Another Holiday Craft and Free Holiday Cards

Growing up, my mom put a framed collage of vintage Santas over our piano during the holidays. (I think here grandmother had made it for her.) Eventually she started leaving it up all year and telling us that Santa was always watching, so we had better practice that piano! I remember staring at those glittery Santas, longing to go play (aka NOT practice the piano) but also wanting more than a lump of cole come Christmas. Now that I have a piano, it was time to make a Santa collage of my own. So here it is!


On another note, I wasn’t planning on doing a Christmas card this year, mostly because I don’t have any great pictures of the four of us to use, but my friend Desirae blogged about how Shutterly is doing a promo for bloggers: blog about their promo, and earn yourself 50 free cards. Sweet! So here’s my blog, and soon I’ll be getting my free cards. :) I was actually pretty impressed with their designs. (Your can them out here and here.)

Btw, this year I am hoping to make a big holiday craft (I can’t get it out of my system!) to display my Christmas cards: an empty photo frame with twine strung across it that I “clothespin” your cards to. (If I actually make it, you know I’ll blog it!) So send me a card and you will be immortalized in our home—through December anyway! And use Shutterly, and you can do it all for free. ☺

Growing Growing Growing

Doesn't he seem way too young to be doing this?

Today at church three people saw him crawling around and said something along the lines of "Where did the time go?" I know! Mostly I'm just grateful, because I feel like I have a handle on life again. The first six months with Chase, particularly with Trenton being just 18 months older, were a bit of a whirl. But now the fun is beginning in this house! Trenton is starting to take more notice of Chase, and he sometimes even plays alongside of him AS IF THEY ARE FRIENDS! At least for a couple of minutes, anyway. :) Sometimes Chase chatters in the backseat of the car, and Trenton imitates him. And when I go into Trenton's room first thing in the morning and Chase wanders in on his hands and knees, Trenton gets excited and says, "Chase comin' in!!" I can't wait to see their friendship develop.

Here's to the last nine months and the next, say, 18 years!

Getting Crafty, Part 2

Apparently I used crafts to fill the void Ryan left for three weeks. (Well, that and a little shopping. :) Tutorial found here. I have one more holiday craft up my sleeve. It involves a styrofoam Christmas tree, a million coffee filters, and a whole lot of hot glue. Hopefully coming soon...!


It was a little more labor intensive than I was expecting. It took me about two hours, but I'm happy with the results!

A little known fact about yours truly...

I'm 25 years old and I have restless leg syndrome.

Right now I'm tired but cannot sleep because my legs feel like they're going to run away from me! From what I've read online, it has a genetic component, and my Grandpa Williams had it. If I do indeed have it, it's a mild case—really just something to laugh about because it's funny to say you have "restless leg syndrome." :) Some people say it's stress related, and interestingly, I've had it a lot during these three weeks Ryan has been out of town. People describe it as a "creeping" feeling in the legs, most often noticed at night when you're trying to sleep. (Williams ladies - Is anyone else with me on this??)

So you know that game where you have to tell two truths and one lie about yourself and other people guess the lie? I now have a great truth to add to the mix!

In other news, Ryan comes home tomorrow night!! These weeks have passed slowly, and I am eager move on with life! And with a great guy no less!

The Chase-ster

Saturday morning we drove to Baker Beach in San Francisco. It was beautiful but pretty chilly. After all, it is November. Maybe we'll have to finally admit to ourselves that beach season (at least for this desert girl) is over. We also swung by Arizmendi Bakery, a bakery near Golden Gate Park that serves great pizza-by-the-slice. (Daily pizza menu here.)

I love this picture of my sweet baby. It blows my mind that he will be 9 months old on the 18th. I see newborns and think Chase is still one of them!

Don't miss the story of Trenton's big boy bed transition below!

Jailbreak!

