Christmas Visits or "MY ICE!!"

Wistful...Chris tree....presents.

Happy New Year!  It's been a while since my last post, and we've been uberbusy.  We took a trip to Texas for Christmas.  We stopped off in Louisville to leave Boomer and Sadie with Kellyn and Josh (Thanks again, guys!).

Xander started sitting
up before we left for TX.

Then we drove.  To Fort Worth. Texas.  First, I have to say that the Toyota Sienna is an awesome machine.  We rode for about 14 hours in the Sienna--and were pretty comfortable, even with 2 kids, suitcases, and a crapton of presents.  I prepared for the trip by packing an emergency kit of toys--mostly stuff I'd gathered from various kids' meals over the last couple months.  I have to say, it was a stroke of genius.  Sometimes it even bought us five or ten minutes of silence from Ainsley.  Xander was great on the trip, but Miss A spent a lot of time screaming, "I'm STUCK!  HELP! HELP!  Want DOWN!"

Ainsley eyeing Meme
as Xander NOMNOMNOMs

Christmas with Meme

We sent to visit Sean's Meme--his late mother Jeanna's mother.  Meme lives on her own and walking into her house is like walking into 1975.  She even has that awesome flocked wall paper.  Meme is the kind of woman who'll come up to you and give you a big ole Texas hug and say, "How're you doin'? It's *so* good to see you!"  And Meme means it.  It is impossible to not love Meme.  (Also, if you can't tell, I love everything about Meme--including the fact that she calls herself Meme--it's just too cute.) It was good to visit with Jeanna's family.  Ainsley got to meet some of Sean's cousin's children; I think that was the relations--I'm so not doing that twice removed second whatever math.  There were kids.  They played together.

Uncle Victor

Cousin Matt

Ainsley had a lot of fun playing outside with the football.  The weather was really nice (note she's wearing a sweatshirt jacket), and she got to run around Meme's yard.  She enjoyed all the attention from the family.  Xander was also his charming self.  He particularly focused on falling asleep on the Sobotik men.  Above, you'll see Xander sleeping on Uncle Victor and Cousin Matt.

Presents with Aunt Candace

Uncle Brian

Ainsley got some food and pots and pans from the Potankas and the Sobotiks--and she greatly enjoyed them.  (She still enjoys them, though the food is currently in solitary for her refusing to clean it up before bath; it's expected to be released back into the main population tomorrow).  Xander got some noisy keys and a soft book--both which have proven excellent for nomming.  Nomming continues to be his main occupation: more on this later.

Christmas Eve

Dancing at the party.

Sean's dad and Kelly have a sip a nog party every Christmas Eve.  Mostly it's a "come and go as you please" kind of event that revolves around Fred making what is probably the best eggnog on the planet. (Side note: I now have the eggnog recipe, for those of you who want to try a sip a nog party in Fort Wayne next year.) It was at this illustrious party that we discovered something very valuable.  Ainsley LOVES Sonic ice.  Ainsley loves Sonic ice to such an extent that once she discovered the magic that is Sonic ice, she spent most the of remainder of our vacation either negotiating for or lamenting over "MY ICE!!!"

Miss A and Grandpa

Xander and Grandma

I had great fun getting the kids dressed up for the party--it gave me an excuse to put A in her adorable Christmas dress.  Xander wore his thermal undershirt with Chris trees and snowmen.  I bought his outfit at Christmas time in 2009 when he was a growin' in mah belleh.  Honestly it's a Christmas miracle that he could fit into it.

The Christmas tradition that we've started with the kids is the opening of a present on Christmas Eve.  This present generally manifests as Christmas PJs.  Shh!  Don't tell the kids.


Christmas Day

Examining the milk and cookies
Santa ate.

Xander and Max.  NOMNOMNOM

Christmas morning we opened presents.  Ainsley got lots of awesome presents--animals, dolls, clothes.  Santa brought her a Noah's arc.  She kept calling Noah "Santa," and the secularness of it all made me giggle.  Ultimately, she was more excited about opening the presents than the presents themselves. She really enjoyed playing with her cousin Madison--the two of them tore it up!  Xander had a good time for his first Christmas as well.  He got some toys for the bath from Santa.  Again, mostly he was more concerned with the nomming than anything else, so it's a good thing that we got Xander a bunch of nommy toys for Christmas.  After the present melee, Ainsley played with her toys while Xander and I took a nap.  Then the kids played with their toys by the Chris tree.  It was adorable...as documented below.

First Christmases wear out little men.

Austin!

Introducing Charlie to Care Bears.
Uncle Jason is captivated as well.

After Christmas, we traveled down to Austin to visit the Grafs.  We have some bad luck with our Graf visits of late--this time was no exception.  Both Xander and I were sick for the trip.  I got to spend a few hours waiting in an Austin med clinic for some antibiotics for an infection.  

Xander....well, Xander projectile everything from every end of his body.  He was pooping everywhere.  He was puking everywhere.  He was in good spirits, so I wasn't too concerned (some, yes), but man, he was messy.  I think we did about 3 or 4 loads of laundry while we were there; we were there for less than 2 days.  Ultimately, we discovered that Mr. Illness was growing teeth!  Two new teeth made an appearance while in Austin.  Yay Xander!

Loving on George

This is probably right before she
yelled at him "MINE!"

One of the funnier things that happened while we visited the Grafs is Miss A's bossiness reared its ugly head.  Ainsley is going through an awesome selfish phase right now.  Everything is my, mine, or Ainsley's.  Even things that are Charlie's are Ainsley's.  Apparently Charlie has yet to find a person who is immune to his considerable charms...until our visit.  Miss A spent a lot of time yelling at Charlie.  Charlie took it like a champ for the most part--every now and then A's nastiness would throw him for a loop and make him cry.  Sean was very proud that Ainsley is already not tolerating any shenanigans from any boys.

MY ICE!!

Helping Grandma take down
Chris tree ornaments

We drove back to Indiana in about 13 hours.  The return trip was much easier since the discovery of Sonic ice.  Every few hours, we'd stop at a Sonic, get a cup of ice, and Miss A was satiated for a bit.  

Louisville
We had Christmas with my dad & the family on the way back from Texas.

My dad has 3 clocks in his living/dining room/kitchen--two cuckoo clocks and one of those old school clocks that dings every 15 minutes.  Ainsley finds this amazing.  We spent many many hours visiting the "CUCKOO CLOCK!!"  *Gasp* "Mommy!  Clock!"  It's quite cute.  I almost want to get a cuckoo clock to make her happy--but then I realize it'd drive me nuts. This gets to be something special about Grandma and Grandpa's house.

We had a good visit.  Kellyn picked up some DQ ice (as all the Sonics had closed) and some rum, and we made some Fred eggnog.  It was delicious!

Alysse also took some awesome 6 month pictures of Xander.  Watch for them soon!

Xander and Grandma

Ainsley and Grandpa

Xander and Ainsley had fun visiting with my grandparents, Grandma and Grandpa McGhee.  There was lots of cuddling, sharing of ice, and looking at cuckoo clocks. Grandma was born on New Year's Day, so it was nice to be able to be with her to celebrate her 74th birthday!

We got home on January 2.  We'd been gone almost two full weeks--and now deem that "too long."  It took us all almost a week to recover from the driving and bed hopping.  It was great to see all our families; we had a wonderful holiday.

Honestly though, I'm really looking forward to next Christmas--when we'll stay home and make more traditions.

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.