Frosty Movie Night

My favorite part of this whole Elf on Shelf thing is when Conductor clues Noah into an activity we planned. This has been my favorite full circle day.
 

Day 13 started with a gift from Conductor, Frosty the Snowman and hot chocolate and marshmallow! I basically bribed Noah into napping, and pretty much everything else this day, by saying, "You better... or we won't watch Frosty after dinner!"
 

Noah has never had hot chocolate or chocolate milk before.

blurry photo because he could not stand still

What do you know, he liked it.

blurry photo because he could not stand still

Ready for the movie!

And the day ended with all of us in matching snowman PJs.

PJs' are from The Children's Place. If buying for a man, buy a size larger than suggested.

 

Happy ?? Holidays.

It's been a little rough around here lately. I've been struggling; Noah's been struggling; we've been struggling to like each other all day long. We dealt with some major jet lag for at least 6 days after our return to NC. Right after Noah started sleeping through the night again, he stopped napping. UGH! If there is one thing I cannot muster through it's a no nap day. Noah has never been a good napper and if he doesn't nap no one in the S household is happy- NO ONE.
 
I take Noah not napping very personally. It's anyone's fault but Noah's. For more than a year of his life, I was convinced the reason he didn't nap was because the front door opened too loudly, the Editor walked up the stairs too heavily, I didn't bounce him on the God-forsaken exercise ball long enough, I turned to the left instead of the right when I put him in the crib. Now I pretty much know he doesn't nap because he needs to take care of some bathroom business that he likes to do in his crib. (Potty training is still going well- an accident every 7-14 days but we are not nap or sleep trained... because we haven't even begun to go there yet.)
 
I want the Holidays to be fun and jolly and for us to do fun things together. But when Noah hasn't napped in 6 days he doesn't like me, I don't like him and we are both misbehaving and it's not fun. I've felt like the fun things I've planned go unappreciated (hmm... by a two year old- do they appreciate?). It's not fair to anyone.
 
So I've been trying to set up some fun activities in the morning before we can both go off the deep end.
 

Fingerprint Candy Cane & Reindeer Feet (courtesy of Pinterest)

I have to include some throw back photos just because I love looking back at my little boy.

 

Last year we made salt dough ornaments.

Salt dough doesn't taste good...

We actually decorated salt dough magnets at a JCC Hanukkah function this year too; but Tucker ate them (anyone remember my post on how Noah & Tucker are very similar, yup I still stand by that).

 

This year we made cinnamon ornaments.

Noah wanted to wear an apron, just like Momma. He was so excited.

excited face

And our finished products. We haven't painted them yet, but I think we will some morning soon.

And for the record, Noah did nap today and yesterday! I think we've hit either 5 or 6 naps for the month of December now and we can have a pleasant afternoon.
 
Salt Dough Recipe
 
Cinnamon Dough Recipe
The cinnamon ornaments are more fragile than the salt dough. A few of mine broke before I could get them off the pan. I also had a hard time making holes for the ribbon with the cinnamon ones so I bought some magnets to put on the back. But I found the cinnamon dough easier to work with initially. It's more fun to use applesauce and to shake in the cinnamon.
 

Elf on a Shelf - Day 5-12

Here's what Conductor has been up to the past week. (HERE are days 1-5). Honestly, as creepy as his eyes and smile are it's so much fun to move him around. Of course, Noah prefers him to be back on the shelf, so I'm allowed to move him back there. And if Noah can't find him in about 37 seconds he'll say, "Elf is not here" and promptly begins playing with his trains without a care. Proudly an OAM in training.
 

Hanging out on the fan.

Snowman Party

Swinging on the kissing ball.

All the milk is green!

 

Even Elves go to the Potty.

 

Taking Hector the Helicopter for a spin

Locked Out

 
 

Elf on the Shelf

Yes I did. I bought it. Apparently you cannot be a mom with a blog without one. But that's not why. I kinda think it's fun. Why not?
 
