Advent Chain Highlights

Decorating the mailbox!

Taking our Christmas card picture!

Having breakfast with Santa Getting terrorized by Santa!

Soaking in the festivities of the Jackson Christmas parade!

At the Jackson Christmas parade, rocking a reindeer hat made by Mommy's friend, Christina

Making a holiday care package for soldiers serving in Afghanistan
(via www.anysoldier.com, we found a group of 10 soldiers from MO and sent them stockings and some toiletries)

Investigating shipping options for the care package.

 I consider the advent chain a success, though we didn't quite tackle every activity. I'll concede that it was a bit ambitious to commit to an activity every day in December, especially when we're at the mercy of the weather and a baby's nap needs and mood shifts. For example, we ended up taking our Christmas card picture much later than we had scheduled because of a long string of super rainy days (and we reallllly wanted a picture by the Mississippi River), which put us behind ordering our cards, which put us behind mailing our cards, which is why yours will probably arrive in your mailbox tomorrow. And, well, we were supposed to visit the microbrewery here for a seasonal pint, but the one free weekend afternoon we had to do this was the afternoon Arlo decided to take a monster nap. (We'd much prefer a thoroughly-napped bebe to a beer buzz any ol' day anyway.) So, though we left a few activities undone, the advent chain definitely stirred the holiday spirit 'round these parts and was totally worth the effort and $5 we spent to make it. 

One

I've watched the slideshow of Arlo's first year about, oh, a hundred times. I worked on it for a long time one night while Nick was at work, after Arlo had gone to bed. I fiddled with it for so long that my eyes were blurring. My heartstrings were completely taut, and I felt a bit disoriented from all the memories. When I slept that night I dreamed of Arlo as a little baby, and when he stirred in the bed next to me the following morning, I felt as though I awoke next to a giant. His toddler-ness seemed so much more pronounced. I showed Nick the rough draft of the slideshow that morning, too, and as we watched it together I fought a tidal wave of tears. There, in that little nutshell of a slideshow, was the essence of our son's first year of life. Our first year as parents together. A year of so very many firsts.

We decided to go with a woodsy, beary, camp-esque kind of theme for Arlo's first birthday. This was inspired by Arlo's affection for bears, and it also recalled, for us, memories of our first family vacation to Lake Tahoe.

Arlo's party invitation as part of the food table's centerpiece.
The table linens are burlap and flannel.

A paper mache letter I covered in moss,
as well as a black bear Nick free-handed and cut out of cardstock.
(These were my favorite decorations!)

Goodie bags filled with trail mix. The tag reads, Thank you for coming to my party...now take a hike!"

Another handsome black bear and some woodsy decorations.

Arlo's birthday throne! More bears and burlap!

Party nosh: 1)Campers in Sleeping Bags--'cause that's what bears eat (chicken sausages wrapped in puff pastry);
2)Evergreens (spinach salad with mushrooms and warm bacon vinaigrette)
3)Camp Beans (homemade baked beans)
4)Bear Claw Cookies and Acorn Cookies
5)S'mores cupcakes

A close-up of super cute confections! The bear claws are shortbread cookies dipped in melted bittersweet chocolate and studded with almond slivers. The acorns are chocolate kisses topped with nutter butter bites and a little chocolate chip stem.

Opening gifts!

Arlo and his patchwork bear made by Great Grandma Millie.

Time for cake! I made Arlo's birthday cake--it was a sugar-free, whole wheat carrot cake, sweetened with bananas and dates, iced with maple-syrup-spiked cream cheese.

Nom nom nom!

He digs it!

Makin' a merry mess!

Don we now our flannel apparel!

It was a great celebration of our cub's first year--relaxing and warm-spirited and fun. A happy birthday for our happy babe, indeed.

Arlo's First Year

Best year of our lives. Hands down. No competition.

Advent Chain

Though this Christmas is technically Arlo's second Christmas, in many ways it feels like our very first with him.  Last December was a flurry of baby preparation and birth planning. Visions of our soon-to-come sugar plum danced in our heads, and, well, Christmas paled in comparison. And when he arrived not quite a week before Christmas day, everything about him usurped everything else. New parenthood had Nick and I punch-drunk on new baby love and sleep deprivation. (Not much has changed in that department, really.) Last Christmas is a total blur to me, but I distinctly remember feeling exquisitely blessed. Just look at this sleepy, motley crew:

I feel a rekindling of holiday excitement this year, almost a child-like sort of joy about it all, and I know it has everything to do with Arlo. I feel a bubbly sort of eagerness about creating new holiday traditions with Arlo, about helping to craft really potent and lovely holiday memories for our family. I stumbled across the idea for a Christmas activity advent chain on a parenting blog I read, and I immediately loved the idea. I especially love that it's activity-focused and more about doing something together as a family. I've seen other advent activity calendars made into beautiful wreaths or trees, things that you would pull out year after year with your children, but I decided to keep this one simple because Arlo is still so little.

