Friday things. 12/1

 December!

1. Anyone else feel like the water level is just rising at this point? One of the many Extra Tasks I had to complete this week was helping Wells disguise a gingerbread man. Literally ordered cotton balls from Amazon because I didn't trust myself to remember them at the grocery store. 

Just when I thought I had it All Together, notes came home about needing Christmas party treats for both kids and then Wells needs a stocking and "stuffers" for every kid in his class (instead of a gift exchange). Which means: He will come home with 19 stocking stuffers of his own to enjoy. 

And, if Halloween at school was any indicator, so will Sutton.  

And I've been interrogated by my child on why he "doesn't have a sock hanging up in school" yet. 

Because I need to buy a cheap stocking somewhere and it's not the weekend and we don't go anywhere for any reason after 4pm on a weekday, Wells. 

2. Christmas movie recommendations: I like the movies on Netflix. They're always funny. I'm not the Hallmark movie type right now. The Holidate is a bit crass but it was good enough and funny. Love Hard is really good. I watched it last year and enjoyed it enough to watch again this year. And then Ex Mas with Leighton Meester is new this year and on Amazon. Also good enough. 

3. These books are ones I'm using in the classroom this month. I cannot recommend them enough. They are the sweetest Christmas stories: The Perfect Christmas Tree, The Carpenter's Gift, The Legend of Old Befana. I'm having trouble not buying all the books right now. I'm justifying this by saying I will use them again next year and they are also for Wells and Sutton. I found an amazing curriculum that pairs a quality book each week but the downside is that I have to source the book. 

4. The thing that brings me maybe the most joy right now is football. It's the weirdest thing. Monday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday. I look forward to all the professional and college games I can find on TV. Does anyone else just have football on TV constantly? I've mentioned before that I think I fall into an actual depression in February when the season is over. 

5. My mom got me this bag that I asked for and she's worried it's "too big". What I'm looking for is something to replace my Ikea bag situation so, no, I don't think the camo LL Bean bag will be too big. 

You can tell I've completely given up. I have so much *bleep* to carry every day that this is the only graceful way to do it. 

6. 

It's the exclamation point that gets me here

My mom is doing Santa for Wells and Sutton this year. Any gifts here are from us. Makes it easier when I don't have to hide wrapping paper. 

thanksgiving week recap.

ICYMI: I posted a gift round-up on Friday (?) night (all the days are blending together). It's unfortunate that I ended up with a bug and was just sick enough to not enjoy most of my week off, and spent the day of Thanksgiving mostly in bed. 

unfluffed, undecorated tree

went to the rheumatologist on monday. nothing better, nothing worse. told me to take a baby aspirin each day and it is better in cold weather than hot so glad it's winter now I guess

re-listened to the maura murray episodes. so good!

they get this tree to do whatever they want with. and it definitely looks like wells decided to do whatever he wanted with it.

i took them out to eat by myself and it wasn't a complete disaster. normally, i would Never. but we were 45-ish minutes from home and it was 1pm and i was on borrowed time.

library system complaints: i went into the library with a list of children's books and authors. the "system" is organized in this functional way. "favorites"? whose favorites?

my first attempt at Scott's birthday cake was a disaster and irreparable. 

using a water marker/brush thing to seal Christmas cards.

changing her puppy's diaper

all you really need for Black Friday is a Costco card, a credit card, and a computer

i ordered this as a toddler hairbrush

it took me 14 years to find a christmas tree topper i actually like/want/am excited about and i stumbled onto this bow at hobby lobby last week. it was $4. 

i could write a christmas tree saga, since our tree situation has been different each year.

more library complaints. Look At These Wait Times:

5 year olds are amazing. he sat at the kids' table and ate and played and i barely saw him for 3 hours. 

meanwhile, i offered her bites of each thanksgiving food and i got a decisive "no no no!" for each attempt. she sucked the frosting off a pumpkin bar though and ate half an applesauce pouch. that was it. she wouldn't *eat* the pumpkin bar and she wouldn't take crackers or bread or milk. 

wells went through a phase where he wasn't super interested in food but never was he actually picky/refusing food. 

i saw this and it made me chuckle. 128 DOLLARS for american eagle jeans. you could probably find some vinatage 2005 ones at plato's closet near a college campus instead. 

i did a lot of black friday shopping from my computer and i'm basically finished. i grabbed myself a few things, which just makes sense. i've decided i don't need a new bag right now. i've been trying to find one but i'm in this weird place of diaper bag/no diaper bag/purse doesn't make sense, and i spent 90% of my time on the couch on thursday wondering if i needed a belt bag because maybe there's something to that trend after all. (i could blame that thought on all the medicine i took, maybe.)

