Wowwers!!! I can NOT believe that 2013 is just days away. November and December of this year have flown by faster then green grass though a goose! I guess being busier then bees will do that huh?
Here's a quick run down of the Bostwick's past two months...
Nov- Steve upgrades to Aircraft Commander and we find out we are having a Nephew!!
11th-19th Katie and Gracie travel home to Georgia. Grace decides that she likes flying but only for 10- minutes then she wants out of the plane, but then again who would want to be coupe up for 3 hours in a plane when your just learning to run around??
19th-25th Brittany meets us in Denver!! Thanksgiving....Black Friday....Shopping Shopping Shopping....Brittany leaves. :-(
December!
3rd My mommy comes to visit.
6th- My little brother turns 16!!! Scary!!! / Steve's Aunt Judy comes to visit.
8th - Gracie's 1st birthday party!! I wanted to do it early since I didn't want to have her party and Christmas in the same week. Squadron Christmas party/ first time Steve and I have been out together without Grace since she's been born!
9th- Aunt Judy returns home.
12th- Daddy's bday!
15th- Kids Christmas Party/ learning Grace is TERRIFIED of Santa, but is okay as long as he isn't touching her.
17th- Steve mom's birthday/ My mom leaves.
18th- Steve's mom and sister Laura arrive to spend time with Gracie.
20th Gracie turns one!! I could write a whole other blog about how much I can't believe she had grown in a year and all, but I will just leave it at this...She amazes me everyday. Steve and I can't even begin to put into words how blessed we are and how much we love her.
21st- WE SURVIVED!!!
24th- Steve's mom and Sister leave.
25th Christmas Day!! I cook WAY to much food for us and 2 other couples but hey leftovers are always great right??
Needless to say I feel like these last two months have been a blur, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I love having family and friends around I guess that's just the Italian in me. I know next year will be just as busy with all the things we already have planned and I am so excited to see what other unforeseen things it has in store!
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Keeping Christ in Christmas.
So I know I am gonna get SOMEONE's panties in a twist reading this blog, but I urge you to read the WHOLE blog and please keep in mind that this is simply the ramblings of myself. As in this is my blog and I can write pretty much what I want to and if you don't like or agree with it fine no skin off my teeth.
It is NO secret that I am a cradle Catholic, born and raised and damn proud of it. I love my faith and I plan on raising my children in the same fashion I was. So obliviously I am going to celebrate Christmas as in the birth of Christ. I am going to dawn my house with an Advent wreath, Christmas Tree, lights, and as of yesterday my Nativity scene. On Christmas Eve we will attend Mass, come home open two presents for Grace one of which will be her Christmas Jammies and the second a book some how related to CHRISTMAS. We will place cookies by the tree, put her to bed and patiently wait for Santa. The next morning we will wake her to the wonderful magic that Santa Clause somehow broke into our house without a chimney and place tons (and I do mean tons HELLO first Grandchild) of presents under the tree and filled her stocking. Then we will ready the story of the Nativity and the true meaning behind OUR CHRISTmas. This is how CHRISTMAS (or the Christ's Mass) will be celebrated in this HOUSE, because this is our faith and this is our belief.
Are you panties wadded yet? For most of you no, because a lot of my friends and family will agree with what I just wrote and say that they practice similar things in their home. So here's where it's gonna get sticky. Let's do a little history lesson into Christmas. Alright Christian love ones...Why do we celebrate Christmas in December? If you said that is because that is when Jesus was born you would be wrong. Sorry. The Bible actually does not state when Jesus was born in either of the Gospels that his birth is mentioned. In fact evidence points toward Christ actually being born in the spring, I mean why are Shepherds herding sheep in the middle of winter? Even in the "middle east" it gets darn chilly in the winter. So back to my original question why do we celebrate it in the winter then? In the early years of Christianity we did not celebrate the birth of Christ. In fact the big holiday for us Christian's was Easter. Somewhere in the mid fourth century however, church officials decided to institute the birth of Christ as a holiday. Pope Julius I chose the date December 25th. It's actually believed this time was chosen to in an effort to adopt and absorb the traditions of pagan festivals such as Winter Solstice, Satunalia, Juvenalia, and the celebrations of pagan gods such as Yule and Oden. By holding Christmas at the same time as traditional winter solstice festivals it increased the chances that Christmas would be embraced. In the Middle Ages Christmas was actually celebrated much differently then we do now. On Christmas believers would attend church and then celebrate much the same way we celebrate Mardi Gras without the beads of course. Through out the centuries the traditions have morphed into the more family friendly modern Christmas that we celebrate today. So you may ask ok what's your point? My point is that YES there were festivals and "holidays" that were celebrated in winter LONG before we Christians made the whole month about the birth of our Savior. This is a fact I know and understand, but that being said I have another point to make.
