Author: kristennill

Today our little Mr. Alexander Michael Nill turns 3 years old. We have been waiting all week for this day. Alex has been acutely aware of his upcoming birthday and perhaps his older brother Ashton even more so [present alert!]. Things have been coming in the mail, his party (Saturday) has been planned, and he got the special circle time attention yesterday at school with a sticker and a crown. We know about it. Our neighbors know about it. Everyone knows about it. After lights out last night Alex could be heard singing happy birthday to himself before falling asleep. It’s this whole thing 🙂

Today he had soccer with Ashton and I’m thinking about taking them out to dinner, but we really aren’t doing presents or any other celebrations until his party. Which was supposed to be small but in fact, uh, won’t be. Not sure how that happened. Wish me luck on Saturday around 4:30 pm as I will have 19 children in my house 😀

So I’ll post all that after the weekend and all the updated stats etc. after his pedi appointment. But for now just had to tell Alex: Happy 3rd birthday honey bun! You make everyone around you smile all the time, you are just that cute. WE LOVE YOU!! xoxoxox

I say it every year, but I don’t have much to blog about towards the end of these winter seasons. Florida seems like forever ago and we are sort of “going through the motions” as they say, chugging along towards spring. We move the clocks forward on Sunday; getting out of the darkness is going to be huuuuuuge for our psyches. The weather has been all over the place, as high as mid-60’s but also setting record lows.

Caption: Alex shouting a hundred times while chasing Ashton: “AH-tee bike power! I RUNNING power! Yeah!”

You guys let me just get straight to the point. Disney World was so, so, SO fantastic. Looking back at my pictures I just can’t believe it’s over. Never have we been to a place that is so HAPPY! The Magic Kingdom is so beautiful and joyful, with music, colors, smiles everywhere…it was simply amazing and of course I am now one of the zillions of people who say “I can’t wait to go again!” I do give myself a bit of a pat on the back because I spent a ton of time planning our two days there. <– (This comment won't make sense to anyone that hasn't done it.) But I didn't want to waste any more time than was necessary waiting in lines or backtracking, and I think the way I chose to tackle Fantasyland and Tomorrowland on Day 1, Adventureland and Frontierland on Day 2, worked perfectly. It was quite overwhelming in the beginning with the website and app, the Fast Passes etc. but now I feel like an expert! On the Magic Kingdom at least 🙂

But of course I have one piece of advice to share. I read so many websites and tips on how to maximize (but not stress out) your Disney experience but the one thing no one said and I wish I had known/thought about: Most of the rides are based on the movies! Peter Pan, Little Mermaid, and Winnie the Pooh all take you through the storylines and Ashton and Alex would have made stronger connections to them had they seen those movies. I mean, it seems obvious now, but on no one’s tip list was “watch the movies before you go!” and, well, we didn’t really But the boys do watch Disney Junior and by far one of the most magical moments was meeting Mickey himself. He has his own little theater at the front of the park and you go in to see him basically by yourself. He talks of course, but his face moves and his expression changes – he seems really alive. Which is funny, because when we were talking about going to Disney and meeting all of our favorite friends, Ashton was skeptical like “So are they going to be real? I mean, not just people in costumes?”

Anyway, it was so special. Next to Santa, I would imagine meeting Mickey is as magical as it gets when you are a child and it really showed on Ashton’s face (Alex on the other hand was a bit suspicious and didn’t go near any of the characters). But Ashton wore his mouse ears proudly the whole time and BOTH boys went on all the rides! I mean, even Alex, on the roller coasters and splash mountain! He was barely 40″ tall, literally a hair too short, but they let him through. Poppy and Mema were with us too, I honestly didn’t take too many photos but we did SO MUCH and the parade and all of it…incredibly awesome. WE LOVED IT. Here goes…

First stop Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – we waited 50 minutes for what is currently the hottest ride! Which was not built in to my itinerary but we recovered just fine 😉

Meeting Goofy and Donald at Pete’s Silly Side Show:

It’s a Small World (even when you wait in line at Disney it is somehow fun!)

Meeting Mickey:

Jungle Cruise:

Splash Mountain cam:

Alex finally, finally fell asleep on Day 2 around 4:30 pm in front of the Country Bear Jamboree. Everyone was pushing around their zonked out kids but my youngest persevered until basically the last second.

(Ashton and I got soaked and I mean DRENCHED on Splash Mountain, which is why I had a sweatshirt on and you can see his shorts are only half dry:)

I am like SMILING right now posting all these pictures (and thinking how much we experienced that as I said I don’t have pictures of). But even if I did, words and pictures just can’t describe it. It’s that kind of place.

