Having a Very Merry (and Ethnic) Christmas

My trans-racial adoptive families tune in. It IS possible to find ethnically diverse Christmas decor for your house. It's taken me some time but here are a few great finds.

African-american angel from Hallmark

The picture is bad but it's a hispanic angel I got at a local craft fair

This tree topper I think could be African-american or Hispanic, which suits us fine since my
kids are both

This African-american Santa I found at one of those tupper-ware type parties where you feel obligated to buy something because you know your friend only had the party to earn money to get free goods from the distributor and they went through all the trouble of making hors d'oeuvres and dessert but what you really wish is that they made Margaritas and Mojitos. On a sidenote: hors d'oeuvres is a b**** of a word to spell.

This is a Peruvian nativity in a gord. I got this and the Nigerian ornament below at a local craft fair but the vendor was Ten Thousand Villages, which is a fair trade company.

Do you have any good ethnically diverse holiday theme decorations?

We Need a Little Christmas...NOW!

FINALLY, we've acknowledged Christmas in this house. We got our tree up today. Usually I go all out decorating the house but since we're trying to sell it, I decided not to do any decorations this year other than the tree. Besides, it's less to baby proof.

It seems like every single year is the same exact story on the day we get our tree. Dave is cranky and miserable. He hates all the fuss about Christmas. Plus, he's the one who has to tie the tree to the car, saw it, bring it inside, and set it in the stand. Why? Because I have sensory issues. Yes, it's true. I HATE the feel of the little needles touching my skin. It's like nails on a chalkboard to me. I refuse to touch it except to hang the ornaments, which I do very delicately. So Dave always starts the day grumpy. Then we argue over where to get the tree, the price of the tree, and the size of the tree. Once we get it into the house, we then argue over whose ornaments go where. Because, of course, I have beloved ornaments from my childhood, and he has beloved ornaments from his childhood. So we argue over which ones go in the front of the tree. Usually I win since mine are in better condition than his.

Lately we've acquired a lot more ornaments since being married and those are taking up most of the good spots. So, here's a picture of our tree this year.

We're minimalists with our tree decor. Every year we do gold beads and white lights, then accentuate with more personal ornaments. As you may well know, I'm no Martha Stewart. So no fancy tree themes, ribbons, tinsel, or fake snow.

Also....

This is our third Christmas with Mateo.
(click to make larger)
Is it just me or does he seem to get happier each year?



Do you love his shirt? It says "is it too late to be good?"

Oh, speaking of being good, every time I ask Mateo if Santa thinks he's been good this year he tells me no, he's been bad. Ha ha! Well, at least he's not a liar. But I think he's been good enough for Santa to bring him a remote control car. Shhh....don't tell Mateo.

High Heels for Preschoolers: Yay or Nay?

This photo was recently published in some celebrity magazine. I am not one to read celebrity gossip but I do like looking at photos of their children because they're cute and I like watching them grow up. This photo specifically drew a lot of criticism. Suri Cruise is close to the same age as Mateo, three and a half. And here she is wearing high heeled shoes, and it's not been the only time. Katie Holmes defended herself by saying they are ballroom dancing shoes for kids and that Suri likes dressing up like her mom. Before the baby was born, we didn't have to think about this kind of thing. But now I find myself wondering....what would I do if Maya asked to wear high heels at three years old?

What do you think? Is this just innocent dress-up or perpetuating an unhealthy trend of kids growing up too quickly? Let me know how you feel about it and if you'd let your daughter wear high heels before age 10.

Poor Maya; Left in the Dust

I realized I NEVER talk about the baby on this blog. It's always about Mateo and then I put monthly updates on our private blog about Maya. Well, today is a public update about the littlest munchkin.

She is crawling! For one. And she looks so cute doing it. Because she's so tiny for her age, she looks like she shouldn't be able to crawl. She just started crawling this past week, so she's still pretty new at it. She looks just like one of those electronic robot puppies that walks, barks, then does a flip (except without the barking and flipping part, although I've been trying to teach her). It's the funniest thing. She also gets very excited when she's crawling cause, you know, she just thinks it's the coolest thing in the world. So she pants and laughs while she's jetting across the floor.

But with crawling comes lots of limits. Usually she makes a beeline right for the dog's food and water bowls. She also likes to find the smallest most miniscule little things on the floor and examine them (and then usually taste them). She's such a happy girl, most of the time. She is friendly and has a great personality. Some of my favorite "Maya things" include:

- the way she holds her mouth in a wide open grin almost all the time.

- when she gets excited sitting on the floor and rocks back and forth like she's propelling herself somewhere.

- her dolphin squeals.

- the way she talks to herself in the crib or car.

- that she loves food as much as I do, maybe even a little more.


Hopefully we'll be able to post pictures soon because she'll be adopted! It's taking a long time but I'm really hoping she's adopted by her first birthday in 3 months.

Here's a picture from Thanksgiving that doesn't show her face so I can post it.

Thankful

What I'm thankful for, 2009:


* A husband who makes sacrifices every day for his family

* A family that supports most of what I do, and if they don't, they tell me so, loudly and passionately.

* A kid that challenges me to be a better person.

* Two kids that show me they love me every day.

* The Twilight Series (are you with me here ladies?)

* Chocolate


What are you thankful for?

You Guys Are No Fun!

Nobody had anything critical to say on my last blog post! What's up with that people? Is anyone even reading this or are you all too cool? Or maybe I'm just not as controversial as I think I am. But really, thanks for all the support. You really are too nice. Today I'm just sharing some fall and Halloween pics.