And yes, he's creepy. He's always smiling this, "Santa just gave me crack!" smile. But whatever, we are rolling with it.
 
I planned do to a post about Conductor the Elf about a week in, but today Cheryl at Nap Time is the New Happy Hour is hosting an Elf link-up as part of the Jingle Bell Rock Blog Hop so I'll introduce you to him now.
 
Noah does not give things names. Ever. When he met the Elf, we read the book (well most of the pages, I skipped over some) and he wouldn't pick a name. We threw a few out there as we looked around our living room and Conductor stuck, go figure. Our Elf is Santa's helper, but he doesn't report on behavior. And I can touch our Elf. Tucker also likes to touch Conductor, so after we find him I usually relocate him back to the mantle. Noah likes Conductor to be on the shelf most of all. He is getting into looking for him each day, though. And the Editor and I are having fun coming up with ideas.
 
Am I the only one who cut the Elf's hands apart? Is that why he's so damn hard to position?
 

Day 1: Conductor put our tree up but didn't decorate it. He's sitting on a box of ornaments holding our sad excuse for a tree topper.

 

Day 2: Conductor is flipping Latkes onto Noah's Hanukkah plate in Noah's kitchen because we were going to a Hanukkah event that day. (Things get a little confusing over here!)

Day 3: Shooting some hoops.

Day 4: Taking the Kiss Kiss Bears on a sleigh ride, using Noah's reindeer stocking holder. They went so fast, Noah's stocking fell down!

Day 5: Conductor getting Mom's coffee ready in the morning. Usually it's Noah's job to get my coffee out of the pantry and bring it to me.

My book club picked Jen's Spending the Holidays with People I want to Punch in the Throat for this months' pick and she has a fantastic chapter on Mr. Elf & his Shelf. (Kindle book $0.99 and her blog also has the excerpt). Anyways, I think it's so funny but I still have to have an elf doing crazy stuff anyways!
 
Days 5-12
 

Thanksgiving Dinner at nap time

It's amazing sometimes what you can get accomplished in a day. Some days nothing gets done... NOTHING. And other days I can get a whole faux Thanksgiving dinner done during nap time. Friday this happened. And ironically, ever since I rocked out this awesome dinner, Noah hasn't napped. Not once, not for five minutes. So don't think this is a brag blog post, because I'm not bragging about my no-napping toddler.
 
We missed out on Thanksgiving dinner this year and our Thanksgiving dinner wasn't even good. Last time we were in Hawaii for Thanksgiving we had T-day dinner at Mama's Fish House and it did not disappoint. Best food in Maui for sure. This year we could not get a reservation for us plus the Editor's co-workers families (9 total) at a time that would be suitable for Noah to eat dinner. So we picked another restaurant and the view was amazing but the food was subpar. It was like their regular chef took the night off. And they only had pumpkin pie or pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. I'm a apple girl. I do not eat pumpkin anything. I subbed my pumpkin for ice cream.
 
On our trip to the grocery store back in NC I picked up all the makings of an apple pie. And then I thought, well if I'm making the pie I might as well go all out. Note that 'all out' does not include an actual turkey!
 
Friday was the day. As soon as Noah went down for a nap I started on the apple pie. I make the recipe my mom taught me and honestly there is no recipe. I don't use a measuring cup or spoon, and couldn't tell you how much sugar I use. Pillsbury dough (not homemade), 4 Macintosh Apples, 1 Granny Smith, sugar, cinnamon, apple pie spice, and dollup of butter, an egg and milk wash and into the oven. And I use leaf cookie cutters to cut air vents in my pie.
 

I ate half the pie!

 
Next I started the cranberry sauce. I saw this recipe on a blog I read, Bella Mia and decided to try it. I usually make the recipe on the back of the bag, but this one was so much better. And cranberry sauce is the easiest thing to make, dump it in the saucepan and stir occasionally for 15 minutes. I just left it out on the counter until it was dinner time, room temperature.
 