So when we weren’t at Disney, we were staying at the Orlando World Center Marriott. It was massive, over 2100 rooms!! Multiple pools, water slides, and a kid splash area:

Ashton Alex and Jason were tiny specks in the huge ocean that was this pool. I couldn’t even get it all in one picture (it goes way to the right with a hot tub and cave, and two more sections go back to the left beyond the first bump out).

I should mention, we were here because Jason had a conference. So he was in and out during the time that we weren’t at Disney and basically all day Thursday. Thursday was especially sweet because I knew a winter storm was dumping about 18 inches of snow in Massachusetts and I was in my bathing suit and sunglasses 😉

Friday we checked out and headed up to Palm Coast to Poppy and Mema’s house. We sailed along the intercoastal waterway, swam in the pool and hit the beach (again, like zero pics) but it was perfect weather and I did NOT want to go home.

Being warm when it was so cold at home was heaven. I’ll tell you what though, the angels abruptly stopped singing when we landed in Boston on Sunday.

So there’s that. Did I mention how much I loved Florida?

Well it was Groundhog Day yesterday, Phil saw his shadow and started the clock on 6 more weeks of winter. I’ll say though, so far it’s been mostly dry, minimal snow and rain, and averaging in the 30’s. I can definitely handle it. In fact, my mind is already on summer, I signed Ashton up for a June Lego camp yesterday and have to fill out registrations for a few more. And beyond that, I’ve had to focus on the fall! I had to personally drop off Ashton’s kindergarten papers last week, and just got the notification this week that Alex was admitted to the preschool at the same elementary school (Lilja – did I already talk on here about how we were redistricted? I really overreacted haha). But turns out the preschool is full day, all week, which is more than we need. As much as I would have loved to have both boys at the same school, it’s not happening. I just sent a check to Community Nursery School of Wayland to enroll Alex on MWF 9-1 in the fall. So that’s all set. (Fun fact: I’ve never even been there haha. But my friend’s son is going and I have heard nothing but wonderful things, so I don’t anticipate not loving it once I finally go for a tour.)

Well I haven’t written anything for the past few weeks. I’ve kind of had the blogger blahs lately. Butttt, I never officially wrapped up Christmas did I.

I have about zero enthusiasm to post this considering December feels like a decade ago, but my future self will be annoyed with my current self if I don’t.

Generally it was a wonderful holiday – the boys were as you would expect on Christmas morning (video of Ashton showing Alex their loot) and of course got (mostly) everything they wanted. Alex got a lawnmower. In fact all Alex asked for was lawn equipment “to help Daddy”. In his letter to Santa he requested “a lawnmower, a rake, a wheelbarrow, a flower pot, a watering can and a teddy bear.” Ashton’s list included two Lego sets, the Blaze Racetrack, a striped monster machine (?) and a stuffed animal likeless of Pete that he could actually touch and play with.

Last year we took our letters to the library to mail them because they have a special box that goes to the North Pole and a couple weeks later you a personal reply from Santa (actually from a nice old lady in Natick, but the boys don’t know that). I missed the deadline this year and was more or less panicking when I thought, Um, I can write and mail letters too! Duh.

Which is exactly what I did.

Here’s me reading Alex’s letter to him. And then, what was maybe the cutest thing, they both suddenly took their letters and rushed over to show Pete that Santa had written to them.

Let’s see what else. We made Christmas cookies at our neighbor Alina’s house, Ashton had a surprise solo in his school concert (which of course, my phone was at capacity and I couldn’t record), the boys met Santa as I think I already posted…so, yeah, it was a December full of merry making!

I have literally 3 pictures from Christmas morning. First, a sweet picture of Ashton helping Alex (no hidden agenda there, no sirree!):

Remember how I told you I had swapped the boys’ pajama bottoms by accident and Ashton was wearing Alex’s and vice versa. A clear illustration:

Here’s the footage of Alex opening his lawnmower. Incredible, isn’t it? Get your popcorn.

After we said goodbye to GG and Uncle Erik, we packed up and headed to Grandma and Grandpa’s in NY. There we had another gift tornado and then dinner and spent a nice couple days hanging out before heading home.

And that, my friends, was Christmas 2016!

Brae Burn is officially closed for their 3 week shut down, Jason’s off and things are definitely happening around the house! Our guest room is getting spruced up, crown molding and board and batten is going in everywhere, our door guy comes Thursday to start replacing all the old crappy dated downstairs doors that either stick or don’t close, my new piano room rug should be on my doorstep tomorrow…woo!

