Inauguration

Just a quick note documenting one of the greater gifts of 2015: Ashton had his food challenge today down at Boston Childrens Hospital and I am proud to announce that after 4 hours and 6 increasing doses of peanut butter, he is officially cleared of his allergy! The CAT/CR staff could not have been nicer, and we had Legos, movies and art supplies to keep us busy. It actually went by fast! I would have been a nervous wreck had it not been for our October 1 visit to Five Guys. Ashton opened up his burger and the bun had sesame seeds all over it. No good, as that's his worst allergy. He got a hot dog instead and was very happy. After we had eaten I looked around and noticed not only buckets of peanuts on other tables, plus their shells on the floor, but huge boxes marked PEANUT OIL basically every direction I turned. I looked at Ashton, looked at the fries, looked up at the signs...how had I missed it?? This restaurant was basically Ashton's death trap.

Luckily, he seemed to have no problem with the fries cooked in peanut oil and I breathed a huge sigh of relief (I've known for months that this allergy was very mild, just had not gotten around to scheduling the food challenge). So going in today, finally, I was very hopeful he would pass. And he did :)

We still have eggs and sesame to conquer (the egg allergy is likely to subside, sesame not so much), but for now, please welcome the newest member of the peanut butter eating club!

Holiday Spirit

When you are a parent and it is Christmas, there is a LOT going on. If you wanted to, it would be easy to fill every day of December. There are plenty of events to attend, crafts to DIY, goodies to bake, and general activities of the holiday persuasion. In the last few weeks, besides decorating our trees and house, we attended the Natick Common Tree Lighting, painted ornaments (along with the counter, our arms, etc.), made and frosted dozens of sugar cookies, wrote letters to Santa (and got a reply!), marveled at the Snow Village at the Elm Bank Festival of Trees, watched the Polar Express about nine times, listened to Ashton sing at his preschool's holiday concert, sent out 91 Christmas cards and Amazon Prime'ed our way through almost my whole shopping list. The boys continue to take Pete quite seriously, they consult him on various matters and Alex calls him "Eee". And finally, they went to visit Santa himself.

See, Ashton knows what's in it for him. Alex does not and therefore has no shame.

It has been a wonderful month. Ashton is so into all the holiday things, and Alex gets excited because Ashton is excited. They both fall all over themselves in the morning to be the first to find Pete in his new spot. Pete is going to bring some special elf pajamas for both of them on December 24, and I have a feeling Christmas Eve will just be magical in our house. Ashton believes. It is by far and away the greatest thing I've experienced at Christmas since I myself thought Santa was real.

We will be on break now until January 4. While I might throw a quick post up between now and then, my full holiday recap won't be until then. It's been a wonderful year, love to all and

Alex is 1.75 years old!

Alexander Michael Nill. 21 months. Master of manipulation. He is the happiest clam you'll ever see if he has your full attention. If he does not, he'll do just about anything to get it and it's pretty impossible to ignore him. You'll find that he grabs your hand, drags you to a certain spot and then yanks on your arm to get you to sit down. If you try to reclaim your appendage, he'll cry. There's no way around it: if he wants you to play, you're playing.

I could really cut a corner right now and link to Ashton at 21 months. Pretty much everything in that post could describe Alex right now, down to the shoe size. We have no pediatrician until his 2 year appointment so I can't wow you with height and weight, but his hair remains white, his hands are still sticky and his gross motor skills are death-defying.

A little more about our little Alex.

Speech: He has some sounds that resemble words. He'll say "Mama" and "no". Those are always niiiiice and clear. Also "whoaaaaa" when something is really cool, which is often (he hasn't seen most of what the world has to offer at his age). He does say things that we know are intended to be "up", "dog", "Ashton" and "open", but otherwise, honestly he just makes a lot of noise. His EI is going well though and he just started a 2 hour group class on Wednesday mornings that Jason takes him to, so that's about all we can do right now besides help him pair words with actions and objects. I know it will come eventually but I can't wait for him to do something besides whine. It's obvious he is easily frustrated because he can't communicate, and I know he is smarter than he appears.

