Merry Christmas Everybody!

Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but our boy has a sixth sense about important days/holidays.  Sure, he's just two, but every single blessed time we've looked forward to a certain day or celebration, our little guy has greeted it with a crankier than average, higher maintenance than usual self.  It doesn't even have to be a major holiday.  Of course he might have sensed Christmas coming a mile way, but my birthday, Labor day and Father's Day too?  Lest I sound like a scrooge and like I'm being hard on LO, I should say this little habit of his is becoming a punchline around here.  This morning DH and I just had to laugh.  OF COURSE LO woke up a tired, cranky mess, it's Christmas! (and I'm sure it had nothing to do with the dirt devil being briefly used or the amount of noise the elves might have made last night).

Well Christmas comes to cranky boys too, and really, I'm not sure much else would have entertained LO so well until nap time.  First we had to get him to breakfast. Normally breakfast is ready and waiting for our guy, and normally he would just assumed play upstairs for 30 minutes after he wakes up.  So yesterday when I hatched to plan to make a special Christmas breakfast, I assured DH it would be no big deal that it had to bake 40 minutes on Christmas morning.  "He never eats until 8 anyway," I had said.  EXCEPT, it was Christmas morning and we might have mentioned that "mommy is making a treat for breakfast," and our guy is super serious about his treats.  So he was looking for breakfast at 7:40 and it wasn't slated to be ready until 8:10.  After a diaper change, half a banana, a cup of milk, and two fits that landed him in time out by about 7:50, DH just decided to leave him in his crib until breakfast time.  At 8:10, I had a yummy overnight french toast and cheesy hash browns to one, shall we say, eager little boy, and one ready-to-call-it-a-day DH.  Thanks honey for doing the hard work and for bouncing back from the edge.  Hope the breakfast was worth it.  LO seemed to think so as he ate almost as much as I did.  I actually took his bowl away with food still in it (which never happens) because he was sighing between bites and it was his second serving.  We narrowly escaped a melt down for this.

After breakfast, LO saw the big gift we had left unwrapped for him.  I was a little nervous about whether he'd like it right away, but figured it would be up his alley soon enough.  He saw it and with big eyes said "Oooh, I wanna play wit dat!". DH and I had to laugh, and I relaxed a little about our choice in gifts.  LO explored his new kitchen (which is small compared to most, but a great size for him and our lack of space) and carefully moved every pot, pan, bottle, and piece of play food to the sink, then the oven, then back.  He tried some of the play food and found it less tasty than its namesake.   His gifts from Toona, Gido, and Aunt Cat went with his kitchen, so he went back to it throughout the morning as he got more stuff to go with it.

Not long after checking out his kitchen Grams arrived (Gramps was sick...feel better soon Gramps!), and it was time to get serious about opening gifts.  LO doesn't know how to do that yet.  It makes absolutely no sense to him to leave a perfectly good new toy in favor of opening another.  This was especially true when having to leave his kitchen play for a stocking.  Ultimately he did find his stocking worth the effort though.  Over the course of an hour, he found himself the recipient of a big brother book, a flashlight, stickers, some painter's tape, a wooden train whistle, plastic harmonica, and some new play doh (which he doesn't know about because he hasn't unwrapped it yet).  His favorite stocking stuffers though were silly putty, which he loves for its texture and excellence as a high bouncing ball, and a small police car that goes far when you pull back and let go.  The car was expected to be a hit, the putty, a total surprise.

By 10 am we gave up on his remaining stocking contents (thus the unopened play-doh), and encouraged some real gift opening.  Grams gave hers first, and LO promptly took his soft new blanket to the floor, asked for a pillow and laid down.  (Have I mentioned he was tired?)

For another hour he opened Toona, Gido's, and Aunt Cat's play food, a new play friend named Lukas from Grams (who went straight to the potty), and we grown ups managed to squeeze in a few gifts of our own.

By 10:45 am LO had had enough.  He was overwhelmed and needed a break.  So with four gifts to go, he begged DH and me to take him upstairs.  There he changed in to a more dapper Christmas day outfit, indulged me in a few pictures, and played with his old toys until lunch time.

I frankly wasn't sure we'd be finishing gifts today, and really was fine with that.  In spite of our best intentions, I'd let us to go a little overboard on gifts for LO, and it was ok by me if he opened the others weeks or months from now.  Lunch brought him a little more resolve though and he was ready for the next round.  Here are picture highlights of that.

It is hard to say what his favorites are of his big gifts.  Definitely his backhoe/loader that matches the excavator he got for his birthday would be on the list.  Beyond that we'll have to wait and see what makes the cut in the days to come.

I'm pleased to say that we did indeed all survive to nap time.  My boys have now both had nearly two hours of rest while I have been writing this.  Here's hoping the afternoon goes more smoothly.  I should add that we had our big dinner last night.  When LO found out we (he and DH) were having turkey, he would not let us hear the end of it until he had turkey on his plate.  Once again you would think we were starving the kid the way he was carrying on.  When I finally said it was ready, LO was standing at his chair, looked at DH and said "It's turkey time!!!" (a phrase we have never uttered).  I'm thinking I'm going to be the lone vegetarian in this house!

Our "keeping it real" shot of the day.  DH is thinking "just take the picture", I'm faking it for the shot, and LO is being is cranky pre-nap self.

With that I'd like to wish our family and friends (if they're still reading) a very Merry Christmas.  I hope your gifts this year are better than any that would come in boxes, that your bellies are full, and your hearts are more so.