Bye Bye Wubby

Aurora's main New Years resolution is to give up the wubbies. After spending her whole life with these sweet and much loved pacifiers, it's time for them to go. When she turned a year old, I started limiting them to crib use only, with no paci at daycare, and it really was no problem. But boy does she suck on them at night. Lately she's been smiling big and making very silly open-mouth faces, and I'm starting to think her teeth are coming in a little crooked with more of an overbite than they should... so it's less about growing up, and more about healthy teeth. Of course, that doesn't make it any easier. Aurora's always been a great sleeper, but I have to admit that the wubby has played a big part in that.

We got a jump start on her resolution a couple nights ago. Night one, instead of falling asleep in 30 seconds flat as per usual, it took her a full hour. She cried the whole time, "Mommy, mo-ommmmmmeeeeeeeee, wubby, Rora wuuuu-uuu-bbyyyy!" So I followed some advice I found online and cut a hole in the tip of the pacifier, then gave it back to her. It was obvious that the broken paci was not incredibly helpful, but I thought it might ease the transition a little. The second night, she clutched broken wubby and cried for 5 minutes before falling asleep. Much better - ring in the new year!

Aurora's other 2010 resultion? To be potty trained by the end of the year. One of her Christmas presents was a baby doll that has diapers to change and a little potty, and she absolutely loves it. Last night she didn't want to take a bath, so I told her that she needed to give her baby a bath, and it worked! She's such a good dolly mommy.

She does have a big girl potty of her own and has peed in it 4 times. Of course, she's been sitting on it each night before taking a bath for a few months, so it's safe to say that each of those 4 times was a fluke. I don't expect it to really happen until she moves up a class in daycare, and we've got plenty of time...

Chuck's plan for 2010 is to start working on a new personal comic book project. And me... well, I've decided I'd like to start cooking more at home again. At some point this weekend I'm making tuna casserole.

Happy New Year!

Ruth Wadey

Born in Bristol, Pennsylvania on Nov. 25, 1916

Departed on Dec. 19, 2009 and resided in Vienna, VA.

Ruth Marie Wadey, age 93, of Vienna, Virginia passed away on December 19, 2009 at her residence. Loving wife of the late Harold C. Wadey & cherished mother of Charles W. Wadey, Ruth M. "Ruthie" Wadey & Martha (Barry) Virts. Mrs. Wadey is also survived by two grandchildren, Charles E. (Amber) Wadey & Andrew J. (Julia) Wadey & two great-grandchildren, Aurora & Zeland Wadey. A private visitation is being held today, December 29, 2009 at the Money & King Funeral Home.

While we'd talked about taking a family trip to VA since A & Z were born, Aurora never did get to meet her Great-Grandmother. Of course, she will always know why we chose Ruth as her middle name. The above photo is from our trip to Virginia in 2001. Grandma Wadey was a strong, kind, beautiful woman, and she will be missed.

Just playing

This might sound hard to believe, but after almost 5 full days off, Chuck may have had just about enough of us silly girls. It's true that we don't let him sleep in, and we force him to drive us around to do kid-friendly things all day long. Yesterday we went all the way up to Round Rock to check out this place called Jungle Java, where Aurora could play and we could drink coffee... er, play with her. It was fun!

Today we spent the afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese's. Aurora is still a little young for it, but she certainly enjoyed the pizza, had fun watching me play games, and liked trading in our tickets for prizes.

She did not know what to make of all these strange photo booths!

And she was terrified of the big electronic mouse. I tried to get a picture of her in front of it, and she started crying "No mouse. NO MOUSE!" Perhaps we should hold off on that first trip to Disneyland.

We have the next 3 days off and daycare is open as usual, so we're REALLY taking the days off. Tomorrow we're going somewhere nice for brunch and seeing Avatar in IMAX 3D. Tuesday I'm having a spa morning, and Wednesday I'm going ice skating with friends. If Chuck's lucky, he just may get some quiet time completely ALONE. Heck, we might even let him sleep in... maybe.

Friends

This holiday season we didn't travel at all, just hung out with friends around town. We spent Christmas eve with our friends Bethany, Matt, Pam, Chad, and their three sweet little boys. We were lucky to live near them in LA, and we're even luckier that they moved here to Austin!

