Christmas gift ideas

The closer it gets to Christmas, the more I think about what to get Matthew. And it's hard, because there's so much I want to give him, but then I realize we're still doing Dave Ramsey and that there are limits. Limits are okay, as DH & I aren't super big into holidays, and we want to teach our children that Christmas isn't *just* about getting gifts. But I still want to have fun. So with that in mind, I started formulating gift ideas. And then one day....

On Pinterest, I came across something that I thought was a great idea... the "Four Gift Rule". It can be so easy to overbuy, so I think this will help keep us in check.

1. Something they want
2. Something they need
3. Something they wear
4. Something they read

See? Awesome in its simplicity.

My problem though, is going to be that most of the things I want to buy for Christmas, he'll actually need/want to use before then. So I have some thinking to do about it. Nonetheless, here's my list:

WANT
I think Bubba really wants a jumperoo. His head control is getting better everyday, and he loves to kick his legs, so this would be perfect. But I don't know about waiting until Christmas for something he'll be ready to use sooner than that. I dunno... I just want to get my money's worth if we get this. I don't know what he'll want otherwise. We have a TON of toys given to us, and I'm pretty sure my mom will shower him in toys as well.

NEED
Although I have to get DH on board with it, Bubba will need an amber teething necklace. I've heard awesome things about them, and am eager to try one. Again, we could get this sooner, because he's already showing signs of teething. But I suppose waiting until Christmas will work, too. After all, all his teeth aren't going to pop out all in one day.

WEAR
With Bubba's fluffy butt, putting jeans on him is difficult, as the ones that will fit over his ghetto booty are too big everywhere else. I came across these jeans one day a few months ago, and I decided that these might be the right jeans for him. They're Project Pomona's... jeans made specifically for babies in cloth diapers, although even babies who wear disposables can wear them, too. They have an adjustable waist band and cute cuffs on the legs, which gives them more life than regular sized jeans, as there are 3 pants sizes in each pair. So I think they'll be worth the money.

READ
I also came across this idea on Pinterest... buy a Christmas book, wrap it up, have the kids open it up on the 24th, and then read it to them before they go to bed. We can get away with this this first Christmas, but after that, the kid(s) will get a Christmas book AND another book to go in this category.

So there you have it: my initial Christmas gift list for Bubba!

I'm here!

Yes, I am alive! I just haven't gotten much time to blog. See, I like to write everything all at once. To do otherwise, my writing turns into a choppy, hard-to-follow mess. And I'm sure you all appreciate me not doing that often. :)

Anyway, Matthew is now 10 weeks old, and the love of my life. He's a pretty easy baby, not too fussy, and is a smiley baby. Nonetheless, he's pretty high-maintenance, like all babies tend to be. I'm lucky if I can clean just one little thing a day. Yeah, it'd be easier if his sleeps during the day weren't only 10 minutes long, but by the same token he usually only gets up once during the night, so I'm okay with that.

Having fun during Nakey Time!

He's meeting some good milestones, and DH & I are both in love with him the more he becomes interactive. His favorite thing right now is to get a diaper change. We usually let him have 5-10 minutes "nakey" time before we put the new diaper on, just to let him air out. That's the bad thing about cloth diapers... they're pretty non-stay-dry. The ones that are, Matthew HATES. So he sits in wet diapers (which he generally doesn't mind unless he's super super wet). Anyway, Matthew loves nakey time. He talks, smiles and laughs with whomever is changing him, and this is the only consistent time in which he's happy. Not to say he isn't like this other times. It just is more consistent on the changing table.

He's kind of found his hands, which is good and bad. Good, because it means that if he drops his paci, he'll usually nom on his hands instead of fuss until one of us puts his paci back in. But bad because he's realized that his hands are connected to him, so he's taken to flailing his arms about. He's starting to learn about his feet, too, so his legs also flail a lot. And based off the jumping motions his legs do during nakey time, I think he'll love a jumperoo. Hopefully anyway.

He had his 2 month check up and first rounds of immunizations last week. He now weighs 11lbs, and is 24 inches long. The shots went as well as could be expected... he screamed for a couple of minutes and then calmed down although he was still less-than-happy. When we got home, I put him in a disposable, because the covers we usually put on him land right on the shot sites on his legs. And we used disposables for the next few days, which Matthew really liked, because he could kick his legs more. But we now know that we do not like disposables for another reason... they reek when he pees. Like, we want to gag when it happens, and it resulted in near instantaneous diaper changes. Our Diaper Genie (which we got as a gift and we decided to keep for some reason) was completely full within a day. I don't know if that's normal or not, but I'll assume "no". So we were more than okay to put him back in cloth, although Matthew doesn't think it's as awesome since he can't kick as easily.

He's now almost outgrown all his newborn sized clothes, which is sad. Again, the cloth diapers are the culprit, since they make him longer than he really is. But we'll live. Speaking of clothes, I've found that pants on a baby are super annoying. I like him just wearing a onesie. But I suppose we do live in North Dakota, so more clothing is necessary now.

And related to Matthew, but not about him per se, I've been starting to think about Christmas gifts. He'll be 6 months old by then, and I'm pretty sure he won't even know what's going on, let alone what he got for presents. But nonetheless, I've been formulating ideas, and I think I landed on what I want to get. I'll write another post with all that on there, so you'll have to wait! :) Hope it won't be that long before I post it, but you never know...