I mentioned yesterday that I have my knickers all in a knot over Christmas shopping. Please just let me say that I know it is only November 8th. I know that Christmas is a whole 45 days away. That I should not have my knickers in a knot because, DUDE, that is a long way off. And, I do not have mass amounts of people to buy for and we are actually sort of mostly done with Matthew's shopping but I am still nervous and feeling on edge because the people I do have to buy stuff for:
#1 live far away so my 45 days is cut down to 30-35 days (for shipping) which is still a long time so (#2) these are the hardest people to buy for. It does help that I generally charge my husband with the task of buying gifts for his own family. I will not, do not, do in-law shopping as a general rule. Plus what I would buy and what Kevin actually buys are TWO totally separate things.
Reason #3 is really the crux of the matter: I am sort of a snob when it comes to gift buying to the point of paralyzing me into buying absolutely NOTHING. A good example of this: when I am in a group of people and someone asks me 'where do you want to eat?' I am like a bloody deer in head lights. My response usually goes like this "Ah ah ah, what do you like? I like anything? Hmm, ah... what do think of ah what do you like?" I am terrible at making decisive decisions, and try as I might to change this behavior I have come to the rousing conclusion that I am who I am (like Popeye... only less cartoon-ish... I think. Also, I am a woman and I do not have those biceps when I eat spinach. SHUTTING UP now...)
Reason #4 is also another reason to be a bit deer in the headlights-ish - my family tends to be a little er shall we say... ungrateful about gifts, no matter the cost or thoughtfulness surrounding the gift. If I had my druthers I would get everyone gift cards and be done with it. That way they can hem and haw over what it is THEY want to get but I know some people think gift cards can seem a little thoughtless, no? Maybe not so much any more but I think to my mother they would be... Not me, I love me a good gift card. It is like the gift that keeps on giving well into the new year some times! That I LOVE!
I am just feeling panicked because I have no clue where to begin. I guess a list would help, huh? Some organizational guide to gift buying? The plan really is this - make a list, check it twice, go shopping this weekend and maybe, oh lawdy help me, the weekend of Thanksgiving & the 1st weekend in December (that will be a desperate weekend... I will be tense and not nice...) and hope that I can figure out what to get everyone on those two or three shopping expeditions because I have to go to Detroit next weekend and our Christmas party (WAHOO) for work in the 2nd weekend of December (at the Conrad BABY!) The weekend of the 15-16... ohmigawd, I will SO be hyperventilating if I am still shopping that weekend and than HOLY SHIT one more weekend after that before Santa arrives.
Is this whole post making any of the rest of you break out into hives? Hmm, okay maybe not.... Suggestions welcome!! (web sites, stores, catalogs with cool gifts for 13 year old girls, 68 year old artsy moms, workaholic dads & brothers, and even something for a totally impossible to buy for husband - WOULD HE MAKE HIS LIST ALREADY!?!?)
The hysteria has begun, I am sorry you are witness to this, my total breakdown over a damn holiday (and I thought I coming to love this holiday...)
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Monday, August 13, 2007
Promises... Part Un
I have been thinking about 2008 a lot lately. Did you know on July 25, it will be exactly FOUR months till Christmas?! That sure puts holiday shopping in perspective! I told Kevin I was doing my shopping early because I am tired of being tired around the holidays. But I also want to enjoy this Christmas because it will likely be out last as a three person family... well five if you count Peaches 'n Cream - yeah, that's what I call my dogs... whachya gonna do about?!
More to the point, I have been thinking a lot about pregnancy with a child in tow and parenting two kiddos while being a working momma. I am trying to mentally prepare myself for these (courageous) acts... I know that there is no amount of preparation for this because as prepared as I thought I was for Matthew, I was SO not prepared AND it was terribly different (in a good way) then I ever imagined.
I do want to note that I have really changed my way of thinking about pregnancy, child birth and parenting the past two years. I was pretty "hard core" to some degree two years ago. This hard core attitude came from BABS. I love this place and it is a great thing for our community but made me feel wholly inadequate at best because I was not a hard core mommy to be (nor was I had hardcore vegan/vegetarian and I gave birth in hospital - OMG!) I had these beliefs and ideas about these things that seem so absurd to me now. With that said...
First, there is no way to replicate anything from my 1st pregnancy because Matthew is now a part of our world. There will be none of that dreamy sitting around and wondering about the baby... I mean there will be but that will likely happen at work! It just won't be 24/7 like it was with Matthew. After two years and much time to think about these things, I am making the following "promises" to myself... I do not hold myself accountable for these promises because I now always have a Plan B (and C).
1.) Kevin and I have discussed this extensively. While we have not conclusively decided this - we are probably going to find out the sex of the next baby. It was fun and exciting to not know the 1st time around but we feel like Matthew has the right to know whether he will be a big bro to a little sister or brother. He will be old enough to understand the differences between boys and girls. Plus I feel like it will help him get used to the idea of sharing his life with another little person. On top of that, we can plan the baby's room much better and it will make it easier to get what we need all around. And finally, finding a name we could agree was hell the 1st time around. Eventually we did it but was it ever hard. I would rather just know and be able to haggle over names for one sex versus coming up with six million names for two sexes.
2.) I plan to take A LOT more photos of my developing belly. I really planned to do that Matthew. I was going to keep a baby journal (I bought a cool notebook and everything...) and take a monthly baby belly photo but I did not... I am so sad about that. I wanted to do it because it meant a lot to me. I am a photo hound. I love photos and I look back at my pregnancy and there are hardly any of my developing belly. I think it will be special to look back at that one day.
