Whew!
I'm so glad that's over. Kind of. Sort of. Okay, not really.
I always get so gloomy after the holiday season. As I write this, I'm sitting in my office, back to work. It's freezing outside and it's started to snow. If it were two weeks ago, I'd be marveling at the snow, excited that we'd have a white Christmas. Now, all I can think about is what time I need to leave so I don't sit in traffic for two hours on the way home. It's all about perspective, isn't it?
Now is the time that Minnesotans really hunker down and wait things out. The way that I see it, we've got roughly three months of hibernation left before we can peek out of our homes, squint into the daylight, and finally harbor a hope that yes, spring will come again. Such a drama queen, I know.
Anyways, we had a great Christmas and we spent a lot of time in celebration with family. On Christmas Eve, we went over to my parents' house and headed to church. For the past fifteen years, my grandpa and I have sung "O Holy Night" at the Christmas Eve service. This is my most treasured Christmas tradition. It doesn't feel like Christmas until we've knocked that off our list. Afterwards, we went back to Nana and Papa's, made homemade pizzas, and played Trivial Pursuit. We spent the night there so we could wake up at their house on Christmas morning. The rest of the clan came over on Christmas Day, and Uncle Dan made eggs. We had a nice breakfast and then Jack went down for a nap and we opened up our Christmas gifts. Every year, my parents are WAY too generous. But, sitting around, laughing and opening presents is my second most favorite Christmas tradition.
Afterwards, Wim and Jack opened up their presents. Or rather, Wim did. Jack didn't really care. I thought he might have liked tearing paper, but he was more interested in banging on the piano and trying to steal the telephone. That child will forever keep me on my toes.
And then, I had to work last week, and I'm really glad I did - it was so quiet, I ended up getting a lot of stuff done and checked off my list. We also had a doctor's appointment last week - Jack has been getting ear infections again, and his pediatrician thinks one of his tubes fell out. So, he's back on antibiotics and we've got an appointment with the ENT on Friday. This does not excite me.
Last weekend, we spent a lot of time around the house, which was pretty nice. On Saturday, we went over to my mom's house for another Christmas celebration with my dad's side of the family. Afterwards, Jeff and I went to HOM Furniture and bought a couch. We've finally pulled the trigger and we're working to get our basement in shape. We're hoping that everything will get done by the Super Bowl so we can have a party! I'm actually looking forward to having a room in the house where Jack can play and I'm not forever running after him, trying to make sure he doesn't break anything or get himself into trouble.
Jack also hit the thirteen month mark on Saturday. Every day, it seems as though he's learning something new - whether its a new word or he learns a new "skill," he seems to change just about every day. It's so much fun to play with him and I love how receptive he's becoming. He knows what a lot of words mean, and I feel like he's just on the cusp of letting out a whole stream of sentences...
I took the Christmas decorations down on Sunday. This is always bittersweet. Again, it means that the holidays are over, but I'm happy that I don't have to police the tree for wayward puppies and children that are interested in tearing the ornaments and tinsel down. After Jack got up from his nap on Sunday, he went into the living room to look for the tree, and discovered it was missing - and he had many questions about that. He went to the bar with Daddy on Sunday afternoon to watch the Vikings game, but wasn't really interested and pitched kind of a fit. Still, he makes a pretty cute Vikings fan...
On New Year's Eve, we went down to my office to take care of a few things and then we went to Lifetime to go swimming. At first, Jack was terribly nervous about the water. He clung to me like a barnacle and didn't want me to put him down. But, after a few minutes, he started having fun. I put a life vest on him and his favorite thing was to lay back in the water and have me drag him around the pool.
We went up to the club for dinner on New Year's Eve, and again, Jack was ever the charmer. He liked wearing his party hat and was quite the chatter box. I actually had two people come up to me at the dinner table and comment on what a well-behaved child we had. Ha! If they only knew... Jack stayed up a little late (read: 8:30) and Jeff and I were in bed by 9:30. My, how times have changed!
Yesterday, we met up with a few friends to go ice skating and have lunch. Jack walked around the rink with me a few times, but they didn't have skates in his size, which is probably a good thing. He got his first fat lip last night, tripping over his own feet. I was nervous that he needed a stitch, but he seemed to be unfazed after a few minutes. I was just overwhelmed by all the blood!
Anyways, I'm surprised at how much Jack picks up just from just watching us. This should be a lesson to us. He mimics everything Jeff does when we're having dinner. He's also learned how to "talk" on the phone and always wants me to call Nana. He's also started saying a few words - including "mama" and "dada," "all done" and "Blue." By the way, Blue is his most favorite toy. Every day when we get home, he runs to the stairs so we can go and let Blue out of his crate. He squeals with delight when Blue greets us, and Jack loves rubbing his face against Blue's fur. It's pretty cute. Last night, Jack learned how to play "fetch" with Blue, and this, of course, provided endless entertainment...
And so, that's it...it's a pretty sparse summary, considering everything that we've had going on over the past few weeks. Coming up this week, we've got our ENT appointment on Friday and I'm hoping that brings us good news.
Happy New Year!
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