Pumpkin carving!

The Munchkins fist pumpkin carving!
He started out pretty good, sitting in his Bumboo and watching all the action. After a while though he started to get a little cranky, so we put him down for a quick nap and he woke up as our happy little boy again. Hubby and I haven't carved pumpkins together since we were dating! We had a great time, even though he wouldn't let me peek at his until he was totally finished. I have to say, I was impressed with the end result!

And then with the lights off. OoooOoooo

Christmas gifts for Baby?

Shopping for a baby is ridiculous! Getting some big expensive gift is silly, he'll only be 5 1/2 months old. At the same time, I still want to get him something he'll love.

So far I've decided to get something we were already planning on buying. He'll be the perfect age for an exersaucer, so that's going to be his 'big' gift for the year. It was either that, or the high chair, but the high chair is no fun. I really wish he'd be able to remember these early years, because everyone else is so stinkin' excited for his first Christmas.

I went to Costco this morning and bought a 4 pack of stockings. We plan on having one more little one, so this way we'll have a matching set of stockings for the whole family. There's a place in the mall that does embroidery, so I'll take them there and get our names put on them. It's just barely the end of October, and I'm getting so excited for Christmas. Maybe I'm seeing it through the eyes of a child all over again. I do have a rule in my house, no decorating until December 1st. If I do it too soon, I get sick of all the music and extra 'clutter' around the house. It will be interesting to figure out where to put everything in the new house.

Shoot, what about stocking stuffers for the Munchkin? He's not old enough for candy and other treats Hubby's family puts in the stockings (my family does socks, underwear, toothpaste etc.) Anybody have any ideas for little things to put in the Munchkins stocking?

One of them.

I've turned into one of those moms. You know, with the ridiculous schedule for everything. Especially meals, that's what started this whole thing. I've been struggling with coming up with things to make for dinner that don't either take forever to make, or we haven't made a bazillion times already this month.

I typed out everything I make from frozen pizza to roast beef dinner and the list is pretty long! Why is it that when I have to start cooking something, none of these 30 items come to mind? That's where the list is going to come in. Now at the beginning of every week I sit down at the computer and scroll through that magical list and decide what to have for every meal that week. Then I make a shopping list and get the groceries for those meals I have planned for. So far (1 Week in) it's been going great!

I'm still afraid that I'm going to get tired of my list, so I've become a member of one of those recipe sites, and I get a recipe of the day. If it's good, I save the recipe and add it to The List. The first new recipe we're going to try:
Broccoli, Ham and Cheese Quiche! I read about it on another bloggers' site, and it sounded pretty good. I'll let you know how it turns out.

What to do for Halloween

I'm curious to know what other people with babies are doing for Halloween. We live in an area with a lot of kids, so giving out candy will be lots of fun! But what about when it's bed time for the Munchkin? We could just turn out the light and hope the little goblins and ghosts stop ringing the the doorbell.

We're also thinking about taking the Munchkin to 'trick or treat' and Nana and Grandpop's house. Maybe we could just stick around there and put him to sleep until the door bells have stopped ringing. Somebody needs to see how cute he is in his costume.

I'm looking forward to the day after Halloween. That's when all the candy goes on sale ;)

Solo Shopping

The Munchkin is in high demand! Being the first grand-baby, everyone wants their own time with our little man, and I don't mind at all. I had a bunch of errands to run the other day, and as much as he's an easy baby, I hate having to haul him in and out of the car and stroller. So I had a genius idea! I called Nana to see if she wouldn't mind if I dropped the munchkin off for an hour or so while I went grocery shopping and ran errands. She was more than happy to snuggle him for a while, and ended up having a lovely little photo shoot ( now we know where Cool Auntie gets it from :P).

I was amazed at how much faster it was to go shopping solo. I hadn't even realized it was taking me longer to do things. At least now I know how to get it done all at once and speedy!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Wow, what a crazy weekend. We spent Sunday with Hubby's family. It was great, and fairly low-key. We spent Monday with my family, and it was CRAZY! Everyone wants a piece of The Munchkin, which I think is adorable, but it gets a little stressful after a while. We got up and had a little time to ourselves before we had to take off. Then it was my mom's side of the family for lunch and snuggle the baby time so it was a 45 minute drive to get to Grandmas'. A bunch of the family was out of town or had other commitments so it wasn't too hectic. The Munchkin was great for the first hour or so, but then a switch flipped and he was DONE. Take me home. We went and snuggled in 'the kids room' (my Grandma has always had a bedroom for us kids), and he calmed down and decided to be human again.