 
While the cranberries were simmering I started washing and stuffing my chicken. I use Barefoot Contessa's Roast Chicken recipe and it has never failed me yet. So I washed, salted, peppered, and stuffed the chicken with lemon, garlic, and rosemary and put him back in the fridge until roasting time. I add the melted butter right before I cook it.
 
The last step is chopping vegetables. I pretty much loathe chopping. The recipes always say "Prep Time: 20 minutes" and it always takes me 2 hours. Seriously! I don't always take a short cut, but sometimes I do. Buy pre-cut vegetables at the store. They cost a little more, but you seriously just throw them in the pot. So I bought pre-cut carrots, sweet potatoes, and celery. I cut my own potatoes, onion, and cauliflower.
 
The carrots, sweet potato, half the regular potato, and onion go in the roasting pan with some rosemary, oil, and butter under the chicken. I just keep them in a ziplock in the fridge until cook time. I save a little celery and onion for the stuffing (Pepperidge Farm style!)
 
I used the cauliflower and half the potatoes for my version of mashed potatoes. It's 2 or 3 white, red, purple potatoes and one head of cauliflower. I throw them right into the steamer and just leave them there until I'm ready to steam them.
 

 
And that was pretty much it for my cooking, baking, and prep work during nap time. I even had time to cry my way through an episode of Parenthood, though it wasn't nearly as sad as the Season Finale of my other Tuesday night show- Flipping Out.
 
About 30 minutes before we were ready to eat I started the water for the cauliflower and potatoes. After they are steamed, I mash them up with an immersion blender, some butter, salt, pepper, and milk. Mashed potatoes!
 

 

Mr. Chicken and his veggies went in the oven for an hour and a half.

 
 

And of course, Pepperidge Farm Stuffing takes about 5 minutes, and is not deserving of a photo.
 
Everything was yummy, especially the pie! I'm so glad I did a faux Thanksgiving dinner and that it worked out so well. We even ate dinner in the dining room on wedding china. But this was the last thing I've done during a nap time. I go back to my original point. Sometimes you can rock out a nap time like it's your job and other days you are crying in the corner surrounded by dirty dishes, clean but unfolded laundry, and a dog eating Hanukkah presents for you in-laws. True Story except I didn't actually cry... yet.
 

And Now We Can Go Anywhere

This is literally what I said on Saturday when we were in the Fast, Park, & Relax van back to our car, "Well now we can go anywhere."
 
We flew from Raleigh Durham to Dallas-Fort Worth to Kahului in MAUI HAWAII! With Noah at 27 months. And then we sunned, beached, Luau-ed, snorkeled, parasailed (well just me), swam in the Pacific, and played in the Pirate Ship for 7 days before we flew from Kahului to Honolulu to Dallas-Fort Worth to Raleigh Durham.
 
We've been planning this trip for a good 10 months with full on discussions if we should even be going with a two year old. It's a partial work trip for the Editor (four 6-8 hour days of working away from us- not out of the hotel room) and we have been before. When you only have one child it's impossible to know what kind of 2 year old you'll have when your kid isn't even 18 months old yet. Plus the flights. Honestly, a lot of it was the flights. But in the end we just said, "We should go while we can go, you never know what the future brings." Before we left I emailed my mother-in-law that it would be the best vacation if 1- Noah doesn't pee on me on the plane and 2- Noah doesn't wake up at 2:30 in the mornings (it's a 5 hour time change!).

So excited to get on the plane.