Christmas Day was spent at Chuck's coworkers home, along with their friends, family, and 3-year old girl Mackenzie. It's hard to imagine Aurora a year from now, potty trained, riding a tricycle, and having this much hair...

We also had a fun visit with Kim Barnett and her twin sister Kelly.

We're so glad to have good friends to play with, as well as great food and company during our holiday break.

Christmas Traditions

I haven't been this excited about Christmas morning since I was a kid! I hardly slept at all last night, just thinking about this morning...

For the last 12 years, it's been a tradition of ours to not buy each other presents. Chuck and I did give each other gifts before we were married... I have no idea what I got Chuck, but I remember the last Christmas we spent in Seattle with my parents in 1997, he got me a Pink Floyd CD and a food dehydrator, which actually got a lot of use. So it's not because he didn't choose good gifts! We were just... well, let's face it, we were poor. We spent close to 10 years with one income while the other went to college, and that one income was usually $10/hour or less. We weren't in debt, but income was low and I made the decision that we didn't need to spend money on each other.

This year, I threw Chuck a curve ball and changed the rules. We both have good jobs, and we spend so much of our time and energy focusing on Aurora - I just wanted for us to do something thoughtful for each other. I didn't impose a price limit, and Chuck went all out!!! He spoiled both of us girls - getting Aurora "A Bug's Life" on Blu-Ray, a little shopping cart and a matching cash register, which she LOVES. Just look at this smile!

He got me a full-size zip-up pajama onesie (pretty similar to the pink bunny suit from A Christmas Story, completely ridiculous and no, I'm not posting a picture), and a KINDLE! I was so surprised! Now I'm wondering what other cool things I might own if we hadn't imposed the no gift rule for so long...

I gave him a Speedo watch that not only works under water, but also detects UV levels. I think he really likes it! I also got him a LIVESTRONG shirt, and I bought Aurora... believe it or not, a cute little shopping cart. Chuck and I decided to each buy Aurora a gift without consulting each other, and we BOTH got her shopping carts! Perhaps next year we'll work together on Aurora's presents. But we're DEFINITELY getting surprise gifts for each other from here on out!

Merry Christmas to all my loyal blog followers!!! And thank you so much to everybody who sent us special holiday gifts, cards, and pictures. What a fun day at the Wadey house.

Hip Mom

Today I took the afternoon off and got my hair cut and colored. I told my hair dresser that the look I'm going for is "hip mom," and I think she nailed it. Now we're ready for the holiday break!

'Tis the Season

Today was all about meeting up with friends and getting some pretty sweet presents. First, we met Kim Barnett at Starbucks, had a peppermint mocha, and Aurora got a wind-up duckie, an awesome plate, bowl, fork and spoon set, AND some adorable wooly socks. She actually squealed with delight when we got ready to open the presents!

This afternoon we met up with Amelia at Chuy's. Aurora was pleasantly surprised to get ANOTHER giftie, a Charlie Brown and Linus book and blankie. What a lucky girl!

She and I have both been enjoying all the nice gifts from friends and family. At 20-months old, her imagination is really developing, and she's been doing all sorts of cute things like making us kiss and hug her dollies, trying to change her piggy's diaper ("piggy poo poo!"), pushing her teddy bear on the swing, and making her leopard run around all over her car-seat and my head. She likes to color, loves stickers, and is very concerned about making sure that we all have jackets, socks and shoes on. She's becoming quite the copy cat, and if I ever put a ponytail in my hair, she INSISTS I do the same for her ("RORA PONY!!!"). She's also been making complete sentences; she can say things like "here, read this book mommy" and "get up, daddy." And she loves playing ring-around-the-rosies ("ALL FALL DOWN!"). Such a smart silly girl.

It's the holiday season...

Which really just means that we have been much busier than usual, planning and attending lovely holiday parties. Last week my team held a special luncheon for our amazing office volunteers, complete with food, music, and some pretty great gifts.

Then we went out to Chuck's company party. It was dark so we didn't take many pictures, but we did enjoy ourselves.

And we MORE than made up for it with the photos taken at my holiday party last night. Wowee wow! A professional photographer volunteered to work our event, and we ended up with some very lovely - and some extremely wacky - photos! You can see more on my facebook page.