3.) I promise to enjoy pregnancy even more this time around in all ways. I want to buy some fun clothes. I was so boring and conservative (okay I was really just broke...) I can now afford to buy some of the cute stuff out there and since the plan is to have the baby at a radically different time of year then when I was pregnant with Matthew, I am pretty excited to get some cute stuff. I will enjoy eating and being pregnant a lot more - I worried about EVERYTHING with my 1st pregnancy. So what if I had 400 lb ankles, acne like a 15 yr old and gained 895645 pounds... I did it for Matthew and that was worth every bit of it. My body did what it was supposed to do and it did it well.
4.) We have more loot this time around so can pimp out the next baby's pad! Not that we did not get the best things we could for Matthew because we did. It will just be fun to get nicer things without all of the worry and anxiety. I love to look at all the cool things that have come about the past two years. Little things have changed and, of course, we will re-use the stuff we already have but, for instance, basically Matthew's bouncer broke after approximately 2.5 uses so I can go out and buy a new bouncer without any qualms.
5.) Matthew will hopefully be close to three and a half by the same this mystical Schmidt baby would arrive. He will be very different by that time. He is already radically different. I mean recently Matthew developed this INCREDIBLE, RICH, and OMG it is so BEAUTIFUL imagination. I love this part... I love it so much so that it brings tears to my eyes as I type! I can relate to this because I am still a child at heart. Being a mommy means I can also be the kid at heart I have always been. All of this is for another post at another time but Matthew will be more mature which is a good thing for us. AND hopefully one step closer to being mostly potty trained though some friends of ours told us their SIX year old son (okay both of their sons were like this...) just stopped having accidents in bed at night - ACK!
... to be continued (this post is getting out of control!)
More to the point, I have been thinking a lot about pregnancy with a child in tow and parenting two kiddos while being a working momma. I am trying to mentally prepare myself for these (courageous) acts... I know that there is no amount of preparation for this because as prepared as I thought I was for Matthew, I was SO not prepared AND it was terribly different (in a good way) then I ever imagined.
I do want to note that I have really changed my way of thinking about pregnancy, child birth and parenting the past two years. I was pretty "hard core" to some degree two years ago. This hard core attitude came from BABS. I love this place and it is a great thing for our community but made me feel wholly inadequate at best because I was not a hard core mommy to be (nor was I had hardcore vegan/vegetarian and I gave birth in hospital - OMG!) I had these beliefs and ideas about these things that seem so absurd to me now. With that said...
First, there is no way to replicate anything from my 1st pregnancy because Matthew is now a part of our world. There will be none of that dreamy sitting around and wondering about the baby... I mean there will be but that will likely happen at work! It just won't be 24/7 like it was with Matthew. After two years and much time to think about these things, I am making the following "promises" to myself... I do not hold myself accountable for these promises because I now always have a Plan B (and C).
1.) Kevin and I have discussed this extensively. While we have not conclusively decided this - we are probably going to find out the sex of the next baby. It was fun and exciting to not know the 1st time around but we feel like Matthew has the right to know whether he will be a big bro to a little sister or brother. He will be old enough to understand the differences between boys and girls. Plus I feel like it will help him get used to the idea of sharing his life with another little person. On top of that, we can plan the baby's room much better and it will make it easier to get what we need all around. And finally, finding a name we could agree was hell the 1st time around. Eventually we did it but was it ever hard. I would rather just know and be able to haggle over names for one sex versus coming up with six million names for two sexes.
2.) I plan to take A LOT more photos of my developing belly. I really planned to do that Matthew. I was going to keep a baby journal (I bought a cool notebook and everything...) and take a monthly baby belly photo but I did not... I am so sad about that. I wanted to do it because it meant a lot to me. I am a photo hound. I love photos and I look back at my pregnancy and there are hardly any of my developing belly. I think it will be special to look back at that one day.
3.) I promise to enjoy pregnancy even more this time around in all ways. I want to buy some fun clothes. I was so boring and conservative (okay I was really just broke...) I can now afford to buy some of the cute stuff out there and since the plan is to have the baby at a radically different time of year then when I was pregnant with Matthew, I am pretty excited to get some cute stuff. I will enjoy eating and being pregnant a lot more - I worried about EVERYTHING with my 1st pregnancy. So what if I had 400 lb ankles, acne like a 15 yr old and gained 895645 pounds... I did it for Matthew and that was worth every bit of it. My body did what it was supposed to do and it did it well.
4.) We have more loot this time around so can pimp out the next baby's pad! Not that we did not get the best things we could for Matthew because we did. It will just be fun to get nicer things without all of the worry and anxiety. I love to look at all the cool things that have come about the past two years. Little things have changed and, of course, we will re-use the stuff we already have but, for instance, basically Matthew's bouncer broke after approximately 2.5 uses so I can go out and buy a new bouncer without any qualms.
5.) Matthew will hopefully be close to three and a half by the same this mystical Schmidt baby would arrive. He will be very different by that time. He is already radically different. I mean recently Matthew developed this INCREDIBLE, RICH, and OMG it is so BEAUTIFUL imagination. I love this part... I love it so much so that it brings tears to my eyes as I type! I can relate to this because I am still a child at heart. Being a mommy means I can also be the kid at heart I have always been. All of this is for another post at another time but Matthew will be more mature which is a good thing for us. AND hopefully one step closer to being mostly potty trained though some friends of ours told us their SIX year old son (okay both of their sons were like this...) just stopped having accidents in bed at night - ACK!
... to be continued (this post is getting out of control!)
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