Don't tell me that you Celebrate Christmas but don't believe it had anything to do with the birth of Christ. How does that even make sense? Even you don't believe Jesus was the son of God there is ligament proof that a man named Jesus walked the Earth and preached to everyone he was the Son of God. It is because of this man and his teachings that the Holiday even exist. I don't believe there was a god named Odin who flew around in winter deciding who was worthy enough to keep alive and who was going to parish the next spring, but the story of Santa Clause is loosely based on this pagan belief although with the Catholic Bishop named Nicholas and a 1930s Coco-Cola Ad. The reality is that you can not celebrate one belief without accepting the understanding of the other. I am not saying that you have to celebrate Christmas like I do, but what I am saying is that you have to accept that Christmas as in the Holiday that we recognize on December 25th is in fact BASED on the birth of a man a Jesus Christ. Weather you chose to celebrate the religious holiday or the commercialized version of the holiday that is up to you and your household. The one thing I love the most about living in the United States that we are free to believe what we want and NONE of us should be judge on that, and for goodness sakes call it a Christmas Tree or a Yule-Tree but none of this Holiday Tree CRAP. If it looks like a duck, quacks like duck, it's a freaking duck!!!
Dismount Soap Box.
It is NO secret that I am a cradle Catholic, born and raised and damn proud of it. I love my faith and I plan on raising my children in the same fashion I was. So obliviously I am going to celebrate Christmas as in the birth of Christ. I am going to dawn my house with an Advent wreath, Christmas Tree, lights, and as of yesterday my Nativity scene. On Christmas Eve we will attend Mass, come home open two presents for Grace one of which will be her Christmas Jammies and the second a book some how related to CHRISTMAS. We will place cookies by the tree, put her to bed and patiently wait for Santa. The next morning we will wake her to the wonderful magic that Santa Clause somehow broke into our house without a chimney and place tons (and I do mean tons HELLO first Grandchild) of presents under the tree and filled her stocking. Then we will ready the story of the Nativity and the true meaning behind OUR CHRISTmas. This is how CHRISTMAS (or the Christ's Mass) will be celebrated in this HOUSE, because this is our faith and this is our belief.
Are you panties wadded yet? For most of you no, because a lot of my friends and family will agree with what I just wrote and say that they practice similar things in their home. So here's where it's gonna get sticky. Let's do a little history lesson into Christmas. Alright Christian love ones...Why do we celebrate Christmas in December? If you said that is because that is when Jesus was born you would be wrong. Sorry. The Bible actually does not state when Jesus was born in either of the Gospels that his birth is mentioned. In fact evidence points toward Christ actually being born in the spring, I mean why are Shepherds herding sheep in the middle of winter? Even in the "middle east" it gets darn chilly in the winter. So back to my original question why do we celebrate it in the winter then? In the early years of Christianity we did not celebrate the birth of Christ. In fact the big holiday for us Christian's was Easter. Somewhere in the mid fourth century however, church officials decided to institute the birth of Christ as a holiday. Pope Julius I chose the date December 25th. It's actually believed this time was chosen to in an effort to adopt and absorb the traditions of pagan festivals such as Winter Solstice, Satunalia, Juvenalia, and the celebrations of pagan gods such as Yule and Oden. By holding Christmas at the same time as traditional winter solstice festivals it increased the chances that Christmas would be embraced. In the Middle Ages Christmas was actually celebrated much differently then we do now. On Christmas believers would attend church and then celebrate much the same way we celebrate Mardi Gras without the beads of course. Through out the centuries the traditions have morphed into the more family friendly modern Christmas that we celebrate today. So you may ask ok what's your point? My point is that YES there were festivals and "holidays" that were celebrated in winter LONG before we Christians made the whole month about the birth of our Savior. This is a fact I know and understand, but that being said I have another point to make.
Don't tell me that you Celebrate Christmas but don't believe it had anything to do with the birth of Christ. How does that even make sense? Even you don't believe Jesus was the son of God there is ligament proof that a man named Jesus walked the Earth and preached to everyone he was the Son of God. It is because of this man and his teachings that the Holiday even exist. I don't believe there was a god named Odin who flew around in winter deciding who was worthy enough to keep alive and who was going to parish the next spring, but the story of Santa Clause is loosely based on this pagan belief although with the Catholic Bishop named Nicholas and a 1930s Coco-Cola Ad. The reality is that you can not celebrate one belief without accepting the understanding of the other. I am not saying that you have to celebrate Christmas like I do, but what I am saying is that you have to accept that Christmas as in the Holiday that we recognize on December 25th is in fact BASED on the birth of a man a Jesus Christ. Weather you chose to celebrate the religious holiday or the commercialized version of the holiday that is up to you and your household. The one thing I love the most about living in the United States that we are free to believe what we want and NONE of us should be judge on that, and for goodness sakes call it a Christmas Tree or a Yule-Tree but none of this Holiday Tree CRAP. If it looks like a duck, quacks like duck, it's a freaking duck!!!
