Ten on Friday (where did Tuesday go?)

1. We had a wonderful time with my brother Justin, his wife Kathy and their kiddos this week. I will try to post some photos from their visit this weekend. They arrived late Tuesday afternoon and we already had to say goodbye this morning. It was too short of a visit, but we are so thankful they were able to stop and see us. And its so much easier to say goodbye to family when you know when you will see them again. The Binder Family 2010 Reunion is scheduled for late June in Fairbanks.

2. I think my child can see in the dark. Kendry has slept in our bedroom the last three nights while Dominic and Trevor have stayed in his room. He keeps waking up right before my alarm goes off, so I try to sneak out of bed in our pretty dark room (without being seen) and to the bathroom to shower before getting him up. But as soon as I pass by his pack and play he starts laughing because he can see me and thinks I am getting him up. My kid is quite talented, I tell ya.

3. I LOVE that Kendry wakes up happy in the morning. How can you not have a great day when your child starts you off with laughs, smiles and hugs just for you? I only hope he is always such a morning person.

4. My snow is gone. Its 40+ degrees here, and there is blue sky popping out. I'm not sure I'll be getting my White Christmas, but the optimist in me says there is still another week for it to happen.

5. I still haven't visited the gym/aquatic center near my house to start working out again. I figured it was pointless to spend the money for December when we are so busy and won't make it down there anyway. Only now I will look like one of those New Year Workout Resolution people when I get the membership in January.

6. We have Justin's work Christmas party tonight. They are a fun group of people and its always a good time catching up on everyone's lives.

7. Is it seriously possible that I am already planning and looking at decorations for Kendry's first birthday party? I know its not a birthday party he will remember, but it is still a monumental occasion. And they have so many fun ideas for kids' parties these days. I figure if I start brainstorming now I'll just be that much more prepared because, let's face it, May will be here before we know it.

8. I get to do my Christmas baking with my friend Michelle tomorrow. I'm still trying to decide which goodies to make this year.

9. We still have a little Christmas shopping to get done this weekend. How fun that we get to do it with all the other crazy, procrastinating shoppers, right?

10. Yikes! I still have to get Kendry's stocking made!

Winter Wear

Although I admitted a few posts ago that I was homesick for Alaska, there are many reasons why I love living in a less extreme climate. One being that I don't have to keep my family outfitted with the mass of basic cold weather gear that every Alaskan must own and wear for several months out of the year. Given how fast Kendry is growing, I have trouble fathoming the cost of his regular clothes and shoes for the next 17.5 years, let alone any winter gear he will need (and only wear twice before he promptly grows out of them before the following winter rolls around). That being said, however, there is nothing cuter than excited little kids all dressed up in their winter clothes and headed out to make a snowman or go sledding. Who hasn't laughed hysterically at the little brother in A Christmas Story when the mom dresses him in his huge, puffy snowsuit? "I can't put my arms down!!"

So, even though Kendry really doesn't need much in the way of winter gear, I couldn't help but find him a few cute items for his first winter, this hat being one of them:

In case you weren't already aware, our neck of the woods has awakened to single digit temperatures all week. Brrr! Fortunately, my mom (Kendry's Alaska Grandma) gave us a wonderful snowsuit for Kendry to wear this season, which we are currently keeping in the car in case of emergency. Of course, I will post photos of Kendry in his snowsuit once he experiences his first snow....whenever that will be...

Ten on Tuesday

1. Today I am being naughty and wearing a certain Christmas gift that I bought for someone. Can I help it if the gift wasn’t wrapped just yet and it totally matched my outfit today? I’m sure I’ll get it wrapped soon, unless it matches my outfit for my work holiday party this weekend…
***Let’s see how many of my friends and family actually read our blog and question if it is their gift I am wearing***

2. Last night Justin made me my very first Reuben sandwich. Dee-lish! Actually, since Justin read up on the history of this sandwich before making it he informed me that we were, in fact, eating Rachel sandwiches since ours had pastrami (or was it salami?) instead of corned beef (which is fine by me since corned beef has never sounded all that appetizing anyhow). But then I pointed out to Justin that his sandwich didn’t even have sauerkraut on it. What then should that sandwich be called? A virgin Rachel? Which brings me to #3…

3. I LOVE SAUERKRAUT! Seriously, its delicious and I never eat it. It even tasted good to me when I was in my first trimester with Kendry and could not find anything appetizing.

4. This morning it was only 5 degrees here - even colder than yesterday. Do I even need to say it? Where on earth is my snow to go with these freezing temperatures?!

5. Kendry is still a bit off from our late nights this last weekend in Quincy. He woke up around 4:30 on Monday morning, and last night he was up at 2:30 and then 5:30. I don’t dare say that I need a good night’s sleep tonight (even though I obviously do) because then he’ll be up at least three times tonight.

