I may be asking for too much...

This is now posted on the fridge. Think they'll get my subtle hints?

Click me to see me larger yo

Just let me park the damn car!

My husband came with me and the kids to have their pictures taken with Santa yesterday. I needed the moral support (as far as I know flasks at the grocery store are frowned upon) as well as someone to shake the toys and make silly faces as I took pictures*. Santa visits our local grocery store, a place my husband rarely goes, however, he is not unfamiliar with parking lots or traveling with kids. But despite these facts, he still makes me want to beat him with my travel Starbucks mug every time we’re in a parking lot looking to park.

It never fails, he always picks one of two places to park: the spot closest to the door or the spot closest to the exit. Now admittedly, those spots sound like good choices, but only if you’re sans kids.

There seems to be two clearly different ideologies when it comes to parking, the “Shopping Without Kids” way and the “Oh Crap, we’re parents now, nothing will ever be simple again” way. I miss the days of “hopping out” to run into a store quickly, clutching my husband’s hand as we browse, talking about life and current events and how awesome that cream suede sofa would look in our living room. (We bought it btw, and it WAS awesome.. until formula, spit-up, pen and a cookie or two got all over it... le sigh)

My husband must miss those days too cause he’s stuck in “Shopping Without Kids” frame of mind when it comes to parking.

When I’m in a parking lot (without Big J cause he never lets me drive unless he’s had a few) I look for the spot closest to the shopping cart coral that’s closest to the door. That way when the shopping is done I don’t have to either a) drag the kids across the parking lot to stow the cart and then drag them back to the car all the while yelling “do NOT let go of my hand, we’re in a parking lot, it’s dangerous!”, or b) strap them into their car seats, lock the doors and run with the cart, with my head turned back towards the car so I can keep an eye on them, praying I don’t run smack into a car pulling out of a spot.

My husband always looks for the spot closest to the exit. He hates parking lots with the same firey passion I save for pap tests and women who wear cross-trainers with a skirt suit (I don’t care how comfortable they are, you look like a reject from 1988!). He wants the least amount of driving in the parking lot and the least amount of hassle to get out. This is usually okay when we’re together, unless it’s pouring rain... or a blizzard, but hey, this is Canada, how often does that happen?

When I manage to find this most perfect parking spot I always drive in. And if the space directly in front of it is empty I don’t drive through. Why? When we're out and about %99.9999 we're dragging kids with us, and if there are kids there is usually any number or combination of the following to cart along: strollers, diaper bags, sports equipment, blankies, loveys, reusable bags, bumbos, booster seats, and bags containing toys/clothes/snacks/crafts/crayons/sippy cups/ binkys/more clothes/camera. Backing into a spot or driving through so that someone can park behind you just makes it that much more annoying when it comes time to unload or load the car.

My husband LOVES to back into and drive through spots. So much fun trying to pull a double stroller out of the back of the car when it’s 4” away from a concrete wall. Or better yet, trying to load groceries in when the cars on either side of you are straddling the yellow lines and some old lady pulls her boat of a car right up to your bumper. I swear, I have no idea what he's thinking sometimes.

I guess I should cut him some slack, he doesn’t go shopping with us often (THANK GAWD!) so he’s not used to thinking about these things. Maybe if he’d just let me do the driving every now and then... but that’s another rant altogether...

* The Santa pictures thing, they take pics too but they're free so you're allowed to take as many as you want with your own camera as well.

The "Deal" or How I'm gonna get an iPhone

I had my 2nd baby 1 year ago tomorrow (expect a sappy, weepy post from me in the evening about how my baby isn't a baby anymore... blah blah blah) and ever since she came barreling out of me like I was some sort of a cannon on an old fashioned pirate ship, I've been trying to lose this damn pregnancy weight. Yes, I'm sticking with the fact that's it's pregnancy weight, I hear some women still making that claim when they're buying acne medication and training bras for their kids, leave me alone! It has absolutely nothing to do with my baking obsession or the fact that I can "sense" when there's chocolate in the house.

Nope, it was the kid.

