Christmas presents for a 3 year old

Since T doesn't read my blog (yet), I figured I'd share what we got her for Christmas.  I did this last year, too. I am pleased to say my shopping is 95% DONE.  Woot.

I read about someone else's family gift-giving tradition and loved it so we're trying it out this year.  

Each person gets four presents:

• Something they want
• Something they need
• Something to eat
• Something to read

This works nicely for TJ and me, because we're often at a loss for what to get each other. Most things we want, we just buy. This way TJ can also get some things for the girls on his own, since last year it was just me buying random things and signing them "Love, Mama and Daddy" (and also some from Peanut and Spike). 

However, I do love to shop, so T is going to end up with more than four gifts.  A lot of them are little things, because she got (and uses) the big stuff already - Kettler tricycle, play kitchen, Balance Bike.

Here's what she's getting this year:

Pure Fun Trampoline - T's friend E has a similar one at her house and T enjoyed bouncing on it. It's compact and can be used indoors, which is great given our crappy weather. This is the "something she needs" because our girl will sit and read books or draw all day long. We need to gently nudge her to be more active.

Hello Kitty Science Class - I know, this is totally girly and pink, which I usually hate. But T LOVES Hello Kitty. And the fact that it's a science class play set makes me feel marginally better about it. Incidentally, they had it at Kohl's for twice the price on Amazon. Not sure what that's all about. Thanks to my trusty smartphone, I ordered it on Amazon while standing in Kohl's trying to understand why it was $17. Definitely in the "something she wants" category, as is everything with Hello Kitty on it.

This super cute beaded necklace from J. Crew's kids' line. The color is called "neon azalea" and it matches her glasses exactly. I probably could have made something similar, but didn't have time to track down beads and ribbon in these exact colors.  I'm not crazy about expensive jewelry on little kids, but this is plastic and ribbon and the price was right. And I know T will *love* it. It also comes in a nice shiny silver box.

Hello Kitty Pez dispenser.  T saw one of these at a craft store and thought it was the coolest thing ever. She has a MAJOR sweet tooth and sadly, has a couple of cavities already, so we restrict sugar as much as we can. But it's Christmas, and this fills in the 'something to eat' part.  Plus she'll dig the dispenser long after the candy is gone.  Just to balance it out, I'll also put a clementine in her stocking and ask her to eat that before she eats any candy. Because we're sneaky like that.

On the "something she needs" front, I bought her some clothes from the Gap and Old Navy. She's been growing like crazy and is now over 3 feet and close to 40 lbs. Size 3T is WAY too small, 4T fits just barely, so most things I buy for her now are size 5, which is big, but likely not for long. She really likes cats for some reason (probably because we don't have any, and did I mention Hello Kitty?!) so I figured this kitty with glasses T shirt would be a big hit.  I wish it wasn't pink (story of my life).


I saw this cute Kikkerland owl keychain at Target and grabbed him on impulse. T loves owls and anything little and cute that she can play "pretend" with. I expect he'll be a big hit, though TJ may do surgery on him to remove the hooting sound. (TJ has a tendency to operate on squeaky and noisy toys in this house because they disrupt his chi.)



For "something to read", the last two books in our Book Advent are new. For Christmas Eve, we'll be reading Olive the Other Reindeer.

What's not to love about a dog who thinks he's a reindeer? But the book I'm really excited about is the one for Christmas Day, called Me...Jane.  It's a book about Jane Goodall as a little girl. A librarian friend of mine told me that little kids don't quite "get" that Jane in the story grew up to be a famous scientist, but I'm cool with that.  Just the idea of a female character as a scientist-to-be in a kids' book rocks my world.

There's one more gift I'm excited about, but it's a joint gift for TJ and T together, so I can't write about it yet.

We didn't buy T a ton of stuff this year, nor did we buy her anything really expensive, and I'm ok with that. We noticed on her birthday that T gets overwhelmed by too many gifts. I'm sure that'll change as she gets older, but for now, we may space out some of the gifts and open some on Christmas Eve.

I'm curious to see how she'll react. She is starting to understand that she'll get presents at Christmas, but I don't think she has a sense of anticipation just yet. Maybe next year.

Happy Holidays to you, and hope your shopping is done, or close!

Project Life: What Holidays? Edition

Now that we're in December and so close to Christmas, I have to figure out how to continue Project Life along with the December-not-so-Daily album I'm also working on. The December album is supposed to capture all of our holiday activities, but it's hard to separate those from our regular "life".  

But I tried to do just that, so this week, I bring you the "Saving Ourselves for December Daily" edition of our life. All evidence of holiday preparations has been studiously avoided here. (Which means I should really get working on that holiday album!)

