Christmas 2011

I absolutely love Christmas. It truly is a magical time. And even more so that I get to experience it as a parent of a small child. To see their eyes light up when they realize Santa brought them just what they asked for is priceless. When my parents used to tell us as little kids that they don't want anything for Christmas, I would stare at them in disbelief. What do you mean, nothing? Seriously?!? But I get it now. The best present of all is seeing your child experience the magic of Christmas.

After a morning of opening presents, I made Mike's favorite, homemade pandesal, while the two put together and played with all her new toys. In the evening, we went out to what has now become a Christmas tradition for us- the movies. This year we watched 'The Adventures of Tin Tin'. It was Mike's pick, but we all enjoyed it.

Christmas was wonderful for the Augustines and I hope it was for you and yours, too!

"Is it all for me?!?"



Santa came through and brought Grace her much asked for purple unicorn pillowpet and purple teddy bear!

Can't go wrong with Hello Kitty either...

Check out that look of concentration.

Pearl earrings from Grandma and Grandpa! Honestly, the child's jewelry collection is quickly surpassing my own.


When Mike and I decided to buy a steamer vacuum the week before Christmas, we agreed that would be our Christmas present to each other. So imagine my surprise when he gave me a Nook tablet! The perfect present for a bookworm like me.

Ready for Santa

Our Christmas Eve day was very laid back. Grace and Mike worked on Christmas crafts while I was busy in the kitchen cooking our traditional Christmas Eve dinner.

When we weren't cooking or crafting, we were just hanging out anticipating Jesus' birthday and Santa's late night visit.

After enjoying our dinner, we got ready to go out to Midnight Mass. Luckily, our church's midnight service was actually at ten o'clock. I don't know if I would have made it through if it was truly at midnight. I wasn't sure how Grace would do with such a late night, but she did great. Despite the late hour, she had tons of energy, but was pretty well behaved. I was afraid we'd have trouble getting her to sleep, but a quick little reminder that Santa doesn't visit until she goes to sleep was enough motivation for her.

The girl is definitely ready for Santa.

Decorating her gingerbread house.

Ready for Christmas dinner.

Decorating Santa's cookies.

Grace was fascinated with the 'activity' (nativity) this year.

Legoland

Right before Christmas we took a trip to Legoland. I learned a couple of things. Even though it was the end of December, you better make sure you have something else on other than a white tank top under a cardigan unless you want to walk around all day long like you're wearing a wife beater. Not a pretty sight when you're nearly 6 months pregnant. It was a hot, hot day.

I also learned that when Mike says a trip is for Grace, sometimes it's really for him. Actually, I learned that a while ago ever since he took me to what he said was going to be a romantic weekend getaway to Nikko, Japan. We ended up staying in a quaint (to put it nicely) lodge that had no heat in the middle of winter. And his ulterior motive? To see a model exhibit. Seriously.

Grace also learned something at Legoland. She learned that sometimes, it's okay to fib about your age. Although she met the minimum height requirement for the rides, some of the rides required you to be at least three years old, too. So thanks to her daddy's coaching, when the ride attendant asked her how old she was, she held up three fingers instead of two and was allowed to get in.

I didn't find all this out until afterwards. On the ride back home, we started talking about her upcoming birthday. I asked her how old she was and she said, I'm two years old, but at Legoland, I'm this much (holding up three fingers)."

All in all, it was a fun day and a nice start to our Christmas weekend.






This zebra safari ride was her absolute favorite. At the end of the afternoon, she wanted to ride it again, but the poor thing was so exhausted by then that she fell asleep during the ride.

Pup's 1st Picture

I had to get the anatomy scan redone this morning because they were unable to get a good view of the baby's heart on Friday due to her position. We went to a specialty clinic where they were able to get amazing 3D images. We weren't expecting to get such a lovely little peek at her sweet face, but it was absolutely wonderful! And best of all, her anatomy scan showed everything is growing normally and baby girl is healthy.

Christmas Lights, Treats, and the Chipmunks

That's pretty much what we've been up to the past couple of days. We drove around and looked at the Christmas lights, we made special treats for our friends and neighbors, and we watched the new Chipmunk movie.

All of it fun. Except for maybe the movie. I didn't think it was possible to fall asleep to a Chipmunk movie with all the singing and dancing done in chipmunk voices that, now that I'm older, I find annoying instead of cute. But I totally took a little nap in the middle until Mike woke me up to ask me if I was okay. But Grace absolutely loved it, and I suppose that's all that counts.




All was going well with the gingerbread decorating until the Grinch song came on. Grace is terrified of it and leaped from her seat and straight into her daddy's arms.

I put her in charge of peeling the Hershey kisses and putting the chocolates in a bowl. I stepped away for a minute and when I went back to check on her progress, I noticed that there were a bunch of wrappers, but only a few chocolates in the bowl. The girl was busy eating our key ingredient for our neighbors' treats! I made sure to supervise the candy peeling from that point on.

She said Simon is her favorite chipmunk. I'm okay with that since he's the smart and responsible one. I hope her taste in boys don't change!

A Visit With Santa

Grace's very first visit with Santa was disastrous- she cried inconsolably. Her second visit went a little better- there weren't any tears, but she needed to be heavily convinced to get close to him and almost refused to sit on his lap.

This year went perfectly. She was excited the entire time we were waiting in line. She nearly cut in front of four families in her excitement to see him and I stopped her from going into the gingerbread house (or Santa's vacation house as Grace calls it) just in time. And when it was finally her turn, she willingly sat on his lap and talked to Santa as if they were lifelong friends.

