While Daddy's Away

Last weekend Sean went out of town for a theatre reunion thing.  I was going to post while he was gone, but then I got paranoid that I was home alone with the kids and thought that posting that to the world wasn't wise--regardless of my privacy settings and GIANT dogs. So, what did we do while Daddy was away?

Day One

Transfixed.

Well first, I had to make some cookie dough for The Cooking Challenge holiday cookies to take to  the Santa party (details below).  Then we decided to watch Christmas shows and eat pizza for dinner.  We started with How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  Ainsley was enchanted by the Grinch.  She did, however, make a stern face at him...she didn't like that he was taking things and breaking things.  She kept saying, "*gasp* OH NO!" when he was bad.  It was cute.

Self-portrait.

The kids and I spent some quality time watching the Year Without a Santa Claus and Charlie Brown.  The three of us sat in my recliner and played.  It was fun. Grandma Parker and Aunt Sarah came over after Ainsley had gone to bed.  We hung out with Xander,who woke up to spend some quality time smiling at everyone.






After Grandma and Aunt Sarah left, I baked some sugar cookies.  In between batches, I played on Facebook and drank a big ole glass of wine.  I hadn't had wine in quite some time, and it was awesome.  I decided to capture the moment--the wineglass (courtesy of Ms. Candace Moore as a wedding gift) and the Christmas tree made me all misty.

Turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself.

Day Two

Saturday brought the Santa Party!  Each year, Karen and Faith throw a party for Christmas.  Sometimes, if he's not too busy, Santa and Mrs. Claus come to visit.

The party is always an excellent mix of good friends, excited children, awesome food, and some wine.


Mr. X enjoyed hanging around with everyone, but Grandma and Aunt Sarah were the best baby hogs!  We got to hang out and eat lots of cookies and cheese and deliciousness.

After a while, we got lucky and Santa and Mrs. Claus showed up!  The kids were very exited.  Ainsley stuck with Faith mostly.  At first, she was nervous around Santa...but then she became more adventurous.  As he was telling his his Christmas story (this year it was the story of the Elf on the Shelf--kinda creepy), she became more inquisitive and wanted to get closer to him.



When it was Ainsley's turn to sit on Santa's lap, she wasn't really interested in talking to him, but she did want to touch his beard and was very interested in what he had to say.  As the other kids took their turns on Santa's lap, Ainsley kept trying to go back to him.  Mrs. Claus gave her candy after she spoke to Santa, but Ainsley didn't really seem to care.  So, she tried to give it to Santa.  He thought it was cute.  I was so proud!

Santa let all the kids sit on his lap.  He also let families take their pictures with him.  While others got their pictures taken, Ainsley decided to go hang out with Mrs. Claus.  She was quite smitten with the Clauses.  Xander spent most of the time in my lap.  He went to Santa quite willingly and didn't mind being in Santa's lap, but wasn't really interested.


Day Three

On Sunday, Mark and Deb came over to bring Ainsley and Xander their Christmas present: an awesome new wagon.  Ainsley was a bit nervous at first.  So, I suggested she put her Christmas toys into the wagon.  Once that started, she was totally into it.  Now, almost two weeks later, those toys remain in that wagon.  She gets really peeved if we try to take them out.



Once she got used to the wagon, Mark took her out in it.  It was entirely too windy and cold to take Xander out, so we stood on the porch while Deb took pictures.  As previously posted, Ainsley loves snow.  However, we discovered that day that she loves snow that's already fallen.  Mark said she wasn't too keen on the snow falling on her face.  If you look closely to the picture at the right, though, you'll see she smiling.

This is the patented Mark "What's going on" move.

Xander enjoyed hanging out in his chair.  He showed Mark and Deb what a big boy he is--walking and grabbing things and nomming on them.

Ainsley played coy and posed for pictures.  I believe this was when she decided to show Mark and Deb her "stars."  This is a handy dandy little toy my mom bought for Ainsley--it projects stars on her ceiling (yellow, green, or blue--she always chooses blue) and plays music.  She LOVES LOVES LOVES this toy.

After a vigorous day of walking around in his walker, Mr. Xander pooped out and took a wee nap on Deb.  He's a non-discriminatory cuddler--though he did take to Deb pretty quickly.





Miss Ainsley spent a good portion of Mark and Deb's visit sneaking cookies.  She started working on a pretty impressive sugar high, but after Mark and Deb left I put her down for a much protested nap.

While Ainsley napped, I started wrapping some Christmas presents to put under the tree.  Once Ainsley woke up, she started to help.  She particularly enjoyed picking out which paper to use to wrap the presents. She also picked out the tags.  When I wrapped presents for her (that had already been boxed, of course), I'd tell her to pick out a tag.  Then I'd say, "To: Ainsley, From: Momma and Daddy" as I'd write on the tag.  When the present was for her, she'd say, "FOR MEEEEEEEEEE?!?!" with a great glimmer in her eye and joy in her voice.

