Scene: Today, noon. On the way home from a prenatal.

Cell phone rings.

Me: “Hello, oh hi. I’m on my way home right now.”

Neighbor: “Oh, don’t bother, Isaac has fallen asleep on my couch. I’ll call you when he wakes up.”

Me: “Okay, are you sure? Okay thanks. Bye.”

15 min later. Return home. 6 ladies show up at my house to work on a church craft project. Lots of laughing. Accomplish a lot without Isaac around.

1.5 hours later.  Cell rings.

Me: “Hello. Hi, he’s awake? Okay, I’ll be right over.”

I borrow lady’s suburban because mine is boxed in by 3 other cars. Drive around the block in the snow to retrieve son.

Knock, knock.

Door opens. Isaac appears. Sees me, lips pout out in an upset glare. He turns and runs.

Me: “Isaac, it’s time to go home. Lets go bye bye.”

Glare continues. He buries his head deep in the couch pillows.

Me: “Isaac, I’m going to run your car seat out to the car and then I’ll come back and get you to go bye, bye.”

Upon return- pout still present. Boy remains resistant. I scoop him up, anxious to get back to my company.

Kicking, screaming, swinging, hitting. Rush to the car. Drive around the block.

Isaac: ” Ahhhhhhhhhhhh”

Park car. Unload car seat. Isaac retreats to the 3rd row of suburban locking arms and legs around seat. Kicking, screaming, swinging, hitting. Pregnant mother attempts to talk child into coming into the house. Boy still resistant. Pregnant mother climbs back into suburban to carry child in the house.

Isaac: ” Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.” Kicking, screaming, swinging, hitting.

Barely make it up the ice steps. Hurray and shut door before child can escape.

Isaac: ” Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.”

House full of Ladies: “Isaac didn’t want to come home?”

Me: “Nope” Pregnant mother sits down to rest, breathing heavy.

Isaac continues from door way: ” Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.” Begins throwing shoes down the stairs.

Me: “I know you are frustrated.”

Isaac sobbing into moms shoulder, pauses for a moment. Looks up in the moms face.  Swings arm back. “SMACK” across moms face. Ladies stifles giggles in the back ground. Isaac is then carried to his room for a long time out.

Isaac: ” Ahhhhhhhhhhhh”

Ladies leaving. “Hope you get a nap this afternoon.”

Me: “Me too.”

Now that things have calmed down around here, I thought it was time for another good ol’ template. Download here.

Here is what I did with it.

Sorry about my last post. It was pretty depressing but honestly, I was feeling pretty low. I was scared that the flu was going to wipe us out and ruin Christmas. It didn’t amount to much though, a real short lived bug. Woo. I’m still battling with some blues but I’m functioning. I’m not sure if it’s cabin fever or that I don’t want to wear anything but pajamas.

It has been snowing a lot this month. There were no worries about not having a white Christmas. There was nothing but snow in the forecast for weeks. It’s the snowiest winter I can remember, not real deep but it’s been constantly coming down. The kids have had fun playing it but I think they have finally got tired of it. Perhaps my mood is being effected by the lack of sunshine. I usually enjoy the snow. We did manage to check out a few sledding hills around and we found our new favorite place. I don’t have any pictures but it’s so steep that even I got a thrill from it.

Once Emma stopped vomiting on Christmas Eve, we went to my grandma’s to spread the bug for the the traditional soup dinner and acting out of the nativity story. It was a quiet Christmas Eve because Emma and Isaac turned out the be the only kids there. Emma was weepy for her dearest missing cousin and also wanting to open up her one Christmas Eve present. Her whining just about drove me nuts. Playing Mary was about the only thing that cheered her (and me) up.

Isaac was Joesph. He didn’t want anything to do with dressing up and it turned out he was totally possessive of Baby Jesus. He wouldn’t let Mary have anything to do with it. There was hitting and crying and all kinds of battles between the young couple. It was ridiculous. Isaac eventually won the fight and was quite the tender parent. I wonder if he’ll be just as possessive with a new sibling? Lets just hope he loves it instead of hates it because other wise his little fists will be flying and that wont be good.

Christmas morning after I forced the kids to sleep in, we ripped open presents and listened to Emma whine about wanting more… We then bundled up and headed over to my mom’s for a delicious Christmas breakfast. Breakfast was delayed though because of the snow drifts in my mom’s driveway. Our car wasn’t even thinking about making it down the lane and we didn’t want to push the idea either. It was a couple feet deep in some places.  We had to recruit the men in the house and the neighbor with a digger (it’s farm country.) I wish I had a picture of that big machine pushing away all the snow. A lot easier then shoveling. Isaac was thrilled out of his mind to watch the digger at work.

Here is a picture of me on Christmas Eve in case anyone is wondering about the state of my belly. Yes, it’s getting bigger. Yes, we are both healthy. Yes, baby is still breach and yes, it is still bothering me.

I remember looking forward to Christmas so much when I was little. No school, goodies baking, fun toys and tons of family time.

All that this break has offered is boring long days with lots of TV, the flu for everyone, fresh power in the mountains that I’m not allowed to enjoy, and hardly any presents under the tree.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Isaac had a speech therapy session today. The first few sessions were somewhat frustrating to me. Isaac would clam up, pout his lips and refuse to interact with the speech therapist. He obviously thought she was from a different planet the way she was talking to him; slow, simple and with signs. She would then spend most of her time coaching me. What I should say and not say to him. Things I should do. Stop asking him questions. By the end of the sessions I was completely overwhelmed, discouraged and somewhat confused. I’d try the things she told me through out the week but couldn’t see much result (if I ever remembered to do them.)With Isaac clamming up, I felt like she wasn’t getting to know how he talked and addressing the real issues. I could see her point on how I should simplify my language, giving him more opportunities for imitation but I really wanted more specific directions… like particular words to work on or sounds, ways to challenge him.

