Matt & Andrea Thieman

Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful. Wait a minute…we don’t have a fireplace, nor do we have any type of stove to allow a fire to be safe in our home. Never the less, I’ve been singing the famous “Let It Snow” song to Carter for weeks now. I know all the words, and the tune is fairly fun, so it has been my Christmas song of choice. Maybe I should have picked a different song though because over the next few days we’re supposed to get more snow…and wind…on top of this rain-turning-to-ice that’s falling outside right now. I can’t help but think that I’ve been singing to Mother Nature for the good white stuff, even though that wasn’t my intention. On Sunday, Matt was reading online about the large amount of expected snow fall, and decided he’s getting too old to shovel snow. I offered to shovel if he would do the laundry and dishes for whichever week it snows, but he didn’t like that option. So, he went out and bought a snow blower (Merry Christmas to Matt, I guess). I can only hope we actually get a decent amount of snow just one more time this year – maybe in the next couple of days.

Last weekend was another busy one, but a lot of fun for us. Matt’s mom and her friend Chuck came to visit us all here in Lincoln, so on Friday evening we headed out to say ‘hi’ and hang out for a little while. We didn’t stay long though since Carter needed to get to bed – he didn’t go to sleep until 9pm that night…yikes! After he went to bed, I made a white chocolate cheesecake, Kentucky pecan pie, pumpkin pie, a cheese ball, and cut up meat & cheeses for Saturday. I was in charge of dessert and everyone was supposed to bring a snack for “lunch” on Saturday…I always go overboard. Anyway, Saturday, we went out to Tod and Andrea’s around 12:30 so they could attend Tyler’s Christmas program at his daycare while we made sure the prime rib roast (compliments of Pat) was done to perfection. After dinner that evening, we opened gifts. Carter was spoiled with a toy mailbox, sleepers, and a new sweatshirt from Uncle Tod & Aunt Andrea, and some new maracas from Uncle Jamee & Aunt Codi! The spoiled little boy was too tired to play long that night, but he’s been using all of his gifts this week.

Once all of the children went to sleep, it was adult time – yay!!  I don’t get adult time very often these days.  I had been drinking wine for the majority of the evening, but liked the looks of the Colorado bulldogs Andrea was having, so I talked her into making one for me.  I think that was my first mistake.  Asking her to refill my glass was my second mistake…and my third…and I think my fourth.  I don’t remember much after the third bulldog.  While I was drinking all of these bulldogs, we were playing a game called “Things” that turned out to be hilarious, so I pretty much giggled the whole time and came in last place because of my inability to control my giggle.  After the second round of the game, I passed out…not sure where, but woke up for a brief minute while Matt was carrying me to bed.

Sunday morning was a little rough.  Carter was up at his usual 7am, and like every other morning, I was the one to attend to his needs.  Once I realized that he didn’t need to lie down with us and get more sleep, I got up and got everything packed up and ready to go.  Even though all I wanted to do was to lie down to get some rest and shut eye once we got home, I spent time hanging out with our little munchkin and cleaning here and there around the house.  We also took Carter sledding again and he seemed to enjoy it a little more than the first time…maybe because it was warmer.  I got my sleep during Carter’s afternoon nap that day, and Matt got his snow blower, so it was a productive 2 hours for all of us!

Santa Clause came to Carter’s daycare today, and I was fortunate enough to get an hour off of work to go see his reaction to the jolly old man.  He wasn’t sure what to think, so he just stared at him the entire time.  At least he didn’t cry!!

This week has been so short (thank goodness) and busy.  I’m looking forward to relaxing for the next four days and to celebrating Carter’s first Christmas.

Looking at the weather forecast I think I’ll change my tune…”We Wish You a Merry Christmas” is a better choice!  We hope everyone has a safe and merry Christmas.

Oh yeah, incase you missed it, the Steelers beat the Packers last Sunday!