It's made from strips of scrapbook paper, some number stickers (to mark the days), and a little ribbon to display it. You simply pull off the link that corresponds with the date, and written on the inside of the link is a holiday activity to complete for the day. The chain becomes shorter and shorter as Christmas approaches.

The chain's beginning:

 And its end:

 Most of the advent chains I've seen are hung vertically, but if I were to hang ours that way Arlo would enthusiastically rip the whole thing down. I hung ours across our hearth.  

Most of the activities are pretty simple and inexpensive/free, like today's activity: Check out a Christmas book from the library. I've included many activities surrounding giving to others, like Collect items to donate to Goodwill, and Donate canned goods to the food bank, and Make a package to send to troops serving overseas. And others involve going somewhere, like taking a tour of the neighborhood's Christmas lights, watching the Christmas parade, and attending a free holiday concert at the university. I set all of the activities up on my Google calendar as well, so that I'm not surprised and scurrying off to the store when I pull something like Decorate gingerbread cookies off the chain.

It cost last than $5 to make and it was a snap to put together once I came up with 25 activities. I have visions of a more elaborate advent activity calendar for the future, but this one works perfectly for now. I'm sure I will be posting some of our Christmas advent activities here, so stay tuned. 

33

I am now 33 years old. Kinda hard to believe. It's impossible, though, to have a bad birthday when you're greeted with this on your birthday morn:

Nothing says lovin' like a homemade birthday onesie.

We had a relaxing, belly-filling breakfast at our fave little cafe/diner in neighboring Jackson, a place we originally sought out because we heard that they source their eggs from one of the farms that we regularly visit. This particular cafe is also known for its muffins and celebration cakes, and Nick arranged for them to make my birthday cake (dark chocolate with coconut frosting, mmmmm!). After my yummy stack of buttermilk pancakes I indulged in a sweet hunk of birthday cake! 

Aaaand Arlo indulged in a stealthy swipe of the frosting. Of course.

Giant hunk-o-cake? Yes, please.

Needs no caption.

And, in honor of my 33rd year, one of my favorite Iron & Wine covers. This song will forever remind me of Arlo. So simple and prodigious at the same time.

Arlo's First Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving Eve, Nick and I took Arlo to the weekly storytime at the library. Nick’s work hours have been shifted temporarily to the evenings because of the demands of his current project, and initially I was disappointed about (and, okay, sourly resistant to) losing that nighttime togetherness. Turns out that this change has worked out unexpectedly well for us. Nick gets to spend the bulk of his time with Arlo during the day when Arlo’s fresh and fun, instead of in the evenings when he’s walking a fine line between grumpy and overtired. And, even better, Nick gets to share in some of those cool daytime experiences with us, like storytime.
This week at storytime we sang songs about turkeys, learned various baby signs for Thanksgiving-related words, and listened to stories about grand, belly-stuffing meals with loved ones. The library lady who organizes storytime anticipated that the story crowd would be lean due to the holiday, so she excitedly planned a little Thanksgiving craft for the wee ones in attendance. (This storytime group tends to be really large, and sometimes prohibitively so.) Together the three of us made a turkey out of cardstock, construction paper, and finger paint–I traced Nick’s hand, he traced mine, and then we each traced one of Arlo’s. We cut out the various handprints, and these became the feathers of our turkey. We each took turns holding a paint-glopped brush with Arlo, guiding his hand as he painted the turkey’s body. I’m sure you understand that this made me tear up several times: once when I realized that this would be Arlo’s first piece of refrigerator art; again as I watched Nick tracing Arlo’s plump hand; and then again as we both marveled at our turkey in its completion, its plumage made all the more resplendent by the perfect pair of tiny yellow handprints at the center. Oh, how I love those two little hands. And yet, it was the largest handprint in the background–the red cutout of Nick’s hand–that lept off the page at me. Had his work hours not shifted, he would not have been in attendance when we made this turkey, and the turkey (and the whole experience, really) would have been sorely incomplete. It felt like the perfect Thanksgiving takeaway for me, finding a profound gratitude for something as seemingly pedestrian as a piece of red construction paper. There is always something to be grateful for. Sometimes it's hiding, but it is always there.

We spent Arlo's first Thanksgiving with the Watkins fam, which was our first time celebrating a major holiday with them. Arlo and I rose bright and early Thanksgiving morning and Turkey Trotted with Auntie Hannah, which was a chilly, but cheery way to start our day. We met Auntie Sarah and Cousin Lauren for coffee afterwards, which was the first time Lauren had met Arlo. Snuggles ensued. We enjoyed a warm-spirited and relaxing rest of the day, complete with a delicious meal in the jovial company of those we love and have historically seen far too little of.   We returned to Cape Girardeau with full bellies and full hearts.

Thanksgiving Eve airplane ride with Grandpa!

Scootin' around with Auntie Sarah on Thanksgiving!

Gettin' our Turkey Trot on!

So Much to Be Thankful For

My gratitude for this blessed little fleet is unyielding. It keeps my sails full.

Happy Thanksgiving!  

