Holiday Recap 2010, plus some random other stuff

Addie was in her first-ever Christmas program at church on the 12th. She had been coming home for weeks singing pieces of the songs she’d been learning in Sunday school, and was supposed to sing a few songs at the beginning of the older kids’ Christmas program. They sang Christmas All Over the World and Go Tell it on the Mountain. She was pretty excited about being in the program and had a dress rehearsal the Saturday before. It was so fun to see her run into the big group of kids and start singing and doing motions. I’m SO glad she feels comfortable doing things on her own and taking direction from others.

The night of the performance, we got her ready and dropped her off and prepared to see how Ryan would do sitting through the program for an hour. We came armed with goldfish, crayons, and coloring books. I told Addie that she probably wouldn’t be able to see us in the audience but we would be there. They had the preschoolers up on risers in the front of the stage. Addie came out and was absolutely precious, of course. She didn’t sing all of the words because she was looking around at everyone. But then she would pick up and sing loudly and do all the motions. I grabbed the camera and knelt down in the aisle up close, and suddenly she saw me and smiled great big. I told her she could wave small, but not call out, and she waved her hand just a little. When she finished and I clapped, she was so happy! After her two songs, I picked her up and carried her back to Ryan and Matt. Ryan was pretty still for awhile, because we had the bowl of goldfish. While the older kids sang, he sat still and popped food into his mouth, never taking his eyes off the kids. But then we ran out of goldfish and he started getting loud and squirmy. After every song ended, he would turn and loudly say, “All done? All done?” I’d whisper, “No, it’s not all done yet,” to which he would reply even louder, “ It IS all done! It IS, Mama!!” This was in the quiet part between the end of one song and the start of the next reading. Eventually Matt had to take him out because he kept getting down and trying to walk around. Out in the lobby, he saw a big snowflake and Matt said, “do you know what that is, Ryan?” Ryan said, “Mis Mis spider!” Which I guess it sort of might look like a Christmas spider if you’ve never seen a snowflake before!

Addie was pretty good through the rest of the performance, and I kept whispering what was happening onstage so she could follow the story. She did like all the songs. She had a Bible open on her lap while she was sitting on my lap, and she was flipping pages. I had to readjust her and took the Bible and closed it while I lifted her up. She said, “Mama, my book!” So I handed it back to her and she opened it and said in a whimper, “But where was I?”

Earlier, when we’d asked Addie where Jesus was born, she said, “Um…Alabama.” We looked strangely at her and she frowned and said, “ Ala…Aba…Abraham! No, no. Abaham, Baham….BETHLEHEM!!”

We had Christmas at the farm on Saturday the 18th. We got there in the morning and spent all day and the night. The kids had a blast playing inside and outside, kicking soccer balls and climbing the hay bales and exploring the new motor home. Addie helped make Christmas cookies and they all snacked all day on various goodies.

 Addie, Hunter, Isaac, and Ryan

 Addie got a fox-sized blanket with foxes on it for Fiona. And pink feathers, courtesy of Sugar!

Addie got a Barbie Puppy Swimming School Set, which is perfect for her – it’s Barbie teaching baby puppies how to swim and it has a pool and dog diving board and everything. Ryan got a cool talking robot that has all sorts of learning cards with it – we’ll have to play around with it and see how it works. Our family slept upstairs and Ryan slept in a “bed” for the first time. He did great.

The next week was filled with enjoying the Christmasy stuff. The kids loved all the Christmas songs and Addie learned quite a few of them. They watched Rudolph and Frosty and Addison especially asked a lot of questions about the shows, like why people were doing what they were doing, and their motivations. She actually does that with a lot of shows now – she’ll talk the whole way through asking questions. Since we got rid of cable, we’ve discovered some neat shows on Netflix, like Pingu and Shaun the Sheep, both of which don’t have any talking, so we’ve had lots of lessons to “body language”. Addie likes to play with me, where I’ll act out something and she has to figure out if I’m happy, sad, sneaky, etc,., and to see if she can figure out what I’m going to do next. We’ve also put on some old Loony Tunes, too, which have a lot of situational humor. Both kids like it! Oh, and Caiti and Camryn came down for a few days. The girls sang Christmas songs, colored, played, and we went to go see Christmas lights one night too – they thought it was awesome because the kids all got to ride in the back of the Blazer while we were in the big neighborhood.