Food: Your typical toddler. Some days A, some days B, always C, then never C, then only C if it's warm and cut in pieces that are all in a line. It's quite exhausting because I never know what day it will be. Hot dogs are a guarantee though, he will eat one of those in 20 seconds flat and look around for another one (don't worry it never comes).

Favorite book:

The penguin is a rubber finger puppet that you operate from behind the book and Alex thinks it is so funny to try and bite him. Which of course, hurts my finger, so then I yell and we pick something else. Hey, I said this was his favorite book, I didn't say we actually read it. 

Usually found: Desperately punching the buttons on the remote (the old one, with no batteries ;) ) 

Nicknames: honey bun (when he's being really cute and lovable), and stinker (when he's being really cute and lovable but also naughty)

Ashton calls him: "OW-wex"

Preferred animal: dogs. I have to get it on video, but he walks around and pants when he sees a picture or hears one barking.

Sleeps: Most excellently. Wakes up around 7:15-7:45 am, naptime from roughly 1:30/2 to 3:30/4, bedtime at 8 pm without a peep. 

Santa is bringing: a train table. Not the usual kind though - he is just starting his interest in trains and can't put tracks together (and when I do it, he takes them apart), so Santa's elves will be leaving this under the tree. But toy-wise he is not that particular. He often has his arms full of random things and loves Ashton's legos. He'll put the mini helmets on the mini men and take them off and put them back on as long as Ashton permits, which is only of course when Ashton doesn't know he's doing it.

Afraid of: heights

Don't even think about: putting him a shopping cart. You might as well be dropping him into a pool of molten lava. He thrashes and screams his head off, making errands nearly impossible. I mentioned this to Jason, and he said, "Have you tried holding his hand?" (See previous fear. The next time I took him out, he looped his little fingers through mine and was totally calm!)

If you want him to cry really loud for a really long time: give him a haircut

Currently makes some extra cash as: our tiny dancer. 

This was a particularly slow intro but on some of the Christmas carols he really gets his sway on.

Best friend: Ashton.
Worst enemy: Ashton.
His life in one picture:

[Insert one final cute portrait of Alex at 21 months, but realize you have none because they are all blurry. That little stinker is always running around getting into something! Oh well - we love you honey bun!]

Christmas trees and such

I am pleased to announce that the Nill family Christmas trees of 2015 are up, decorated, and twinkling away! That's right, I said "trees". Twins this year! Fraternal though - they are different sizes.

Our main tree was born first.

He is a large Frasier Fir and goes in the family room, which is in the back of the house where no one can see it but us. Since we have a foyer (which I have no idea what to do with, decorating and function-wise), we have extra space for another tree that can sit right in the front window.

She's a more petite Balsam Fir and smells amazing. Together they complete our family for the month of December. 

Overall tree hunting was pretty easy. In years past it has taken days to find the right one. Even though there are lots of local tree stands around town, we chose Home Depot. Honestly, there's a huge price difference and a lot of the time we have other things to get in the same trip, so mark us down as supporters of big box corporations :-/  Ashton found a branch that resembled a sword and it pretty quickly became all he cared about. 

Alex just clung to me and whined to be picked up. The whole time. Until it was time to leave of course, at which point he was suddenly interested in helping to get a tree on the car.

In fact he could barely lift a pine needle but it was very funny.

So we got the trees home and in their stands. We left them overnight to drop and that same night, Pete came. Pete is our elf, sent by Santa to observe behavior and report back, good or bad. Boy do I love this little red fellow. Here is what happened in the first five minutes of his arrival.

Pete brought the boys a train and set it up around the base of the Christmas tree. Ashton came in, saw the train, saw Pete, freaked out, jumped a lot. Once he calmed down, he sat with Alex and they watched the train go around the circle together.

Very soon Alex noticed there were extra tracks nearby. He picked one up, turned around, and Ashton snatched it right out of his hand. Alex started wailing. This happens a lot in our house.

Jason didn't miss a beat. "Ashton! You just stole that from Alex! And right in front of PETE!"

