Christmas Eve

This year, we decided to switch things up a little bit, and went to the five o'clock service on Christmas Eve. It's the "family" service, so when your kids is misbehaving, it's no big deal. This meant we'd have to eat dinner with mine and Andy's parents as soon as we could after we all made it to our house from church. This posed a meat-making problem for me! Not like it was really an issue, but it meant I had to do something new :) I stuck a ham in the oven when we left the house, and it was perfectly done when we got home! Fun times. Service at my church is typically an hour long, at Andy's parent's it's 45 minutes. This time, ours was 45 minutes, and their's was an hour 15 minutes! We ended up sitting down for dinner at 7:30. Andrew behaved pretty well... always showing off for the grandparents! I made a buche de noel for dessert, I love that thing. Not my best, but still so tasty.

Andrew got to open one present before bed, and it was a pair of Elmo pajamas! He was so happy with them. He changed and modeled for his grandparents before they left, and he headed to bed. He went into bed, and Andy and I did some quick arranging before I ran back to church to play at the 11 o'clock service.
I was in the RCW Christmas play this year, and in my scene, we were unpacking Christmas things in the attic, and needed a nativity. I offered up my nativity set, since I wasn't planning to put it up with Andrew and his clumsy hands around. I offered it up as a prop, and the church thought the size of it was so great, the borrowed it to display in front of the pulpit all season. I hadn't noticed it during the Family Service, but when I was up in the balcony for the 11 o'clock, I could see how there was a spotlight on the stable the entire service, and the sanctuary lights dimmed most of the time. It was absolutely beautiful, and i felt so honored that it was my family's nativity!

and fun fact: My Granny bought that nativity in CA, before they moved back to MS after my grandfather died, so early-mid 1960's. She passed it on to my parents when they got married, and my mom passed it on to me after we got married and didn't have one! Third generation, isn't that cool?

Early pregnancy visits

I went to the dr for the first time on Dec 1. The nurse was suprised I hadn't had it confirmed in anyway other than the test at home, and I was that far. I said, I dunno, I just did what they told me on the phone! She made me pee in a cup, then dropped it on a test, and pretty much immediately exclaimed, yep, you're pregnant! I weighed in only 4lbs heavier than my regular weight on my home scale. And was wearing jeans, and a heavy sweater. totally haven't gained weight, right? I met with the dr in her office. Where I noticed she was wearing a pair of my favorite slacks. And in the corner, had an orange tote bag I also have. I like her :) She asked why I was switching practices, and responded appropriately when I told her the ways I was unhappy with my previous birth. And she played with Andrew. And she asked questions about my thryoid nodule, and was rather dismissive of it. Which, really, its not like it does anything. Then we went to get and exam. She checks my heart and breathing, then feels my neck. Oh, wow! You really do have a good size nodule! Lol, I told you so! My uterus was properly swollen, my boobies good. All normal, healthy, and apparently pregnant.

I scheduled the nuchal translucency ultrasound for Dec 23, and another appt for Dec 29. They called me this Tuesday morning, and asked if I could come in at 12:30. They hadn't done an acual intake appt, where they get history and such, and preferred to do it sooner, rather than wait until I was 14 weeks. In I went! My mom was able to meet me and corral Andrew. I gave a million vials of blood, incl some to test my TSH levels, which haven't been done since 2005. Seems weird with a growing nodule, right? Otherwise, I just talked to the NP, went over history, how I am doing, blahblah. I was declared the easiest patient ever.

I got a giant bag of "goodies," all stuff from Similac. A planner, and travel bag with a can of formula, and the bag the give in the hospital, with samples, and another formula sample. Ugh. Can maybe they wait to attempt to sabotage a mother's nursing relationship? And at a midwife too. She is supposed to be helping me have a natural birth, wouldn't she also advocate the natural way to feed babies? I want to complain, but um. really like the practice so far. I don't want to cause shit! Plus, there is a pretty handy toiletry bag, AND a sample of aquaphor, which I do keep meaning to buy for Mr. Chappy Cheeks.

Thanksgiving

Since Andy wasn't going to be around for Hoyt Thanksgiving 2.0 with all of his siblings, we decided to go to his parents the day of. It was just us, my MIL's sister, and FIL's dad. Andrew didn't get a nap, since dinner was right at naptime. He did ok for it though. We dressed him in his Christmas outfit and ran outside to get pics in front of the barn. He wanted nothing to do with that, and kept trying to go on the slide. So, his Christmas picture was taken on a slide, lol. Here is the only Thanksgiving related picture we took all day! It's four generation of Hoyt men! That's Great-Pop and my Father-in-law, Jeff, if you didn't know :)

Late afternoon, we headed to my parents. We like to go see them anyway, since they have no one else to spend a holiday with. We were just going to have dessert, but I was STARVING, so ate their leftovers. My mom made pumpkin creme brulee, which sounds like it would be awesome, right? NO NO NO. It was SO bad! We were really disappointed!

The next day, we realized no one had sent us home with leftovers, the horror! So we made greenbean casserole, stuffing, and got those premade mashed potatoes and jarred gravy. I was not a fan of any of it, sadly. I did get a good repeat on Sunday though!