Last week, we got the first snow storm of the season (and hopefully the last).  On Tuesday, Mother Nature decided to blanket Lincoln with 10 or 12 inches of snow, and then that evening, she blew it into lovely snow drifts – she’s such an artist.  Lucky for Matt, we have some generous neighbors who already had our driveway snow blown and shoveled open by the time I arrived home at 5pm (thank you Donny, Gino, Chris, and Jason)!!  On Wednesday, Carter’s daycare closed (along with every other school and daycare in the state of Nebraska), and so I stayed home with Carter.  Once the snow plows pushed the snow off the streets, we were blessed once again with the help of a neighbor who brought his snow blower over and took care of the large clump of snow the plow had created (thank you Jerry)!!  Matt and I split the baby watching duties on Thursday when we got notification that the daycare would be closed another day since the second care provider got stuck in her residential street while attempting to get to work.  I was fine with it though.  The extreme cold temperatures that followed the storm were hard for me to bear and I didn’t even want to think about taking Carter out in it.

By Sunday, the weather had warmed up and Matt was getting tired of being cooped up in the house, so he made a trip to town and bought a baby sled for Carter.  At first, Carter thought it was the coolest walker as it would glide so easily through the house!!

But then we bundled him up, had the dogs come outside with us, and took him sledding for the very first time.  He had a grand time, and we enjoyed getting out of the house for a little while too.

For most of the weekend though, I was busy making Christmas goodies.  Covered pretzels, mini sugar cookies, fudge, jelly candies, chocolate & caramel brownies, chex mix, cashew clusters, and cake balls all made the recipe list this year.  Matt was sweet enough to keep Carter out of the kitchen most of the time, and by Sunday afternoon at 4pm, I was finished with all of it.  We made our rounds to the neighbors’ homes, headed out to Tod & Andrea’s (where Andrea was gracious enough to have us stay for a bowl of soup with them – thank you again!), and then to Jamee & Codi’s.  Mr. Carter was getting pretty tired by the time we made it home (8pm, I think), but it felt good to spread a little Christmas cheer with our early sweets disbursement.  I think I’ll do my Christmas baking early every year.  It’s less stressful when it’s not the weekend right before Christmas!

Carter has been growing like crazy these days!  A couple of weeks ago, I packed away all of his 9 month clothes and hung up the 12 month ones so they’re ready for use.  However, I don’t think he’ll be in his 12 month clothes for very long unless he stops growing.  The pant legs and shirt sleeves are fitting him perfectly right now, which means there’s not much room to grow.  I’m going to be pretty bummed if he’s only in 12 month clothes for a month!  Not only is it a waste of clothes, but I hardly have any 18 month winter clothes.  He had his 9 month doctor appointment today too (even though he’s 9.5 months old).  He’s now 27 3/4 inches long and 21 lbs even.  He still has the short chubby thing going on as he’s in the 25th percentile for height, but the 50th percentile for weight.

Carter is also working to eliminate the use of his pacifier!  I purposefully left it out of his bedtime routine on Monday night in an attempt to just see how he’d do without it – he really only used it while sleeping or when he was sick.  After three minutes of crying and about 5 minutes of grunting around, he fell asleep and slept for the entire night.  The next day, Amanda left it out of his naptime routine and she said he did just fine falling asleep without it.  Tuesday and Wednesday nights were definitely more difficult than Monday as he woke up and had to cry himself back to sleep (although it’s never longer than a couple of minutes).  I fear that giving it back to him will only get him more attached to the thing though, so we’ve been getting through without it.  I’m sure it will improve as time goes on.  Amanda said it usually takes one week without it before they get over the thing all together, and everything I’ve read says to dispose of the habit before they’re 10 months old, so I just hope we’re doing the right thing.

Yesterday, I convinced my co-workers that we should do a weight loss challenge once we return from the holidays.  Everyone participating will donate $10, and then the person who loses the biggest percentage of their starting weight, will win 100% of the entry fees.  Then, I realized that I need to put on some weight so I’ll have more to lose.  So, for the last two days and over the course of the next three weekends, I’m going to eat and drink as much as I can in hopes of putting on a few pounds before the challenge begins.  Okay, so maybe that’s not the best strategy, but it’s a great excuse to eat, drink, and be merry. 

This week has flown by, and I can’t believe Christmas is only a week away!  Yay!!