Mondays are just mini new years

It's officially winter. As you can expect, I'm not thrilled. While so far it's been relatively mild, even just the shorter days are starting to bum me out a little. I thrive being outside, and it's easier to fill my time with Silas outdoors too. Now, even being 30 weeks pregnant, we both need to get out of the house and move around more. Instead, we all just seem to seize the day on the nice days that have presented themselves! Back in November, we still had plenty, and one of the nicest days thankfully fell on my birthday! While we are still adamant about staying home as much as possible right now, we've gotten creative.

My birthday was low key and time well spent with my tiny family. We played outside for most of the day, introducing Silas to flying kites! Our property is located at the top of a big hill, so it's notoriously windy up here (perfect for kite flying!) Honestly, neither Pete or I have any idea the last time we even tried to fly a kite, but the $2 one we had sitting around our garage did just fine. That being said, I'm now eyeing some fancier dragon ones for the coming spring already. Haha!

That evening, Pete and I decided to actually go out to eat. Since the weather was so nice, we opted for a super tiny restaurant that offered limited patio seating. Since the pandemic began, Pete and I have gone out to eat one other time which was at an outdoor marina. We don't entirely miss eating in restaurants, but it IS nice being able to share a meal with just the two of us and no crazy toddler flinging particles around us. Shoot, I can't even remember the last time I'd gotten dressed nice! We thoroughly enjoyed our time spent together and were both happy we decided to go at all.

In the meantime, Silas has been staying home from school quite a bit more. Some of that has been intentional, while some has been to his school closing for quarantine, breaks, and now the holiday. Thankfully, we seem to be turning a bit of a corner with his three month nap strike, although it varies depending on whether he's home or at school. Either way, I'm just thankful for the days he IS napping, as I desperately need the time to rest for myself as well!

Silas' vocabulary is continuing to explode lately. His ability to communicate what it is he wants and doesn't want makes most days more manageable. He can tell me what he wants to play with, who he wants me to FaceTime, which books he wants me to read, what show he may want to watch, and even what he wants for mealtimes!

I think back at the beginning of the pandemic where his words were so limited, so I flooded him with options instead. While I still miss him being my sweet, little one-year-old, his ability to express himself and his preferences has been incredible.

Even at night, (literally every night) he won't go to bed before saying, "I wanna cuddle dada."

Continuing on with the holidays, I was pretty excited to get our Christmas tree up this year. We put it up slightly before Thanksgiving this year, since we knew we wouldn't be in town. The added decorations and festive spirit helped liven up our home and gave us all something new to appreciate and look at.

Last year, Silas loved the Christmas tree but still wasn't old enough to be a part of putting it up, much less understanding why it was even there. This year, however, Silas was an avid helper in the whole process. He was eager to decorate the tree and even kept removing ornaments to replace them somewhere else.

We've never been big into decorating for any holiday, so our decorations that we put out are pretty limited. We did manage to immerse Silas in the world of holiday music, which he has since learned to love and sing!

The one festive outing we made this year was to see the Christmas lights at Cheekwood. We bought a membership back in the spring, but we haven't gone much since the cooler days have kicked in. Nowadays, you have to reserve a time slot if you want to visit. With the nights being a bit bitter, we hesitated on going at all, but I knew how much Silas would love the wonderland they set up, so we decided to say screw it and bundled up tight!

While an average trip to Cheekwood lasts at least a couple hours for us, I think that evening lasted about one hour total, haha! Silas was great though! He spent half the time just riding in the stroller and the other half running around. It personally helped me feel a bit more festive myself, and I was happy we could all do something together as a family.

The last of the decorations really only involved stockings for nearly everyone here on the farm (minus the chickens). We don't really do a whole lot for any holidays, even birthdays, but we still like to acknowledge that our animals are just as much a part of our family as the rest of us. I put the barn animals' stockings out in the barn this year, hoping the additional decorations would make the animals feel the festive love some as well.

Speaking of animals, I know we've hardly updated on any of that lately at all. We are kind of in this weird limbo of trying to figure out what we even want to do right now. The same thing happened when I was pregnant with Silas: part of me just wants to process all our birds and fill the freezer, while the other part of me doesn't. Currently, we are getting almost more eggs than we are selling, which always makes me want to wipe them out and start over. The second we do, we always end up with a greater demand for eggs than we have though!

We got an incubator for the holidays this year, so Pete and I are STOKED to be able to have that option come spring.

Thanksgiving arrived this year, and with it we drove down to East TN to visit Pete's family. Pete's mother comes up regularly to visit and help out, but it was a really nice change of pace and scenery for us to go down and stay with her for a change. Over the few days we were there, we celebrated with both Pete's mom and dad, as well as his sister and her husband. Silas had a blast with all the attention on him and got lots of good gifts. Furthermore, Pete had a real BREAK for a change, allowing for him to not only relax for a bit but also to get some quality time with family.

