*because gumbo has a lot of stuff thrown in a pot and you’re like OKRA AND SHRIMP?! because that doesn’t sound like it would work together, but it does. Oh, it does.
My child had a rough night last night. And admittedly, Tony is a very very easy child so a rough night for us is, like, devastating. Like, break out the Holy Water and rosaries because this child? Is clearly taken over by demons. He’s had sinus crap for awhile now, but he was NOT feverish and he was just awful to everyone and then got upset to the point that he dry-heaved for HALF-AN-HOUR if anyone spoke to him and finally Jack said, “I think he has a headache.” Bryan and I both looked at him and thought Eh, why the hell not? and dosed him with some ibuprofen and BOOM! happy baby again. It was the most bizarre thing ever, and a bit foreboding as both Jack and Bryan suffer from migraines.
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Semi-related: WHY IS THE TIME CHANGE SO FRICKIN’ LATE THIS YEAR? Everyone’s all cranky and irritable and we all look at the sun with such disdain like WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?! and I’m ready to get my extra hour of sleep, is what I’m saying here. I considered maybe I missed the change entirely, but I haven’t seen a deluge of Angry Parenting Tweets on Twitter, and those are the sign that a time change has happened.
.. or that Sprout/Nick Jr/PBS has up and changed their scheduled programming again.
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I started Bootcamp Wednesday morning and MAN. Although, yay me, I did get through the entire hour without having to sit down and/or vomit, so WAY TO IMPROVE, SARAH! You leave bootcamp sessions feeling like you could easily conquer the world, but that feeling is so hard to replicate and remember at 4:45 in the morning when your bed is just as enticing. But, I’m happy to put one foot in front of the other and get this thing started. Mostly because I miss buying new clothes, and I’ve totally stuck to my resolution to not buy any new clothes until I can do in a smaller size.
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I asked on Twitter yesterday how much you guys average dollar-wise per kid over the holidays. The answers were fairly consistent and also, I think I way overspent last year and this year will be The Disappointing Year for the boys. I mean, last year included (not limited to, but INCLUDED) a Playstation 3. Last year, however, I was working crazy crazy overtime hours and money seemed to be falling from the ceiling. (Not quite, especially considering I’d been unemployed for four months prior.) The suckiest part about this is that – being the major breadwinner – I have to sit ALL of the boys down (including the Biggest Boy) and explain that we’re going to have to cut back this year. This makes me feel like a failure. Truly. On all fronts. Because, really, I want them all to be like No, we just love the holiday because of the company! and the cookies! and the frivolity! like I feel. So I feel like a financial AND a parental failure.
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My dad got very concerned about my mental health while I was in Austin because I only photographed food. I think this makes the mark of a very awesome vacation. (Am a foodie!)
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I’m trying not to take it personally that I finally got a Klout perk (which, please don’t for a second believe I hang my hat on anything “score driven” on the internet) this week, and THE DAY AFTER everyone’s scores dropped like WHOA.
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Does anyone have the large age range of kids that I do in my house? Like, do you have one child who is 5+ years older than the other? How do you deal with Santa there? Do you involve the older child? I need advice here.
Lots of stuff going on here Sarah! We have a traditiona that we only sometimes remember but it helps during lean years — we have BIG Christmas and LITTLE Christmas. Since there’s some precedent, the guys aren’t too badly shocked when we announce that this year will be Little Christmas with more handmade stuff and stuffing stuffers.
As for Santa, there’s only a 15mo difference in age. One for sure knows there’s no Santa. The other knows too but likes to continue to pretend. The bigger boy and I just wink and whisper. It’s all in fun
Oh yeah. LOVE me some gumbo!
I would just like to point out that you can’t technically sit all three boys down to explain small Christmas, because that would contradict the santa deal.
BUT you could sit the two biggest boys down, let them know you’re having creative Christmas this year, and then sit everyone down to talk about how the recession has affected toy production in the north pole.
Santa had to layoff 30% of his work force, and they had to cut back on big budget toys because they can’t afford the big budget parts. The remaining elves had to settle for a week off at Christmas in lieu of their annual raise, which will further contribute to an overall decrease in toy production. And Rudolph had diabetes and some of the money from toy production and elves salaries has to go to his insulin shots– they can’t replace him. He’s one of a kind. So just say no to high fructose corn syrup, and Merry Christmas kids!
I didn’t grow up with Santa, and I am not very happy about including him now that I have a kid with a Santa-believer, so I am not much help there! But I think explaining to the two older boys will be fine as the youngest might not even notice how much he got vs last year.
And since I don’t have to get up early, I love that the time change hasn’t happened yet and it’s still light when I get off work. I hate dark at 4:30 days!
My parents always did Santa for everyone (in fact, they only stopped Santa for my siblings and I when we started having kids of our own.)
Also, I don’t know how old your older boys are, but they may benefit from knowing the actual budget in terms for $ per kid so they can have realistic expectations/make reasonable requests. We knew starting around middle school what my parents were going to spend on each of us and made our wish lists accordingly.
I was 5 years older than my sister and was included in the Santa tradition even after I no longer believed. And dude, I wasn’t arguing. I will say that my mom continued the Stocking tradition until we actually moved out of the house – she loved doing our stockings.
Also, while I have you — I really felt for you on that stand-by flying post. A former stepdad of mine worked for TWA and it was awesome flying for free. It was NOT awesome having to dress up for the occasion and it was not awesome trying to find religion as they called out who was getting on the flight. Please oh god oh please oh god…..
Yay for bootcamp!
This isn’t from personal experience, but a good friend has a kid old enough to know the real deal about Santa, so she just asked him not to ruin it for his little brother. Growing up, my parents did the Santa thing until the year I moved out of the house, and I think I held out hope, far longer than was normal, for Santa to be a real thing.