Christmas Decorations

With Baby #3 due any day now, I've been rushing to get a million things done.  Usually I like to have things clean and organized before the holidays, before we have houseguests, and before a new baby comes, and this month we're expecting all three at the same time.

One of my top priorities was making sure the house was decorated for Christmas, and so the day after we got back from Thanksgiving in San Jose Dev and I set to work. 

(And thank you to Dev for staying out all night hanging lights and running electrical cords during an unusual cold spell - we've had lows in the 30s here at night, which is pretty cold by L.A. standards.)

Some decorations outside:

And at night:

 

And inside:

 

The trees I made last year.

 

I love the table centerpiece this year, too.

 

 

 

 

Beatrice calls the back room "The North Pole" all year long because it's the room we where we always put the Christmas tree.

 

We splurged on some new stockings this year.  I sewed our original set back around 2001 and they have sentimental value, of course, but they are also small, and lopsided (I've improved my sewing a lot since 2001), and Dev always complained that they didn't have our names on them.  So we ordered new personalized stockings from Pottery Barn, including one for the new baby and one for all the pets to share.

 

 

This year I did all of our wrapping in black, red, and white.  I really like the tweed, chalkboard, and velvet textures.



This year I also shamelessly copied Amy Robb's idea for making a modern Christmas village.  I found these four light-up Christmas village houses at a thrift store (they are from the 1980s, from Mervyn's) and spray-painted them with several coats of primer and then white semi-gloss paint.  Then I just added some little trees and a few light posts from Michael's.

 

BEFORE

 

 

AFTER



 

Now with everything decorated, we can just sit back and wait for Christmas (and the new baby).

 



"My Brain Didn't Be Good to Me"

As Beatrice gets older, I see more and more ways in which she is very much like I was at her age, both for better and for worse.

Unfortunately, Beatrice can easily become anxious and depressed, as I used to.  But one way in which we are different is how she deals with it.  When I was little, I mostly just accepted that I would often be scared or sad and didn't do much to combat it, but Beatrice is constantly working out practical strategies to manage her own emotions.

She often repeats phrases to herself to remind herself to slow down and not panic.  For example, she's afraid to walk into my dark bedroom on her way to the bathroom on the other side, so now every time she gets ready to enter the bedroom, she takes a deep breath and says out loud, "Monsters are make-believe" and then walks in.  She also makes up songs that remind her of good behaviors and make her feel more in control.

But I discovered the most striking example of this the other day, when out of nowhere she told me about her technique for managing nightmares.  As she describes it, when she is caught in a bad dream (her examples were "a bear eating a duck" and "a bookstore where all the books have flames in the middle of them") she will forcibly drag her face along her pillow, making a loud fabric swishing sound, which allows her to partially wake up and reset her dream to one that is funny or happy (like a walking, talking candy cane).

Usually this works for her, she says, but then a few days ago she told me she had tried it the night before and it didn't work - no matter how many times she made the swishing sound and reset her dream, another equally bad dream would take its place ("my brain didn't be good to me").  So, she told me confidently, she had decided to draw a picture of something happy (she and Arthur going sledding together) and sleep with the drawing, so that if she got scared in the middle of the night she could "show it to [her] brain to remind it."  And the next morning she said it worked!

I have to say, I am really impressed by that level of active emotional self-management in a four-year-old.

The Latest from Beatrice and Arthur

From Beatrice:

"I wish my house was a restaurant. I would still have a bed, there would just be more fridges."

---

After Monty's girlfriend Jennifer invited Beatrice to play at Thanksgiving:

Jennifer: Let's pretend.
B: Okay! You're a horse and I'm seven.

---

Beatrice asked me what the word "continue" means. I gave her some examples, like continuing to run, or jump, or sleep.

B: Oh, so you could say, 'Continue staying in the house if there's a predator outside.'

---

"Were pteranadons and sauropods friends? Look it up!"

From Arthur:

"I love Buzz Aldrin! I want to lick him."

---

Summer: Who does Mommy love?
Arthur (confidently): Gorillas.

---

"That cheetah's name is Cheetah and his middle name is Cheetah."

---

Arthur demanded that I pick him up and hold him, standing, in the middle of his bedroom.

Summer: Why?
Arthur: I want what I want!

---

Arthur, refusing to eat his toast with honey on it: "Humans don't eat honey! Bears eat honey!"

And together:

B: Arthur, we need to have a little talk. You knocked down the picture of Shackleton.
A: I'm sorry, I just love to knock down things.

---

Beatrice and Arthur couldn't agree about which park to go to.

Beatrice: Arthur, we have to be on the same page about the pirate park!

---

Arthur often says edgy, controversial things just to get a rise out of Beatrice. For example,

A: I hate trees! Trees are stupid!
B (scandalized): Arthur, you have to give them love! They're making us air!

Patio Improvements

 

In between major projects, we made a few small upgrades to our back patio. 

 

First we added a sun shade that makes the patio much more shady and comfortable in the summer.

 

We also added a large chalkboard - it's fun for the kids, great for party menus, and covers up a lot of the blank cinderblock wall.

 

And Dev built a combination covered wood pile/toy garage to store the kids' summer toys out of the sun when they're not using them.

 

And this winter we have some big changes planned, first to the living room, then the master bedroom and backyard.

The Best of Fall

 

 

Some final photos from Fall 2013.

The kids have been enjoying Saturday mornings at the library's Lego Club.

 We did a lot of crafts and decorating, as usual.

Making a corn husk doll

Bag painting fall leaves

 

We played a lot of dress-up, and did a lot of skits and puppet shows.

 

 

 

Arthur tries on Dev's boots.

Beatrice dressing Arthur

Dev went on a business trip to Iowa and brought the kids back some farmer hats.

We bought Beatrice a mushroom hat.

 

Classic outfit: an ax, a sword, and high heels

 

Dancing to Bollywood music

We discovered a great new hiking spot in Malibu Creek State Park - beautiful and almost totally empty.

 

 



Feeding oatmeal to Arthur

Arthur reading at school in his favorite chair





Eating at their favorite spot, Melt, an all-grilled-cheese restaurant



Arthur making pumpkin pie

Eating latkes

 

 

Now, on to winter!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Some photos from our 12th annual Thanksgiving with Sam, Lilli, Travis, Aubrey, Monty, and all our other Caltech (and Caltech-affiliated) friends.

I like Arthur's Drunk Businessman pose here.

Beatrice adores Lilli.

Good old-fashioned pool fire

Aubrey teaching Beatrice how to play Super Mario Bros.

Playing my new favorite game, Timeline

Beatrice made this Thanksgiving tree as a centerpiece. She and Arthur are thankful for many things, including their house, juice, crayons, the chickens, and "the chemical that makes leaves turn beautiful colors." .

Both kids slept together in the pack n' play.

Arthur passed out from too much partying.

Then we headed home in time to catch the Hollywood Christmas Parade back in Los Angeles on Sunday night.