Christmas Gifts for 5 and under

Instead of doing two separate guides (loosely using that term here), I decided to just plop all of it together. Again, when I'm doing things like thinking about Christmas gifts, I'm always struck that having a nearly 4 year age gap is odd in this day and age because they are truly in two different places. And everything we buy for Wells, I think "oh Sutton can use that in a few years". Truthfully, she uses most of it now. They share Legos, for instance, at an age in which I would have never allowed Wells to have regular Legos. 

First, my absolute favorite purchase from last year that I wanted to mention: The Kozy Couch. This is an alternative to The Nugget. We have a Nugget, and I waited on a list for over 6 months to get that thing. It was a great investment. However, I wanted to get another piece/section for Sutton last year and I opted for this one. I like it so much better. The cost is about the same, I admit. The material is nicer though. It's more of a couch-like feel. It's almost like corduroy. I don't know how to describe it but I prefer it to the Nugget. I can't recommend it enough. 

Leap Frog Magic Globe. My parents got this for Wells as his big gift. I think he'll enjoy it and it'll keep him busy for years. 

I got Wells this Lego City set at Walmart awhile back and stuffed it away in a closet. But I wish I had gotten this arctic one instead! 

Magnatiles. For the preschooler, for the toddler, for the school-age kiddo. I feel like these could keep them all busy for hours. We have the zoo set and the dinosaur set is coming for Christmas. 

Nerf Gun. Wells really wants a Nerf gun and has been asking for awhile and I forgot about it for his last birthday. 

Lincoln Log Tree House. The one-year-old AND the five-year-old can happily play with Lincoln Logs together. Adding this to the collection we already have. I love that the original set comes in a tin and we can just keep filling it up and don't have to worry about storage. 

Play sink. Hoping this provides the stimulation of the bathtub and will keep Sutton busy for more than 17 minutes. 

Couch slide. Sutton's big gift from my parents. I've had my eye on this for awhile. I think it looks so fun and useful because she's much more of a climber than Wells ever was. And it folds up. Bonus points there. 

Baby stroller. Sutton loves to push things around. Play mops and brooms, laundry baskets...might as well give her something to utilize. 

I'm really trying to make this the Christmas of less since we'll be traveling for the holidays and I'm not hauling things around which also means we'll be doing 3 Christmases again (I swore I'd never...). I can already sense it getting out of hand :D

What would you add as a *must* for a kid under 5? 

We have tons of Little People, we'll probably end up with some megablocks, Picasso tile bricks are good if you don't have them, and I love Duplos as soon as they hit age 2. 

Shocking No One, Sutton does not do well with Santa.

I could have predicted this. Wells had an absolute fit the first time we tried to introduce Santa Claus at the South Hills Village mall in Pittsburgh. There is no photographic evidence of the experience, aside from this. The next year was 2020 so it was easier not to try. Then, since he was 3 in 2021, we went to Bass Pro and it worked out! Same with 2022. Sutton was too young to realize what was going on last year. I knew exactly how things would go this year but I wasn't going to not try. 

She enjoyed herself very much at the aquarium, though, as usual. 

I think 5 year olds go through an unwilling to smile on cue phase. 

PTL for Thanksgiving break. Here's some memes.

1. I ordered our Christmas cards and some picture prints from Snapfish this week. Last year, I had great success with Walmart but I was trying to do some cropping and editing and realized the options for those features just aren't there, so I went to Snapfish this year. 

2. In addition, I'm thinking of writing a good old-fashioned Christmas letter to send with them. 

3. We have a whole week off for Thanksgiving, praise the Lord. 

4. If you need a show to binge and haven't gotten to it, I watched Reacher this week. So good! Action-packed police drama. It came out in 2022 so I'm behind, and chances are most of you have seen it. Apparently there's a second season coming soon. 

5. Things are going great at the library:

I'm sure I'll be reading these real soon.

6. I ordered a new cleanser from BeautyCounter. I've had this one before and liked it. It's on sale now so I'd snatch it up. It has the cleansing beads. I also splurged on the all over acne treatment because regular moisturizers aren't doing me any favors right now. I really like it. It makes me feel like I'm cleaning and treating my skin without harsh products or oily formulas. Again, also on sale.

7. I was looking for a particular picture on my blog and I never found it, but I did get to read a bunch of old posts in my fruitless search. This post has some of the greatest memes. You should go check it out. 

idk guys. I think Thanksgiving food is the worst genre of food. l love the way it smells when cooking but other than that...

I tried to read the rules to a phonics game I found on TPT for a small group. I could not understand them. I threw the game away. I will never use it. 

100% me. 

LOL. I could make a 3-course dinner every night if given the resource of time-without-a-toddler-clinging-or-screaming.