Well I just want to brag and say Noah is a rock star on vacation. The Editor and I woke up at 5am and we got Noah up at 6 on the day we left for "the beach." Our flight to DFW was really pretty good; Noah & I were separated from the Editor on all our flights out. It was actually Noah's longest flight to date at around 3 hours and we landed around lunch time. And then proceeded to get delayed while a woman told me not once but twice that Noah "is quite active isn't he?" At this point Noah had not used the potty in 7 hours! The Editor and I took him to the potty at least 7 times in DFW before we had to get on the 8.5 hour flight to Maui and he did NOT go. So I put a pull up on him while he cried. I had extra clothes for both of us, but I do not want to get peed on like one of the Butler assistant coaches' wife was by her daughter on our flight. And you know what, Noah did pee in the airplane bathroom! Every single time. He kept the pull up dry. He also managed to "call the lady," as in press the flight attendant button every.single.time we were in the bathroom. The one thing Noah would not do in the pull up or airplane bathroom was #2. The only time we had any issues on the flight was for about 12 minutes when he HAD TO GO but didn't want to. There were some tears but once I gave him permission to go in his pull up we were good. Noah even clapped when we touched down in Maui around 5:15pm local time (10:15pm EST). To this point he had still never slept on a flight.
 
The best part of the flight was when I realized that you not only have to BUY/RENT the movies from Amazon but you have to download them, taking about an hour, while connected to the internet, before you can actually watch them. I researched movies and rented them and then never downloaded them so Noah had no movies for the flight! He watched a 4 minutes clip of Thomas the Tank Engine countless times and played lots of apps.
 

Once we got in the rental car (a sexy Ford Tarus thank you very much) and headed on our hour long drive to the hotel, Noah passed out quickly. Once we got to our hotel, got checked in, we parked and unloaded all our bags and then tried to find our room. The resort was huge and we got horribly lost. Noah was so out of it, it was after midnight EST. While we are running around and asking people where to go Noah's pull up exploded on the Editor. I felt so bad for Noah but I don't think he even noticed. He didn't say a word while we looked for our room, got in, gave him a super quick rinse in the two person jetted tub that only Noah got to use, and got him into the pack and play.
 
The weirdest part of this whole thing is as we step off the parking garage elevator absolutely exhausted and loaded down with bags and a half asleep toddler two people say to us, "Did you go to Carolina?" We thought they were being smart asses because we couldn't find our room. Turns out I went to college with them and the wife lived in the apartment below mine for two years. We ran into them and others from college all week long. Turns out they left their two kids at home.
 

We went to bed at 9pm local time, which is 2am EST and woke up at 7:30am local time tired but adjusted. Coming home... not so much!

Looking out our window our first morning. Happy to be at the beach!

How did we travel? I had a suitcase, handbag, Lands End Large Tote, and Noah in the Ergo. Noah had an adorable Skip Hop Elephant backpack, and the Editor had a suitcase, Pottery Barn Kids duffel bag, laptop bag, and insanely heavy carseat. We don't travel light!

18 hours into our travel day- landed in MAUI

Noah did sleep on the way back home and I did download a few movies for him too. The gate agents felt sorry for us this time too and we actually got to sit together on all three flights. We left Maui at 5:15 Friday night and arrived back in our driveway at 12:30 Saturday afternoon. But we cannot wait to go back and even though we've been jet lagged it was worth it- absolutely, definitely worth it!
 

Toby or Paci?

Noah uses a pacificer (paci) at bedtime and naptime. He always has and we succesfully limited to the bedroom only a long long time ago. Noah's dentist said the sooner we get rid of it the better off we'll be. So it's been on our minds for a few months, especially after he turned two.
 
After my brother and sister-in-law got pregnant I formulated the grand plan. When baby cousin was born, we'd gift the paci's to him in a grand ceremony and give Noah a little replacement gift since he was becoming a big boy.
 
Lucky for us, baby cousin arrived the day we returned from vacation. A long vacation with a 5 hour time difference. I am using the word lucky sarcastically.
 
We had been talking about this for a long time. Noah knew he was getting Toby from Thomas the Tank Engine. He has been lusting over Toby for a while. There was a whole day that I had to listen to "I need Toby right now!" I ordered Toby before we left for vacation since the baby was due while we were gone. Noah knew the plan, could tell you what was going to happen, why he was getting Toby, the whole deal. I was pretty sure we were all on the same page.

