmas present this weekend; a pair of Christmas pj's! Unbeknownst to us, he had his own Christmas surprise waiting...

Yip, that's my son.

Lost and Found

Has anyone out there lost a thumb? We seem to have found one here, and it's getting quite a lot of use!

Monday's observations, on Tuesday... but it's because I was doing homework, I swear!

* It is possible for a baby to go through 4 changes of clothes in the span of 4 hours. Very possible.

* For some reason, the maximum amount of time I seem to be able to keep a plant alive is 2 years.

* When said plants begin to die, rather than have to touch dirt and re-pot them, my first impulse is just to throw them out. Thankfully this impulse hasn't carried over to my baby when I have to touch his baby goo.

* Your husband really is a complete geek if he uses a Microsoft Excel application as an example when trying to explain something to you. And it doesn't mean you are really computer illiterate if you don't get the example.

* Clay Aiken and Sarah McLachlan's Christmas albums make my heart smile. My husband, on the other hand, not so much.

* The special parking spots at the grocery store for pregnant women and mother's of babies up to 6 months, that's just more of a guideline right? I mean, I can still park there even though my baby is 7 months old, right? Who's counting, really.

* I just had the time of my life at my 2-day Mother Goose training. I could sing nursery rhymes and songs forever! Perhaps being at home with Asher is starting to get to me.

* You know you have no life when you get excited about doing homework for said Mother Goose training.

* I never would have imagined that I would feel no awkwardness about pumping my breast milk in front of other people. It's sort of like blowing your nose in front of someone... it's just a bodily function you have to carry out.

* I pretty much can't write a blog post without talking about breast milk in there somewhere. Maybe that's a little weird.

a pre-Christmas surprise

The disintegration of a baby mum-mum

Asher started eating baby mum-mums a couple of weeks ago. He loves them, as you can see...

I've been working in the kitchen, all the live long day...

This morning at Kindermusik, Asher and I played with some drums and then some ice cream containers (as pretend drums). I didn't think he'd be into this yet, but he really was! So this afternoon we're just hanging out in the kitchen playing with some kitchen "stuff". So fun!

PS - Asher can sit by himself for a long time when he's occupied!

Monday's observations: Greg's eating habits edition

When Greg and I got married, I was thrilled that he was willing to eat a completely vegetarian diet at home in order to accommodate my choice to be a vegetarian. Don't get me wrong, he still loves his meat whenever we're out somewhere, but he's not the kind of guy that needs it everyday in order to be satisfied (I so want to insert a "that's what she said" in there but... oh well, I guess I just did!). So I thought our food journey as a married couple would be wonderful, because I totally didn't have to think about meat. Turns out I was wrong.

You see, Greg is a really picky eater, although he would never admit that. Here are some tidbits I have to keep in mind every stinkin' meal I make.

* Loves pizza. But not pizza on pita breads, or pizza using pesto as a sauce, or pizza with big chunks of vegetables on it.

* Loves pasta. But only pasta with a "thick" cream based sauce. This rules out any olive oil based sauces, or pesto.

* Ethnic foods are usually OK.

* Vegetables must be cut into small enough chunks that he can barely notice they're there.

* Does not like: feta cheese, celery, asparagus, pineapple, cold peas, anything ending in "eppers" (read: peppers), anything ending in "erry" (read: strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, cranberry, etc.) and bananas without brown spots.

* Will tolerate (and by tolerate I mean won't gag to death): cauliflower, carrots, corn, tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, and spinach.

* Still have not uncovered the deal with beans. Sometimes they are OK, and other times they are not. Lentils are a definite no deal. This can make things challenging when you're cooking vegetarian.

* Recipe's are often deemed "good" if they have anything with a bread texture in them.

* Soup can never, ever be considered a meal. Neither can salad.

* When consuming salad, it is best to roll the lettuce leaves up into a tight wound ball, and eat it in 2 bites.

* Anything covered in cheese or cream of mushroom soup gets a thumbs up.

It's sort of a lot to consider, don't you think? So I started getting Greg to rate the recipes I make on a 1 to 10 scale, and take little notes so I'll remember what he liked about it and what he didn't (sort of ridiculous, huh? But it works!). Here's 2 such recipes from last week:

They both got 9/10! I want Greg to enjoy our meals, but my goal isn't that he is going to love every single one. That's just not realistic. And be sure that love salad will still find its way on our menu from time to time! I had no idea that food preferences would play such a big role in our world.

Thankfully Greg doesn't do the cooking or all we'd eat would be sidekicks, Kraft dinner, and some burger or nugget variation.

Dear Lord, please don't let Asher follow in Greg's footsteps with his food preferences!