Christmas Vacation 2009

Before our holidays could begin Chad & I both had a three day work week last week. On Tuesday morning Riley woke up an hour early and started complaining that his ear was hurting. We decided not to chance anything and I called to make him an appointment at the doctor. He indeed had a minor ear infection and was sent home with another round of antibiotics. Thankfully he never ran a fever, but Chad decided to stay home with him that day and since he took a late nap that day we decided to bring him up to the theater that evening to see KWC’s production of A Christmas Carol. In the past we have arrived at the theater well before the show started and Riley has played onstage and with Grandmommy before the show, but we thought this might be confusing to him about why he had to sit still once the show started. So this time Riley and I arrived about 5 minutes before curtain and we stayed in the lobby through Grandmommy’s curtain speech. We got in our seats just as the show started and besides a little talking when the theater went dark and a few comments here and there, Riley was spellbound. He spent the first act holding my hand and sometimes both mine and Chad’s hands and he LOVED the scene with the snowman in it! He was bouncing in his seat he was so excited! Chad & I kept exchanging smiles over his head and really had a great time showing him some live theater. Just before the end of the act he climbed in my lap and at intermission we asked him if he wanted to see more and he said yes! He briefly went to the lobby to visit Grandmommy, but when she asked him if he was ready to go back and sit with Mommy he ran through all the people in the lobby and back to our seats so fast Chad had to chase him! He didn’t do as well in the second act, but I think he was just getting tired. He kept covering his eyes with my hands and eventually Chad asked him if he wanted to go play and they went out to the lobby and outside to let off some steam. Riley did not want to go home when the show was over, so I think overall he had a really great time and we will have to try this tactic more with future shows as it worked pretty well. However, at this point I think he much prefers a musical and “dancing girls” as he puts it, rather than a play with more talking.

On Wednesday my work let me leave at 3pm and the weather was so fabulous so I headed to pick Riley up from school and when I got there he informed me that Grandmommy was picking him up. It was the normal day that she picks him up, but she couldn’t because of the show. I had planned on taking him to ride the train, but he informed me he needed to see Grandmommy first and then go on the train. So we went up to the theater where they had just finished the show and saw Daddy and Grandmommy before heading to ride the train. Riley was really excited about the train and we shared some Skittles as we waited to board. Once on board he got a little antsy and was trying to be quite the daredevil on the train, attempting to hang out the sides, which is a big no-no. I tried bribing him with “chicken and apples” afterwards, which is what he eats at McDonalds and this sort of worked. However, I made the mistake of going to a McDonalds with an outdoor playplace and it was covered with these huge black birds all over and so I told Riley that the birds had pooped all over the slide and we couldn’t play there. We got our food to go and surprisingly Riley was okay with this situation.

Chad went in to work for a few hours on Christmas Eve morning, but then came home to pick up Riley & me to go get some lunch. We went to Yucatan Taco Stand and it had started to snow. Riley had a lot of fun running down the sidewalk after we ate with Daddy. The snow was swirling, but Chad & I needed to finish up our Christmas shopping. Chad had tried earlier in the day to buy me an iPhone for Christmas, but found out that he was not an authorized user on my account. While at lunch I called AT&T and added him, and it was good I did because Riley fell asleep in the car after lunch as we were headed to the AT&T store so Chad went in and made our purchases. We also decided to go ahead and get Chad a new iPhone as my birthday present to him (his birthday is January 4.) I know it’s not very exciting as they were not surprises, but there was not much I could think of that I wanted for Christmas this year and so I was thrilled to get the iPhone. I have been playing on it all weekend and learning how to use it and I just love it!

After we got home from shopping the snow was still falling outside and was starting to accumulate. Chad took Riley out later that day to play in the snow:

Usually we spend Christmas Eve evening at Grammy’s house, but since my parents were still on their cruise we just spent a quiet evening at the house, which worked out well considering the weather! I made a batch of Grammy’s sausage balls and then I made some spaghetti for dinner and we just hung out with Riley and had a relaxing evening. On Christmas morning it was just Riley, Chad & I at home and so we laid a blanket on the floor in front of the tree and we opened presents.

