Erin Akin Carroll

I hope everyone had the merriest of Christmases!

Christmas is so much fun with a baby! I know that each Christmas will only get more fun. The look on Hudson’s face when he walked into the room and saw all of his grandparents, great-grandmother, and uncle looking at him was priceless. Then he saw what Santa Claus brought him and he was so excited!

Santa brought him this Radio Flyer Rocking and Bouncing Horse. It’s wonderful. It’s soft enough for him to chew on. It has a little harness for the little kids. It’s supposed to be a great toy for him until he’s 3 years old. He can’t fall off, it makes “neighing” noises, and it plays “Home on the Range.” He bounces on it and has really mastered the art of bouncing on his little horse. I love that the bouncy horse doesn’t have springs, but instead uses industrial strength rubber bands! I think those old bouncy horse springs are scary!

His KK and Poppie gave him the Charles Dickens Nutcracker and have started a new collection. His RC and PC started a new train set for him. They plan to give him a new car for his train every year. I think it will be so much fun for him to look at his nutcracker collection and train set every Christmas when we decorate!

Santa knew that Hudson’s mommy and daddy would have trouble bringing all of his toys back to South Carolina in their SUV, so he delivered one of his gifts to Columbia. He got  the Melissa and Doug giant giraffe. I’m pretty sure the dogs will be more interested in the giant giraffe than Hudson is.

We had a great first Christmas with our little boy!

And… for those that were wondering, one of Todd’s gifts to me was the violet Hunter Wellies! I finally got them. I think they were my most-wanted item of the year, and this SAHM will appreciate not having to get her pants soaked in puddles anymore. My great gift-giving Todd got me a few other wonderful things that I’m so excited about!

Sorry for the delay in announcing my giveaway winner!

The winner of all of my favorite things is #33, Anne!

Congratulations, Anne! Email me at eeakin11 {at} gmail {dot} com with your address and I’ll get everything mailed to you when we return from the mountains!

1. My last post was my 500th post, so this is my 501st post! Who knew I’d have so much to say?

2. My girl crush, Carrie Underwood, is engaged! And have you seen the ring? Holy rock, Batman!

One of the things I loved about Carrie is that even though the media talks about her, she does everything she can to stay out of the tabloids and the spotlight.

I’m sorry. I’m blinded by her bling again.

She’s going to be a beautiful bride. Y’all know I’ll be stalking her wedding picture.

3. We leave for Gatlinburg tomorrow! You should see the packing we’ve done! Todd and I exchanged our gifts to each other last night so we wouldn’t have to bring everything with us. But we still have all of our stocking stuffers for everyone, Hudson’s toys, Hudson’s suitcase, my suitcase, and Todd’s suitcase. We have to bring the stroller and pack ‘n play, too. We’ve borrowed a car-top carrier from a friend and we’ve officially turned into the Griswolds. But whatever works… we gotta get all of our stuff up there!

4. One of my favorite things to do over Christmas holidays is to go see lots of movies. And it’s especially fun to go with my mom. I’m so excited about this year’s lineup that includes “Up in the Air,” “It’s Complicated,” and “NINE.”

Am I forgetting anything? What movies are you going to see?

5. I’ll be able to blog from our cabin! Yay! So you won’t have to go too long without hearing from me. Lucky you!

Seriously. Why is it that when you have a bazillion things to do, mother nature brings on the rain. And not just rain. Rain on a thirty-four degree day.

This is where we live. Do you see a garage anywhere in sight? No? That’s because we don’t have one. It’s usually not an issue, but today, in the rain, it was an issue. We needed a garage.

My first concern was making sure that Hudson didn’t get wet, so I covered him with a blanket and the hood on his car seat. But it’s nearly impossible to hold an umbrella while carrying his 40 pound car seat. Yes, it’s 40 pounds. He weighs 22.1 pounds (as of last week) and the seat itself is close to 20 pounds. I’m not a small gal, but that doesn’t mean I’m a strong gal. So I didn’t even try with the umbrella.

Anyway, enough of that. I had perfectly blown out hair when I walked outside, but I just had to let that go when I got outside. I was getting wet and there was no way around it. While trying to get the car seat into the base in the car, I stepped in a pile of leaves and they pulled off one of my flat shoes. (No, I don’t have any Wellies yet.) So I’m trying to get the car seat in the car, but my shoe has fallen off and I am standing barefoot in a wet pile of leaves. Cold water is raining into my J.Crew flats and for some reason I can’t get the car seat to go into the base.

I get it in there. I get in the car. And I shiver all the way to the stores that I have to visit to pick up last minute gifts. When we arrive at the store I have to do it all over again.

Apparently Best Buy has shopping carts, but they were covered up by a wall of flat screen TVs today. Very helpful, Best Buy. Thankyouverymuch. So I hobble all over Best Buy with the 40 pound car seat in tow (because I couldn’t see the shopping carts!), and pick up the couple of items that I came to find. After I check out (after waiting in line for 20 minutes– if you need something from Best Buy for a Christmas gift, get it in November) I walk to the door. There’s an older man working the door and he actually says to me, “Don’t slip and fall out there in the rain with that baby.”

Gee, thanks, mister. Care to give me a hand so we can make sure that doesn’t happen? Or are you just going to state the obvious?

There was also another man standing there as I struggled to get the car seat in the crook of my elbow before running in the rain back to the car. He was staring. Staring with a look on his face that said, “I should offer to help her.” He looked like a kind man and if he had offered to help me I definitely would have accepted the offer. But he didn’t offer and I hustled out to the car with bags and baby.

Now, tell me. Those of you that have been pregnant and have had babies. Why do people fall all over themselves to help a pregnant woman– holding doors for her, walking her to her car so she doesn’t have to carry anything? Always asking if she’s okay. But as soon as the baby arrives, they’re not going to help you. They may stare at you (or stare at your cute baby), but they never offer to help?

I don’t expect help. Don’t get me wrong. But I actually need more help now than I did when I was pregnant. I’m toting around an immobile infant. He also happens to be very heavy healthy.

I just wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this. I know that pregnant women are much cuter than new moms and probably more fun to be around. But I’m just not sure why people stopped bending over backwards to help when I clearly need more help now than before.

On to prettier topics… I’m dying over this kitchen from the KraftMaid Kitchen advertisement. Swoon.

I’m currently lusting over black kitchen cabinets, but this may be my new favorite. It’s kind of gorgeous.