* I think I am finally done Christmas shopping. Every year I start in November, feeling all ahead of the game and taking advantage of early sales. And every year I am still shopping the week before Christmas, feeling thoroughly sick of typing my credit card number into various websites.
* I'm becoming a little disillusioned with Amazon lately. The shipping "deals" never seem as good anymore, and many times I've found better prices on items elsewhere. However, they are still the best option for gift-buying for our international family. They actually allow you to ship to a UK address but enter billing info for a US credit card. It's kind of surprising how few retailers offer that flexibility. Amazon, I wish I could quit you.
* I've probably written this before, but my kids generally hate going anywhere in the afternoon. Post-naptime, they just want to hang at home. Unfortunately, and especially during the winter, it really helps me to get out of the house during the witching hour(s). One afternoon this week I lured the kids into the car with the promise of a new DVD. No, I don't normally let them watch DVDs in the car on short trips, but I was pretty desperate. I had several errands I needed to run that didn't involve getting out of the car so this was a good solution. Anyway, I had picked up Ferngully for something like $5, intending to put it in a stocking but decided to break it out early. Although I was only listening to it and taking occasional looks back at the screen at stoplights, it was kind of creepy!! In general, as I see the older Disney movies again I'm kind of shocked at how scary the Bad Guys used to be. Ursula the Sea Witch, the voodoo man in the Princess and the Frog (ok that one's not so old), the Beast...all pretty darn scary. Pacey fell asleep so I couldn't gauge his reaction, but Brighton seemed a little creeped out. Perhaps we'll put that one away for awhile.
* Chris has a friend in town this weekend, so they are off doing boy stuff (think brewery tours, greasy food and football...lots and lots of football). I'm glad he gets this opportunity to socialize as he doesn't fit much of it in around his work schedule and hanging here at home with us. However, after being stuck at home for most of the week with sick kids, I'm struggling to figure out how we're going to fill our hours. We were supposed to be at a birthday party this afternoon but the birthday boy's family are sick now too. Damn cold/flu season.
* I think I genuinely have some PTSD related to how often and how severely Pacey got sick in his first few years. In the first 12 months, he was in the hospital something like six times and I came to expect that any little cold would ultimately develop into something horrific. When I was pregnant with Brighton, as I've mentioned before, I was sick with a respiratory illness for about three months. The lowest moment was when Pacey was in the hospital with pneumonia and, at 22 weeks pregnant, I had to ask the nurses to keep an eye on him in his hospital room while I went and spent the next eight hours in the Emergency Room myself. And then when Brighton was born and we had two kids in daycare, we spent the whole first year passing illness after illness around. It was so stressful, never getting the rest we needed to recover and constantly stressing over who was going to take time off to stay home with sick kids. Anyway, since then the kids have developed some immunity and I don't have the stress of worrying about work when we need to stay home. I have a really hard time not assuming the worst though. When I hear Pacey cough, even a dry little nothing cough, it's like a switch flicks in my head and I immediately jump ahead to urgent care visits and hospitalizations. I struggle a little with depression anyway and I have to work really hard not to let dark clouds gather when the kids (well, now that I am thinking about it, it's really just Pacey being sick that triggers it) get sick.
(Aaaaaaaaand lightening things up a little)
* I made these muffins this morning and they are delicious. I always love an opportunity to sneak some nutrition into baked goods and this is a great recipe for it. My pickiest eater (Brighton) inhaled two of them.
* Although I'm not terribly bothered by the lack of snow, I do wish we would get at least enough so we could do some more of this:
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