We let Riley choose the order he opened his presents and when he still had about 4 left to go he opened a box with underwear in it. I guess he decided that was enough because he requested to watch Night at the Museum after that and we abandoned the other unwrapped presents until later! I made some cinnamon rolls for breakfast and Chad & I frantically put together some of the last presents for his family while we attempted to get Riley to nap. He must have been too excited because he really fought falling asleep, but finally succumbed at 2pm after a temper tantrum. We woke him up around 3pm and headed to Chad’s parents house for Christmas with them. We had a great time there opening presents, although Riley didn’t make it through one last present there. They are going to open it later this week when he spends time at Grandmommy & Haha’s. His favorite present at their house was probably a Tonka fire truck from his Uncle Blake & Aunt Rebecca. He loves it so much we have even had to put it in bed beside him while he sleeps and cover it up with the blankets too. After opening presents we headed to Chad’s Aunt Michele & Uncle Art’s house for dinner and more family time. Riley brought in his fire truck and had a great time running it up and down Art & Michele’s long hallway. He also had fun playing with Chad’s cousin Alex’s daughter Kate, who is five. We called her “cousin Kate” so as not to confuse her with “Aunt Kate”, Riley’s godmother. We ended up not leaving Art & Michele’s until after 10pm, but we put Riley in his pajamas before we left and he fell asleep in the car on the way home. Here’s a video I took Christmas morning of Chad & Riley playing “monkey” and Princess trying to get in on the action too.

The day after Christmas Chad & I did a little shopping and bought some shelves for our office area and I got a case for my new phone. We also stopped for lunch at Fuddruckers, where Chad & Riley had peppermint shakes for dessert!

After lunch we went to the mall so I could exchange some maternity clothes Chad’s parents got me for Christmas for the correct sizes. Riley and Chad went and played in the play area while I did this and afterwards we headed home for a nap. Riley was still far off his nap schedule and didn’t actually fall asleep until 4:30pm. I went grocery shopping while he was down and determined that the day after Christmas is not a good day to shop for groceries – the shelves were practically empty of food in some places! It was crazy! I was not able to get about 4-5 things on our list! Riley ended up sleeping until after 6pm so we let him stay up a little later than usual that night and he was in bed about 9:45pm.

By Sunday I was determined to get him back on his correct sleeping schedule. We all got up around 8am and I made some bacon, eggs and biscuits for breakfast while we watched some movies. Chad hung our new shelves, which look really fabulous! I fed Riley lunch and then I was able to get him down for a nap about 1pm. He must have been tired from not napping or sleeping right as he napped for over 4 hours! While he slept I went to the airport to pick up my parents! I was so happy to see them! I know they had a fun trip, but I was glad to see them again! I dropped them off at their home and then went home to pick up Chad & Riley and we headed over to Grammy’s for Christmas with my family. It was little strange this year as we usually eat first and open presents last, but Grammy wanted to switch things up so we could have the Cowboy Game on while we ate. We had a great time opening presents and Riley got lots of fun toys to play with. His favorite I think is a Percy train and track, which was all he could talk about that night and practically ever since.

Grammy got him some dinosaur pajamas with dinosaur feet slippers and at first Riley thought they went on your hands!

He eventually did try them on his feet! We had such good Christmases with our families and are so thankful to spend the time with them as well as very thankful for all the gifts they got us! I was pretty tired that night though after all was said and done, but unfortunately I am still having a lot of pain in my hips when I sleep and get up out of bed so even my nights are not very restful. Yesterday morning the pain actually made me cry! I am just so frustrated by it all, but I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow and hope to talk to my doctor about it then. I also have a gift certificate for a pregnancy massage that I hope will alleviate some of the pain, but I want to see if my doctor has any other suggestions. Riley spent yesterday and today with his Nana and I received these pics of him trying on lots of Jake’s hats yesterday! Too cute!