Wordless Wednesday

The boys playing in the snow before it turned into 16 inches.

After that it was almost up to Gages waist and he couldn't walk in it!

Santa or no Santa?

Do you 'do' Santa Claus at your house?

This is a question I have thought about since having my first child. Gavin is getting big enough now to start doing the Santa thing.

My sisters kids do believe in Santa and I think that's perfectly fine. It is a really good bribe. I don't know how many times I've heard her say, "Stop that or Santa's not going to give you any presents." But I think really that's all it is... a good bribe. I have decided not to press the Santa issue. My brother has decided to do the same thing. I thought my husband would think I was crazy but he actually agreed completely! I think we will put more emphasis on the fact that we are celebrating Jesus' birth. I've told the boys that the reason we get presents at Christmas is because Jesus loves us and we love each other so we give gifts at Christmas time.

On the other hand, when they start school, I don't want them to kill some poor kids hopes and tell them there's no Santa. That would just be mean. So I think I've came up with a plan that does both:

1. The reason we have Christmas is that it is the time we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

2. Turn it into a history lesson, There once was a man who lived a long time ago named Saint Nicholas who gave out presents to little boys and girls at Christmas time. (Here's a good website that explains the different versions of the story.)

3. Christmas is a time for giving and a time to spend with family and love each other.

There is one tiny little problem though. All over TV there is stories of Santa Claus and everytime we go out, everybody asks Gavin, what's Santa going to bring you? So Gavin comes up to me one day and says Santa is going to bring me presents and come down the chimney. Even though I haven't told him any of that, he still figured it out. I'm not going to make a big deal out of it though. I'm not going to put a lot of emphasis on Santa, but I'm not going to necessarily tell him there's not one either... does that make sense? I'm just not going to use it as a bribe or make a big deal out of Santa coming and leaving presents or anything. I'll let them use their imagingations without taking away the real reason we celebrate Christmas.

We have been teaching them about all the other ways people celebrate Christmas too. Gavin was actually singing the Dreidel song the other day, he was eating Doritos and said, mama, what's a Dorito? I said, you know what a Dorito is, you're eating one honey. And he says, No it's a game, like you spin. Then he starts singing, 'Dorito, Dorito, Dorito...' I laughed so hard at my little guy! I said, No Gavin, It's Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel... He still can't say it right! I want both my boys to know that different people believe different things and that's ok. I want them to be able to understand the different cultures and how they celebrate the holidays.

How do you and your families celebrate Christmas? Do you do the Santa thing, or something else?

 

Gages first (real) haircut

Gage got his first real haircut a few weeks ago. I meant to post this right after I did it, but just havent had time so here it is...

I'd given him a couple haircuts before. A little off the back, a trim around the ears, that sort of thing. But he'd never had 'the little boy' haircut.

When I did Gavins (who had a ton of beautiful little curls), I wasn't that upset. I guess it was because I was pregnant with Gage at the time and knew I'd have another baby with cute curls. We actually stopped at the barber shop on the way to have the ultrasound done to find out that Gage was a boy!

Gage's hair had some curls but nowhere near as many as Gavins and it was getting that wild, frizzy look to it so I knew it was time.

It started out OK. I was attempting to do it by myself. I do Gavins so I thought no problem right? Wrong.

I was trying to leave it a litttle long. To cut just enough off so people would stop calling him a girl but keep the baby look. I started cutting and at first all was going well. Then he broke bad.

He started crying and let me tell you, this little guy has a temper so there's always screaming when he's mad.

I keep at it and realize there is gaps all over this poor boys head. So I enlist some help from my husband.His sole job was to hold Gage and keep him from squirming.It's not working.

I got this far and thought, this looks so terrible! I can't keep torturing him like this so... I have to get the clippers. I didn't want to. I reeaally didn't want to but I couldn't leave it looking like this so I get them out. While I was getting them out of the box, I had a meltdown. I started bawling! I come back and hubby says are you ok? I said in a pitiful tearful voice, no. He, of course laughs at me and says now let me take a picture of you crying like Gage is to put on your blog. I tell him to shut up and started shaving all my babys precious hair off.

  Here's all his baby hair :(

                                                 

I cried the entire time I was  cutting. Like eyes swelling, hiccuping, sobbing kind of crying. I wondered why was I taking this so hard? I didn't act like this when we done Gavins, and he had a lot more curls than Gage. Then it hit me, this might be the last first haircut I do. We're not sure if we want to try for a third and I realized now he's going to look like a little boy. He's not going to look like my little baby anymore. It's tramatic when you come to that realization.

Anyway, I finished his haircut and hated it. I really hated it. I cried everytime I looked at him. He didn't look like my baby anymore. I hated it for the first week. Then it started to slowly grow on me. Now I think he's cute as a button! So does everyone else but it did take a lot of getting used to. Now I think I might want to try for a third so I might have a girl and not ever have to cut her hair that short!

Here's the before and after pictures so you can see why I freaked out having him change that much in a matter of minutes!

It was so hard to do but I guess it had to be done eventually. He'll always be my baby boy no matter how big he gets.