 

We drove to my brother's house when his baby was 3 days old to meet him and make the 'exchange.' I had wrapped a box up and we put tissue paper in. Noah stamped a card for his cousin. He kept saying, "Probably going to get Toby." Probably is his favorite word to interject into any sentence. So we made the gift exchange a big part of the day at the very beginning. I sneakily handed off Toby to my sister-in-law who nicely put it into a gift bag for Noah. Noah did great. He was excited - well mostly excited because he was getting Toby.

Visiting family is always a no nap day, which we felt like would help us. What is not helpful is having a two year old toddler with jet lag. He's been napping from 7pm-9pm and waking up. And staying up until 11pm or 1am. He's pretty much hysterical about being in his crib during these wake up hours. We've heard a lot of, "I's not laying down!" and "Turn the light ON!" Seems like a great time to make a bedtime routine change, right?
 
So our first test went well. It's about a 1 hour 45 minute drive back home and Noah fell asleep within 10-15 minutes and stayed asleep the whole car ride. We got home right before 8. Usually I just dump him in the crib and he rolls back to sleep. We'll not tonight. He was up for maybe an hour. Calmer than the nights before, and definitely clutching Toby in his grasp, but he never ever mentioned paci. Second test went pretty well. He slept until 8:15am.
 
Third test would be nap time. I was home alone (the Editor met a friend for lunch) and am jet lagged and tired too. As soon as Noah hit the crib at naptime he was crying and standing up asking about paci. I tried for about 15 minutes to get him down. Finally I caved. I said if he wanted paci then he couldn't play with Toby. He was cool with that. So I confiscated Toby and he fell asleep in about 5 minutes. The Editor was a little peeved that I strayed from the plan so easily to say the least. Parent fail.
 
Lucky for me (really lucky this time), I had bookclub so the Editor had to put Noah to bed. I was honestly happy to not be involved. When I got home around 9:15, Noah was sleeping... for only the last 10 minutes. The Editor said the minute he hit the crib, Noah threw Toby out and started a mantra of, "I need paci! I want paci!" So I asked the Editor the all-important question, "Does he have paci?" YUP! And again it was lights out the minute he got paci. I feel a bit vindicated that the Editor failed in the same manner as me, though he did stick it out for a lot longer than I did... an hour and 45 minutes longer!
 
Anyways, we'll revisit in a few weeks or so. I think the jet lag is a huge problem right now. Let's not add to the sleep issues right? Is the paci thing like potty training or solid foods? Just try again in a few weeks if they aren't ready now? My whole potty training plan worked out so well I thought this would be just as easy.
 
Now the question is, what am I going to do when Noah begs for Toby tomorrow?
 

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

I really struggled with what Noah should be for Halloween this year. In the past he was a cow, and Kermit the Frog. I was at a loss for cute toddler boy costumes. I wasn't hit with any warm and fuzzy feelings while scouring all the Halloween magazines that arrived at my door starting in August. Honestly, I'm tired of firetrucks and Thomas the Train already.
 
Pretty much the only idea we had was to dress Noah up as Tucker and Tucker up as Noah. Years ago, and I mean 2003 or 2004, we dressed Tucker up as a Carolina frat boy complete with a Carolina Blue doggie polo and croakies attached to kid sized sunnies. The only thing missing was doggie Rainbows. It was pretty funy. But I couldn't find any brown dog costumes that looked like Tucker for Noah to wear.
 
I went to my go-to, Pottery Barn Kids, and picked up a costume there. I didn't love it, but Noah still looked cute. And the Editor went to The University of Richmond so... Go Spiders.

Noah is generally agreeable about clothing and wore this costume to a Halloween Playgroup Party on Tuesday and for Halloween on Wednesday. We actually didn't even talk about it before Tuesday either, so that was lucky.