Mid afternoon we headed out to my Aunts' for dinner with my Dads' side of the family. It was another 45 minutes in the car and The Munchkin had a great snooze. This is where it gets a little nutty. I have 3 cousins on that side of the family, my sister and I are the youngest by at least 5 years. Two of those cousins have two kids each, and the third is preggo. There were small people everywhere. The twins are almost 3, so they are into everything. The little girl wanted to touch The Munchkin, squish his cheeks, give him kisses, hold his hand. My poor mother was having a minor heart attack. She's a little more 'protective' than I am. I figure that if it bothers him, he'll let us know pretty quickly. Which he did after a few minuted of being smothered by little fingers. All 4 of the other kids are talking now, so there was no shortage of noise. I'm not surprised, but impressed that The Munchkin was able to have an hour and a half long nap in the midst of everything while taking turns snuggling with Grandma and Grandpa.

My Aunt got all the kids little pumpkins according to their size and tried to get them all together in a picture. It was a gong show, but still pretty cute. My preggo cousin is due in January, so I can only imagine how crazy this will be next holiday season. I didn't get any pictures, but everyone else did. Hopefully they will be passed on soon and I will post them!

Baking Success!!

I love to bake, and most importantly I love to try new things when I bake. Every Christmas is an experiment in all things sweet... and sometimes salty. Some things intimidate me though. Like baked cheesecake. I'm down with the no-bake kind, they always turn out amazing, but the kind you have to bake taunt me by threatening to crack! The other big one that scares me is meringue. I make lemon pies and tarts on a regular basis, but I often 'forget' to put the meringue on. I know it's not difficult, but I'm always afraid I won't get the peaks stiff enough, or that if I DO get them to stand up they will burn.

Today I took my fist step toward facing that fear. I made Lemon Meringue Pie! And it looks good!

Ebay Addict

Hi, my name is Jacki, and I'm an eBay-aholic.

I discovered eBay a few years ago and it fueled my ever expanding shoe collection. I would go on every so often and scroll through the cool heels and sneakers to see if there was anything unique in my size. (Obviously I ALWAYS found something).

Now eBay has become the very best way to shop for The Munchkin. I mean they have everything! I loooove Paul Frank stuff, but find it really hard to find in Canada. If I do find it, it costs an arm and a leg! Not so on eBay! And Jeans! In store baby jeans cost more than mine do! Not so with eBay! Baby shoes are lame, and the fun ones are hard to find. Not so on eBay! You get the idea.

Another plus with shopping on eBay... I get packages in the mail ;)

3 Months

The Munchkin is 3 months old today. Wow, these last three months have flown by. I expected things to be difficult and stressful, but they have been fantastic!

So far I have been impressed with his strength. He was able to hold up his head within a couple of weeks, but by 3 months he can stand on his own with our support to balance him. He'd rather be sitting than lying down, and standing rather than sitting. He has started teething, but doesn't quite have the ability to hold the teething ring in his mouth on his own. His favorite toy is his soft zebra rattle (Zach), but loves to talk to the Giraffe (George) and the Elephant (Lumpy) on his tummy time mat. This past month he started sleeping through the night a couple times a week. I'm getting at least 6 solid hours of sleep each night, and it is Beeeeautiful.

He is now just over 15 pounds and 26 inches long! Our Big boy!

Toys

We're getting to the point now that The Munchkin actually needs things to be entertained. It was amazing how just looking around a room could entertain him for as long as he could stay awake. Then Mommy or Daddy's face did the trick for a while. His tummy time mat lasted quite a while, but now it's putting him to sleep :P So we're moving on to stuff. Great Grandma got him a Jolly Jumper:
And he LOVES it! He hasn't quite figured out the 'jumping' part quite yet, but loves being able to stand on his own and wiggle around. The only rooms in our house that have a door frame to hang it on are the bedroom and bathrooms, so we're going to be hanging out upstairs a lot more.

Any ideas for the next fun thing to play with?

Mall Rat

I have become a mall rat. Most mornings I drop Hubby off at work and take The Munchkin for a stroll through the mall. It wouldn't be so bad if I weren't so tempted to buy things every trip. Usually anything I buy is for Munchkin, but this can't be healthy for our bank account. I am getting good at finding sales though, passing by the same stores everyday I notice when things are different.