I'm surprised it took him this long, but on Saturday the T-Monster finally climbed out of his crib. Twice. I put him down for a nap, and only moments later he was out of his room asking me for leche. I could tell from the little lift in his step that he was pretty darn pleased with himself. So I put him back in the crib and watched silently from the doorway as he climbed out again. That boy moves like a fox! It looked like he'd been doing it all his life.

Luckily, we've been talking a lot about his big boy bed lately. (He likes to say that his crib is "getting old.") So Saturday was as good a day as any to make the switch. I settled him in the twin bed and left the room. Then each time he tried to come out, I would walk him back to his bed without saying anything. Below are his attempts, in order of occurrence, at flouting his newfound freedom.

1. "Leche?"
2. "Crib?"
3. "Fader?" meaning "Can we say another prayer?"
4. "Monkeys?" while holding his monkey book.
5. At my redirection he climbed right in bed, and as I put his blankies over him, his only word was "sorry."(the little sweetheart)
   
6. I can't remember this one...
7. Forgot this one too...
   
8. As I redirected him, his only words this time: "Go sleep." (Me thinking, yes please!)
9. "Yogurt?"

After attempt #9, he fell asleep on the carpet, snuggled up with his blankies, halfway between his bed and the door. That night, it only took one attempt, and ever since then, zero.

I cannot believe my boy is in a real bed! It was one of those moments when Ryan and I just looked at each other, reeling that he is growing up. Next thing we know he'll be wearing underpants! (AAHHH!)

All Talk

I have been loving age 2. It's so much fun to see Trenton's language progress. He talks just enough for it to be cute and useful but not enough for it to be incessant or annoying. (They tell me it might get that way eventually. :)

I love it when he shares a memory out of the blue, like when he was talking in his crib the other day before falling asleep, and I heard, "Gemma's house. Cake!" It had been a couple of weeks since we'd had cake at his friend Gemma's house, but obviously he was still thinking about it!

One of his current favorite conversations is about Christmas. At least once every day he says, "Christmas. Grandpa! Drive. Long time." Translation: "Christmas is coming. We're going to see Grandpa! We're going to drive to Utah, but we have to wait a long time." He occasionally throws a "Candy!" in there too.

Today as we were eating lunch, he rested his little head on the table, looked right at me, and very deliberately said something he has never said to me before: "Big brother. (Pause) Chase's big brother." I gave him lots of praise for this because we don't talk a ton about how he's a big brother, mostly because he's just not terribly interested in Chase yet. :)

After the praise, he looked at me again and tried another new word, "Su-eet." He was trying to say "sweet"! I could tell because he cocked his head to the side and made the sweetest little expression you've ever seen! And it gets even better. After I praised him some more and agreed that he is a very sweet boy, he said, "Hug" and held out his arms. He wrapped them around me and gave me little pats. (Ultimately, the pats distracted him because then he started trying to "burp" me, but that's not the point of this story.)

His bedtime prayer tonight cracked me up; it's pretty representative of how his prayers usually go. "Heaven Fader. Thank you - Daddy. Texas. (Daddy's in Texas right now.) Tuca. (We have no idea what this word is, but he says it nearly every night with a big smile on his face!) Bless us safe. Christ. AMEN!"

Praying with a toddler is so much fun! I was amazed at how quickly he started inserting his own words, not just repeating ours. For a while there, he thanked Heavenly Father for "broccoli" in every prayer. (We had no idea he liked broccoli that much!) Chase, Mommy, the park, and his friends Colton and Sophee (Foo-fee) also make regular appearances. Uncle Kyle made it in the other night, and it's been months since Kyle was here.

For a while Trenton was really into prepositions. I think we owe his Dr. Suess books for that. Now he's really into pronouns. He correctly uses "my" regularly. But he also likes to say "her." My favorite is when he refers to himself as a "her." ("Her turn!" he says, referring to himself. So funny.) He's also getting the hang of "I." We hear a lot of "I do it!" around here. Maybe it's my nerdy editing/Engligh background, but I think it's fascinating to see his language skills develop.

If you read all of this, you deserve a big fat gold star! The point is, we love our Mr. T!

Oh how I love those legs.