December Daily 19

Last night was another sleepless night. Baby Bean was up over and over and over again and I just gave up at 5 a.m. When we have a bad night, it's the early morning when everyone else is asleep that I get the most discouraged and today was no exception. I was feeling really, really blue and overwhelmed by the time Baby Bean finally decided to go back to sleep at 7:30 a.m. and then, almost immediately, Pk was awake. Luckily, she was sufficiently excited by the prospect of a cuddle in mommy's bed that she let me sleep for half an hour.

Our task for the day was to get spoons for feeding Baby Bean. Today was the day to start solids and since we have had some issues with Pk being upset by Baby Bean using "her" stuff from when she was a baby, I decided that I would buy some things that were particularly his to avoid conflict. I had wanted to get a cutlery set with his name engraved on it but the place that I thought would have something didn't. We ended up with a $4.99 pack of spoons but at least they are different than the ones that Pk has.

One of Pk's favourite things about the mall is ice cream. I often let her get a little something at Baskin Robbins and today was no exception. I wanted to get the Salvation Army band in the background but the crowd around us wouldn't get out of the way.

I also made the mistake of going by Gymboree and I broke down and bought an outfit for Baby Bean and a dress for Pk for Christmas Day. I am really trying to scale down and be frugal but it's kids clothes that I really have to struggle with myself to hold back on. At least I got a good deal :-).

When we got home, after attempting a nap with Pk that didn't happen, we decided to get up and put the ornaments on the tree. I didn't get any pics of the finished tree but it looked lovely. Pk did a great job putting many decorations on one branch. I started to fix it and then decided that I was being silly - wasn't it more wonderful to see that she had played a key role in getting the job done?
Pk grabbed the camera and got quite a few pictures before I stopped her. Poor Baby Bean!
This is another Pk pic. Notice the awful white tone of my skin. The exhaustion is really showing on me right now - it's kind of embarrassing to look so awful. I could use a day at the spa :-).
After that, we went up to visit a friend who is going through a really tough time. Without naming names, I'd like to ask you to pray for this friend. She lost her husband to cancer last spring and Christmas is forcing her to face a lot of realities about her loss. It's so frustrating not to be able to do more to help her. She taught me how to make her divine hard sauce (1 lb butter, lots of icing sugar and generous glugs of cognac that is well out of my price range - divine when spooned onto hot mincemeat tarts) and then had a good cry. I wanted to cry with her - her life is so up in the air and she is having so much trouble finding her way on her own. I can't imagine her pain.

Our day ended on a much lighter note. I decided that Baby Bean was going to start solids tonight. He has been grabbing at our food for weeks and has just seemed really ready. Since he is six months old tomorrow, it seemed a good time to start. I gave him some mashed banana with breastmilk. He was a huge fan. Our laundry is going to be a much bigger job from here on in, though.

I hope you had a wonderful day!