I’m heading up to Vermont to meet my new little nephew this weekend, of course Ashton has decided to throw me for a loop and not feel great/stay home from school, and don’t even get me going on all the drama about our neighborhood being redistricted from Ben-Hem to Lilja…never a dull moment 😀

You guys, I don’t even know where to begin. It’s very overwhelming to have a few weeks go by with no blog post, especially when so much happens that you need to cover! And especially when the minute you get back from the holidays, you *BAM!* get hit with summer! Like I have been consumed this week with finding a house on Block Island for the last week in July, scheduling who will be there with us and when, booking ferries and all the associated paperwork and check mailing. THEN, we decided to join Longfellow for the summer to use the pool, which led me to realize that all the summer camp registrations are open there as well (AND Alex can go this year, he will be 3) so we’ve been all calendar-crazy with those weeks. LASTLY, we go to Disney in a month, and I have just decided to see about planning that, but it turns out people prepare for their trips for years and it’s such a massive undertaking to make sure we hit the rides and reservations and restaurants and all the things in the right time frame and I have to have a master schedule with the fast passes and AHHHHHHH IT’S SO MUCH!! TICKETS COST $632 AND THAT’S JUST THE TICKETS!!!

So you see, I’ve been a tad on the frazzled side and have already completely moved on from Christmas. I’m also now obsessed with furnishing our front room and in addition, literally in the middle of the night, it comes to me that in order to make the house feel newer I need to swap out all our old crappy downstairs doors that have original hardware and don’t even close properly. I’m not sure Jason shares my urgency here but this needed to happen yesterday as far as I’m concerned. Instead of blogging, I have been researching doors, getting a guy to come do the work (the frames and jambs or whatever need to be redone as well), picking knobs out and searching for baby grand pianos.

I’m quite busy. Oh plus I have to work. Heh heh.

I’ll post Christmas in short pieces, which should be easy because I took zero pictures. I mean, very few. In the past I document like crazy so I can post it here and this year I did not feel like doing that.

I’ll start with a funny story and that is that I bought the boys matching pajamas. I washed them and on Christmas Eve morning of course Pete had left them for the boys to wear. I helped them get dressed and ready:

All through the next morning I kept saying to myself gosh Ashton’s pj’s really shrunk. Well if you look at their bottom halves, you’ll maybe see Ashton is wearing size 3 pants and Alex is wearing size 5 pants. Whoops. Alex’s were far too long and Ashton’s were far too short. Oh well 😀 They didn’t notice.

Also funny is that last year’s Santa picture didn’t look much different from this year’s.

Alex hasn’t really gotten in tight yet with Santa, just like zillions of other toddlers out there. Luckily he had no issues on Christmas morning when he saw all the presents 😉

I didn’t think it could happen but it has. We are experiencing market saturation with Pete the elf and he is losing his effect.

On Monday afternoon, I let the boys play in my room with their Legos while I got ready for Jason’s employee holiday party. They scattered the pieces everywhere, I mean threw them all over the place. Because I was desperate for 5 minutes to do my hair, I allowed it but repeatedly warned them that pretty soon it was going to be time to clean up.

When that time came, I said, “Ok! Let’s pick all this up! Get the bucket, start scooping…” Ashton hemmed and hawed and let’s just say, over the course of 15 minutes, I asked him multiple times. Then I started to threaten.
“If you don’t pick up your Legos, ________________”. Blank was anywhere from “I won’t put a show on” to “no snack” to “you won’t be able to play Legos anymore” to “I’ll tell Pete” and eventually “I’LL TELL SANTA MYSELF!”

Nothing. Not even an attempt. I dropped Pete’s name like ten times too. I started to help Alex because he was really trying (we’re talking a thousand pieces here) and Ashton just sat and stared. After another several minutes, I finally started to yell and sent him to his room. I stomped downstairs and loudly said “PETE! Wait until I tell you what just happened!” and then grabbed his little elf body, shoved him in the cabinet out of sight and went back upstairs. I flung open Ashton’s door, more upset than he was, and said “Well! I hope you’re happy! Pete just left and I’m not even sure if he’s going to come back!”

At that point Ashton started to cry. YES, finally! I was getting through! [I mean, not that I LIKE when my kid cries! But the balance of power was so clearly off track in this situation that something needed to give!] I left Ashton in his room and when Alex and I had about three pieces left, Ashton poked his head in, wiped his tears and said he was ready to help. I said that would be great, thank you, and life was back in harmony.

