Hellooooo 2018! These past couple weeks have brought back the normalcy of life again as we fall back into our more typical routines around here. Although there’s some disappointment that the Christmas season is done (mostly because I miss the decor!), there’s also a sense of calm that comes with the holidays being over. Christmas is by far my favourite holiday but I find that along with the pretty decorations, warmth in our hearts and many fun events, there’s also a sense of chaos that comes along with it; and that’s just during a typical year! Having baby brother at the end of October really felt like it sped up how fast the holiday season encroached upon us. It seriously felt like we blinked and the calendar jumped from October to December! I was left sitting here with a baby on my lap, wondering to myself where November went.. And because having a new baby around the house wasn’t enough to keep us busy, we also decided to finish our fireplace/shelving area in our living room. Call us (or more likely me) crazy, but I really wanted my mantle up before Christmas arrived so I could hang my stockings on it. 🙂 Since my hubby was off work for a little bit during the month of November to spend time with baby brother, I figured we should use the extra gift of him being home wisely and get ‘er all done! I also didn’t want him to be working on that area during the Christmas break, once all the pretty decorations were up. Maybe that’s why we didn’t notice November fly by, as our little world was a bit dustier, messier, busier and louder during that period!

This year we were busy straight through from December 22-29 with Christmas gatherings. Needing to be somewhere on time brought on its own challenge as we adjusted to life with two. We quickly became aware that basic things like getting all four of us showered, dressed and ready for an event took many more hours than we anticipated and caused us to become very, very late… on a few different occasions. Luckily we had ample opportunity to perfect it and by the end of the event stretch we finally found our rhythm!

We also felt the stress of hosting for the first time. We absolutely love to host and are always happy to do it but even getting our house ready with two littles presented it’s own difficulties. When we had only Ems to care for we could easily trade her off between the two of us to get all the tasks done. Especially once she hit two years as her independence increased and her need to be watched closely, drastically decreased. Life however, with baby brother around meant one of us was always holding him or should I say protecting him from his big sister’s “snuggles”. #ForBetterBeginnings, my go to trick when attempting to keep Miss Lace off her brother is to give her a cup with a little snack in it. Being a #PlaytexMom, Playtex Baby™ sent me the Playtex® Twist ‘n Click® Snacker cup to try out. What I like about it, is that it has a lid that twists from the bottom when the cup is not in use ensuring all the little crumbs don’t fall onto my floor, purse, diaper bag or car depending on where we are using it. This snack cup is easy to hold which keeps her hands busy; stopping her from poking at her brother when I’m off doing something else. I also find giving her little jobs to do has been helpful but sometimes she wants to do the job and other times she has no interest!

Something we did differently this year right after Christmas was head south of the border for a couple days with my family. It was our first mini trip as a family of four. We went right after the event rush was over and it was the perfect time to escape the house for a while. It was really, really cold outside but I felt like I needed the break from the holidays this year, to put it gently. Not being in my house allowed me to catch my breath and focus on the kids rather than tidy, organize or find projects I felt I SHOULD be doing after the Christmas mess was all that was left. It was so nice to slow down after the hustle and bustle of the season. I was nervous about travelling overnight with the two of them being that Everton is still so young but since he was sleeping through the night, I figured we’d be okay. We got a suite so Ems could have her own room which is something we’ve learned we NEED to do right now as she won’t sleep when she’s around us. We’ve never co-slept with her and that might be why she needs her own space. If we are around her she ends up talking to us and grabbing at our faces. Both kids did great staying in the hotel room together and we were able to still follow through with their individual routines without disrupting the other ones. Ems and I had many mommy-daughter dates together alone at the stores while daddy kept baby brother warm in the car. I’m thinking sneaking away after Christmas with the kids might be the best idea I’ve had in a while and something we should portably keep doing every year in the near future. It was such a small getaway but I really felt recharged afterwards. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. As busy as the holidays always are, they are also very full of magic and I had the most fun this year watching Miss Lace open presents and interact with our families. We definitely made many memories I’ll cherish forever!

Now that January’s here I’m looking forward to a calmer, more relaxing start to the year. I’m happy with the rhythm we’ve found and hoping the adjustment to two continues to transition smoothly. We still have projects we would like to get done around our house; little ones like finishing Miss Lace’s big girl room and bigger ones too, like creating a basement area to house all of our new toys from Christmas! I’m sure you’ll see updates of those on my stories as we get around to them, but for now we are going to slow down, continue to recharge, and chip away at little things around the house when we feel up to it. No deadlines (because as I learned, that’s impossible anyways with two kids), no pressure on ourselves and more family time while we can still easily take our bucket baby out with us!

*This post was sponsored by PlaytexBaby but all opinions, pictures and content are my own.