Ashton looked up and looked back at Alex with the guiltiest look I've ever seen. "Here Alex! Here you go! Here!" and offered the track back. When Alex didn't take it, Ashton grabbed his hand and forced him to hold it. "Sorry Alex, sorry."

It has been a magical couple of days. Last night, Alex was playing with a helicopter and Ashton really wanted it. He kept reaching for it but stopping juuuuuust short of taking it out of Alex's hands. I acknowledged that he was doing the right thing, waiting for Alex to finish his turn, and he started to cry. He was very conflicted you see, he wanted that helicopter so badly but knew Pete would report "naughty" to Santa if he stole it like he ordinarily would. He had no choice but to wait. It was hard. I felt a little sorry for him. That Pete, he's a force.

That night we had a successful tree decorating session, complete with ornaments that were dropped, clumped together, double-branched or hung upside down somehow. Also, Ashton would not come down off the step stool, but that's fine.

 Final check...

Looks good!

After the boys were in bed, I decorated our little foyer tree and our scenes were complete!

I'll leave you with two secrets for a perfect Christmas tree.
1) Get oversized metallic silver or gold balls, the really shiny ones, and place them deep within the boughs, closer to the trunk. They reflect all the lights and make the tree seem extra twinkly without taking up valuable outer branch hanging space.
2) Don't forget your carols! (← please watch it. Ahhh his 4 year old voice, I can't even.) It's always important to have the right music :)

Season Opener

Hard to believe, Thanksgiving is already behind us and time is marching on towards Christmas! We had a great turkey day in Long Island with Grandma and Grandpa, Lizzie, Owen, and Uncle Chris. Of course, Ashton ate nothing but the cranberry sauce and Alex slept through the whole thing, but that is no measure of how delicious the meal was. Grandma with the bird....

I have to say, she and Grandpa made it look pretty effortless. We hosted Thanksgiving last year and I feel like my kitchen was a sh*tshow. Thanks to both of you for a wonderful dinner :)

The day after Thanksgiving we hit the Children's Museum in Bridgehampton with Lizzie and Owen and then headed back to MA to get going on Christmas. We took the boys to Lowes to see what they had for decorations. We were contemplating getting an inflatable, then we thought maybe a pair of those sparkly reindeer...we are new to the neighborhood so of course we needed to have an impressive display! So many possibilities.

Ultimately we just got a wreath and a new pet snowman for Alex.

He stood with his arm around it for awhile and then observed while Jason and Ashton twisted some lights into the little tree that stands in the front yard. It came out great! 

Uh, a little better in person. I still think we should add some lights to the bushes too though :)

Well on Saturday this past weekend it poured rain and the boys and I had ZERO to do, so at 4:30 pm I packed them up and we went to Toys R Us to scout some toys. I'll tell you what, I avoid Black Friday like the plague, but I see now why other people don't - the deals were still insane, even the next day. I wasn't planning on buying anything though, just wanted to see what seemed to get the boys excited. Last year Jason and I shopped like two days before Christmas and it didn't matter, but this year, Ashton is very aware of what is going on and has already made his list.

Jason: "Ok boys, let's tell Santa what you want!"

Ashton: "Yeah! Let's do it!" [Runs and gets out the paper, gets out the pencils, hops up on his chair and freezes.] "But Daddy! Oh no. I don't know how to write."

Jason: "How about you just tell me and I'll write it for you?"

Ashton: "Yeah! Ok. I want...." He rambled off lots of things that had "big" and "huge" in the title ;) 

So back to Toys R Us. There we were and we round the bend to the Matchbox/HotWheels aisle. All of a sudden, before me was this box, this beacon of light, this Christmas miracle!!

This toy, dear readers, does not exist. HAS NOT existed for two years. I saw something similar being sold on one of my mom's groups, did not get it, and have been on the hunt ever since. Sure, you can look on eBay or Amazon, but you'll pay through the nose (right now Amazon has it for $159 and that's cheap) because they seemingly don't make it anymore. It is honestly impossible to find and I have looked at every obscure internet website there is to try and track it down with no luck. Until now! Toys R Us was selling it for $99.99, but the Black Friday deal was half off at $49.99. I could hardly believe I was looking at it in the flesh. Ashton has hundreds of cars and plays with them constantly. He would love this. LOVE LOVE LOVE this. 