The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas somehow flew by. On days where Silas was in school, I got errands done, chores completed, and the house cleaned. Being now 30 weeks along, I'm finding more of a need for a daily nap, so I've tried to make myself at least lay down for an hour each day as well. This makes the things I want to do a bit easier, since my mobility is continuing to decrease.

Naturally, this would all fall in line when Silas is at his most active and agile part of life. He wants to run and be wild 24/7. Pete working from home helps me catch a break throughout the day, but I already miss running around and being as active with him as I used to be. Since the outdoors isn't filled with mosquitos and ticks this time of year, I've been venturing into the woods more with Silas.

Our property lines up to numerous acres of woods. Sometimes, neighbors ride dune buggies and dirt bikes around the trails that weave throughout. Silas has only seen them riding in person once, and he often asks where the motorcycles are when we are back there now. Each time, I tell him they are sleeping, but recently this all changed!

My mother had been helping babysit last week when we heard the familiar sound of motorcycles outside. After Silas' nap, we raced him outside and down the back pasture not sure if they would still be around. Sure enough, two boys where out riding, and Silas was just beaming with excitement and awe. After about 15 minutes or so, the boys stopped and noticed us from afar. They rode right over to our fence-line to say hi to Silas who was just smitten with these boys he thought were celebrities. It was the SWEETEST thing ever!

Silas has been expressing and exploring more interests lately, giving us insight into what we can expect in the coming years. We already knew of his love of bikes, but getting to meet and see those boys up close and in person just gave the world of bikes a whole new meaning to him. While 2 years old is still a bit early for him to start motor cross, we are prepared to budget for his desire in the coming years.

Another big interest Silas has had is drumming. Pete's been a drummer for much a his life, and our detached garage houses his elaborate setup with both regular and electric drums. Silas and Pete have bonded over the drums so much that we debate on funding that desire as well. As parents, we want him to have the opportunity to explore these interests, but we also don't want to go overboard.

These last few months before Khai's grand arrival includes some physical and mental preparation like more prenatal cardio and an at-home hypo-birthing class. Although Silas' birth was quite intense, I still hope to deliver Khai naturally as well but with greater ease and comfort. Furthermore, the Mirror home gym system I purchased in the summer has helped provide and motivate me with more fitness. I'm hoping these new habits help with this last leg of pregnancy.

We've also been experiencing some nesting habits. There's not much to prepare for in terms of a nursery anymore, but I'm feeling more of a need to clean, organize, and purge things we don't need anymore. Khai is due right before Spring, which is often our time to get various chores inside and outside done. Since it'll be more difficult to do everything with a newborn around, we have been using Silas' help to knock things out now.

Whether it's picking up debris from around the yard, pruning plants around the property, or collecting items for our burn pit, Silas LOVES helping. He'll eagerly jump into the farm truck and hop right out to help unload. His level of independence reminds me that we are about to start all over with a limited way of getting chores done all over again. Hopefully, Silas will only continue to excel in a way that allows him to "help" us even more, so I can just strap Khai on for the ride.

Finally, Christmas arrived! We stayed home this year and celebrated in our own way. The day before Xmas was spent at my mother's house for our Italian celebration and tradition of anchovy pasta. We purchased pre-made food from Honey Baked Ham for our big day at home, so no one really had to do anything at all other than relax, open gifts, and eat. By Christmas morning, Pete and I displayed Silas' one big gift from us in front of the tree and watched for the magical and beautiful reaction that would come upon noticing....

Sure enough, the bike was a HUGE hit. I'm not lying when I say he literally rode that thing around the house in circles for the ENTIRE day. No really...the whole day! We opted for a balance bike to start, as we'd read they help with teaching way better than training wheels do. So the bike itself doesn't have peddles, but he's able to learn how to balance and then push and glide if he so chooses. This is way better, especially for his age where he gets easily frustrated when there's something he wants to do and can't quite do it yet. We've already agreed that once he really gets the hang of this bike, we will graduate him to a real one. If the interest in bikes still remains in another year, then that may be the time we consider something motorized for him.

The rest of Christmas was perfect. While the simplicity behind the day made it almost feel as if it weren't even Christmas at all, it all seemed rather fitting for the year we are leaving behind. Neither of us would change our holidays from this past year, even though we weren't able to see everyone and do everything we typically like to do.

With the end of the year less than a week away, it just seems odd that we can hardly remember what it's even like to run errands, go shopping, or visit large gatherings as a family. We've definitely found a new flow and a new norm. While I'm not always happy about the restrictions we choose to follow, I have yet to regret any of the precautions we've taken as a family. This year was definitely different, but I'm happy we've been together for all of it.

I'll leave you one last and beautiful photo...

You all can officially meet Khai now! Last week, we had to attend a follow-up ultrasound to check on something, and we were gifted the opportunity to see him in 3D. Seeing him like this has made me even more eager to meet and hold him in person! With just 10 weeks left, give or take, knowing I'll be able to hold him so soon just makes me emotional. We cannot wait to have him in the real world with us!