Once the presents were wrapped, it was Ainsley's job to put the presents under the tree.  She was very serious about her job.  Also, notice the penguin wrapping paper.  I made a point to congratulate the me who bought that paper on December 26, 2009, on clearance for the foresight to know how much Ainsley would love penguins this year.




As I bring this baby to a close, I wanted to show this hilarious picture of Xander looking at Ainsley's food.  It was after taking this picture that I decided it was time to move Mr. X up the food chain from formula and rice cereal to level one foods.  This week, he's eating squash--and LOVING IT.

Ahhh, To Be Two

As I was getting ready to leave for work today, Ainsley wandered into the bathroom and asked, "Whatcha doing, Momma?"

"Getting ready for work," I replied.

A look of panic washed over her face, "NO."

I realized that she was probably panicking (really, spell check, panicking with a K!?) because Sean was out running errands.  "It's ok, Daddy will be home before Momma leaves.  We'd never leave you by yourself sweetie."

Her nonchalance returned, "Ok."  And she ambled off.

SNOW!

We've been getting some lake-effect snow today, so I decided to take the kids out into it to play instead of reading for class.  Lately, I've been prioritizing kids and family over classwork, and I don't feel guilty about it one tiny bit.

At first, Ainsley was super excited to go play in the snow.  She kept asking to go out (I'd promised her we would after I finished some electronic conferences with students).  Then once I got her ready, she refused to go outside unless she brought Seabee, who she promptly forgot about once she started playing in the snow.  We started our snowy adventure with my holding Xander in one hand and the camera in the other.  As Ainsley was pretty young for snow last year, this is her first *real* snow year...and let me tell you: Snow. Is. Awesome.

Ainsley began her dabbling into snow with the requisite tasting of the snow, followed by the putting of the boot into the snow.  These two activities were deemed fun, so she started running around in our tiny front yard.



While she did that, I managed to snap a pic of Xander while I had him in my arms. Xander didn't really care about the snow, but he did enjoy hanging out with Momma.

Ainsley continued her snowy play by running around the tree in our front yard.  We tried to make a snowman, but the snow wasn't too sticky.  I threw a snowball at her.  At first she was just confused.  After I threw a second snowball at her, she said, "Don't hit me."  So, I stopped.  I figure she can learn the joy of snowballs from her daddy because, honestly, I don't like them either!

After a while, Xander got sick of being held, so I brought his bouncy out, bundled him up, and gave him a bottle while we played.  This was acceptable to Ainsley and Xander for a while...until Ainsley's wanderlust kicked in.  At that point, I had to take X inside to Sean.  The problem, however, was getting Ainsley to understand we weren't going in forever.  The cries of "SNOOOOOOW" became loud and frequent.  I had to get them inside quickly so that she wouldn't DIE from lack of snow.  

Once X was safely inside and warm, Ainsely and I ventured back out.  I wanted to get a picture of us together, so I bribed her: "Get your picture with Mommy and we'll run around some more."  It worked.  Though when I tell her to smile, she makes this face...and it's pretty funny.

We spent most of the rest of our time outside running up and down the street.  She would run and laugh and fall and laugh and run and fall and laugh some more.  It was the most awesome time outside ever.  For an extended remix of the previous sentence, check out the video below.

We ended our snowy excursion with snow angels in the driveway.  She didn't really understand what she was doing...and did this weird thing while she laid in the snow which involved her not talking or looking at me.  It reminded me of when the dogs go completely limp when I try to make them do something they don't want to.  After I stood her up, I tried to show her the angel.  She didn't care.  Apparently, two year old girls are a bit too young for the awesomeness that is snow angels.

"I don't like it."

Once the snow angel was done, I realized that Ainsley was getting pretty freaking cold.  She, however, believed that she was now going to live outside in the snow. The only thing that I could do to get her inside was to promise her hot chocolate with marshmallows.  The appeal of marshmallows allowed me to bring her in and take off her snow crusted clothing without tears.  I deem that a victory.

However, once she started drinking her hot cocoa, she rejected it.  Sometimes, I wonder if she's my child at all.  Also, next time I take my kids outside to play all over our block, I'm going to wear pants and not my How the Grinch Stole Christmas fleece pajama bottoms.

Putting Up the Chris Tree

 This year is the first year that I let Ainsley put up the Christmas tree with me.  I was gonna just do it myself and surprise her, but Sean told me he thought she'd like to help.  I'm so type-A that doing it myself was the only thing I'd considered.