This time I grabbed the Studio Calico kit closest to me - November's Penny Loafers. I am ashamed to say I hadn't even unpacked it from the mailing box. Sigh. But maybe a clean, well-organized craft room is a sign of someone who isn't spending time actually crafting. Yeah, that's what I'll tell myself.

Doing these spreads with a kit makes it so much faster, as well as giving it a more cohesive look as I've mentioned before. This time I forced myself to use only what came in the kit, and to pick only 2 patterned papers.  I LOVED the sequins and the Crate Paper vellum stitched garland. I have crappy photos of my layouts again since it gets dark at 4pm here.  (Click for a larger version and sorry again for the weird reflections.)

Nov 26 - Dec 9: Being silly at home and candy at Westlake Center

Nov 26 - Dec 9: BabyM's 2 mo appointment, Mama Day at preschool, more silliness

This time I also tried to remember to write about things I didn't have photographic evidence for, like lunches with friends. I also felt like getting a little crafty so I did some stamping and used my AMAZING Martha Stewart Glitter Glue and Ranger Liquid Pearls on the title card because I love sparkle and don't use those things enough!

One of the things I've noticed is that I need to *see* my crafty stash or I won't use it. So I leave my stamps and ink, glitter glue and liquid pearls, and my pre-cut journaling cards all within sight and reach on my craft table. That way when I need a little *something* and I'm not sure what I'm looking for, I can quickly survey what I've got and actually use it. It also saves time and keeps me from getting sidetracked as I poke through my stash and find long-forgotten pretties. 

Since there are only 22 days left in the year, I'm going to do one last 2-page spread for the rest of December, which will also give me time to focus on my December-no-pressure-holiday album.  I'm already looking forward to Project Life 2013! Anyone else contemplating doing it next year?

It's good to be home for the holidays

I got the idea of making a "holiday fun list" from my friend Laura who does this with her kids in the summer and winter. At first I thought it seemed a little too structured and project-managementy and not very fun, frankly.

But 2 months into my maternity leave, I realize we do need that structure. With TJ home all the time, our days are largely the same, and we find them slipping away in a haze of feeding everyone, getting the girls to nap, and next thing you know, it's 6pm and time to start dinner and the bedtime routine. Not to mention it gets dark here around 3:30 so the days seem really short. T is in preschool four mornings a week, so we're constrained to three days for Big Fun Stuff.

So on Thanksgiving weekend, we sat down and made a list of the fun things we're going to do this holiday season. I'm pleased to report we've done 7 or 8 of them already (in RED below)!

The 2012 Creath Family Holiday Fun List:

• Make and eat pancakes at home
• Go to the Rumble Slide park
• Go downtown to look at the decorations
• See the holiday Kindermusik show at Benaroya Hall
• Visit Leavenworth
• Take a weekend trip to San Juan Islands or Vancouver (maybe in January)
• Make and eat apple pie oatmeal
• Be jolly
• See snow
• Make, decorate and eat Christmas cookies
• Make, decorate and NOT eat Christmas ornaments
• Make a Santa Claus ornament
• Do Christmas snowman craft (Target kit)
• Invite people over for an Open House
• Dance
• Take puppies to the dog park
• Ride the B bus (Trillian's idea.  This is just a shuttle between transit centers.  She's 3.)
• Drink milk (Trillian says this is what BabyM wants to do)
• Listen to Christmas music
• Put up our Christmas tree
• Eat ham and pie for Christmas dinner (do you sense a theme?)
• Book Advent countdown
• Send out real holiday cards
• Make real Belgian waffles at home

While I still struggle with the urge to just do things to check them off the list, it's been fun to deliberately incorporate more holiday fun items into our lives. Before kids, we only halfheartedly celebrate holidays. I've posted the list on our fridge so we can see what we want to do next.

What about you? Do you make a list?

Project Life: November 2012, Thanksgiving Edition

I'm so close to completing Project Life for 2012 and I'm so excited!  Even more so that it's still FUN to put the pages together each time.

For this layout, I used the Noel Mignon November 2012 kit. I bought a single one to see what a different kit was like.  (I already subscribe to Studio Calico.) This one was a bit too "themed" for my liking - very fall and Thanksgiving-ish, but perfect for this spread in Project Life. I also used a few of the cards from the We R Memory Keepers line at Target - the 4x6 list of T's favorite things, and the little cards with the banners and Meridian's schedule matched nicely with the NM kit.  I've finally figured out that I prefer to use all cream-based papers or all white-based, instead of mixing the two.

Apologies in advance for the photos being a bit wonky.  I got done with this spread very late so had to take them under incandescent light. I'm also learning how to use Adobe Lightroom, and am still getting used to the editing tools.

