Christmas!

Christmas Eve was spent at my grandma's house, as per usual. Everyone was there. It was a jolly good time, like always. Jude got a bunch of presents from everybody. He also got to run around with all the kids again. There was one minor downer though... my grandma accidentally got Jude a pair of baseball pj's that say "Daddy's All-Star" on them. The "Daddy's" part was quite unnoticeable at first glance, so I let it slide. I think I might make a Detroit patch or something to cover that awful word. I wish I didn't have negative feelings towards it, but alas, Jude doesn't actually have a "Daddy" who cares or is around or anything of that sort. Enough of the bitterness, and on the the pictures!

A goofy picture of my cousins.

The bigger boys were helping Jude open his presents.

Posing with his dump truck.

Christmas morning Jude woke up at his normal time, and everyone else was up shortly after we rolled out of bed. They all commented on how it was the latest we've all woken up on Christmas morning (I used to have a weird tendency to wake everyone up at 5 or 6 for Christmas morning). Jude walked past the living room without paying attention to the tree or presents under it. I redirected his attention, he saw his kitchen and got excited. He's a pro at unwrapping gifts too, but it took him like 3 hours to open all his presents because eventually he got to the point where he just wanted to play with them instead of unwrapping more. My mum's father and wife came over at 10 and my grandma & grandpa came over shortly after and we had our traditional brunch. After a little rest and a nap for Jude we headed over to my Aunt Kathy's for dinner and some Just Dance. I'll bore you with the list of gifts we all received another time. But now, more pictures!

Jude's stocking hung by the chimney with care.

Opening his stocking, he kept trying to put everything back into it.

I found my camera!

Now I can tell you all about my week leading up to Christmas!

Firstly, there was Sunday. The Annual Glod Family Christmas shindig. It's this big party with my paternal grandma's whole side of the family gets together at the community house across the street from my grandparents old house. We eat, we talk, we have a pinata and a Santa. It's pretty crazy. This year it was a super-small turn out unfortunately, but Jude still had fun running around with all my cousins.

I have a pretty cute family, no?

Santa gave my dad a tricycle and Jude stole it!

He's such a big boy, hitting the pinata!

Then, there was the Solstice, which is a pretty big deal in our house. Sure, the holidays are great for getting together with the whole extended families and all, but on the Solstice it has always been just my parents, my sister, and I (and now Jude, of course!) We light a fire and usually exchange a small, generally handmade, gift.  This year we decided to change the tradition a little and gave ornaments, since we always get an ornament from my parents and I try to get or make them one every year too. We also spend the whole night sitting by the fire and playing games. This years culprits were Dirty Minds and Scrabble. I was pushing for ghetto fab scrabble, but no one was having it when I tried to replace 's's with 'z's or adding new spaces around the border of the game. It was pretty hilarious and fun, nonetheless.

He got a copy of the Grinch and a Grinch doll from his gran. 

Opening the ornaments. He loved the gift bags most of all, he was carrying them around and putting the ornaments and wrapping paper back in them. So cute.

Happy Solstice!

I got Jude the Sea Lion because of our trip to CA, and my mum got me the Polar Bear because this is mamapolarbear.blogspot.com afterall. I've been thinking of ditching the "Kayleigh's Adventures Through Motherhood" bit and just doing Mama Polar Bear, opinions, yes, no?

Gran got him a Jude Man ornament because of his Halloween costume at the 5k for craniosynostosis. It's actually a dollhouse doll that she got custom made from an Etsy seller and rigged to hang on the tree. She hand-embroidered the Jude Man onto the cape though.

Expect to see more posts from me. Hopefully soon. Mostly a reminder for me: I still need to write about the sweet breakfast recipe from leftovers I "created", the cupcakes I baked for Sunday's party, Christmas Eve, and Christmas.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

The Grades Are In!

My semester has been over for a week and I finally got all my grades back. 

*drum roll*

B+ in History.

B+ in Chemistry (lab).

C in Macroeconomics (online). 

Go me! I'm pretty proud of them. I probably could have done better, but it was a good first semester back. I raised my GPA from a crappy 1.55 to a mediocre 1.90, which is splendid because I need to ultimately get it up to at least 2.50 in at least 2 more semesters. That's doable. 

Next semester I have U.S. Government online, Speech, Developmental Psychology, and Literature for Children. It should be pretty easy, I only have classes Tuesday's and Thursday's, and my friend Carly is in my Psych class. It will be a good semester. I'm hoping to get at least one A. 

It will be a super-busy semester too because I'll also be working 2 jobs. I'm waiting on Tony Sacco's to open, which should be in the next week hopefully. This week I've had to go in to help clean up and get things together. It's coming together nicely and I can't wait for it to open! Laurel Manor is... Laurel Manor. Banquet hall stuff... Meh.

Look forward to several fun posts about our Christmas excursions... as soon as I find my camera that disappeared off the face of the Earth. >.<

Ferndale Holiday Ice Festival, Winter Fun, and a Christmas Tree!

Last Saturday, my mum and I took Jude to Downtown Ferndale for their Holiday Ice Festival. They had ice sculptures outside of the shops and there were Reindeer, ice carving demonstrations, a craft fair, and Santa was there!

