A year ends, another begins...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone. Thanks for reading :)

Love,
Us

The Long, Slow Wean

Jude decided to wean himself from breastfeeding yesterday.

It wasn't as sudden as that sounds, I guess. We cut down at nine months when I went back to work, and he started losing interest over a month ago. For the past week we'd just been going through the motions.

Yesterday I was finally able to admit to myself that he had more or less turned down both of my offers. My production is low now, and he doesn't have time for it. The toys on the floor are competing for his attention, and I'm not quite as colorful or fun to throw around the room as they are.

He is telling me it's time.

Meanwhile he's a real champ in the solid-food department. He stuffs his face and stores it in his cheeks for later. I'll see him chewing something an hour after dinner and fish it out in a panic, only to realize it's the same piece of corn he'd been gnawing on while we cleared the table. Naughty.

Last night I put both of my nursing brassieres into the wash for the last time. They have been loyal and dear under-garments over the past year, and throwing them into the laundry basket felt sad. Jono admitted he felt weird about it too, probably because it means Jude isn't so much of a baby any more.

My goal was 12 months though, and we made it. I feel good about it. Yay for us :)

Christmas (Lite)

We rarely decorate properly for Christmas around here. I have invented a few shortcuts over the years.

Our first year we were married our "tree" was a bough of holly purchased from Pikes Market. It adorned our tiny kitchen table in our tiny Seattle apartment. That was all.

When we lived in Honduras we ran into the issue of a national ban on pine-tree cutting, so we ended up buying what was essentially a shrubbery imported from somewhere and trimmed into a triangle shape. Excuse: We were homesick, and we wanted to feel as festive as possible.

There have been a couple of years in between then and now where we went all out and cut down a real tree on a farm. But last year we had just had Jude. He was one month old and we were bleary-eyed and unable to function as normal human beings. So again... no tree.

This year? Jude is old enough now to crawl right up to any novelty item placed in his play area (the living room) and pull it down, or at least pluck off an ornament of two and attempt to eat it. Also, we had a hectic Thanksgiving weekend and ran out of time for the typical tree-chopping-down ceremony that usually happens on the Friday after.

Soooo...behold, our lovely alternative:


That, my friends, is a tropical potted palm that was gifted to us a few years ago. Bethlehem was likely dotted with palm trees rather than evergreens, no? Plus some lovely mardis-gras-esque beads that I have re-purposed as a garland for our fireplace (below). These were purchased way back when for our Hondu-shrubbery.


We have one stocking. You can guess whose it is.

I never go nuts with the holiday decorating, but I do love how simple things look this year. A lot of fuss just adds to the chaos, and that we don't need.