Mission Accomplished! (Barely)

We did it! We got Andra on Santa's lap. By the skin of our teeth. :)

Let me back up. Andra refused to get within 20 feet of Santa last year. She loved seeing him in books and movies, but wanted nothing to do with him in "real life." But this year, she was talking a big talk...saying she'd sit on his lap on one condition: that her blankie could come with her. Fair enough. :)

So we headed to the museum today to see Santa and see if Andra was all talk. She was. Once we got within view of him, she said she didn't want to sit on his lap afterall. So I scooped her up and we started chatting with Santa. Then I plopped Alec on his lap. I think once Andra saw that her baby brother was sitting on Santa's lap and not afraid, she decided she could handle it too. So I plopped her in his lap (with her blankie, of course) and snapped a picture before she had a chance to change her mind. And despite weeks of practicing her list to recite to Santa, I think she was a little star struck once she was on his lap; she couldn't remember a single thing on her list to ask him for!

To be honest, I was a little bah-humbug today. You see, the entire purpose of our trip was for Andra to ride the little train in the Christmas exhibit (her train obsession continues). We'd been talking about the train for several days. When we arrived, we heard a nasty rumor that the train was...BROKEN. And wouldn't be running for a couple more days. I refused to believe it. Upon confirmation of this nasty rumor, I had to break the bad news to Andra. It didn't go over well, and I had a heartbroken, lower-lip-quivering, crying 3 year-old on my hands. She had her heart set on riding that train. My attitude soured even more when an old blue-haired lady declared that my heartbroken little girl was being "crabby." I almost unleashed my mommy fury on her. Crabby?? No. Heartbroken? Definitely.

I squelched her tears with a snack from my purse. Only to be told snacking was not allowed in the museum. So then we decided a fancy lunch in the tea room would help cheer her up. Come to find out, you MUST have reservations to eat in the tea room. Lovely. Next was the Santa visit, where I was required to turn MY camera over to Mrs. Claus to take some crummy pictures from a great distance. Or, of course, I could pay $18 for the professional one (even though I'd just paid FULL museum admission, despite the broken train!). I sweet-talked Mrs. Claus into PLEASE letting me take ONE photo...only to be told I had to stand a certain number of feet away from Santa to be allowed to take my photo with MY camera. Seriously?!? Merry Christmas to you too, Mrs. Claus. Oh, and Santa was right next to the sad little broken train, which was just like rubbing salt in Andra's wounds.

So we settled for greasy pizza in the museum cafeteria, a bit mopey, then headed toward the exit...only to experience our Christmas miracle. A staff member stopped us to tell us the train had been repaired!!! I'd like to kiss the engineer who repaired that train!

This was Andra's response to the good news. :) Too bad old blue-haired lady couldn't see my "crabby" little girl now.

So all was well again in Andra's little world. I guess I should've kept the faith. Lesson learned. :)
Merry Christmas to all, and to all skilled engineers nearby!

Snow Bunnies

My last day on maternity leave, we spent a little time playing in the snow! It was only a couple inches, so not enough to build a snowman or make snow ice cream...but enough to take Andra on some laps around the house on the sled.

Alec even was introduced to the white stuff! He kept gasping when the cold wind would blow in his face (understandable!), so his first snow experience was short lived. It was before the horribly cold temperatures set in, so Andra and I stayed out for quite awhile. Her favorite part was having a snowball "fight" with Pudge...although he was pretty defenseless. :) We'd throw a snowball at him, and she'd collapse in fits of giggles when he'd try to catch it in his mouth, only to have the snowball explode all over his nose. Really funny to a 3 year-old...and a 30 year-old too! :)

Where'd the time go??

Whoa.

I just realized it's been a month since I've blogged! That just might be my longest lack of blogging ever. I'd like to apologize to my two loyal readers. ;) But I have a valid excuse. Our hands have been full. Literally...

...and figuratively! Aside from trying to savor my last month of maternity leave, we also made a somewhat spur-of-the-moment decision to put our house up for sale. We hadn't planned on doing it quite so soon after Alec being born, but we saw a golden opportunity and couldn't pass it up. A builder that's actually in our price range (gasp!) started developing a neighborhood in the perfect location. It's got huge yards (a whole half acre...all to ourselves!), beautiful homes, and it's only 90 seconds away from one set of grandparents! See what I mean? Golden.

Well, before we BUY a house, we have to sell our current house. So thus launched a flurry of activity: choosing a realtor, cleaning/repairing our house so it's spotless for showings, and signing piles of paperwork with our builder. It's been exhausting. The great news is we've got a down payment reserving our lot in the new neighborhood. The catch: we have to sell our current home before they'll hammer a single nail. So now it's a game of keeping the house spotless for those last minute showings (and this is a CHALLENGE, as anyone with a three year-old can imagine. We have our own personal Hurricane Andra here who manages to mess up as fast as I can clean up!)

Admist all this added activity, I've been nervously eyeing the calendar...knowing my remaining days of maternity leave were dwindling. The sad count is now down to just four days. *sigh* I'm hopeful it won't be as hard to return to the office this time around as it was with Andra. When I returned to work after having Andra, I was going back to a job that was full-time and I also happened to hate. This time, I'm going back to work only part-time and to a job I love. I'll sure miss kissing Alec's chubby cheeks all day long and seeing what hilarious things Andra is saying, but I know they're in good hands too. I know a lot of Moms would kill to have my schedule, so I'm trying to keep things in perspective. I've got it pretty darn good, and for that I'm very grateful.

So, I had a valid excuse for not blogging for a month, and I'll try not to let it happen ever again. :)