Robot Baby

With the stress of transitioning to our new town, we decided weeks before Halloween that we would take it easy and keep it simple. In early October I found this adorable hooded sweatshirt for Arlo (a total consignment shop steal at $2.50!), and we decided that this would dandily stand-in for any Halloween-related mischief- and merry-making:

But then, while shopping for Arlo's first winter coat (!), we stumbled upon this squishy and squeezably cute robot costume. It only took a few seconds for us to agree that it was coming home with us. (It was also a total consignment shop steal!) We ooohed and awwwed over it, but, as you will see, Arlo thought differently of his new get-up. He was notably far less amused by it than we were.

 
What? You mean robots don't like to have a snack at the dinner table?

And they act all coy and embarrassed when made to take pictures with their parental units?

A robot's favorite thing about Halloween? The trick-or-treaters! He loved standing on the porch with Nick spying on all the spookily adorned little ones and helping hand out candy. Truth be told, the only time he wasn't attempting to free himself from his robot garb was when he was happily distracted by trick-or-treaters.

We had exceptionally well-mannered trick-or-treaters, and it would appear that our new 'hood is quite the Halloween hot spot. Since it was a nice night, we had the windows open, and for hours--even well after our last bit of candy was dispensed and our porch light extinguished--Nick and I smiled at each other every time we heard the costumed foot traffic outside giggling, laughing, and blowing their vuvuzelas.  And Arlo finally smiled at us...once we took off his costume.

Happy Halloween!

Two weekends ago--once I got the date correct, haha--we hit up the public library's pumpkin carving day to add a little festive cheer to Arlo's wee pumpkin. He was way more interested in the other children around him than in the actual carving of his pumpkin, but it was fun to share in this milestone with him. As we brainstormed our design for his pumpkin, I couldn't resist admiring the slightly older children present, merrily chattering away as they sliced big smiles into their hefty pumpkins. I imagined Arlo, years from now, doing the same--chatting animatedly, giggling, and debating spooky carving designs with much seriousness. Though Arlo will not remember this pumpkin or the day we carved it, I have a very difficult time imagining that I'll ever forget it. Can it be that one year ago today he was turning sommersaults inside of me? A year? Already?

Are you ready to carve your pumpkin, Arlo?

Need some time to think about it, lil' guy?

Daddy making the first cut!

(I love that this picture shows the scale of of Arlo's pumpkin.

It really is a little one!)

Mmmm...pumpkin guts! So squishy, so fun, so all over the floor!

A little star for our little star!

All carved and lit! Wooo!

(It would appear that Arlo is not as stoked as his mama

about this new modification to his pumpkin.)

All done! Let's get our Halloween on!

Exploring Downtown Cape

In those short weeks before we made our move out to the midwest, between the purging and the packing, I was doing feverish research on our new hometown. I thought about all of the things I enjoyed about Fredericksburg--our walkable proximity to downtown and to a handful of different parks, the library and its storytimes, the coffee shop, our CSA, the farmers' market, my moms and babies group--and I began to search for those kinds of things in Cape. Behold the power of the interwebs, y'all. And more specifically, the power of Facebook. I was able to find numerous little connections to our new locale--the public library, the downtown merchants' association, the natural food store, a couple of family farms, and a farmers' market--all on Facebook. I "liked" them, and they kept me posted from far away on the haps in the Cape area. It was a neat little meet-and-greet of sorts, and it went a long way towards making our new city feel less foreign.

Last Saturday, Cape Girardeau Public Library posted that they were hosting a pumpkin carving event, and since returning some books was already on our to-do list for Saturday, I eagerly suggested that Arlo "carve" his pumpkin while we were there. Only, when we got there, there was no such event to be found. A quick inquiry at the check-out desk revealed that the pumpkin carving was scheduled for Sunday. So, the lesson is: while your Facebook feed is handy, it is only handy when you read the dates correctly. Whoopsie.

 

We were so stoked to carve our pumpkin that we took a picture on the way into the library. These smiles are before everyone realized that I had botched the dates. Hehe. Oh well.

Not about to waste our trip to the library, we let Arlo explore its play area for the little ones. Isn't this the neatest set-up? He had a great time!

Here is our baby toddler, mid-walking. (Yes, I dressed my kid like a hayseed. We were at a farm earlier in the morning. We have pictures to share of that soon.)

Turning big gears, making big noises, having big fun.

After a little romp at the bibliotheque, we headed down to the banks of the mighty Mississippi River and took in the murals along the river walk.

There are about a bajillion murals, just so you know.

And afterwards, we stepped into the local microbrewery to see what they offer in terms of tasty pints, and found that they had several seasonal brews on tap. Nick had a harvest ale, and I had a pumpkin ale. As we took this picture he turned to me and said, "This picture is not appropriate for the blog." But then, Arlo adorably raised his sippy cup in a cheery toast as Nick snapped it, and I couldn't resist posting it. Sorry, Nick! We sat on the second floor and watched barges slowly float down the river, sipping our brews (and Arlo his water), and it was a lovely way to end the afternoon.