Ok, so they had two huge tables set up at Steve and Tara's, one being the kids table. Andrew was sitting directly behind me, so I could keep an eye on him. He refused to eat his sweet potatoes, which he typically loves, pretty much only ate the bread I gave him, then started eating corn off of Anthony's plate! This child, I swear. I try to give it to him, he won't eat it. Another kid is eating it? Must be good! This is also how we got him to finally eat carrots... A friend's daughter offered some to him, and it turned into his new favorite food!

Andy had taken that week off, three days :) We didn't have music class, so we took Andrew to Jumpin Jakes, the bouncy castle place. I love that place. Andy enjoyed it fairly well, and of course Andrew was in heaven. Andy thinks I should take him there more often. Okay!
Tuesday, we checked out the storytime they have at our Barnes and Noble. Andy thought it was goofy, but Andrew was into the books. They sing, read, sing, read, maybe repeat one more time, then color. What's not to love?

We decorated our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. Only one ornament broke, and it was Andy's ugly Jets ball. And he broke it :) It didn't take long for Andrew to learn no hands, but he still slips up when I am not looking! I also finally got him to stop pulling handfuls of tinsel off the tree. I am praying we can't find that crap next year, and our tinselling days are over.

Happy Halloween!

Here's hoping everyone had a safe and happy Halloween! And we've all recovered from our sugar comas!

We carved our pumpkin on Wednesday night. Last year, Andrew was all over the pumpkin guts; tasting them, squishing them with his hands, digging in the pumpkin for more, in and out of the bowl. This year, he would only touch the pumpkin withe a spoon!
We practiced really safe carving techniques.
Andrew and the finished Jack-o-Lantern Friday, we went on a visiting trip to see the grandparents. Up to Kingston to see Gramma, then to Clintondale to see Meme and Poppy. Andrew got to spend a little bit of time at their house on the slide, his favorite thing!

We stopped by his cousins' house, then headed home to Trick-or-Treat. We only planned to hit up a few of our neighbors we are friendly with. No need to take a 21 month old to get free candy! Andrew enjoyed ringing the doorbells, and taking something out of the basket, but he refused to say his lines, or thank you! He really was not impressed with the whole thing. Next year!

Here he is, dressed as a monkey! Since he refused to say trick or treat, I just told him to tell everyone what a monkey says! That night, as he was falling asleep in his bed, we heard him all of a sudden call out ooh ooh ah ah? it was the funniest thing ever!

There is nothing like the smell of an apple pie candle and garlic cooking on the stove, the sounds of the early Beatles playing, and your son and husband playing and laughing in the next room while the rain beats down outside the windows to know you are really home.

The only way to make a more perfect picture would be one of the cats licking their paws in the doorway. But, they are dirty, and don't do things like that, so, too bad.


Oh, and if the furniture magically repelled dust.

Happy 3rd Anniversary!

Yesterday, Andy and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. Hard to believe its been that long already!

In August, I was in TJMaxx and saw a nice leather armchair for nice and cheap. Handily, the modern gift for a third wedding anniversary is leather! We bought this as our anniversary gift to ourselves to replace the horrid. vinyl recliner that has been passed along through Andy's family.

Now, this was our gift, that's it. Of course, Andy doesn't follow that rule. He never does. When will I learn, and get him a little gift?? He got me the Willow Tree Together figurine, and a cardigan from Old Navy.

We headed off to Woodbury Commons to buy Andrew's fall wardrobe. We hit up Children's Place, the Gap Outlet, and the Stride Rite outlet. I am most excited for the shoes, let me tell you. So cute. His nice brown shoes are little boots, though, so I needed to work with those to figure out how to quickly get them ON. hard!

Andrew slept the whole hour ride home, but woke up the moment we parked in the driveway. It didn't help that a strange man was in our driveway, left as we were driving up, then circled back and parked behind us. Freaky, yes? We were both wondering if it was a guy come to spy on our house, interested in looking. Yes, even Andy was thinking this.... except is was the florist delivery van with a dozen red roses for me! haha, idiot. But yeah! I tried to get Andrew to sleep more, but the cats ruined it. we were lying there on my bed, and I was sure his eyes were closed. Then carter jumps up behind me, and this little hand reaches across my belly towards him. I knew I was done for then!

We went to Hudson Ribs and Fish for dinner, and I had a delicious filet mignon. Then we headed to the mall to see Dark Knight, FINALLY. We had an hour to kill, so we went to look at the Gap. I was freezing, so we wanted to see if there was a sweater or anything there. Andy walked out with a new button down and sweatpants, and I got jeans and a sweater. Our theaters just expanded and redid everything. There are now 16 theaters all with stadium seating. Which is nice, except I think the chairs are too big for me. I left with a killer headache from aching neck and shoulder muscles. The movie was really good. But definitely could've ended at least 30 min sooner! Maybe its just cause it was late and I was tired and headachy? But dammit, catch the Joker already!

MY CHILD JUST PEED IN THE POTTY!!


I just started potty training today, and not so much potty training, as we bought one, he thinks its way cool, so I've sat him on it when I go to pee or changed his morning dipe.

We were sitting there, reading Barnyard Dance, and I said WHAT THE HELL am I doing?? He is 20 months old! he can't potty train!! Ok, Andrew, get up, let's change your pants.

AND THERE WAS PEE!!

my kid can't talk or count to 101 like everyone else's but he can pee in a potty (on accident...)!!