Xander: Mesmerized

While Ainsley took her nap and Sean was at the store picking up the ornament hangers I needed but couldn't find (of course I found them right after I finished putting up both trees), I put up the tree and the lights.  I have a system, and I figured it'd be easier to do those steps without the "help" of Miss A.  I let Xander sit close to the tree as I put the lights on...he really enjoyed looking at the lights.

Ham with a capital H

She loves her ornaments.

Ainsley was hamming it up with the ornaments before we actually started decorating.  I was trying to get a picture for our Christmas cards.  Ainsley and ornaments seemed like a sure thing, but that was inaccurate.  These cute pictures are two of about 15 that I took.  It's getting more and more difficult to catch her!  She's not looking at the camera because Sean was getting her to be supacute, so she's looking at him.  Of course, because I couldn't catch the pictures, he declared me a photography failure.  I invited him to take the pictures himself.  To my relief, he had similar difficulties.  It's nice that he isn't better than me at *everything*!  I did get a good shot that you'll get to see in the final Christmas card.

Hanging the lion

 This year, we have shatterproof ornaments to hang.  The day after Christmas last year, Sean, Ainsley, and I (technically Xander was with us...in mah belleh!) drove all over Fort Wayne buying the things we needed for a new tree that wouldn't choke or kill the kids.  It was difficult to say goodbye to our adult tree.  I loved the silver and gold ornaments--at least they've found a good home at Jill's!  Plus the whole safety thing is kinda important, I guess.

She LOVES these two.

Putting up the tree took F-O-R-E-V-E-R.  I had to open all the ornament boxes and had to put all the ornaments on hangers....which was more time consuming than I though it would be.  Ainsley really enjoyed playing with the ornaments.  Someday, I'll blog about the extent of Miss A's mini-OCD for those of you who haven't seen or experienced it.  For those of you who have, you can only imagine the joy she experienced when she was presented with tons of items that were similar in either size, color, or both.

Placing her ornament booty in a line on the table.

While Xander hung out downstairs with Sean, A and I got to work.  Well, mostly I got to work. It ended up taking us about 4 hours to put all the ornaments on the tree.  Part of the time issue was Ainsley's collection of the ornaments.  She gets her OCD honestly--and when I hang ornaments, I do so in a particular fashion (also, shut up Sarah and Erin!  I hear you teasing me!).  So, doing the tree with Ainsley this year was my Lesson in Tolerance.   As I'd get out the red sparkly icicles, Ainsley would grab four or five and run away with them. "SPARKLES!" she'd scream.  Finally, I figured out that if I wanted what she had, I needed to bust out a new color or type of ornament to distract her.  She'd then fixate on those ("GREEN ICICLES, MOMMY NOW!") and I'd get the remaining few I needed to decorate.

The finished product.

I got artsy with this picture.
I took it through the tree.

Every twenty minutes or so, I'd have to go find her stash--the place in the purple chair that she tried to hide ornaments.  Apparently, my ingenious method of getting her to give me ornaments was my playing into her game.  When I wasn't looking she'd go back to the tree, remove the red sparkly icicles and stash them away. This was an elaborate game we played for a REALLY LONG TIME. I'm ok with it though.  The tree turned out pretty nice.  It's till missing something--I'm not sure yet.  But we have years to add to it and figure it out.

Chris tree hugs

Now, every morning, Ainsley wakes up and gets excited about her "Chris tree!" It's adorable to hear her talk about her Chris tree.  The day after we put the tree up, she insisted on giving hit hugs and kisses.  Every day she inspects it--meticulously touching each ornament.  The Chris tree is very important.

"Here you go, Mommy"

Of course, once she had the hang of putting up a Chris tree, she then became an expert.  Last night, we put up the minitree in the basement.  As I got out the tree branches and put them in piles, Ainsley ran around helping.  She was very interested in putting the branches up (after all, this was a step that she slept through in the big tree).  As I went to get the lights situated, Ainsley took it upon herself to start decorating the tree with garland.  Xander looked on as Ainsley hung garland.  I think, for a first effort, she made some interesting decisions.  She was particularly proud.  When I took the garland down so I could put on the green and blue lights, she was frustrated for a moment, then used the opportunity to put the garland back.  That was a particularly fun moment for her.

Showing off her handiwork.

Seahawks tree

I think it was in putting up the Seahawks tree that Ainsley also started to understand the concept of Santa.  We have a Santa Seahawks ornament that she fixated on.  She was carrying it around talking about Santa. She continues to enjoy looking at and touching the Seahawks tree.  I think a part of her likes it better because it's small like she is.

