How To Be a Toddler's Parent and Have a Stress- Free Holiday Season:

Last year I learned the true meaning of holiday stress. I thought I already knew how stressful that time between November and January could be, but I had never been the mother of a 1 1/2 year old before. In the midst of holiday mayhem:

-Not only did the little boy poop in the bathtub, I took him out to clean up the mess and with my back turned, he pooped on the floor, stepped in it, and walked all over the bathroom and the hallway

-One cat had a urinary infection in which we had to try to collect a urine sample before we could treat it.

-The other cat injured his claw and due to a snow storm, our vet was not in. So we had to take him to the emergency vet and find a way to get him pain meds 3 times a day while we were out of town

-The next bath, the little naked boy ran into his bedroom and peed on the floor.

-We ended up traveling and hosting! Hosting meant lots of laundry (sheets, towels, etc.), cleaning up before and after. Traveling meant packing with room for gifts. Lots of organization.

-Then we got the flu right after hosting. It was nice that it was after, but all the food in the fridge happened to be sweets. Nothing that we could eat. And the little boy wasn't sick, so we had a hell of a time keeping up with him!

-And broken diapers. Although I started off preferring velcro diapers to snaps, I now know that snaps are much better in the long run. Almost every single pair of velcro diapers stopped sticking (the velcro wore off). Luckily I had a mother willing to replace them!
We managed to get through the 2012 holiday, but it wasn't easy. I have to give a little credit to our 80 gallon fishtank. With both parents being sick, turning on the tv was really tempting, but we didn't want to do that until he was over 2 years old. So we sat him in front of the fishtank instead and he was entertained for quite awhile!

After all of that, I was ready to work toward a stress-less holiday season for 2013!

I thought I knew what to expect, and I remembered that you have to get gifts for everyone from you AND from the kid. And you want to get great gifts for the kid because he's awesome but you know the grandfolks are going to get him a million things to. What to do?!

I now realize that I would much rather host for the holidays than travel. The planning that goes into leaving for a few days is enough to deal with, but then you throw in holiday stress on top of that and THEN coordinating how to take all those gifts with everything else? It's a bit much. But I figured it all out.I got this! No stress this time!

I started going to yoga once a week. I have done this for seven straight weeks and it was a fantastic decision. I do it over my lunch hour and I feel great. On top of that, I had a massage scheduled for mid-December. And I was tackling holiday shopping on my lunch breaks. I was feeling pretty on top of it all!

Then my son got a fever. FOUR. TIMES. between Thanksgiving and the Solstice. It ended with a strep throat and an ear infection. I got behind in work from taking time off while the kid was home sick. I got behind in shopping since I couldn't take as many lunch breaks. And I had to cancel that massage appointment.

Also, somehow, the holidays creep up faster than any other time of the year! I'm not sure what happened, but the month of November came and went faster than any other month of the year. February included.

Even though the stress level of the holidays intensifies as the calendar gets closer to the solstice, the fact that my son is so excited about all of the holiday details makes it so doable.

Like the holiday lights. The Christmas trees. The snowman balloons. The bows! He makes me remember how incredibly exciting holiday season was when I was a kid. He makes me remember that kids experience the excitement, not the stress. I even attempted to make holiday cookies with him, which didn't quite turn out as expected. 

I'm motivated to continue working towards the goal of a stress-free exciting holiday season. Step one: by all means DO NOT travel AND host! Choose one or the other. Step two: don't get sick or let your kid get sick. And finally, try channeling the imagination and excitement of youth to remember the fun of it all.