Bradford the Elf

I moved the Elf on Friday night.

But on Saturday I forgot.

And then on Sunday I forgot.

So Monday morning before getting G out of bed, Erik had to make a quick decision and this is where our Elf ended up.

Yes, that *is* the worlds largest bottle of vodka. It has to live a'top the fridge because it's too big to fit in the cabinet (seriously, it's the length of an adults arm). And I'm pretty sure the level of booze was above the K before Bradford got a hold of it.

Low Key Weekend

We had such a lovely, relaxed weekend this weekend, I can't help but share it.

Friday night was Erik's last late night of school work until mid-January. I think I've mentioned before that he's been working on his masters degree, and does all his work after work once we get the kids in bed. We barely see each other during the week apart from short daily meetings at the breakfast and dinner table where we referee and love on crying babies.

Saturday morning I let Erik sleep in and G and I got up and made Egg Nog pancakes (incredible, BTW! I just used the Pioneer Woman's recipe and replaced the milk with Nog, added a little extra milk and some nutmeg and cinnamon), bacon and eggs a la Grant (he's the best egg whipper around). Once Erik got up, we popped some champagne for mimosas and sat down to eat.

Saturday night we all (dogs included, for some reason) piled on the couch to watch The Polar Express. I'd never seen it, so I didn't know it was going to freak G out. He woke up in the middle of the night with bad dreams, presumably about the creepy puppet and the dude on top of the train, that he kept calling a ghost. We tried to tell him that we thought he was the Christmas spirit but he wasn't buying it. And seriously, where the hell did my kid hear about ghosts?!

Sunday was low key as well. We skipped church because the roads were absolutely wrecked and I drew the lucky sleep-in straw and Piper didn't get me up to eat until 10 (she'd eaten at 7). Man oh man I felt like a whole new person! We've been getting snow just absolutely dumped on us, so both Saturday and Sunday Erik and G went out to shovel the walkway and the driveway. G thinks that's playing in the snow. He has a little shovel and he totally helps Erik get the areas clean. Hey, if it works for him, it works for us!

Sadly for us, Erik went back to work today, though since the university is on break, I don't think they'll be very busy. His parents come Thursday to celebrate an early Christmas with us, before we're on our own for the actual holiday. This is the first year G is really "getting" Christmas, and I'm so excited!

5 Reasons I Cloth Diaper

1. Let's get to the nitty gritty right off the bat - I have fewer poop dealings. A)Because cloth diapers "blow out" far, far less (if ever), B) Exclusively breast-fed baby poop is water-soluble so I can just throw the poopy diaper and whatever wipes I needed in the washer. Rinse, wash, rinse, dry. Bam.

2. They're insanely cheap in comparison to disposables. In one more month, we'll make back all the money I spent buying top of the line organic cotton cloth diapers (initially... - meaning, excluding the $100ishhhhh I spent on Black Friday on diapers I don't have to do anything with but pull out of the dryer) by not having to buy disposables. And this with still having her in disposables at night (that were buy 1 box, get one box free during P's I'm-too-tired-to-think-about-snaps newborn phase) - so I've spent a grand total of $25 on disposable diapers for P in her lifetime. I haven't bought ANY diapers for either child since early-August. I feel like a millionaire! (and YAY potty training!!!)

3. A freshly laundered basket of diapers is the best feeling ever. It's like the relief of having a new box of diapers. For free. And without having to hassle with going to the store or breaking open the box (because where the hell are the scissors when you need them?) and forcing open the plastic wrap.

4. My baby's Carbon Footprint is less than your baby's Carbon Footprint. Unless you consider the heater that we have to constantly run now, but I guess that's with all babies in winter...

5. Holy crap are they cute. At first I thought people who liked "fluffy butts" had some issues. They make P's clothes lay funny and that irritates me - HOW can people find this cute? Now I know they just meant the print (or, at least I do). Plain old Elmo printed Pampers are lame. P's Hula Girl pocket diaper is where it's at!

A fresh "box" of diapers. Note the cute Hula Girl diaper in the top left. :)

RIP Ocean Wonders Baby Swing

A few days ago, our baby swing died.

We weren't too sad. It was a hand-me-down from before we had G, and it was battery operated. The batteries we went through per child ran us more than just buying a new swing, but if you don't already know this about us, we're pretty frugal when it comes to "things," we'd rather pay for experiences - this is why we've lugged what I estimate to be a 15 year old, non-matching washer and dryer set all over the country.

But the swing death left us unprepared and I went through 2 of the hardest days with P since she came home. That girl NEEDS her swing for her long mid-morning to early afternoon nap. NEEDS. The first day, she just didn't take the nap at all. So that was awesome... The second day, I literally rocked her for 4 hours. I didn't mind, but it kind of threw me off my rhythm and I haven't really been in the mood to do any naptime housework since (that's my story and I'm stickin' to it).

But the internet came to the rescue and a "mere" 36 hours later, a new swing was sitting on our snow covered porch. I opened the door and exclaimed "thank you, Jesus!"

Now, I told you all that, to tell you this:

I've cancelled Christmas.

There is nothing G could possibly enjoy more than the box the swing came in. He spends HOURS in it a day. It's already starting to come apart at the seams and I'm thinking about fixing it. Yeah, it's a huge box in my living room, but it contains all our main floor toys and they aren't scattered all over anymore. Plus, it's brown, and that kind of goes with our color scheme.

The Elf on the Shelf

For a long time I thought that the idea of the Elf on the Shelf was just plain creepy (um, because it is!) but Erik suggested we get one in order to help Grant behave a little better - because our attempts were most definitely falling short.

So we put in our order for an Elf (either from Santa or Barnes and Noble, believe what you like) and the Saturday after Thanksgiving he showed up, bringing with him a special breakfast to kick off the season.

We ate our snowball donuts and yogurt parfaits, and read the book that the Elf brought with him and gave him a name - Bradford! (Since he came to join our family while we live in Bradford). He also brought along a Santa blanket, because the one G has is as tattered as tattered can be. Those $5 Walmart blankets aren't meant to be washed.