Falling asleep in the jumparoo

 I recognize this post has been pretty Ainsley-heavy.  So in the interest of showcasing little Mr. Xander, I submit two photos for your perusal.  When I went to take a picture of the finished Seahawks tree tonight, it was pretty late, Xander was having his usual fit of "I WILL NOT SLEEP," so I put him in his jumparoo.  Where he jumped and squeeeeed to the imaginary dolphins in his head and jumped some more.  Then he promptly fell asleep.  I tried to get a picture of his sleeping, but by the time I got over there, I'd made a noise that startled him awake.  I then considered letting him fall back to sleep and getting my picture anyway.  Sean gave me the "I don't think so" look.  So, you can only see the cuteness from the back of his head!

Happy little bug!

To make up for the missed shot, check out this ultra cute smile he shot at me while I was putting the lights on the tree.  That's his new thing, by the way--giving his momma the "I'm too cute for words" smile.  Works every time.

Being Thankful

Had I thought about this blog post before 10:00 tonight, I'd have taken more pictures to document the day.  As it stands, I figure I'll just toss out some of the random memories I have from today.  Background: my sister Jill and her boyfriend Joe came to have Thanksgiving with Sean, the kids, and me.  Ainsley and Xander dressed for the occasion.  Ainsley's shirt says:  I'm thankful for 1. Mom and Dad 2. Yummy Turkey 3. Football.  Xander's onesie says:  Daddy loves me more than football.  So, yeah, football is integral to our holiday.

Two Green Beans
I made two different green bean dishes today.  Jill and I love the classic green bean casserole.  Joe and Sean do not.  Beyond the green beans, our menu consisted of turkey, Stove Top, yams, mashed potatoes, crescent rolls, cranberry jelly, and gravy. Sean requested another vegetable beyond potato/potato.  Can't say I blame him.  So, I made all-day green beans and green bean casserole.  However, I forgot to pick up the all-day green beans fixins--all of them.  Even the beans. So, I sent Sean to the store to get the fixins while I worked on turkey prep.  When Sean goes to the store, we generally exchange several texts.  His text to me today: "Ah, Thanksgiving. The only day of the year you see this many men shopping for groceries."  Hee! To the right is the meal that my daughter ate.  Or should I say didn't eat.  She was so excited by the visit, all she wanted to do was show Jill and Joe her toys.  See commentary below.

Smurfs and Snoopy
While I was getting the food together, Xander slept in his swing and Ainsley watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  She was particularly drawn to Snoopy.  I tried to get her to check out the Smurfs, but she didn't really care.  She did keep pointing out the "chickens" every time a turkey appeared on screen.

JOE!  JILL!  Come on, guys!
When Ainsley has company (and make no mistake if you come to my house, you're Ainsley's company), her main objective is to boss her company around.  Because she's cute, she gets away with this.  But I find it particularly charming when it works on people who I normally wouldn't expect it to--like Jill's boyfriend Joe.  First, it must be known that Joe is an awesome guy.  He's kind, polite, funny, and, most importantly, loves my sister and treats her well.  Ainsley loves Joe.  When he's around, she'll make him play, read, rough house, whatever she wants.  And Joe's a willing participant.  It was sweet to watch her give him hugs.  It was hilarious to watch her discover his cartilage piercing.  She was fascinated that he had one ear pierced and the other not.  She just kept running her fingers along his ear back and forth from ear to ear.  He let her do this for about 5 minutes.

Mmmm cookies!

When we were decorating our Thanksgiving sugar cookies (turkeys, owls [Ainsley's choice], and acorns), Ainsley sat in Joe's lap...where she proceeded to sneak bites of cookie.  I'm no fool; I knew that she'd get a cookie in the decorating endeavor.  She snuck two for sure.  Also, Ainsley "decorating" cookies entails her dumping the small bowl of sprinkles onto one cookie.  I like to think of it as the Super Cookie.  Joe deemed it necessary that the Super Cookie be eaten right away.

Jill brought Ainsley some books that she'd gotten from a friend.  The most valuable of these books was a magnetic Barbie doll set thingy.  Basically it's modern paper dolls set but in magnet form.  Ainsley deemed this AWESOME.  Notice how she's holding the book away from Xander.  She does not want him near it!  Xander, of course, doesn't care.  Mr. X spent most of this holiday giggling, MMMMMMMmmmming, and nomming.  He had his first bite of non-rice-cereal food: mashed potatoes. He ate two or three small bites, but he wasn't really into them.

After Jill and Joe left to go home, I put Xander into his Thanksgiving p-jammers.  At this point, Ainsley decided it was time to play Tickle Tickle with Xander.  Of course, anytime A gives X attention, he goes C-R-A-Z-Y!  He'll giggle and giggle.  I was able to catch some of it.  Her method was to take her Lorax (Ax) and Seabee and tickle Xander's belly.  He would then laugh hysterically.  It was genius.



The visit really tuckered the kids out.  They had such a good time with Aunt Jill and Uncle Joe.  The playing and the laughing and the tickling and the couple bites of turkey we could convince A to eat should make for a wonderfully restful night.