One thing I have been keeping my eyes on in the iPhone 4. Both Hubby and I are looking for them. We are with different carriers, and there are a few stores of each in the area in different strip malls. So every week while on my little stroll I stop by the different stores and ask again and AGAIN. The other day I got lucky! Well, for Hubby anyway. One of the stores I have harassed relentlessly just happened to have one in stock. I overheard the salesman tell the person he was talking to on the phone that they were all out of the iPhone. Apparently when he saw me, he decided that this was the opportunity to get rid of me!

I purchased the phone and then took it to Hubby's work. I put the phone in The Munchkins' stroller and then told Hubby that I had been trying to reach him all morning, but his phone wasn't working. I tried to call him again from my phone while he was holding his 5 year old piece or crap and the stroller started to ring instead. I said that The Munchkin stole his phone so that was why I couldn't reach him. He didn't get it. It wasn't until I made him look in the stroller that he FINALLY figured out what was going on. Yay! Totally made his week :)

So proud

My sister, Roller Auntie, has been terrified of The Munchkin. Babies freak her out. I don't blame her, babies are unpredictable and cry. She came over to hang out and rescue me from my week day boredom the other day and I tricked her into holding him.

My aunt is planning a big thanksgiving thing so the the rest of the family can meet him. It's going to be a gong show, but so much fun. He's going to be passed around like a new toy, it's a good thing he's an easy baby. He's fairly content with just about anyone holding him. Let's hope it stays that way, especially when it come time for babysitters!

Shopping Spree!

It was my birthday just over a month ago, and I got some birthday money with the strict instructions not to spend it on Hubby or The Munchkin. Hard to do, yes, but I managed! Cool Auntie and I took The Munchkin for a day with the girls. We drove half an hour away to the nearest not-so-lame mall and wandered aimlessly for a while. I'm between sizes at the moment. I used to be just barely in plus sizes, but since The Munchkin has come into the world I've lost a bunch of weight and the plus size section does not work anymore. The average store in the mall carries my size, however they aren't exactly flattering to the new 'mommy shape'. Cool Auntie was looking for nice jeans, a never ending search.

We stopped for lunch and then left the mall empty handed. Sad face. But all hope was not lost! We still had Old Navy to rummage through. I pink puffy heart Old Navy. I always seem to find something, no matter what size I am. I was a kid in a candy store. And even though Auntie Cool was suuure she wouldn't find anything.... *cue angels singing* Jeans were procured! They were the most perfect jeans ever.

Oh, and I found a plethora of things. Jeans, hoodies, a waffle shirt, some nice cami's... and I snuck in a couple shirts for the Munchkin! I feel spoiled and I kind of like it! My favorite purchase. It is so warm, bring on the cold!

7 days

7 days, and no baby poop. Totally freaked me out, but apparently its normal. I figured his insides were probably bursting, but when it finally made it's way out it was average volume. Great way to start a post huh?

Confession time. I'm addicted to TV. I LOVE MY PVR! I'm not ashamed to admit it, embarrassed maybe, but not ashamed. As soon as they start announcing all the new fall shows, I starting making an excel spreadsheet to track when everything is on. We get the eastern time feed so I can watch everything three hours early, and record more shows during the later showing. It always makes me sad when they end up canceling shows I like. See! Obsessed! Anyone else obsessed with TV? Favorite shows?

I love, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Fringe, NCIS, NCIS:LA, Glee! House, How I Met Your Mother, Criminal Minds, The Mentalist.....and so many more.

Bringing baby home.

Bringing the Munchkin home wasn't nearly as terrifying as I thought it would be. Before my own I had held one baby, and it was not a newborn. Everything came fairly naturally, and what didn't Hubby and I figured out together.

Sleep became a luxury, and pj's became clothing. Hubby had the first two weeks off, so I had full time help. He was amazing! He did all the cooking and cleaning. He woke up early every morning and took the Munchkin downstairs for a few hours so I could get some solid sleep. I think it was really good for their bonding too.

Hubby was the first recipient of a poosplosion. It came out the legs and up the front and back of Munchkins' diaper. I laughed, but was initiated into the club a few days later. You can hear them happen from across the room. It sounds like pudding being forced through a garden hose sprayer at top speed. Surprisingly, neither of us has tossed our cookies yet. I'm sure there is still time.