Happy St. Lucia Day!

From the time I was a small girl, I have always wanted to celebrate St. Lucia Day. December 13th, a day marked in Sweden, Norway, and other northern countries, is marked by St. Lucia Day. A day honoring a Christian martyr, celebrated by the oldest girls in a family dressing as Lucia girls, and bringing coffee and buns to their parents. To celebrate my Swedish/Norwegian heritage, this year I dressed up as St. Lucia.

Did I also mention that it was my birthday on December 13th?

St. Lucia Day. My birthday. In my wedding dress, with my red sash, and homemade wreath of candles, I set out with two of my college friends to Seattle’s Pike Place Market to pass out candy canes as a strong female holiday character. To my great joy, there were many kids who said “Santa Lucia!” when they saw me. Seattle has a strong Swedish and Norwegian heritage, so it was fun to meet little blonde kids who had just come from dancing at the Nordic heritage museum and then getting candy canes from me at the market. A fun experience for me, too, and a great way to get another use out of my wedding dress!!

13 months

As if right on cue, Potamus stood up by himself (no hanging on hand-holds) two days before he turned 13 months. Typical. He then proceeded to walk all the way across the house with assistance! Jiminy Christmas, it’s happening all so quickly!

Sleeping in his Montessori floor-bed is going GREAT, with me spending much less time in there nightly. We’re weaned during the day and then nurse at night a few times. My goal was 12 months, so to make it for 13 feels excellent, and I don’t have any hard and fast plans to night wean anytime soon. Daycare has been amazing for helping Potamus go down for naps, and we’ve been getting a lot more done around the house!

His food pallet is expanding every day, and he is now loving banana “pancakes.” It is seriously the EASIEST recipe ever: 1 mashed banana and 2 eggs whipped into the banana. You cook it on a griddle like pancake! I spread a thin shmear of peanut butter on it, and he loves it…which is so great because he was eating just a ton of crackers and pasta, so to incorporate some more fruit and other proteins is great! Check it out, it tastes yummy!

My parents were visiting this weekend, so we ventured on up to KidsQuest with them and met up with my brother and Miss A! The kiddos seemed to enjoy themselves!

Little Diggers!

Today was the day we took Potamus to the Little Diggers time at Sandbox Sports! I want to say he “loved” it, but he actually spent quite a bit of time chilling between my legs, with an air of worry about him. I imagine he was saying to himself “what is this stuff? And why is mom making me play in it?” But by the end he was happily scooping with his hands and I was trying to fend off the eating of sand. I would like to think he wasn’t really trying to eat it, but he brushed his mouth and then there was sand in his mouth and he tried to get it out (with sandy fingers) and it all went down hill from there.

We were met by a friend from our neighborhood, so it was fun to catch up, and have mommy talk, while our kiddos played. Definitely recommend this place for rainy Seattle days!

Endings

Well, I have successfully completed my first quarter as a real-life college professor. Okay-fine, an adjunct professor. Okay-fine, a part-time instructor. Seriously, language is a HUGE thing (apparently) and I’ve been reading a gazillion emails today from irate professors/instructurs/adjunctfaculty/yourmom about WHAT TO BE CALLED IN EMAILS, because, apparently, people get their panties in a twist about the nuances of instructor/professor/adjunctfaculty. Whatevs. A student came up to me after his final presentation and the conversation went something like this:

Student: You’re new here, right? This is your first quarter teaching.
Me: Yes, I am new here. Though I’ve taught in a lot of different capacities over the years.
Student: Yeah, well you were good. You have a good teaching style. And I think people need to know when they did a good job. So, I’m telling you, you did a good job.
Me: Wow. Thank you. I appreciate that.

So there you go, I guess I didn’t do too poorly in teaching my first college course. And I am heading out the door for ONE MONTH of freedom. Whoo boy, I’ve got plans people! Plans!

Now if only Potamus would cooperate with said plans. Instead of whining. Yeah yeah, you have a fever of 102.5 kid, but I HAVE PLANS! And those plans include a) sleeping for 100 hours and b) doing FUN THINGS WITH YOU, so get ahold of your feverish self and let’s get crackin! No, it doesn’t work that way? Well poop.

I have noticed that co-sleeping with a feverish 11 month old is much like wearing a mink or fox neck wrap. But one that’s set on fire by 1,000 suns. And dipped in sweat. Pure awesomeness, until PETA is called, because that’s gotta violate all sorts of ethical issues.

At any rate, I am SUPER STOKED to have a month of freedom from work. I have a massage lined up, a coffee date with a friend, a joint birthday partay for me and little man, but most importantly: tons of quality time with Potamus. One thing I am excited to try is a place called Little Diggers Playtime, which is an indoor beach volleyball court that they open for kiddos to play in the sand since we live in freaking Seattle and it’s ALWAYS crummy weather during the winter.

Can’t believe this little boy is almost ONE. Geez. Where has the time gone?

The Avengers Ball

For $2 at Target I kept Potamus quiet by bribing him with an Avengers themed ball. It is now one of his most favorite things to do: rolling it up and down the hallway and chasing it with his little chicken wing crawling method.

His second favorite obsession is mama’s camera, and I have a feeling I am going to have many more thisclose photos to show in the years to come.

 

Halloween Shenanigans

Lion & Lion Tamer mama

What, you don’t want me to put this in my mouth?

It’s Halloween season, so we took Potamus to the pumpkin patch! He loved it, and so did we. But people kept staring…must have been my awesome ‘stache 😉

Sliding