Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Just a quick post to say "Happy Holidays!" to all of you! These are photos from my second bathroom-this is where I put all my pretty, sparkly decorations, since they didn't really fit with the traditional red and green in the rest of the house.

Thanks to all of you who wrote me empathizing with my last post. My kids are getting over their colds, and we now have lots of family around to divert them as well, so this is all a welcome break for Mommy! I guess mothers just need to take those breaks as they come and refresh ourselves for the next round!

I hope all of you have a great week, and a blessed holiday season!

Grouchy Mom

Well, it has definitely been one of those weeks. One of those weeks where you can hardly remember the days before kids, when you were able to talk in a normal voice instead of yelling, when you were able to go more than five minutes before hearing someone crying or whining, and when you were actually able to do something for yourself without feeling guilty about it.

Sometimes I look at myself and wonder where this grouchy, irritable, mean person came from. How can a two-year-old and a ten-month-old do this to me? Granted, both of them have been sick this week, so things have been more difficult than normal, but lately, I just find myself yelling all day long! And then feeling guilty for yelling, because how awful is it to yell at a poor child who doesn't feel well!

And so, I felt the need to do a piece of art about this. I don't like myself when I'm so grouchy, and I really need to work on it! I'm sure that this week will get better since the kids won't be sick, and then comes Christmas and Grandma and Grandpa, so that will provide some nice relief. And then, in a couple months, my husband and I are going to Jamaica sans kids, which will be a wonderful break..., when we aren't missing the kids, of course! Oh, who knew motherhood would be such an emotional roller coaster, right? I guess I've always heard it, but until you live it, it just doesn't sink in...

No Explanation Necessary...

Lightning McQueen and Jelly Giraffe

So, as much as I swore up and down (before becoming a parent) that my child would never own any mass-marketed, commercialized, licensed character merchandise, I have given in....to Lightning McQueen! For those of you without children, Lightning is the main character in the "Cars" movie, and Riley is currently obsessed with him. I don't think he even understands the story of the movie, but show him something with Lightning on it, and he wants it, NOW! And this kid has got eyes like a hawk for Lightning merchandise. I can be walking in any store, and all of the sudden hear Riley whining for something. Sure enough, there will be some random product with the "Cars" characters on it- toys, diapers, even soup! Boy, do those marketers know what they're doing or what?

I try to restrain myself, and have only bought a few small Lightning items for him, including one of his favorite possessions, a Lightning pillow. But dang, it can really be hard to resist a two-year-old sometimes! His little eyes light up, and he gets so excited that occasionally I give in. Anyway, obviously, this is the theme for the most current spread in his book...

Then, Noah's latest spread is about his own favorite toy. He has officially chosen his "lovey", a cuddly giraffe that I've named Jelly. Learning from experience with Riley, we've gone ahead and purchased two spares so that we don't run into any disasters when it inevitably gets lost (Riley has three puppy blankies for the same reason!).

For some reason, the more I look at Noah's pages, the more I like them. I really like how the patterns of the underneath papers are coming through. (If you can't see real well here, you can always look at the photos on my Flickr page for larger images.) I'll have to experiment a little more with this....

Hope everyone's having a great week!