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.