I talked to a friend of mine who use to be a speech pathologist and she said that coaching me was the right thing for the speech therapist to do. She can’t control what Isaac is saying but can control the way parents are interacting with the child.  This was a little more comforting and I decided I would try to be more positive.

It was hard though. This morning I was wishing she’d call me to tell me she had the flu. I was feeling like I had enough on my plate and didn’t want to listen to a hour and half of how crappy of a mom I was.

When she showed up, I tried to get Isaac excited that she was coming to play toys. It might have worked because he was defiantly not so pouty about it all. He actually talked to her a little bit… which was practically the first sounds she had heard out of his mouth. Yea! She said it was a good session and was glad he was interacting with her. She even focused on making some sounds.

Of course, I still have my part to do with the interactive play.

I’m not the kind of mom that likes getting down on the floor and playing with my kids. I’m happy when they can entertain themselves. Today’s session was all about me using the play time as an opportunity for making simple sounds. We focused on P, B, D and words that have sounds in the front of the mouth. It was something more tangible for me.

She gave me a turn to play with him while she watched. I sat there thinking “Oh my gosh. What in the heck am I suppose to say? How did she get him to act so calm? How did she say this or that. How can I not ask a question…” Soon Isaac was throwing blocks all around and I felt like an ultimate loozer. I couldn’t get my own child to say UP or OPEN without totally loosing it. She told me I did great but honestly it was so frustrating.

When she left I had to eat something and turn on the TV for Isaac. Breath!! Overall, though, I feel better about this session and have more hope for the future of Isaac’s progress.

I went ahead and whipped up some Christmas Card templates for you all. These photo cards are 5×7’s but could easily be re sized for a 4×6 for an even cheaper printing cost. I was thinking that they could be easily used for any photo card event… baby announcement or such… just delete the Christmas-y element and add your own. Download here.

Here is an example.

Ya, I know, it’s been over a week. I declare that December is the ” Post Whenever You Want Month” because things can be too crazy.

I’ve been busy with speech therapy with Isaac, prenatals for me, making christmas cards (yes, plural) and trying to get my calendar done in time for Christmas… not to mention the shopping trips, potty training and many holiday parties.

This week, particulary, is booked all over the place. I’m having to skip a neighborhood thingy tonight for a family party. Instead of neighbor gifts, we’re donating to the food bank… cool huh.

Soooo… just out of curiosity… anyone intrested in Christmas card templates??? What size are ya think’n??

Wow, I can hardly believe the wonderful response I’ve had from my template calendars. Thank you everyone for the wonderful, kind comments. It’s super exciting for me.

I’ve been busy with holiday stuff. We had a great Thanksgiving at Great Grandpa’s house with the most delicious meal I’ve had in a long time. I was soooo hungry that everything that entered my mouths tasted gourmet. It may have had something to do with being pregnant.

Since then we’ve been busy getting ready for Christmas. Emma had a blast helping me decorate the house. She wanted to put ribbons everywhere. I admit that I took down all the unreasonable ones. We also brought home a real nice smelling Christmas tree and I had to take a deep breath as she loaded up the front bottom half of the tree with ornaments. I tried to help her spread things out a bit and was soon in trouble for moving the snowflake family.  Oh well, no one it going to see my tree anyway.

*** *** ***

On Saturday we went out to take some family photos. Isaac was a real stinker and it was impossible to get a smile out of him. These are just to show you what we had to deal with.

There was a tractor and a riding lawnmower in the yard where we were taking photos. Just take a guess what Isaac had on his mind the WHOLE time. Yup… we tried to take advantage of a happy tractor riding boy to capture the perfect smile. It turned out harder then we thought because his little mouth was too busy making vroom vroom noises. These are the only smiles we captured. I can decide which one is the best… left or right??

And here is one of my darling Emma just so she doesn’t feel left out. She had no problem smiling for the camera.

Well, I did it. I’ve spent the last week slaving over this calendar template. I sure hope it’s a hit because I spent a lot of time on it. I think it’s great because it’s so flexible. You could even delete the 09 calendar numbers and type in 2010 if you wanted to use it over again. There are a lot of quick calendars out there but I think this one is very customizable for the look you want.

The templates are 8 x 10 so they’ll be easy to print. I send mine to costco because my printer stinks. I’m actually planning on cutting mine in half at the 5 inch line, mounting it on card stock and binding it in the middle so it’ll hang nicely on the wall. I’ll have a little bit of adjusting to do with the template so that nothing will get awkwardly cut in half.

Hope you enjoy! Download here.  (I just realized that I spelled February wrong. I always do dumb stuff like that. I’ve gone back and fixed it on the template but I didn’t bother with the preview. Please over look it. Thanks.)

Here are some examples.

I’ve been debating which digital calendar I should make this year. Last year I bought a Shabby Princess one and I’ve liked using it. I made one for my mom and mom in law so I’ll probably do the same thing this year (if they want one.)

I think this one is cute from Shabby Princess and seems laid out real nice. It’s probably the most expensive one I’ve looked at but I like the binding in the middle. If a hole was punch at the bottom then it would hang real nice from the wall.

But I also like this one from Sweet Shoppe Designs. They have a deal going on that if you spend 10$ you’ll get a kit as a gift. It’s really tempting me.

Do any of you know of any other cute digi calendars?

If I was really crazy, I’d make my own but it seems it would take sooo long.  What do you think? Any suggestions.