There was one left. 

What should I do? I mean, Ashton was with me. Could I buy it right in front of him? No way. But look at it! If little metal cars had a mecca and a 4 year old was their god, they would live here.

It's 8 feet of racetrack. I couldn't risk losing it so I was just going to get it and face the consequences.

Well I picked up the box and made it two aisles before Ashton broke me down. He was like an excited puppy jumping and yapping at my feet. What was that? Who was it for? Why did I have it? Could he look at the box? Could he hold the box? Just for a second? When could he open it? Now? When we got home? AHHHHH!!! I put it down, got on the Toys R Us website right then and there and saw it listed for sale for the same price. I thought, I'll just go home and order it tonight and that way I don't have to deal with this right now.

I got home, clicked through and tried to add it to my cart and it said "this is an in-store item only. Please select a store for pickup." Grrr! I was just there!! I entered my zip code, pulled up Framingham... "Out of Stock." WHAT?! I called the store, explained I had been there ten minutes prior, could you please go grab this toy (and this is where I left the box) and put it aside for me. She put me on hold for honestly 15 minutes, came back and said sorry, it's gone. AHHHH!! No!! She said yeah it's been crazy today, and hung up. 

While I made the boys' dinner I frantically called three other Toys R Us stores. I wondered if, despite the website saying they had none in stock, they actually might. That theory was wrong and it took me at least thirty minutes to find out. I was still not going to accept defeat. I didn't believe that my original one was gone so first thing the next morning, I left Jason with the boys and marched back into the store. I rounded the same bend, checked the same shelf...there it was! Just one! I grabbed it and headed to the checkout. 

"Your total is $106.23."

"What? Eight hours ago it was half that price!"

"Er, sorry. The sale ended."

I asked for the manager please. She came over and I explained the whole scene from the night before. I said, "You were open until midnight and I would have come back to buy this once my husband was home, but when I called, your employee told me it had been sold! Clearly it was not sold - here it is!"

She punched some numbers into the computer and said, "Well, this one just came in last night." 

"Really. You got a whole shipment and only got ONE more of these?"

"Yes."

We stared each other down. I was getting this toy for half off if I had to stand there all day. I said, "Look, I am going to be buying a lot more here in the next few weeks, so this would really mean a lot to me."

Three minutes later, I was loading my $49.99 Hotwheels Super 6 Lace Raceway into my trunk. I texted Jason a triumphant YESSSS!!! and then thought my god, is this what I am going to have to go through to get EVERY TOY FROM NOW ON? The answer so far, by the way, has been yes. I can't even begin to tell you the story about the Paw Patroller. 

It's a giant van that opens up to hold all the characters from the show, each with their own machines - Ashton LOVES Paw Patrol and this is on his Santa list. While I did manage to buy the Paw Patroller, look again. Everything with a black circle is not included.

Yep, you actually get this.

A hollow shell. All the figurines are *of course* sold separately, and when I realized that, found that they were nearly none to be found. I tracked down a couple at Target (there are 7 total) for the appropriate price of $12.99 (each), but the others? Hit up eBay and be prepared to pay $50+. I think the general lesson here is caveat emptor. Toy boxes can be very deceiving. 

Speaking of deceiving boxes, I was admiring the Super 6 Lane Raceway, soaking in its amazingness, and suddenly noticed on the top flap:

ON BLU-RAY AND DVD FALL 2014.

Fall of...I'm sorry...what year? What is with this mysterious, elusive toy! Where has it been hiding? All I know is Ashton better play with it for hours and love it so much he only stops using it when he leaves for college. 

2 toys down, many to go. 23 more days of blood, sweat and tears. Bring it, Christmas. 

Beach Bums

So we got to take a little trip to a little place called Aruba :) The last time we were there was 2012 and perhaps the biggest difference between that year and this year was Ashton!