But then a curious thing happened. Jen arrived, and I casually whispered to her to ask Ashton where Pete had gone. She did, and Ashton made up a story that was completely not what had happened, a story that of course placed no blame on him whatsoever. And then a little later on, her boyfriend Mike asked the same thing, and Ashton said it was because of Alex!

You can probably guess: Pete did not come back the next day, which was yesterday. I told the boys Pete was very upset by what had happened and Santa probably hadn’t decided what to do about it yet.

I did also tell Jason to ask Ashton what had happened to Pete, because Jason was at work when this all had gone down. Ashton’s answer was “Oh, Daddy! I don’t remember.”

&#(!@#$%^&**@%&!!!

So there we were, Pete was gone and Ashton seemed unfazed, despite my repeated overdramatic reminders that the Christmas situation was now dire. Truly jeopardized! Like coal-in-your-stocking, no-presents-at all danger.  All I wanted him to do was admit that Pete was gone because he didn’t pick up his Legos. But even when I pressed him, he would not. *#&$(&%~!

I know defeat when I see it and this was definitely that. Pete came back out after the boys went to bed. Sigh.

But then…this morning the boys came running in to our room when they woke up, asking if Pete had returned. I said I wasn’t sure. I told them Santa had called me last night (at which point Ashton’s eyes went as wide as dinner plates) and Santa said he was very upset that Ashton had not helped to pick up his Legos. I said, “Ashton, Jen, Mike and Daddy might not know the real reason Pete left, but Santa does.” Ashton looked down at his hands and said, “I know Mommy. It was because of me.” And then, very resolutely, “It will not happen again. Santa really called? Yes he must know. I’m sorry.”

Sometimes you gotta bring in the big guns. My next strategy was to actually have my boss call him and pretend to be Santa, but at the moment there is no need (still 4 days to go though- keeping that in my back pocket). For now, Christmas is back on!

Let me tell you the story about the swashbuckling good times we have had this year as they relate to our tree.

First we went to Home Depot to find it. It was Monday night last week and they had about 4 little guys laying around helplessly. It was clear our tree was not going to be there so we left pretty fast and headed over to Tilly’s, a local farm stand type joint where a lot of people get their tree around here. It was such a cute spot, and we picked out a huge one! Look at this puppy! It was a 10 footer and this is Jason realizing we waaay overestimated our ceiling height.

So we had to cut it. We laid it out on the coffee table and out came the tools.

Alex’s saw really made a difference, as you’ll see in this video. I mean, thank goodness for the safety helmet.

How many Nills does it take to set the trunk?

All Ashton and Alex knew was that Daddy was underneath there doing something and they felt compelled to “help”. That happens a lot.

We got the tree all situated and the next night we went to put the lights on and…half of them were out. So Jason went out to Lowes and we decided to upgrade to LEDs. My friends, I hated these lights. They were like, so ugly. Look, my phone couldn’t even register them to take a picture.

 But I didn’t say anything and we got all our ornaments on and I just stole Jason’s phone to document 😀

I mean it wasn’t perfect.

A little beach trip gone bad. Poor bear.

In fact we have another smaller tree in the front (just with plastic balls on it) that I let the boys decorate 100% themselves. The ornaments are all globbed together but I have not moved a single one from where they placed it.

In the middle of the night, we frequently hear balls falling off and bouncing across the floor lol. The boys, they aren’t the most secure ornament hangers the world has ever seen.

Back to the other tree. You can guess what happened. I couldn’t hold it in and eventually blurted out that I thought our tree was ugly. To my surprise, Jason agreed! You’re going to think we’re crazy but…we took all the ornaments off, changed the lights, and put all the ornaments back on ha!

So much better. The light is a lot warmer and it just looks better. If you’re going to do a tree, do it right. Speaking of, how do you know if you got the right tree to begin with? It can be intimidating walking on to a big lot with all kinds of sizes and shapes. We interviewed one tree and it went like this.

Me: First of all, you realize you cost 25% more than your Home Depot counterparts.
Christmas Tree: Well, I have 25% more body. Do you like it scrawny or do you like it brawny? Ask yourself.
Me: Where are you from?
CT: Page 11 in the Polar Express.