Nov 12-25, 2012: Thanksgiving, Crossroads Mall, Portage Bay Cafe

Closeup of "baby schedule" card ;)

Nov 12-25: Babies, friends, and food.

Not much craftiness this week - a sequin, a brad and a sticker.

I printed fewer photos than usual this time, because I had put a lot of this month's photos in my 30 Days of Thankful album and didn't want to use duplicates.  So I had to come up with some "filler" cards, and I just wasn't feeling as crafty this week.

I had a few cards in my stash that I added a bit of journaling and kit stickers to, and then I thought it might be nice to capture a little bit about what the girls are like right now.  With BabyM, it's all about the eating and sleeping, so I wrote up her "schedule" (such as it is). I'm sure it'll be amusing when she's a teenager.

For T, I wrote about her current favorite things - book, movie, parent (always Daddy!).  I wrote these up from my own observation, so I'm sure she'd disagree with my choices. She's 3 and tends to disagree with most things. Sigh.

I'm also totally stoked that all the pages for the year will fit into one 2.5" binder.  Other people have had to split their year into 2 albums, which just doesn't seem ok to me. I know, I'm weird.

Only 3 more layouts to go for the year!  Woot!

Linked up with The Mom Creative for Project Life Tuesday.

2012 Creath Family Holiday Letter: All Is Calm

Happy December!  I can't believe it's time for our yearly holiday letter already. This year's letter will be short and sweet since I have been blogging regularly - I can just give you links to the big stuff.

(c) Kristi Lloyd Photography, Oct 2012

2012 was an exciting year for us!  The biggest news was the birth of Meridian Rayna in October.  But I'll start from the beginning.

In January, we had a big snowstorm, which is pretty unusual for Seattle. Trillian played in the snow for the first time.  She wasn't so sure she liked it.  

February was when we found out I was pregnant with BabyM. This was both exciting and scary, since we were used to being a family of 3.  Well, 5, when you count Peanut and Spike, who are now 10 and 12 and doing well.

In March, TJ took the extremely bold step of quitting his job to enjoy some time off and work on his own projects. We've absolutely LOVED having him at home and it's fantastic that we don't have to squeeze in family fun outings onto the weekends.  The Children's Museum is nice and empty on weekdays!  Trillian also started preschool in March, saying goodbye to the excellent daycare she attended since she was 13 months old.

April was super-exciting, because my life-long dream of visiting Ireland came true. We spent 3 lovely weeks in Kenmare, and traveled mostly in the south, though we did spend a couple of days in Dublin.  We definitely want to go back. I got sick while we were there (virus + pregnancy) so I didn't get to do as much, but TJ and Trillian had a few exciting daddy-daughter field trips.

In May, TJ and I celebrated being married for 7 years with a trip to the zoo with our favorite little person.  We also found out that BabyM was a girl!  Hooray for sisters!

I celebrated my thirty-mumble birthday in June. TJ and I went to dinner at Canlis, our favorite restaurant which is where we got married in 2005.  TJ also went to a track day with his motorcycle, to take advantage of the short riding season.

Summer came to Seattle in July, and it was short, but lovely as always.  At the end of the month, Trillian and I took a girls' roadtrip to Portland, OR for the weekend, and had a GREAT time.  She still talks about it. Next time she says we should take TJ and Baby Sister, too.

In August, we celebrated my dad's 70th birthday at a local restaurant.  TJ's Aunt Jane and Uncle Rick were in town so we met up with them for breakfast at our favorite cafe.

Trillian's birthday was in September, and all the grandparents, plus her great-Granny and Aunt Robin were in town for the party. She also started her new Spanish immersion preschool. She's learning so much! I spent September willing BabyM to stay inside until October, so T could have her own "birthday month".  

BabyM cooperated, and was born via C-section at her scheduled appointment on October 1 like a good girl. She spent her first few days refusing to sleep anywhere but in someone's arms, so TJ was awesome and slept sitting up so that we could get a little sleep.  We had a 0th birthday party for her at home, which Trillian helped plan.

We spent the rest of October and November mostly at home getting used to being a family of four. Trillian went trick or treating for the first time, and both girls went dressed as ladybugs.

My parents went back to Savannah in mid-November and we miss them! BabyM isn't on a regular schedule but sleeps and eats well so I've even had time to be crafty.  Thanksgiving was low-key but nice.

December will be full of Fun Holiday Activities from the list we made together. We're staying home for the holidays so it'll be nice and mellow, just the way we like it.

For an even more detailed summary of what we did all year, you can read through my Project Life posts.  I'm very proud to have kept up this scrapbook project all year, and I'm on track to complete it this month!

We wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Best Wishes for the New Year! May your days be merry and bright!