Noah's hungry caterpillar treat bag is also from PBK.

He was very proud of the pumpkin he painted.

We trick-or-treated in our neighborhood with four of Noah's girlfriends. We had two wagons, which meant that one child had to take a turn walking. Surprisingly, with a group of 5 two year olds, they were pretty agreeable about sharing the wagon spots; I don't remember any tears (and we treated from 6pm to around 7:30pm). Noah was quite the gentleman and pulled his lady friends around a bit too.

 

I made some Hot Apple Cider for the parents to carry around. Sadly I didn't have any alcohol that lended itself to a cider drink. But it was good and it actually got cold (you never know in NC) so I'm glad I made it.

 

Noah was super excited to trick-or-treat and ring the bell. With a neighborhood as big, and as laced with kids as ours is, he didn't have many opportunities to ring the bell because most people had a steady stream of kids, but he handled it all really well. Even the scary houses. He said "Trick-Or-Treat" and would take 1 piece of candy. Then we would tell us what color he got, "I got a red one!" He didn't eat a single piece, and I don't think he ever realized what he was getting was edible (last year for that I'm sure). He told anyone who asked that he was "a spider web."
 
 
Hot Apple Cider Recipe (adapted from HERE)

• 12 cups apple cider
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 1 orange cut into 4 slices

Combine all ingredients into a crock pot, cover and cook on low for 3 hours, stirring occasionally. (I only had two hours, so I finished heating it up in a saucepan on the stove to get it piping hot).
 
 

1 Pumpkin, 2 Pumpkin, 3 Pumpkin, 4

Did we really go to 4 pumpkin patches this year? Yes, we kind of did. Our area of NC has no shortage of pumpkin patches with corn mazes, corn pits, hay rides, train rides, pony rides, tunnels, and more. And we definitely have a few favorites.

Noah with his loot.

We ended up at the first patch a little by accident. Green Acres opens at 11am on Sundays and we were looking for something to do on a beautiful Sunday morning in late September. So we decided to check it out. Noah had a lot of fun here, but honestly I didn't like this farm. You don't get a pumpkin with admission, which was $10, and we had to pay more inside for all the activities Noah wanted to do like ride the ponies and ride the train. We were able to ride the hayride with our admission price, but the tractor driver was an hour late to the farm that day.

Green Acres is Noah's dream, though. He could not wait to ride that little train, the ponies, and sit in all the 'diggers.' Though we had read enough seasonal books for him to also beg to pick out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch so he was a bit disappointed we left without one.

Our second pumpkin excursion was almost exactly a month later, at the Museum of Life & Science Pumpkin Express. This was a lot of fun and definitely worth the $12 admission price with our museum membership. We got to ride the train out to the pumpkin field, pick a pumpkin (finally!), decorate it, and sling shot a few pumpkins. Noah even got to sit in the engineers spot before we rode the train back to the station.

Posing around hay bales proves to be awkward for us.

We actually hit up our favorite pumpkin patch twice... in two days. We had plans to go to Gaynard Hills Farm with friends and the Editor's sister on the Sunday before Halloween, but then Hurricane Sandy threatened to rain out our plans. We only had one little tiny pumpkin, we were less than a week from Halloween and this was our favorite pumpkin patch last year. I really wanted Noah to be able to go even if we got rained out on Sunday so Friday afternoon after nap, I made a quick decision that Noah and I would go by ourselves. We were disappointed to leave the Editor at home working, but we needed pumpkins and I really wanted Noah to have the experience again. So off we went and we had a lot of fun!

Lucky for us, it didn't rain all weekend, even though the forecast was pretty dreary. We were able to keep our plans with friends and family to go back to Gaynard on Sunday, making it our fourth stop. Noah had just as much (if not more) fun the second time around.

More awkward posing & this is also when I decided my hair is way too blonde.

What did we do with our pumpkins? Noah painted one on Monday when Sandy actually came through NC.

And we carved 4 of them.