Dismount Soap Box.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
War on Sleep
About a month ago when Grace and I traveled to Georgia I assumed there would be some changes in Grace's sleeping habits. What I was not prepared for was the 3 week battle with my daughter to get her to sleep at all. It started our first night in GA, I knew that she would probably be up "later" then normal due to the fact that there is a 2 hour time difference. So I waited till about 9:30 pm EST to start our normal bedtime routine of bath, book, bottle, & bed. Everything was going great until we got to the bed part. She refused to lay down at all. I thought okay she's just excited about being in a new place. So I let her run around some more with her Aunt and MeMaw. Finally at around midnight I was able to get her to lay down with me in the bed and fall asleep. I gently laid her down in her pac n play expecting her to sleep till at least 9 am. She got up at around 4 am and would not sleep unless she was laying in bed with me. I was exhausted so I gave in and she slept with me until 7 where she woke up bright eyed a bushy tailed. This patterer continued thought out the whole week we were there. Getting up in the middle of night sometimes going back to sleep once she realized I was in the room, but other times not sleeping again unless she was laying in bed with me. As good of a time it was to be back "home" I was looking forward to coming home getting her back into her routine in her room and getting a good nights "sleep". I was so naive!!
I had expected some resistance to getting back into our sleep pattern, but as I said I was completely blind sided be the war that waged on for 3 weeks. The first week home Grace was up a minimum of 5 times a night. No amount of rocking, bottle feeding, or crying it out would put her to sleep. Since I knew letting her sleep in our bed was a BAD idea I would regret later I opted for making myself a small pallet of blankets and spent three nights on the floor in her room. After night 3 I just gave in letting her come sleep in our room at about 5 am just hoping for a couple of extra hours of sleep. Steve helped out when he could, but I always tried to let him sleep since I could cat nap with her though out the day although we had company that week so sometimes finding a nap was not easy. I was so excited when he took the morning shift that Saturday letting me sleep in till 8. As week 2 rolled around I figured I needed a new plan of attack. So I thought I will try this cry it out theory. As any mother out there knows the sound of her crying is just heartbreaking intensified by her pitiful cries of "MOMMA!", but I thought hey if gets her to sleep maybe it was worth the try. Grace decided she didn't like this game and pulled out her very own trump cards. She would either poop her diaper or throw up knowing that I would have to come in there and change/clean her up. Touché Grace Catherine! Since I didn't feel like cleaning up vomit every night I decided this method just wasn't going to work for us on to plan C.
Just ride it out....I figured this was just a phase and surely it would have to end sooner or later. Weather that meant another week or 5 years I had no idea, but nothing else was working. So week 3 came about and I decided to just go with the flow. I moved her bedtime back an hour in hopes that tiring her out a little more would help her sleep better. Which it did till about 4 am. Then I would get up with her, change her diaper and feed her about 2 ounces and place her back in bed. This method seemed to be working only twice that week did she wake up again before 7 am. I took some advice from some mommy friends this past weekend and placed a dim light in her room and like 5 pacifiers in her crib. Sure enough monday night she slept from 9:30pm -7am. I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I woke up almost completely rested Tuesday morning. Tuesday night the same thing. I would hear her get up for about ten minutes move around the crib looking for her passy and then silence. I am trying really hard to not the jinx it but I think we have finally won the sleep battle. Which makes this mommy a very happy and pretty rested camper!! Just in time for the holidays!
I had expected some resistance to getting back into our sleep pattern, but as I said I was completely blind sided be the war that waged on for 3 weeks. The first week home Grace was up a minimum of 5 times a night. No amount of rocking, bottle feeding, or crying it out would put her to sleep. Since I knew letting her sleep in our bed was a BAD idea I would regret later I opted for making myself a small pallet of blankets and spent three nights on the floor in her room. After night 3 I just gave in letting her come sleep in our room at about 5 am just hoping for a couple of extra hours of sleep. Steve helped out when he could, but I always tried to let him sleep since I could cat nap with her though out the day although we had company that week so sometimes finding a nap was not easy. I was so excited when he took the morning shift that Saturday letting me sleep in till 8. As week 2 rolled around I figured I needed a new plan of attack. So I thought I will try this cry it out theory. As any mother out there knows the sound of her crying is just heartbreaking intensified by her pitiful cries of "MOMMA!", but I thought hey if gets her to sleep maybe it was worth the try. Grace decided she didn't like this game and pulled out her very own trump cards. She would either poop her diaper or throw up knowing that I would have to come in there and change/clean her up. Touché Grace Catherine! Since I didn't feel like cleaning up vomit every night I decided this method just wasn't going to work for us on to plan C.
Just ride it out....I figured this was just a phase and surely it would have to end sooner or later. Weather that meant another week or 5 years I had no idea, but nothing else was working. So week 3 came about and I decided to just go with the flow. I moved her bedtime back an hour in hopes that tiring her out a little more would help her sleep better. Which it did till about 4 am. Then I would get up with her, change her diaper and feed her about 2 ounces and place her back in bed. This method seemed to be working only twice that week did she wake up again before 7 am. I took some advice from some mommy friends this past weekend and placed a dim light in her room and like 5 pacifiers in her crib. Sure enough monday night she slept from 9:30pm -7am. I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I woke up almost completely rested Tuesday morning. Tuesday night the same thing. I would hear her get up for about ten minutes move around the crib looking for her passy and then silence. I am trying really hard to not the jinx it but I think we have finally won the sleep battle. Which makes this mommy a very happy and pretty rested camper!! Just in time for the holidays!
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