Um no that's not correct. The biggest difference was that this year Alex, Callie and Erik were with us! Alex and Callie didn't exist in 2012 - hard to believe looking at their sweet faces :)

Erik did but he couldn't come then :P So our group was made up of 14 people total! An upfront thanks to Poppy, Mema, Amy, Jason, Mckenna, Brody, Ben, Kari, Callie and Erik for an unforgettable week. THANK YOU, especially to Poppy and Mema - you know we know how lucky we are!

Back to the Nills. Well we did mostly the same things we did in 2012: snorkeled, floated, laid by the pool, lazed in the lazy river, played in the sand, ate, drank...all those normal vacation things. We went to the same beach and guess what I even wore the same bathing suits. But experiencing the trip through Ashton's 4 year old eyes especially made this year that much better. He was so excited and soaked in every minute. We fed the iguanas some lettuce (more fun than you'd think!), he found a giant sea star, paddleboarded, swam, sailed, tried his luck at poolside Bingo and played his heart out at the beach. At one point he dug a large deep hole in the sand and every time a wave came and filled it he would go "Yes! YES! YEH-HEH-HESSS!!" Whenever Alex tried to come near it he would snap at me to "keep Alex occupied doing something else! This hole is mine!" He actually used the word "occupied"! He didn't pronounce it right, but still.

The boys also each had their own set of puddle jumpers, which I know isn't the best for actually learning how to swim but I was most concerned about their safety for the week. They made them so independent in the water and Alex just floated and smiled, floated and smiled, all by himself.

While the boys had their fun, the grownups certainly did too. We had probably the best setup you can have while being on vacation in a hotel: a 2 bed 2 bath condo separated by an kitchen and living space. Which means, you can put the kids to bed, shut the door, and still hang out! Also makes babysitting easy as we shared a condo with Kari and Ben and Callie. Pretty much every night we headed down to the beach bar, sat under the thatched roof with little twinkly lights and generally enjoyed ourselves. Signature drink of Aruba 2015: the Phase 3 Black Russian.

The view from our balcony was also quintessential tropics! To the left:

To the right (the swim up bar and beach, and where we spent a lot of our time because that pool is zero entry at the end. Also, as I mentioned, the swim up bar :D )

Directly below (the lazy river and hot tubs):

See in the upper left hand corner of this photo, that teeny bridge? That's one of the main kiddie pools that the resort has and the boys loved it. Water guns, waterfalls, etc. That Marriott, they know what they're doing. Between that and the 5 pm standing group float on the lazy river, things were good.

But let's talk about the elephant in the room. The flights. In fact, we hadn't flown anywhere since the last Aruba trip three years ago! There were two each way. They were long. Each boy had his own iPad, loaded up with apps and videos that were age appropriate, and a set of headphones.

While I was sandwiched between two kids for all 4 flights, Jason got to sit across the aisle in a seat I affectionately nicknamed "Paradise". Overall, Ashton did great - the older he gets the more "manageable" he is. Thank goodness we had Alex's carseat. Not feeling like being a human jungle gym for 6 hours, we had bought him his own seat and I strapped him right down. His little legs were *just* long enough to kick the seatback in front of him, but only on the last flight did we sit behind someone who was clearly annoyed by it (AND she had her own small kid with her! It was quite bizarre). A few times Alex really needed a nap and cried his face off. But overall we did ok. By the end of the travel days the boys had had way too much screen time and way too many snacks and got off the plane in a googly-eyed daze. I don't think they knew whether to run a marathon or pass out cold on the floor. Luckily on the way down we had the pool to look forward to and on the way back, Thanksgiving and all the holidays!

So it's time for the photo dump. I'll try to keep it to a minimum. I actually didn't take nearly as many as I thought I would, mainly because I was swimming with the boys most of the time! Off we go...

So there we were, all happy with a little bit of a tan and refreshed from a week in the water. We came back to cold, damp, dark Massachusetts and our weekend was spent gathering up the completely and utterly ridiculous and I mean ridiculous amount of leaves in our backyard. The whole neighborhood is massive oak trees and even though we have a blower, it's been an ongoing process. Yard waste day (the town's only one!!) was Monday so we bagged up forty nine bags of leaves and I am so sore I can barely move, even two days later!

