If you’re anything like me (and I know you are), you have squirreled away keepsakes for someday, when you finally find time and/or brilliant ideas.
In reality, most of that stuff will stay in boxes until we die and leave it to the next generation to look over and wonder what to do with something that was obviously important enough to save.
Oh, memories.
Anyhow, I finally got around to doing something with at least part of the keepsakes I saved from the months Toby, Eleanor and Callista spent in NICU. They were born the week of Thanksgiving, so we were still there for Christmas. They wore their first hats (tiny little things that are even too small for most baby dolls) for weeks until a kind Twitter follower mailed us three Christmas hats she had made for ETC.
I had hoped to put these hats plus their first pacifiers and hospital bracelets in three acrylic ornaments that come apart for easy filling, but last minute shopping left me with traditional glass ornaments that limited what I could fit through the small opening – a hat and the Baby 1/2/3 bracelet that matches each hat. Maybe someday (ha! SEE?) I’ll do what I really want, but for now, I’m so excited to have such a special set of ornaments to add to our tree.
Christmas in the NICU (or any hospital stay, for that matter), is far from ideal, but we made the most of it. Despite all the sadness, stress and chaos of ETC’s first Christmas, it was still our first, and it will always be special.
Wow. That title is wicked cheesy, but it’s CHRISTMAS, for crying out loud! Cheese is practically required, especially if it’s in cheeseballs.
I’m a sucker for all things Christmas, and I typically stalk TV listings for ABC Family’s annual 25 Days of Christmas lineup. With so much going on in life, my annoyance with paying a monthly fee for what we used to do for cheap on VHS tapes and my spoiled eyes crying at the quality on said VHS tapes, I’ve become a slave to streaming content that is always available, no matter when I want to be merry.
Netflix’s available Christmas movies and shows this year have blown me away. I actually clapped a few times when I stumbled upon old favorites as they were added.
The most magical part of the season now that I’m a mother is sharing what I love with my own kids.
Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse and Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas are two collections of my favorite Disney Christmas specials. I still giggle at Pluto’s expense when Chip and Dale tease him from inside the Christmas tree, and Scrooge McDuck was the very first Ebenezer Scrooge I ever met.
The Madagascar Penguins (in a Christmas Caper) are always good for a laugh, and DreamWorks Holiday Classics has three more holiday specials that are fun for kids of all ages.
Curious George is one of ETC’s favorite characters, and learning to be patient as we count down to Christmas with George in A Very Monkey Christmas is a handy lesson to trot out.
Another PBS Kids favorite around here is Super Why, and ETC have repeatedly requested the Twas The Night Before Christmas episode.
As for me, I finally watched Love Actually thanks to Netflix, and I’ve revisited a few old favorites – Jack Frost with Michael Keaton and Snow with Tom Cavanagh, plus White Christmas and the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker (I can’t get enough of Maurice Sendak’s scenery, and PNW is just too far away from NC!).
Oh, and I may or may not have a streaming fireplace on my TV now as I type.
Well done this holiday season, Netflix! Are you taking requests for next year? I have a few ideas …
As a Netflix Stream Team member, I was provided with a complimentary Apple TV device, and I receive free Netflix instant streaming service in exchange for sharing relevant topics and messages with you and your family. All opinions expressed on ActualJenny.com are 100 percent my own – those cannot be bought!
This week, I and my friends at We Still Read put together lists of our favorite books we read in 2013. We’ve covered young adult novels, biographies and audiobooks (the best way for busy, on-the-go readers to keep their heads buried in books). I’m betting a lot of titles we’re gushing over haven’t crossed many of your radars, so do yourselves a favor and check out what our favorites were for the year. You may even find a last-minute gift you want to get for yourself a loved one!
“It gets easier.”
Nope. I don’t believe it. Not anymore, at least. But I honestly don’t remember anyone telling me this lie recently.
Oh, things definitely change, and I don’t really think they’ve gotten worse. I mean, I haven’t run away yet. I still have days when I cry. I still have days when my calm seems like a distant memory. I still have pretty fantastic days, too.
Every day has its own struggle. Some are small, like our lingering toilet-training hurdle. Some are gigantic, like the day I tried twice to leave the house with ETC and had nothing to show for my effort but two wasted hours, a dirty outfit – shoes included – and too many time outs.
So, no. I don’t think this job gets any easier. I think the returns get greater (Toby said to me yesterday, unsolicited, “You’re the best mama ever!”), and experience helps tackle some difficulties, but the overall business of parenting is continously really, really hard.
Rob and I took Toby, Eleanor and Callista to see Frozen – their first theater movie – today, and the experience couldn’t have gone much better.
I’m amazed to have learned that, in a world full of technology, ETC were blown away by something as classic as a movie theater. I really shouldn’t be that surprised because if the technology were that obsolete, we wouldn’t fork over all the cash they demand these days. But when I think to the technology of my childhood and compare it with the technology of today, then the movie theaters of my childhood compared with the theaters of today … well, the technology differences are much greater. As far as movie theaters go, the only real change is screen size and stadium seating (plus sound and picture quality, but that’s the sort of thing that muddies in memory over time).
Anyhow. Regardless of our 42-inch flat screen TV at home. Their hands-on, on-demand favorite shows, the two times they’ve watched movies at our friends’ home theater – regardless of all that, I saw magic in my kids’ eyes today.
Toby, who said, “Ooooh!” at the sprinkling of pixie dust over Cinderella’s castle in the familiar Disney logo.
Callista, whose eyes were big, glued to the screen the whole time and completely enamored.
Eleanor, who looked around wondering what was happening outside when she noticed the surround sound, then couldn’t turn back around because she saw the tiny version of the movie shining through the projector window.
I wanted to take pictures of my tiny people in the big, red chairs, but we got there during the opening trailers and waited too long for the lights to finally come up. I settled for a photo next to the movie’s poster outside the theater, realizing the size of my kids compared with the size of the chairs is just another thing that can change, as those chairs weren’t as luxe when I was their size.
It isn’t their size that I wanted to remember, after all. It was the look of joy that I couldn’t quite capture with the darkness of the theater but still glimmered to some extent as they walked out, still giddy from the excitement of such a big, independent experience.
If you’re taking your own tot to their first movie theater experience, here’s what worked for us:
- Eat right before you go. The fuller the belly, the less wiggly.
- Sneak in your own popcorn and snack cups that are easy for holding and refilling. We also brought their water bottles.
- For multiple kids and adults, flank the kids’ seats with your adults so wiggly little ones can get up occasionally (or, you know, test out different seats once or twice) but not escape or bump into anyone unfamiliar.
- Go during the week, during matinee hours. We saved $3.50 per ticket by going on a Thursday. With a family of five, that’s a lot. Plus, there were only two other families in the theater. We were able to distance ourselves so Eleanor’s occasional too-loud question or remark bothered no one and Toby’s five insisted potty breaks during the first 15 minutes didn’t leave me tripping over any strangers’ feet.
- Pick the right movie. Singing – and lots of it – is what ETC love most, so when I heard Frozen was “Broadway-y,” I knew this was the perfect first theater movie for them. They didn’t get bored once.
- Set your expectations low but hope for the best.