6. I’m meeting some girlfriends for dinner at Thai Taste after work tonight. I can already taste the pahd thai. Yummy!

7. I need to find a fun white elephant gift for Justin’s work Christmas party on the 18th. I think we are supposed to just contribute a gift as a couple, but Justin wants to bring a winning scratch ticket ($10) as his gift, and for some reason this year I want to contribute an item people fight to have. Could this stem from a desire to really be liked by Justin’s colleagues?

8. The UPS package tracker indicates that my Christmas cards were delivered to our house today, which means its time to start addressing, stamping and mailing.

9. Justin, Kathy and kiddos arrive in a week, and my friend Amanda will be in our neck of the woods around the same time. There is nothing like time with family and friends during the holidays.

10. My baby boy is 7 months old today!

New Rudolph Tradition

Most of you know just how much I LOVE the claymation Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer movie that plays on TV each December. In fact, I even own it on video, although it is much more fun to watch it live on TV. I'm not really sure why that is. Perhaps because if its on TV that must mean Christmas is coming, as opposed to watching it on video at any other time during the year, which, for the record, I do not do.


I figured it was only appropriate for me to get Kendry off on the right foot when it comes to this Christmas tradition of mine. The program aired on TV last night, but it didn't start until 8pm, and Kendry usually goes to bed between 7:30 and 8. Not to mention that WSU and Gonzaga were playing basketball against each other last night, so someone else in the house was playing couch commando. Even if I had wanted to stretch Kendry's bedtime out so he could watch the show, it wasn't going to happen. We're pretty sure he is now cutting teeth on top and he started getting pretty irritable around 6:30 last night. I had planned to put up and decorate our Christmas tree while Kendry bounced in his jumperoo (happily) nearby and could watch. But no dice on that plan. I finally gave Kendry a little baby tylenol and decided to give him some mommy time. Then I realized the perfect solution. I grabbed my Rudolph video, Kendry's pacifier and bear blankie, and our Christmas quilt, and together the two of us curled up to watch Rudolph on mommy and daddy's bed. For only being 7 months old Kendry actually seemed to enjoy the movie, not to mention the sound of me singing along with the songs. He happily played on my lap until he could no longer keep his eyes open.
Yes, this is going to be a magnificent Christmas tradition.

Ten on Tuesday

1. “I’m…dreamin…of a white…Christmas…” I am listening to my Elvis Christmas CD in the car this week, in the hopes of introducing Kendry to some real Christmas classics. He seemed to be laughing to the tunes this morning. I’m not sure if that means he likes Elvis or if he is already laughing at how old-fashioned his mommy is.

2. We recently bought Kendry some meat baby foods and last night I gave him his first taste of pureed ham. The smell alone was about enough to knock me out - it reeks like Spam! He was a sport and ate a good portion of it before his gag reflex started kicking in. I couldn’t blame the kid. He eats pretty much anything, but the ham was probably pushing his limits. This morning when I got him out of bed I could have sworn I caught another whiff of Spam - blech! I think we’ll ditch the baby food ham and just let him enjoy diced up real ham when he is ready.

3. We’re putting up our Christmas tree tomorrow! Hooray!

4. Kendry had his first meeting with Santa last night and he did great. He gave Santa a few stares, but then smiled happily for the camera.

5. I have accepted the fact that pregnancy totally stole my rear end, but yesterday I sat on a bench at work and felt like I was resting my entire body weight on my butt bones (probably not the actual medical terminology, but you know what I mean). Ouch! Shortly thereafter I looked up the cost for a gym membership at the aquatic center near our house. $20 a month is a small price to pay to get my rear end back (meaning muscle). My goal is to get to the gym for my first workout sometime in the next week. Or, I suppose I could just eat a lot of Christmas baked goods over the next month.

6. Justin, Kathy and their kiddos will be here to visit us in just two weeks! I can't wait for Alexis and Kendry to meet; they are only three weeks apart in age.

7. We are SICK of turkey!!

8. 24 more days until Christmas, which means I only have about 13 more days to get my gifts mailed off to Alaska. And with each passing day the post office gets crazier and crazier...

9. We bought over $50 worth of Christmas lights at Walmart the day after Christmas last year. At that time Justin was feeling quite ambitious about Christmas 2009. He put up the lights this last weekend and they look gorgeous, but he only used about 5 strands of icicle lights on the front of the house, and a few blue strands for the tree in front of our house. You do the math. Yep, we still have about 10-15 boxes of various Christmas lights sitting in the basement. What were we thinking? Anyone need lights?

10. Where is my first snow?! I'm still dreamin of a white Christmas...