Christmas Is Coming

As the holiday approaches at the speed of light, I find myself wondering where the time went.  Wasn't it just Christmas 2015, like, the other day?  For that matter, wasn't I just nursing my 1 month old to sleep on Christmas Eve 2014, like, last week???  How is it already Christmas 2016?? How do I already have a TWO YEAR OLD?!  

The big news around here is that Santa is coming.  Mara is finally old enough to have a basic concept of Santa Claus.  That is to say, she can recognize Santa either in live or cartoon/illustration form.  We went and met Santa at the mall on Wednesday.  She didn't cry but she didn't want to sit by him on her own, so I had to come be in the picture too.  But when the photos were done she didn't want to leave him!  She wanted to fist bump him, tell him about her doggies at home and examine his beard.  LOL!

After seeing Santa Claus, we went over to Claire's and Mara got her biggie girl earrings!  She had seen me putting my earrings in about a week before and had been obsessed with the idea of wearing her own earrings ever since.  I explained that she couldn't because her ears weren't pierced.  She ran to Corky saying, "Daddy! I need some pierced ears!"  Needless to say, Daddy gives her pretty much whatever she wants.  She did great.  Didn't even make a peep!  No problem once she was distracted by the candy cane Santa gave her.  She looks so cute and calls them her "Princess earrings".  So far no signs of infection and even though letting me clean them isn't her favorite thing, she tolerates it reasonably well.

The other big news around here is that Mara is finally weaned and, dare I say it, potty trained.  I definitely have a big girl on my hands now, and not a little baby.  Although occasionally I swoop her up cradle-style and she'll say, "I a baby girl."  Which is pretty cute, and I kiss her all over her cheeks and rock her and sing to her.  

Parenting right now is hard.  Mara is very stubborn and can be prone to tantrums.  She doesn't like to listen some of the time.  I often feel as though I'm just hitting my head on a wall when it comes to discipline.  One morning this week, I put her in time out 11 times before 7:30am!  It was one of those things that went like this (although I can't remember what the exact issue was.  I'll just use an example of an issue we often argue about):

Me:  Mara, come put on your underpants, it's time to get ready for school.

Mara: NO!

Me:  Please come here, you've got to wear underpants under your clothes.

Mara: NO UNDERPANTS!  I want wear tights!

Me:  You can wear tights but you need underpants on first.

Mara: (ignores me and continues playing with whatever she was holding)

Me:  Mara, I'm going to count to 3, please come put on your underpants by then or you're going to go into time out for not listening.

Mara: (ignores me)

Me: 1.......2.......3...... OK, into time out you go!

I place Mara in the corner where she proceeds to fling herself back onto the carpet and wail. 30 seconds pass.

Me:  OK, are you ready to listen now?

Mara:  Yes.

Me:  OK, come on out.  Let's put your underpants on.

Mara: NO UNDERPANTS!!!!

And so it repeats.... 

Eventually she'll get really mad and start hitting me, and then it's right back into time out.  And again. And again.

It usually ends with me needing a giant cup of coffee.

This size should do it!

So it's definitely a challenge.  However, there are some really sweet moments too.  Like when I come home from somewhere and Mara comes running up to me yelling, "MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY!!!!" And flings herself into my arms.  Or when she wakes up from a nightmare and cries for me and then snuggles up against me when I lay down with her.  Or, my new favorite, when she tries to tickle me by kissing my neck with her little arms wrapped around me.  

I do love her so.  As frustrating as being her mother can be, there's no other title I'd rather have.

Snowed In 2016

Well we had a miniature version of the ice/snowmageddon that we had in 2014.  Luckily this time I wasn't driving home from anywhere when the storm hit!

It started off innocently enough with lots and lots of wind and some snow flurries.

Nothing too terrible.  The snow was so dry at this point; it reminded me of South Dakota snow.  It blew across the pavement and collected against surfaces (like the pine needles in the above pic).

Soon, however, the ground started looking like this:

Knowing that a) I live way up on a hill, b) my little Mazda is not the best for snow driving and c) that this was just the beginning of the predicted snowstorm, I decided to go pick up Mara early from school.  This turned out to be a good decision because not long after we returned that THIS was the sight from the window:

We hunkered down at home for the afternoon (Corky was at work but he had chains for his car), and soon the snow turned to ice. 

To keep herself entertained during our time of being stuck in the house, Mara (who has an ear infection):

-watched Christmas movies by the light of the tree

-tried to teach Abby to read a clock

-played beauty salon with Abby (the most patient French bulldog that ever lived) and,

-pretended to take Mommy's body fat measurements (she saw corky and me doing this the night before lol)

That evening, corky and I ventured out to Safeway while Mara stayed home with corky's mom and brother. The place was a sheet of ice and we slid all over the place despite the chains.  It was very exciting.

Seattle Spartan - October 2016

Corky, Mara and I took a road trip to Seattle for me to run a Spartan race on October 22.  A Spartan, for those of you who don't know, is like a mud obstacle run.  They have varying lengths, this one was between 3 and 5 miles.  

It was chilly, difficult and MUDDY!  I have never, ever in my life seen so much mud. I was basically brown after the race.  I LOVED IT!  It was so much fun!

Basically, at each obstacle, you get one chance to complete it and if you fail, you have to do 30 burpees. Out of 20 obstacles, I only had to do burpees at 3. 30 burpees are exhausting!  Anyway, here are some pics from the weekend.

The venue:

Done! Exhausted! Muddy!! 

Love hotel mirrors.

Mara does love her Starbucks! 

Puffin! 

Disneyland - December 2016 Part 2

The second day, Mara and I had a breakfast date with a friend of mine who lives in the area. We walked to Downtown Disney and met her and her 2 kiddo's at the rainforest café, which I had no idea served breakfast. Pretty damn tasty breakfast too, I might add!  Anyway, Mara wasn't too sure about the gorillas and stuff in there but she sure had fun chasing my friend's son around while her newborn slept in her carrier like an angel.

Mara spots the diver cleaning the huge aquariums.

After breakfast, my parents and sister picked us up and we headed for Universal Studios. My sister is an avid Harry Potter lover so she was over the moon about the newly opened Harry Potter section there. We had butterbeer first thing - it's delicious!

Poor Mara just could not stay awake

I don't have any other pics from Universal because they're all on either my mom's or my sister's phones, but the remainder of the day included:

-dragging my mom on The Mummy ride

-the Universal Studios tour

-the Jurassic Park ride

-Panda Express

-Starbucks

-meeting Optimus Prime (or Octopus Prime as Mara calls him)

It was awesome and Mara was such a trooper despite a nasty cough, runny nose and low grade fever (which I didn't know she had til we were already there. Oops!)

The next day we packed up and flew home. It was a short but awesome trip!

Disneyland - December 2016

My parents, my sister, Mara and I went to Disneyland for a long weekend on December 1st.  It was great, despite Mara getting sick. I would love to go on vacation just once and not need Mara's Tylenol.  Anyway, here's some pics from the trip. I'm missing several so I might make an additional post later to add them. 

Mara's first time traveling old enough for her own airplane seat. Let's just say it didn't go so well.  Tantrum central. 

The next morning we got up, had breakfast:

And headed to the playground on the hotel grounds to play while we waited for my parents and sister, who aren't as early risers as we are. It was a bit windy! 

We finally made it to Disneyland around 11:30.  Mara was already starting to feel under the weather but, bless her heart, she was a trooper. Here are some assorted pics from Disneyland.

In line for Pirates of the Caribbean (which Mara was terrified of)

Fast passes for my sister's first time on Space Mountain.

In line for Small World (which Mara loooooved!)

I was freezing!