The Aftermath

This is the kitchen that Santa brought Addison at our house before we left to go to Dallas. She wasn't nearly as thrilled as I thought she would be when she saw it, but I figure it will be a toy that both kids will use a lot over the next few years.

We are just now getting settled after the holidays. The Christmas stuff is all put away, and everything is unpacked and washed. We were up in Dallas for 3 days, seeing my mom, brother, and sister and their families. My brother has a little girl who is 3 weeks younger than Ryan, and she is tiny! Addie calls Ryan "Ryant", so everyone called him "Giant Ryant" while we were there. He’s in about the 75th percentile for weight, and my niece Sarah is only in the 3rd or 4th, so it was quite a difference in size. They did have a good time staring at each other though. We got some cute pictures of them together, and hopefully we can take more over the years as they grow up.

My dog Casey slept while the babies scaled Rhodesian Ridgeback Mountain

Addie was completely captivated by my niece Camryn, who is almost 5. I barely saw her the whole time because she was just following Cammie around and playing with her. They had matching Christmas pajamas and matching dresses, and played and danced and sang and read books.

Saturday the 27th was my grandpa’s 90th birthday celebration. He turned 90 in October, but the holidays were a time when out-of-town relatives could all come. There was a big party at his retirement home, and there were so many people there! It was really nice, and I know he was as proud as he could be. He’s still in really good health, and we look forward to more Christmases with him.

My grandpa, William H. Longacre, Jr.

My sister Caitlin and Addie at the party.

My beautiful niece Camryn

Addie did not take a nap the whole time we were up there, and she was about to crash and burn big-time, so we left on Sunday to come back home. There were several large tantrums and marathon naps over the next two days until she finally caught up on her sleep. She usually takes an almost 3 hour nap every single day, so that was 9 hours of sleep she was missing! Poor girl. It had been a busy couple of weeks and she needed to get back to her normal routine. I was sorry to have to leave my brother and sister and their families though….I haven’t seen my sis in 18 months, and only saw my brother and his wife for 2 days over a year ago. When I was pregnant with Addison, we knew that we needed to move back from Alabama to be here in Texas, closer to all our families and Matt’s sisters. It was so hard to not get to spend any time with them for the five years we were away. And with my siblings out of state, and high ticket prices, and now that we all have kids, it just seems almost impossible to do much more than a whirlwind meet-and-greet and then everyone is on their way again. It’s hard to build memories and enjoy each other’s company when you have to do so much planning and traveling. Oh well.

For New Year’s Eve, we went to a party at a friend’s house. We just stayed till 10, and then headed home – everyone there had kids and wanted to get to bed early! We played Wii and ate great food and I got to spend time chatting with the girls. We tried to get Addison to lay down in her friend Caroline’s room (they are the same age), but the two girls played and read books and generally made a big mess for the hour they were in there together! We could hear them on the monitor talking to each other (babbling, mostly) and it was really cute….Addison’s first sleepover! Needless to say, she got into bed very late again that night. We tried to go out for lunch the next day, and got as far as the front lobby of the restaurant before deciding the screaming, crying, and clawing fits were too much. So we gave up and headed back home and put a very fussy little girl straight down for her nap. I’ve decided that she’s like me – even in high school, I went to bed by 10 at the latest every night. I need at least 9 hours of sleep a night, more if possible, to function properly. I have not been getting my 9 hours a night for the past 3 months, so I am a lot more on edge than normal too!

New Year's Eve 2008


Oh, we went to Chuck E Cheese’s last year on New Year’s Eve. It was Addie’s first time, and we thought she would love it. Instead, she was terrified. She didn’t cry or anything, but she clung to the token cup for dear life and kept a very somber intense look on her face as we put her in the various rides. We got this drawing done in the machine, and you can see her holding the cup:

2007

I decided that maybe we could make it a New Year’s Eve tradition to go there, so we went again, and this time she had a blast. She wanted to ride everything and play all the games. She didn’t even want to eat her pizza! I got another drawing of her and me, and convinced Matt to get one with Ryan this year, so hopefully we can keep it up and get our drawings done every year. We also got a short video of yet another tantrum, when it was time to leave.

Playing Whac A Mole with Mommy

2008

Matt and Ryan 2008

Poor baby!

Matt and I are starting to really feel the stress of having two kids. At first, it wasn’t too bad, but now that Ryan is getting more alert and wakeful, he wants to be carried around more and have more interaction. And Addison seems to need/want more of our attention every day! It seems like all we do is entertain/take care of the kids. We barely even have time to cook or shower or anything, much less clean or do projects around the house. I know that once Ryan is just a little bit older and can start crawling around, he and Addison will play more, so we just need to tough it out a few more months. Although then we might be having to constantly police Addison with her baby brother….she is not the most generous, gentle soul on the planet.