I asked Jude, "Do you want to sit on Santa's lap?" He had such a serious face and replied with "no." 

The next day, we had a big snow storm, so naturally, I took Jude outside to play in the snow! We also bought our Christmas tree, but we didn't put it up and decorate it until Tuesday.

He loved riding around the yard in the sled! He kept yelling "more!"

He's such a good helper!

It's missing something...

Sometimes, Motherhood is Disgusting.

Wednesday night I went out to finish my online finals that night, came home, Jude woke up as soon as I started getting ready for bed, we cuddled, he nursed, and we both fell asleep.
Next thing I know, my bed is covered in puke (complete with half-chewed macaroni noodles) and he's throwing up. I panic and pick him up, take him to the bathroom, strip him naked and give him a bath (at 2 in the morning, mind you) to clean the puke out of his hair. The whole time, the poor guy was shivering, so it was a super quick bath. That's when our pile of "clothes that have been puked on" began. I put some new pajamas on him, stripped my bed, added the sheets to the pile, and then he puked. Again. All over my clean sweater and his clean pajamas. After we changed again I grabbed a pile of clean clothes for the both of us, grabbed his potty and a cup of Pedialyte, and we cuddled on the couch.
We watched Elf. He puked more, I tried my best to dangle him over his potty. He fell asleep at the end of Elf. I turned on Four Christmases and fell asleep for a little. We both woke up, he puked more, cuddles, puke, cuddles, puke.
He wanted to nurse, but when I did let him, he projectile vomited. After the projectile vomiting, he didn't puke anymore.
The weird thing is is that he didn't act sick, he acted normal and when he puked he was so... nonchalant about it. We spent the rest of the day cuddling and luckily we got a nap in and he ate some crackers. His appetite still wasn't back to normal today, and he never ran a fever, so who knows what was wrong, just a stomach bug I reckon.
That night, I was angry about being a single mom. I had no one to help me out or give me a hand, but I did the best I could and took care of him. It's one of those hurdles that was bound to be crossed eventually.
Our pile of laundry ended up filling the washing machine completely and I washed it twice.

Top 2 Tuesday!

We sometimes play a lot of games in my family, especially when we're all together around the holidays. Card games, board games, video games, word games, you name it. I'm not going to lie, I only know a few card games off hand but we have a plethora of board games in my basement. I should have a holiday party/game-night/awesome times. hmmm... But anyway, I'm getting sidetracked.

Top 2 Favorite Games!

1. Euchre. My family always plays euchre when we get together. After dinner you can always find 4 people sitting around the table enjoying dessert, coffee, and dealing out a hand of euchre. I didn't realize it until I went to school in Ohio, but apparently it's mostly a Michigan game. It's fairly simple, once you learn, but that learning process can be difficult and a lot of people I've tried teaching just give up. 

2. Rummikub. This is another one of those games that I love to play with my family, and we're almost always playing when we're together. My grandparents, sister, and I (and sometimes some other people like aunts and cousins) stay up late after the little kids go to bed and play when we're up north. 

Runners up: Scattegories, Boggle, Scrabble, Life, and Pay Day.

Look What I Made! (Holiday Edition, Part 1)

I love these winter holidays because it gives me an excuse to craft up a storm. Not that I should really need one, but holiday crafts are lots of fun, especially when you can make some awesome homemade gifts.

Tonight, I made a stocking for Jude out of a wool sweater from the thrift store.

I would have taken a picture of it hung by the chimney with care, but alas, I couldn't find any hooks.

So, maybe you're scratching your head wondering, "how did she do that?!" Or perhaps you've already figured it out. Either way I will tell you how. I wish I would have had some foresight and taken step by step pictures to make a real tutorial, but I got all caught up in the moment and just did it.

1. Acquire a delightfully patterned 100% lambswool sweater from the thrift store, they usually run between $1-5.
2. Be a rebel, throw that sucker in your normal laundry load, you know, the one with hot water and toss it in the dryer too. For you wool-lovers screaming at me out there, you want to do this, it felts the material and makes it much easier to work with, plus since you got it from the thrift store chances are it has already been ruined.
3. Take a stocking, or print off a stocking shape and cut it out, lay it on top of the freshly washed and dried sweater. You can use either the neck or the bottom cuff as the top cuff (I used the neck for this one).
4. Cut around the stocking (or stocking shaped paper).
5. Turn fabric so the right sides are facing each other.
6. Pin and sew. I used a straight stitch.
7. Make sure to make notches around the curved parts at the heel and toe of the stocking so they properly curve when you turn it inside out. 
8. To make the loopy, take a piece of leftover sweater (I used about 6 inches of bottom cuff fabric), form a loop with it, and sew the loop to the top of the inside seam on the opposite side of the toe. I used a zig-zag stitch and went back and forth about 5 times for extra strength.

There you go, now you can make your very own wool stocking! And your cat will love it.

What is with cats and wool, anyway? When I was working on this, my cat would lay on my pieces, or my pile of sweaters, then when I was done she made it her bed on the table. Weirdo.

I also made a pair of longies from the sleeves, but I couldn't figure out how to do the waist band and think I made them far too large so I gave up on them until I can get help from my mommy.