I was really late to the Downton Abbey party – we didn’t watch ANY of it until November and caught up just in time for Season 3 to start last week – but I am just as obsessed as the rest of the country now. (Sidebar to my mother: The first season is on Netflix streaming, go watch it now.) It’s really good, in a whoa-I-really-need-to-watch-all-of-this-RIGHT-NOW kind of way, so I recommend starting it at around 9 am on a Saturday and just count on wasting the whoooole weekend.

Unfortunately, this week I pretty much spoiled the new season for myself by Googling an unrelated British actor (here’s a hint: I’m obsessed with his show). Before I knew it – BAM! Spoiled! Right on the front page of the search results! I literally shouted “Noooooooooooo!” and shook my fists at the sky in anger. I forgot that Season 3 already aired in the UK so the internet is full of interviews and recaps and details on who’s leaving the show, including why and how, and since all that info is already out there in the world no one writes SPOILER ALERT at the top of their articles so I can close my eyes and pound blindly on the keyboard until it all disappears.

DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU. I suggest not Googling anything or anyone British until this season ends – or pretty much ever again, since I’m sure Season 4 will air in England before they show it here. Curse you PBS!!

p.s. If anyone else KNOWS THE THING I found while I was Googling, LET’S TALK ABOUT IT (privately, not here! Don’t ruin it for anyone else!) Because OMG, WUT?!?!?!?

I don’t know if I’ve ever said this out loud before but we are officially a no-nap household. Neither kid – the 3 and a half year old or the just-turned-2 year old – naps anymore. It a) SUCKS and b) isn’t so bad.

Back in November I took ALL the advice I got on my post about Caroline refusing to sleep if I gave her the iPad, which was the only way to get her upstairs and into nap-time mode without a fight. I tried putting a time limit on it, which was about as effective as just punching myself in the face. I tried just taking it away and letting her cry/play on her own, but she responded by murdering several library books and a stuffed rabbit. I tried lying down with her, which lead to being actually punched in the face.

None of it really helped and fighting about napping is even more exhausting than not napping – so I gave up. I let her win. We went from 3 hour naps to no naps, which also means Evan almost never gets a chance to nap on the couch or floor so there is NO SLEEPING in my house between the hours of 6:30 am and 7:30 pm.

(Well, unless I turn on some Mickey Mouse Club House and leave the snack drawer open and let the kids fend for themselves while I lie on the couch and periodically shout “Stop jumping on your sister! We do not ride Brutus like a small horse! No, markers do not go in your nose!” with my eyes closed. That’s not exactly restful, although it does save me from going totally insane at least once a week.)

Since they’re not napping anymore other than an occasional car nap between errands, bedtime is almost always cake. Delicious, quick, easy cake that involves me sitting on Caroline’s bed playing on my phone for 30 seconds before she passes out. Mornings are also pretty good, unless a certain ginger wakes me up at 5 am by staring at me silently until I jump up mumbling “OMG I’M UP WHO WHAT TACOS”.

I’ll also admit it’s sort of awesome not to schedule our day around naps. Blocking off 3 or 4 hours a day really put a cramp in our activities, especially in the winter when nothing is open until 10 am and it gets dark at 4 pm. OK kids, let’s go have fun for exactly 43 minutes before we have to head home for lunch and Caroline’s nappy nap! I now have the freedom to lounge around in my fleecy pants all morning, take a shower and noon and THEN drag the gingers out to the totally deserted (no seriously, we were the ONLY people there at noon on a Wednesday) Children’s Museum or to run errands or whatever.

On the “SUCKS” side of the no napping is everything else you would expect. Yesterday Evan fell asleep in the car in the 15 minutes between the museum and his super quick second flu shot (NOT EVEN A SHOT just the nose spray) appointment and he turned into a monster. Thrashing, screaming, throwing himself down in the parking lot, trying to kick me, trying to kick the nurse, shouting “I DON’T WANT A POKE!” etc etc someone please bring me a large bottle of wine etc forever. There are meltdowns. Sooooo many meltdowns. Not to mention the amount of TV the kids are watching some days. It’s disgusting. I’m ashamed. But not quite ashamed enough to cancel Disney Junior and declare us a screen-free household. Nope.

To sum up: I love my kids, I love spending time with them, and I am absolutely signing them both up for preschool over the summer.

p.s. New blog header!! I’m going for clean and modern, although I’ll probably go back to copious ginger photos in a few months. I can’t help myself.

My house is sort of a disaster right now. There’s a two foot tall turkey made from a paper bag left over from Thanksgiving that I can’t throw away because Caroline is in love with it. There’s a bright orange toddler slide the kids keep dragging in from the porch. There’s a broken camera in five pieces on the kitchen island. And the dining room (a.k.a. Party Central) looks like a winter candy cane forest wonderland threw up on it.