Me: So you’re not afraid of the dark? What about the lean wolves on the previous page?
CT: I just stay really still and they don’t bother me.
Me: How many ornaments do you think you can hold?
CT: I bench at least 160.
Me: Angel or star?
CT: Star.
Me: WRONG! The answer is neither. You get a Santa hat.
CT: You are sooo tricky.
Me: I know.
Me: Describe your thoughts on being hog tied and roped to the top of a car.
CT: A nice warm up to having my undercarriage clipped and then being squeezed to death by dozens of strands of lights.
Me: Does it bug you that you were 10’3 and we cut you down to 9’1?
CT: No but I will now ooze extra sap and drop a bunch of pine needles just as you have finished vacuuming. Heh heh heh.
Me: If you could be anything besides an evergreen, what would you be?
CT: A lean wolf.
Me: What do you say to the reports that claim you are infested with 25,000 bugs?
CT: Google “how much bacteria is on a human body” and get back to me.
Me: What will you do when you see Santa?
CT: Probably just stand there.
Me: Do you know that people have been decorating trees for Christmas for hundreds of years? It seems kind of a silly thing to do, doesn’t it?
CT: So does ear piercing.
Me: What do you get when you cross a Christmas tree with an apple?
CT:
Me: A pineapple!
CT:
Me: Ok last question. Where are you going after this?
CT: You tell me.

Overall this tree was not hired. Sarcasm and condescension are not attractive qualities when it comes to balsam firs. Luckily the next one was a delight, talking about her hopes and dreams for Rockefeller Center and her love of being dressed to the nines. She is in the corner this very minute twinkling away. Not *really* twinkling, I don’t do flashing lights, but you know what I mean 🙂

This is just a quick post so I can look back when I’m 80 and remember that at one point, Jason and I still had it 😉 We got all dressed up for the Brae Burn gala last weekend and I think we turned out pretty good!

IT HAS BEGUN. Pete the elf has arrived safely from the North Pole, our tree is up, our mantel is decorated, outside lights are strung, the holiday crafts and activities are in full swing and Amazon boxes are arriving by the truckload. Welcome to December!!

Technically we kicked it all off November 30. Kayleigh and Ariane came over and we decorated gingerbread houses.

We left them on the table that night where Pete could see them.

Let’s talk about Pete the elf. He is a huge presence in our house and I would be lying if I said I was not ridiculously excited for his arrival. A lot of parents are like “oh we don’t like to hold good or bad behavior over our kids’ heads at Christmas, just make it be a fun thing” blah blah blah well screw that!! Most of the time the boys don’t listen to what I say or do what I ask. But with Pete around? Stark raving obedience, that’s what.

“Better pick up your Legos.” OK MOMMY!
“Please come wash your hands before dinner.” OK MOMMY!
“Can you get ready for tubby?” OK MOMMY!
“Let’s get your shoes on.” OK MOMMY!
I don’t even have to add “Pete is watching” anymore! And it’s not limited to my requests. The other day the boys started to argue and wrestle over something and Ashton instantly stopped, sheepishly looked up to where Pete was perched and said “NO Ow-wex (Alex), we can’t do this right now!”

I love Pete. For the month of December, I deserve this glorious gift of Santa’s scout elf. He arrives on December 1 and this year he brought a Lego advent calendar (thanks Papa and GG!) and a christmas book. See him there on the left? In the light?

Here is the video of the morning of December 1 of the boys discovering him (if you care, lol). The night before, they knew Pete would be coming and while Ashton was out of his mind with the thrill of it all, Alex was scared stiff. I mean, almost crying. He kept saying “I don’t like Pete” “I don’t want him to come in my room” etc etc. He clearly dealt with his feelings the next morning by calling him “poopyhead” or some variation of it. They are friends now.

This is the letter Pete left.

It launched a full on obsession and Jen told me the next day that she actually made Ashton take a break from talking about him.

If you’ll recall, Pete goes up to report to Santa every night and each morning is resting in a new spot. He periodically brings back a gift or a craft. (Last night in an attempt to get the kids in bed, I said “Maybe if Pete likes our tree enough he will bring back something special from Santa! Let’s go to sleep so Pete can leave for the North Pole!” They settled down well enough and while we did remember to move Pete, I did not leave out the holiday pajamas as I intended to. This morning Ashton bounded downstairs, located Pete but looked around and said, in the most forlorn voice, “I don’t see anything. I guess Pete didn’t like our tree.” My heart very nearly broke. I’ll have to save the day with a note tomorrow.)

So that’s the tour de force that is Pete. Between all his drama and excitement we went to the Home Depot Kids Workshop and made an ugly “candy dish” where the main instruction was simply to get paint everywhere.

I even had paint under my chin by the time we were done. Thanks Home Depot!

Next up…all about our Christmas tree. We have an intense selection process and I’ll be sharing all of our interview questions, physical requirements and performance capabilities that a fir must meet to stand tall in our house. Oh yes, it’s that serious!!