We got out all the Christmas stuffed animals and Ryan really latched on to Frosty. Frosty had to be washed several times since he was toted around everywhere. Ryan has also officially adopted his blue-gray stuffed dinosaur and his blue velvety/silky blanket as his “things”. He asks for “Din-o-sawr, bank-et” all the time and he actually calls the blanket his “purple blanket” even though it’s blue. When we correct him, he gets fussy, so there you go. We had a minor miracle a few days ago when Ryan pooped on the potty twice in one day, once on the big potty and once on the little potty, and he did it again today. No luck with peeing though. I’m not worried.

For Christmas Eve, we made it to the service this year and it was really nice. Ryan didn’t do super well, but there were lots of daddies standing in the back with babies. Both kids especially liked the candles at the end, and Ryan poured hot wax all over Matt’s hand. It was pouring rain was we left, so we made a run for it to the car but ended up getting soaked.



 I LOVE this dress - so glad we had one for Addie this year!

We came home, got dry and had our Christmas tacos, then read stories and lit the fire. The kids opened up new houseshoes and then went to bed. As soon as they were asleep, we brought down Santa’s presents – a HUGE Barbie princess castle (from our neighbor – it had been in my closet for two years), plus five princess dolls, a panda from Build a Bear with 4 outfits (also from our neighbor), and my old My Little Pony stable with three new ponies (that wasn’t from Santa). Ryan got Matt’s old He-Man castle along with a few characters and accessories. 

On Christmas morning, I woke up feeling really crummy with some sort of stomach something. Addie was up at around 7:45 and we let her come play with the castle that was sitting out. Our neighbor Mr. Tom came over at 8:30 to eat breakfast casserole and he brought presents for the kids. He was so excited to be here – he lives all alone and his grandkids are grown now, so we were happy to let him come share the time with us. Ryan was sound asleep until almost 9 o’clock. We let him sleep! How many years left before they wake us up early?! I was still feeling horrendous with a stomach virus, and Matt made the executive decision that I should go back to bed and we’d skip Aunt Sherry’s house, where we were headed that afternoon (then up to Dallas). I did and I slept two hours. We ate lunch and then headed out at about 1:30. We took two cars and the dog, and Matt said the kids didn’t sleep the entire drive up there. Hence the beginning of their sleep deprivation….

We got to Mom’s that evening and put the kids to bed in the trundle beds. This was only the 2nd or 3rd time they’ve shared a room and the first time Ryan was ever in a real bed instead of a crib or pack n play. They did great! We heard a few whispers on the baby monitor one night but otherwise they were silent and went to sleep. I had told Addison in the morning to whisper, “Mommy, I’m awake,” into the monitor when she woke up, and she did it every morning. We did Christmas Sunday morning and the kids loved their new toys – Ryan got new dinosaur puzzles and Addie’s favorite was the Littlest Pet Shop Rescue Center. Extended family was over that evening and the kids behaved very well. On Monday, Mom and I went shopping to get things for her new bathroom, and we played games that night.


On Tuesday Matt headed home with Casey and I went to my dad’s for a couple of days. The kids were already stretched pretty thin, but they did good. They got a few presents (piano, ride-on toy) and we went to the mall and the park. By the time we left on Thursday, they both in full melt-down mode. And they only slept 25 minutes on the 4 hour drive home! They did go to bed at 7:30 that night.

For New Year’s Eve, we kept up with our yearly trip to Chuck E. Cheese. None of us like the pizza, so we just spent $10 on 50 tokens, which was plenty for the whole family to enjoy (Matt and I played ski ball). Both kids were still terrified when the live Chuck E came out for a birthday party, but otherwise they had lots of fun. And we got our portraits with the kids, as usual.

 

That night we went to our friends’ house along with several other couples/kids from church. We ate delicious fattening food and played some Rock Band. Addie and Ryan were put to bed right at 8 o’clock and fell asleep quickly. I can’t believe that I actually stayed up till midnight – first time in years! People started popping fireworks like crazy, and when we went up to get the kids, both were sitting in the windowsill, talking to each other. “Fireworks!” Ryan said. We live really close to our friends, so the kids were back in bed and asleep soon after.

We’ve spent the next few days recovering – Ryan especially has been pretty bad in terms of lack of sleep, but early bedtimes and long naps have finally gotten them almost back in the swing of things. We have another two weeks till Addie’s preschool starts.

That’s all for now!

 

Rarish moment of the kids sharing and enjoying each other!