But Mandy posted some adorable pictures of her adorable home decorated for Christmas and I wanted to play along. I love seeing people’s decorations in real life versus the ones in the Pottery Barn catalog, which basically just makes me want to give up on life.  My decor this year is a mix of stuff I put up every Christmas and stuff that’s already up for Caroline’s birthday. The party stuff will probably be up until February because I hate putting so much effort into decorating for just ONE DAY. I realize the solution to that problem is to just not put so much effort into decorating, but I am not entirely rational when it comes to holidays/birthdays.

This is Mr. Bear. I won him one year when I worked at Target for getting the most customer compliment cards. I used to think he was hideous and tacky but I sort of love him now.

What do you think? Are my halls thoroughly decked?

We have a new Christmas tradition in our house. Aside from decorating our home with christmas light display and Christmas ornaments, it involves reading an adorable book about a plucky little mouse. It also involves Mommy barely making it through the last page without sobbing quietly into her children’s heads. Because, magic. And Christmas. And amazement. And magic.

Twas The Mouse That Saved Christmas is a personalized storybook from Marblespark. When you order a copy, you tell Marblespark your child’s name and they put it in the story in several places (on the cover, on Santa’s list, in the story itself). I thought Evan might be a little young to understand that the story is for him but he is AMAZED that HIS NAME is in a book. (Bonus side effect: he now recognizes his name in writing and can spell it out loud.)

I wasn’t 100% sure I would love a personalized book (I remember ones from my own childhood that were very poorly done) but this one totally exceeded my expectations. The illustrations are cute and colorful and the whole story is written in rhyme – just like the original Twas The Night Before Christmas. Both Evan and Caroline request it every night at story time.

We – E and I – are both happy to oblige. Reading about the joy and magic of Christmas to my two not-so-tiny babies in the glow of our Christmas tree is almost more than my mama heart can handle. The last page gets me almost every time, as soon as I read Santa’s letter to Evan reminding him being with those we love is the best part of the holidays. Excuse me, I have something in my eye again.

 Marblespark would like to send one of my readers a personalized copy of Twas The Mouse That Saved Christmas for their child. I’m told the last day to order to get the book for this Christmas is December 12th so I’ll pick a winner on Friday (contest will close Thursday night) just to be sure we make the cut off. That gives anyone who doesn’t win but still wants a copy plenty of time to get their own book ordered too.

Rafflecopter makes entering really easy. The comment question is: Who would you give the book to if you won? Your child? A niece or nephew? A grandchild?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Marblespark sent me a copy of this book personalized with Evan’s name so we could read and enjoy it. I was not compensated in any way or obligated to write about it if I didn’t genuinely love the book. All opinions and photos are my own.

We are Fresh Beat Band Fans in our house, maybe a little more so than what might be considered reasonable. It started when Nick Jr played the video for “Here We Go” 45 times a day while I was trapped under a nursing baby. At first I was all “What is this?” and then I was all “Hey, it’s sort of not terrible” and then I was totally “WE GOT A GREEN LIGHT! WE’RE GONNA TAKE A RIDE! COME ON!” I fully admit it’s sort of ridiculous and also that I don’t really care. I’m not even ashamed to telly you I cried a little when we went to see The Fresh Beats in concert (for the record, I haven’t been to a grown up concert in YEARS) and we are planning to go again if they tour next year.

Obviously the Fresh Beats first album was already in regular rotation for preschool drop-off, but their new album is even better for twofold reasons that I will tell you now. One fold: In addition to original music, some of the new songs are actually real songs that have been made kid-friendly (Holiday by Madonna is surprisingly perfect for toddlers). Two fold: There are a couple of songs from the Fresh Beats Yo Gabba Gabba episode which is Caroline’e favorite episode so we bust out the really good dance moves for those. Although really, all their dance moves are the best.

“This is Kiki and this is Twist. He’s a cool guy!”

And then the FBB version of “I’m Yours” (with actual singing by Jason Mraz!) came on and this happened. I’m actually writing to you from the grave, because I died of cuteness.

Now that our time outside is limited by cold, short days, I sense a lot more dance parties in our future. We’ve definitely got the beat.

I was sent a copy of the Fresh Beat Band’s new album The Fresh Beat Band: More Music From The Hit TV Show Vol. 2 for free for me to review because I bugged their PR person a bunch. For more Fresh Beat Band information and fun, visit http://www.nickjr.com/the-fresh-beat-band/ or http://www.facebook.com/freshbeatband/