holiday blues

I started the day today by crying a little. Don't get me wrong I love the holidays and everything about Christmas but it also reminds me of how far away from my family I am. On top of all that emotional stuff W no longer loves me the best. He is now a daddy's boy through and through. He does not want to be with me if Daddy's around and when Daddy leaves he asks for him constantly. My afternoons and evenings now consists of me saying "Daddy's at work, Honey, he'll be back again tomorrow once you wake up" and "Daddy misses you too baby"

I love my Daddy...




It's really not that I don't love that W loves his Daddy as much as his Daddy loves him, but it's hard not to feel rejected when he cries and reaches for Daddy as soon as I try to cuddle him.

To make matters worse he has recently started hitting me too. Not by accident or anything, no. He will pick up a hard item, such as a book, phone (how very Naomi Campbell of him) or a toy and struggle to get it up to my face and then hit me with it. When me and J tell him "No! We do not hit, you have to be gentle with Mamma" he laughs and hits me again.


... and my Daddy loves me!


He did all of this first thing in the morning today and on top of me already feeling homesick and overwhelmed with Christmas prep and worries over how the actual party will turn out, I started crying... which made W cry. So this morning was not a good morning.

So do any of you have any advice? How do I deal with my 18 month old rejecting me and hitting me with hard stuff??

holiday shopping

Since I'm not working right now and the prospects of job finding in my field for the hours I'm available are slim this holiday season might turn out a little less extravagant than previous years. In a way I think it's good. It will force us to find special, unique and tailored presents for everyone instead of going for quantity. So in the last couple of days I've been doing a bit of research on what would be the perfect gift for our nieces and nephew, 8,5 and 3 respectively.

Hubby found the perfect gift for the 3 year old boy and is pretty clear on what he wants to give the 8 year old since she's his favorite and Godchild. That leaves the 5 year old. I just read this post on Babble and unfortunately it sums her up quite well. Not by intention of course her parents do an awesome job at making sure she's got everything she wants and needs and she lacks nothing. The problem with her is more that she's so easy going and sweet and funny and great that she likes everything you give her and nothing stands out like a perfect gift. She's just happy to be the recipient of presents in a way. On her birthday a couple of months ago we went shopping for her gift the whole family together and she got this play cottage thing with lots of extras and she was just amazed that all those things were for her. Actually come to think of it he case is not very similar to the Babble article after all. She's just difficult to shop for.

For the oldest girl it's easy she's so mature and she knows what she likes, I'm planning on getting her to read the Famous Five series cause I think she'll like it: She enjoys reading and practicing her piano and playing her video games and snowboarding of course. The younger girl doesn't have any real hobbies yet and even though she likes snowboarding too she's more into pretend play and she has this fantastic mind that can just think up the most amazing scenarios. This is a fantastic thing to have since it rarely leaves her bored and she can play anywhere with ease but it's hard to buy something that will... help her with this or make it better or...

I don't know what we'll end up getting her but I think I'll throw at least one Dr. Seuss book in there that she can read by herself cause if there's anything that can trigger your imagination it's a Dr. Seuss book.

As for Wilhelm I just don't know, but I'm sure I'll find the perfect gift for my perfect little man.