It's a lot more than it looks like, okay? But the whole time I was raking under the drizzling, gray cloudy sky I could easily imagine the blue water and sun and sand from a few days prior. It helped.

Next up...turkey day! We are headed to Long Island at 6 am tomorrow morning (Wednesday) because we procrastinated and there was not much left by way of ferry reservations. Us Nills are not letting much grass grow under our feet lately...here come the holidays!

Birthday Breakdown

I'm 35 years old! But, lest I dare to think that today would be about me, I left the house this morning to a crying preschooler who was upset because he wanted it to be his birthday, not mine. No love for mommy. At all.

This entire week, Thursday loomed not as the day that officially marks that I'm a year older, but as the day before we leave for our vacation in Aruba. Ahem, trip to Aruba. (Vacation means "freedom or release from duty, business, or activity". Considering the boys are coming...it's a trip.) Anyway tonight is PACK NIGHT. We leave at 6 am tomorrow morning so it's serious I have a list of a thousand things to do. Off I go, see you when we get back!

Once upon a time...

There was a ninja and a puppy. Even though their mom suggested tons of cute matching costumes, the ninja needed to carry a sword and the puppy wanted to pant and bark. Welcome to

Where toddlers melt down, pre-schoolers run amok, and their parents drink hot toddies out of travel mugs while walking around in the pitch dark. Fun for all!

October 31 started with [finally] carving our pumpkins.

Hmmm...what is in here?

Something Alex did not like. No sirree.

Those scary pumpkins! We put him down for a nap and Ashton finished up.

From the inside looking out...

Eventually it was time to don the COSTUMES. After much ado (like seriously, the entire month of October).

Ta-dah! Tell me, do I look like a covert agent in feudal Japan that specializes in espionage, sabotage, infiltration and assassination?

Ashton really has no idea what a ninja even is. When he first put on his costume he said, "Great! Now watch me make things DISAPPEAR!" Ummm...meanwhile:

Just a dog and his iPhone. Frankly Alex looked more like a baby seal. It's hard to describe.

Berg and Karen came over for Jayden's first trick-or-treating experience, so we had a ninja, a puppy, and an elephant!

And there ends pretty much all my decent pictures. The boys were off like a shot as soon as we said go.

The whole loop didn't last long. When we got back to the house around 6:30 pm, I don't know what I was thinking, but I tried to make Ashton sit down and have dinner. The doorbell kept ringing so he kept popping up and running full speed to the front door. Listening to him tell the trick-or-treaters "Guys! Look you could have this one. Or look at this one! You know, you can take two!" it was just too much. He was obsessed with the candy - the bright colors, the shiny wrapping, all the different kinds...

When it was over, I told him to choose his favorite piece to try first. 

He picked out a totally disgusting marshmallow lollipop and luckily hated it. Alex had a dum-dum and no joke, handed this back to me when he was done. 

Ashton was on cloud nine in his costume with his candy. He told Jason: "Daddy! I have a secret. I'm gonna stay up late tonight, and if Mommy asks, start talking about something else." !!!

The entire next day Ashton dragged the green pumpkin that housed his beloved candy around with him. It did not leave his sight. He would empty all the candy out, count it, organize it, admire it, put it back and then do it all over again. He took his nap with the pumpkin right by his pillow. He asked over and over again which kinds he could have. Did this one have egg in it? What about peanuts? Could he have this one piece after lunch and this one piece after dinner? Actually, no, how about this one and then this one? What if he saved the piece I said he could have after lunch so he could have two after dinner? It.was.all.he.talked.about. He actually cried at one point because Halloween was not every day. 

By the end of the weekend I was like ENOUGH WITH THE CANDY ALREADY!!! But what proved to be far scarier than Halloween was how long Sunday was. We turned the clocks back. The boys were up at 6 am and it was officially the lonnnngesssssst daaaaaay everrrrrrrrrrrrrr. It was dark at five pm. Five! It was almost enough to put Ashton back in his ninja costume so he could make me disappear.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!