The Kitchen

After two years of deliberating, I finally picked a kitchen for Ethan and got it for Christmas. He just got it yesterday because I hadn't had time to put it together before that. It took me 4+ hours to put it together, calling in Rick from time to time for extra muscle power. Ethan played with it a little bit last night when he got home, so we'll just have to see if it turns out to be a winner or a dud.

The Christmas Rush

Our holiday schedule was a little crazy this year, but we all had a fun time (until Ethan had to go back to day care today, which didn't make him very happy). Here's where we were:

Dec. 22nd--Finish all shopping, wrapping, baking, that we haven't been able to do for the last two weeks because Mommy and Ethan have been sick.

Dec. 23rd--Continue wrapping, packing, etc. Watch TCU beat Boise State in the Pointsettia bowl!! GO FROGS! Open presents at home so we don't have to cart them with us. (This was a long process as Ethan just wanted to play with each one, and not open anymore. Yay! for fun presents, but not so good on the time line. We were up LATE.)

Dec. 24th, Christmas Eve--PACK and try to get on the road to Houston. We finally made it out the door around 3:00. We arrived in Houston in time for dinner with Brad, Nicole, the girls, and MeMe and Pop. Ethan was thrilled to see everyone.

Dec. 25th, Christmas Day--After sleeping in (we'd had a late couple of nights) we made it over to Brad and Nicole's house for some presents and lunch. The kids played and played. We went back to MeMe and Pop's house for naps (Rick and E slept for 3+ hours). Then the rest of the family (and Nicole's parents) joined us for a lovely Christmas turkey at MeMe and Pop's. The kids love playing with the balls on the pool table, so that was the activity of choice (even taking precedence over more presents). Merry Christmas!

Dec. 26th--We took a little shopping trip with Pop to buy Ethan some much needed new shoes. After a quick bite to eat, it was on the road again, heading to Columbus, Texas. Rick's aunt's family owns a ranch there and they invited us there for the weekend. There were quite a few of us: Rick, Ethan, and me; Brad, Nicole, Avery, and Madi; MeMe and Pop; Greg, Gina, Forrest, Logan, and Preston (Rick's uncle and his family); Steve and Jenger (Rick's other uncle and wife), and Jenger's mom; Jill (Rick's cousin), and David and Robin (Rick's cousin and wife). It was a crowd, but the house was beautiful with plenty of room for all. We had fantastic hosts and everyone contributed to a meal or two. Ethan had a blast playing with all the cousins out under the big oak trees, playing football and just running around. We toasted marshmallows over the fire at night and watched the cattle stroll by in the morning. It was a terrific weekend.

Dec. 28th--After lunch we headed back home. Phew!

Below are a few pictures from our escapades. If you would like to see more please go to: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0ActWrJm5aOWLlI and enjoy the full slideshow of pictures from this great season. We hope you all had as nice a Christmas as we did.

JibJab

In the JibJab video below, Ethan, who has no earthly idea about the juggernaut that is High School Musical, doesn't care about dancing with Gabriella (or that Mommy screwed up his face so the singing doesn't look right). He only cares that it is "him" playing basketball. And we watch it over and over again.

I'm Playing Basketball!

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Merry Christmas!

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Nouns

The last video we watched tonight before bed was the "Nouns" song on Schoolhouse Rock. While we were reading stories later, I'm making my way through The Little Engine That Could and Ethan couldn't care less. He's standing in the middle of the room, turning around and around and around. . .

E: "SuperFrog and penguin and lamp and crib. Those are nouns. Chair and Mommy and stool and Blue Dog and oranges. Those are nouns. Door and window and rug and penguin [yes, that one got in there more than once]. Those are nouns."

M: "Yes, E, those are nouns, good job!"

Here's the song in case you want to sing along: Schoolhouse Rock

Night Terrors

Imagine Barry Gibb's falsetto: "Night terrors, night terrors, we know how to do it." Yeah, these are not as much fun as the BeeGees "Night Fever" song, even if they sound similar.

Last night, about 11:30, an hour or more after Ethan went to bed, we were startled by his crying. Screaming really. We went in, he wasn't awake, I rubbed his back and he seemed to settle down. As soon as I left the room he repeated the screaming and I went back in. The 3rd time I went ahead and picked him up. He was obviously not yet awake and was batting at me and still screaming and crying, stiff as a board. I tried rocking him for a while, and he had moments of calmness, but then would just start up again. Finally I decided I just needed to try and really wake him up. So we went out into the living room with the lights on. His eyes were open, but he wasn't really awake yet. Finally I could see that he was recognizing where he was and who we were, but he was still very disoriented and upset. We snuggled on my bed, but nothing made him happy, he didn't know what he wanted, and certainly, neither did I. Eventually, through much crying, screaming and fitting, we just all laid down together in our bed to go to sleep (after I accomplished the feat of removing my contacts with one hand, while holding a screaming, squirming 3-year-old with the other).

He slept well with us (squished up next to me, leaving me about 8 inches of bed for myself), but I'm hoping we don't have to do this again tonight, I don't want our room to become a habit. I'll keep you posted.