post holiday organizing

The kids and I got almost all of our Christmas things put away on Monday  - they unloaded the tree and Isaac even helped me wrap ornaments in tissue paper before boxing them up.  I love the holidays, and I love the decorations, but it also feels good to have it all stored away and a little extra living space. 

When your square footage is limited a Christmas tree (no matter how small) tends to crowd the living area! We've got a bit more squeezing and squishing to do if we're going to add two more kids to this apartment in 2012, so its good to open up some space :)  [Technically our apartment contract is up this July, which means our landlord could ask us to move out, but we're hoping to stay put for another year, though I realize I might come to regret this decision when I see just what life is like with 7 people and one teeny bathroom!]

I saw this idea a few years ago to store the kids' birthday/Christmas/whatever cards on large clips and today when I was adding a few cards to the rings Isaac got entranced by his :) 

It's easy and fun and makes for a fun keepsake for them....

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the third trimester for me and the little babe in the belly. Just this week I've started to notice that he/she really is big enough now to disrupt some of my normal activities :)  And the bouncing and jumping belly is slowly, gradually turning to more of a pushing and shoving sensation as the two of us navigate how to share the "same" body!  Today I had a few moments of thinking "okay little one, we're going to have to come up with some amiable solution on how to best share this space for the next few months, because you're going to need to be a smidge more gentle with Mommy!"

I can still carry Isaac but not very far, and Lydia knows that if she wants me to hold her she needs to first stand up on the coffee table or couch because I can't pick her up from floor level :)  I can tell I am starting to slow down too, especially in the evenings.  Matt travels all next week and I'm thinking the last hour of the day might be a stretch for me to handle gracefully.... we'll probably spend lots of time reading books since sitting on the couch is one activity that works great for me! 

Tomorrow is the girls' final dance class and it is a performance, so I'm sure I'll be back with photos and stories :)