It's been pretty fun to have excuses to dress up and spend time with friends. Two things we definitely do not do enough. Of course, we DO have a pretty good time with our wacky little daughter! Had to sneak in a silly Rora pic...

Happy Chanukah

Tonight was the first night of Chanukah, and I planned an entire evening filled with lighting the first candle on our Menorah, giving Aurora her first Chanukah book, and of course making potato latkes with applesauce and sour cream.

We also opened the wonderful gift basket of goodies from Grandpa and Bernice, and played with a Dreidel (that was Aurora's favorite part!).

This year our friends Amelia and Patrick joined in the festivities. Once Aurora went to bed, they stayed to babysit while Chuck and I went to his company holiday party. I honestly didn't think it would be possible to observe Chanukah as a family AND get to Chuck's holiday party, but thanks to Amelia and Pat, we were able to do both!

There are some events I plan ahead for and get babysitters lined up way in advance, and other things that sneak up last minute and just make me sad that we don't have family nearby to come over and watch Aurora so we can go out to parties, concerts, and dinners. Then just when I'm feeling saddest, a good friend offers to help and I realize how lucky we really are.

Tree Time

Today we had nothing on the schedule - just a lazy day at home. It really is beginning to feel like winter around here, with temps dropping low enough to bring a few snow flurries earlier in the week.

We already opened a bunch of Christmas gifts over Thanksgiving, and had debated over whether to put up the artificial tree, buy a real tree, or just leave the house undecorated (which is what we did last year). This morning, it just seemed like the thing to do. We dug out the tree and ornaments, put on some classic holiday tunes, and Aurora helped decorate her first Christmas tree!

I really wasn't sure if she'd help or hinder the process, and ultimately she did a little of both. She really did "get" the idea of hanging the ornaments on the tree - at first putting 4 ornaments on the same branch - then moving around and finding nice places for them. Of course, I put the breakable ornaments on myself, closer to the top of the tree, but that didn't stop her from dropping and breaking a few. If she's anything like her cousin, Lillie, this may end up being her favorite part of the season! Perhaps next year we'll get a real tree.

I decorated a few other areas, pulling out the red table runner, holly place mats, and even a wreath. It's so festive and cozy in here now!

I haven't figured out how to hang our stockings yet, but the Menorah is on the fireplace mantle, ready for use next week! We don't have any grand holiday plans for the rest of the month. No travel booked, no house guests lined up. But I'm looking forward to everything the season has to offer.

Family Photos

It would be silly to have THIS many Wadey's all in one place, and NOT get professional photos taken.

Wait, let's try for one where Cameron actually looks happy. Yes, much better. Do we have cute kids or WHAT!?

This is one of my favorites. I gave everybody holiday socks to wear for the photo shoot and this one really shows 'em off.

As as Julia noted here, taking family photos is and should be a yearly occurance. Check out how much Aurora and Zeland have grown! Our silly little babies last year at Thanksgiving...

This year they're big toddlers! If only I'd put Aurora's hoodie up.

There were many more great pics, but you'll have to wait until you see our holiday photo card (and Nancy's, and Julia's) for more.

Back to work

I must say, I truly enjoyed having so much time off for Thanksgiving and welcoming everybody to our home for the first time. It really was stress-free, and Aurora loved having family here. Grandpa Chuck just left this morning, and we will miss having him around.

We already miss Zeland, Julia, Cam, Steve, Nancy and Andrew - who left Saturday and Sunday. Here's one of the last pictures we took on Sunday... Grandma Nancy and her boys!

After a long weekend, I never know whether I'm going to wish I had more time off, or jump at the chance to have a break from being a full-time mom. The same goes for Aurora - sometimes she's first to the door, ready to go back to school, and other times she's positive we've become a stay-at-home family and wants to keep it that way. It's always harder to recover when we've done the traveling, which is why it was nice to stay at home this time around.

Well, this week we've already made a pleasantly easy transition back into work and school. Everybody's happy and every thing's back to normal. I've been busy at work, but in a really good way. Today we got to see the finished product from that PSA we recorded at a sound studio last month. I wanted to share it with you...

Listen closely and you'll hear my voice at the end! We are Team LIVESTRONG - too cool!!!