Oh, and I was on the radio yesterday morning talking about adoption for National Adoption Awareness Month, which if you didn't know, is November. So, if you want to check it out, here's the link. It won't connect directly to the interview but if you click "past guests" on the right, I should come up. But don't make fun of my dorkiness. It took me a little while to get into a flow. I was a bit stutter-y in the beginning. It's a bit long, just so you know if you are going to listen to it. Most of the interview is with a DCF representative and then I jump in here and there.

I just like this shirt


Pumpkin picking

Drinking our "swamp juice"


Mateo was a "bad guy" for Halloween. He's pretty obsessed with bad guys.
I wish he'd associate more with the good guys though.

This was at his preschool costume parade. I did end up sending him as a skeleton and was glad to see I wasn't the only one to use a Halloween costume. There were witches and dinosaurs and monsters and lots of costumes. So we fit right in.

I just love this picture. The look on Luca's face is priceless. And this is truly a picture of the relationship they have. Mateo loves her to death. And she tolerates him. Ha!

Blogging T-shirts!!!

Hey, check out my blogging merchandise on cafepress.com. There are two sayings and for some reason you can't really connect from one to the other. So click on both if you want to see them both.


"My mom is blogging my life"
http://www.cafepress.com/Jmommas


"Blog this mom!"
http://www.cafepress.com/JLRs


I have a few more ideas for blogging shirts, so there will be more to come. I'm also going to add the above two for dads. If you have other funny ideas for T-shirts, let me know so I can profit from them. Hey, if you're not doing anything with the ideas, someone might as well make some money. Just consider it a donation to the "buy us a bigger house" fund since we're literally busting out of our 850 sq.ft. home. Thanks.

Beauty Pageant Take 2

sOkay, I don't want to obsess on the shameful exploiting of these little girls on national television, but I have to quote one more crazy pageant mom here, just because it really is THAT bad.

Said reeking with sarcasm and anger, "Great! She just lost cause she was having fun." Because her daughter did a fun dance move on stage when she wasn't supposed to.

This is the same mom who forced her daughter to go horse-back riding because she thought it would calm her nerves as the girl is screaming on the top of her lungs and can't control the horse. This is also the mom who made her eight year old go on an all fruit diet a week before the pageant.

Look, I wouldn't nominate myself for the ethical parent of the year award or anything. But, geez, even I think this is shameful. How much you wanna bet more than half of these girls will be pregnant by 15?

Why Does One Mom Always Have to Ruin it for the Rest of Us!

Since one or two over-involved moms (or maybe dads) made a big deal about children celebrating Halloween in our public school system, it is banned. The kids can not dress up in costumes on (or this year, the day before) Halloween in any schools, including Mateo's preschool. So, the school tried to get around this by instead having a storybook character parade where the kids can dress up as their favorite storybook character and bring the book in to class. Well, to me, this means having to buy two costumes, since he already picked out a lovely over priced skeleton costume. So Dave and I naturally, being the slacker parents we are, tried to figure out a way around this.

First, I combed the book store for a book about skeletons. No luck. Dave wanted me to order one online just for the socio-political statement it makes but that's just as much work as buying or making a new one. So it cancels itself out. You're following my logic here, right?

So, we brainstormed at dinner tonight. Since Mateo doesn't really have a favorite book, we're a blank slate. Here were some of our best ideas. Okay, maybe "best" is the wrong word. Here are some of our...ideas.

* the Bible - Draw on a beard and dress him in robes and bare feet. (Jesus)

* "Hope" (the Obama book) - dress him in a blue suit with a red tie and a "change" pin. (Obama)

Those were the more expensive ones. Here are the free ones.

* "I'm a Big Brother" - self-explanatory.

* "Mr. Brown Can Moo Can You?" - dress him in all brown.

* Any of the millions of car books we have - use his costume from last year of a race car driver.

The only problem with all of these ideas is that there is very little chance that Mateo will actually wear any of these costumes. I don't even know if he'll wear the skeleton one on Halloween even for candy. I pretty much had to force his on him last year. If it feels like a costume and not regular clothes, he won't wear it. I want to at least attempt to send him dressed up because I don't want him to be the only one without a costume. I don't know if he would care or not, or if he would even notice. But in case he does notice, I don't want him to feel left out because of me. So....

What do you think? Any ideas for a costume that is cheap or free and doesn't feel like a costume but looks like one and that also goes along with a children's book?

Worms and Christmas Trees

I know what you're thinking - how do worms and Christmas trees go together? Well, this is how.

Mateo is obsessed with worms. He can find one on a hot sunny day. I don't know how but he hunts them down and finds them. He'd make a good bird I guess. Anyway, he digs them up then tortures them for the whole time he's playing outside. He would bring them into bed with him at night if I'd let him. But the rule is that worms stay outside. So he carries them around, puts them in his cars, covers them with rocks, feeds them to the dog, gives them lobotomies, and so on. Well, he had about a hundred in a bucket one rainy day and it was time to come inside. We asked him where he would like to put his worms for the night. We have a small pine tree right next to our patio that's about the size of a Christmas tree. Mateo decided this would be a good home for the worms. So he throws them, one by one, onto the branches of the tree. Guess what the tree ended up looking like? A Christmas tree decorated with tinsel. Worm tinsel.

'Tis the season!

Mateo and his bucket of worms

Maybe you, too, have Christmas decorations in your own backyard!

Bonus photo cause it's so darn cute. And too bad I can't post pics of the baby yet cause I have one of her with these same sunglasses on! And yes, we wear our sunglasses at night.