So anyways, I've been bitching and moaning for months about how I hate that I'm in "mom-wear", a.k.a. Lululemon or sweatpants, day in and day out cause none of my "regular" clothes fit, and that I'm really tired of nearly passing out just from going up a flight of stairs (okay, it's not that bad, I'm a whiner).

Tonight, I was sitting at the computer on twitter (cause that's a great way to burn calories, really, I'm serious, I'm sure I burn like 1200 calories just tweeting... No? pfft, what are you, some kind of expert?) and hubs came in and asked me if I wanted to make a deal. I had visions of me having to agree to go on an allowance from reckless Visa use, or agreeing to sexual favours in return for getting me a maid.

Me: "Oh God. What?"

Big J:  "How about we make a bet, if you can lose 10lbs before I can do 30 chin-ups, I'll buy you an iPhone." (we're both really out of shape!)

Me: "Huh?"

Big J: "How much do you want to lose total?"

Me: "Ideally 50. Stop looking at me like that."

Big J: "I'll make it even better, if you lose an additional 10lbs I'll let you pick where we go on our anniversary*. AND, if you make it to your goal I'll finance a girl's only week away anywhere you want to go."

Me: *blink blink*

Big J: "But you can't go starving yourself, that's cheating!"

Me: "Yeah, cause that's what got me in this mess in the first place, the ability to say NO to food."

Big J: "Well, what do you think?"

Me: "No sabotaging me either! If I need you to watch the kids so I can run you can't say no just to win!"

Big J: "Deal."



He's going DOWN.


* Our 5 year anniversary is coming up and we decided to go on a trip. He planned one and was all excited and when I asked him where we were going he told me all about the casino and water and yadda yadda, so I asked to see where we were going... he picked Halifax. Now, I have nothing against Halifax at all, beautiful little city, my dad was born there, but when I think "romantic vacation for couple with 2 kids who are getting away on their first trip alone since they had kids" it's not 1st on my list. Big J was crushed by my unenthusiastic response and vowed we weren't going anywhere. He's so sensitive sometimes.

25 Days of Christmas - Small Town Family Style

Updates below!

Someone on Twitter posted a link to an article on Canadian Family Magazine's website about this neat idea of doing a sort of advent calendar called the 25 days of Christmas. The idea is that for every day until Christmas you do a special activity to make the most of the holiday season.

My kids are still pretty young but my oldest is starting to grasp the whole "Santa brings presents" concept this year so I thought this idea might go a long way in driving home the whole Christmas sentiment of family and togetherness and maybe quell the commercialism of the holiday before it reaches epic proportions in our house.

So without further ado, here's our list activities for our 25 Days of Christmas:

1. Do a Christmas craft together
2. Write and mail a letter to Santa
3. Put up Christmas decorations and enjoy a chocolate treat
4. Take a family portrait in front of the tree
5. Make homemade Christmas cards
6. Write and mail our Christmas cards
7. Watch a holiday show as a family.
8. Make paper chains to decorate the windows.
9. Make a list of ten things we are thankful for. Hang it where you can see it every day
10. Sing Christmas songs and enjoy a special chocolate treat
11. Make a gingerbread house
12. Buy a toy and bring it into pre-school for the toy drive
13. Listen to Holiday music and dance dance dance!
14. Go for a walk in the snow
15. Bake Christmas cookies
16. Wrap presents for teachers
17. Read Christmas stories at bedtime.
18. Make hot chocolate with marshmallows
19. Bake another batch of Christmas cookies to share with friends
20. Play in the snow!
21. Watch some Christmas movies together as a family. Make popcorn!
22. Bake and decorate Christmas cupcakes
23. Do a Christmas craft for Grandma and Grandpa
24. Unwrap one present after dinner (mommy and daddy get to pick which one)
25. It’s Christmas Day. Remember you have a family who loves you. And that’s the most important gift of all.

UPDATE:

Here are our completed envelopes so far!

Day 1 - we coloured a bunch of holiday colouring sheets we printed off the internet

Day 2 - Lily's letter to Santa with a bit of help from mommy!

if you click the letter you can see it enlarged

Day 3 - we decorated the house and put the tree up

Day 4 - a bit of a disaster but here is the best one!

Day 5 - Make Christmas Cards

Day 6 - working on it now...