But the fact that it went so well made me a little sad. I kind of liked it when she was a little fearful because, to me, it meant that she was still a baby. The fact that she no longer has any fear of the man in red means she's growing up. And growing up too fast for my taste.

Still, she enjoyed her visit with Santa and can hardly wait to see what he brings her for Christmas.

It's a good thing, too, that Christmas is only a few short days away because Grace is starting to lose patience with the concept of the Christmas wish list. While we were out shopping today, she spotted some candy she wanted to buy at the register. Normally, she would tell me that she'll just put it on her list, but tonight she said, "I don't want to put it on my Christmas list anymore! I want to get it right NOW!"

Having a serious conversation with Santa and reminding him to bring her a purple bear for Christmas.

Eating a snack and waiting to visit Santa in his 'gingerbread vacation house'.

Grace's First Dance Performance

I was a little worried how Grace's first public dance performance would turn out. She was a little under the weather the night before and so missed the last practice before the performance. She absolutely refused to nap during the day so she was a little on the cranky side. There was a huge crowd and some of the younger kids got stage fright and stood absolutely still during the dance or cried, and I was almost positive she would fall into that category, too.

There was a frantic, "I gotta go pooootty!" moment right at the beginning of her second number, but since the dance literally takes only a minute and a half, I chanced it and let her go on without rushing her to the bathroom. But other than that, she did fantastic! This girl is is not afraid of the limelight and seemed to enjoy being the center of attention. I have no idea where she gets that from.





A big thank you to our dear friend, Liezel, who came out and supported our tiny dancer!

It's a Girl! (Part 2)

Just as sure as I was that Grace was a girl , I thought this one was a boy. I crave different kinds of food this pregnancy, 'man food' like steaks and burgers. And for a while, my sweet tooth went missing because I couldn't stand the things that I normally love like ice cream and donuts- the exact things I just had to have when I was pregnant with Grace.

The body changes are different, too. I have major heartburn this time around, something I never experienced with Grace. That dark line that I had running down my belly with Grace is absent this time around. I broke out like a teenager with Grace, and now, my face is pretty clear, albeit quite shiny.

So when at my check up a month ago, the nurse midwife did a quick little ultrasound and announced she thought the baby was a girl, I was taken aback. I was already starting to look at baby boy clothes and nursery decor.

Secretly though, I was thrilled. I wanted another little girl! Can you imagine the fun to be had at dressing two sweet little angels? In matching smocked dresses and bows, no less?

But the nurse midwife warned me that she could be wrong since her ultrasound machine wasn't the best and to wait until our anatomy scan to be absolutely sure.

Four weeks later, the technician who performed the anatomy scan confirmed what I was hoping for: It's a girl!

What a Day!

If I knew how crazy today was going to be, I would have bought a bag of chocolates to have ready at the end of the day as my reward for surviving it all. Let me just forewarn you that if you don't want to read about vomit, diarrhea, and toilet water, just stop right now. But if that kind of stuff doesn't bother you, then read on.

The day started out so well. Grace slept in until 9, which is unheard of around here. After a leisurely morning we headed out to run a few errands before her doctor's appointment at 1:45.

Five minutes before we get to the first store we were going to, Grace told me she had to go potty. I told her to hold it for just a couple more minutes because we were almost there. But apparently, this wasn't the kind that could be held in and she got sick all over herself. I immediately made a u-turn and headed for home because there was no way I could clean her and the car seat up with the supplies I had with me.



I stripped her naked as soon as I pulled her out of the car seat and then let her run around outside like that as I took the dirty seat out of the car.

I dragged the child and dirty seat inside and continued to let her run around without clothing- I was going to give her a bath anyway- as I did my best to quickly clean the car seat of vomit since we were now only 45 minutes away from her doctor's appointment.

When I was almost finished with the car seat clean up, I went to check on her and saw that she was completely naked.


I also noticed that there was something on my coffee table that suspiciously looked like throw up so I asked her, "Oh, honey, did you just get sick on the table?" She looked at me and said, "No, Mama, that's poop." She was going to the doctor for a nagging cough and congestion and now I guess I can add diarrhea to the list of complaints as well.

Surprisingly, I stayed calm and just carried her to the bathroom, told her to stay put because she was getting a bath in a minute, cleaned up and sanitized every inch of my coffee table, and then went back to finishing the car set clean up.

The next thing I know, my little helper has filled her little bathroom bucket with water and is announcing she wants to help me clean, as her bucket overflows with water, spilling all over her naked self and the floor.

I took the bucket from her, told her thank you very much but I'm nearly finished, and told her I would be in the bathroom to give her a bath in ten seconds.

I finally finish with the car seat so I quickly head to the bathroom, noticing along the way that she had spilled water all over the hallway floor, the walls, and the bathroom floor.


But when I come upon her like this, something dawns on me...

ME: Grace, where did you get all that water you were going to use to help Mama clean up the car seat, the sink or the toilet?

GRACE: (Giggling with delight) The toilet!

At this point, I just break down and start crying. I now have twenty minutes until her doctor's appointment. I still have to bathe my child who has vomit, poop, and toilet water on her. And I now have to mop and sanitize my floors and hallway walls. Not to mention that because of all this unexpected clean up, I have yet to eat lunch. And a pregnant woman doesn't do hungry well. At least not this one.

Miraculously, I managed to clean everything up and make it to the doctor's on time.

But after all that, I was done for the day. Mike ended up going to his work Christmas party alone. Which was probably just as well because he decided to go all out with his Virginia Tech attire...

*When I was telling Mike this story, he was amazed that even though I was hysterical crying at the end, I still managed to remember to take pictures. That's because as upset as I was at the situation, I also knew that once the moment passed, this would be one of those stories that I want to remember when my baby is all grown.