A Merry Christmas

I'm going to follow suit with the previous, "You never get it until you have kids" post with - Man, Christmas with kids is the best. Not just kids, but one very inquisitive, bright-eyed toddler who totally gets the Santa thing this year.

The anticipation was great, too. "Missy" the Elf hung out at our house all month long, flying home at night to tell Santa if Riley had been naughty or nice nice that day. Some days, I thought Missy might be on overload, never to return again...other days, she seemed pretty happy.

Riley's wish list was pretty straight forward:
1. Daddy froggy
2. baby turtle
3. Big girl bed

And man, did Santa deliver (with help from Mimi, Papa, Grandma, Grandpa, and JCPenney.com...oh, and Daddy the worker elf).

So there we were, the night before Christmas, after a rocking Christmas Eve party at my parents house, quietly assembling furniture in Riley's room. The elves worked until 3am (actually, this breastfeeding elf went to bed at 2:00 because I knew R2 would be expecting a meal pretty soon) and every minute of preparation was totally worth it.

After Riley tore into every Christmas gift - her smile wide with excitement at each new gift (and I do mean it, she shredded that paper like no ones' business) we asked her, "Did you get everything you wanted from Santa that you asked for?"

"No."

"Why, what did he forget?"

A little sad, "My big girl bed."

"Well, maybe it couldn't fit under the tree...maybe it's in your room."

(Here is where our sneakiness really came into play--- Riley slept in our room the night before and we managed to keep her out of her room all morning)

Cue the wild lady running into the other room.

She couldn't even believe her eyes...and my parents, Kyle, me and Dan, who followed closely behind, were pretty excited too. You will also catch a glimpse of Dan's Amish ways with the window seat that he built and her new pet fish from my parents.

Things you do for your kids.

You know those stories about people standing in line for 72 hours to get their kid a toy or the latest gadget. There is no way you can get that concept until you have kids. I couldn't wrap my mind around the things that you do for your kids...until you actually have one...or two.

Like, assemble a gingerbread house with a husband who just so happens to have a Building Science degree. Takes it to a whole new level people -- precision and pain staking preparation like nothing you have ever seen. You would have thought we were building the Taj-Majal of all structures.

Oh yeah...the bag of icing exploded. That was fun too.

Who actually reads the directions? Who measures and preps the "walls" and shaves off excess to ensure a flat surface? Dan, that's who.

Then, there is the subject of our 5 year anniversary. We debated on what to do. We decided to make a quick family trip up to Busch Gardens and the Zoo afterwards to meet up with some friends. Oh the romance. (In our defense, we did have an anniversary dinner, take out of course, of steak and lobster).

Finally, we cannot leave out Chef/Uncle Kyle and the Sugar Cookie Bonanza of 2010. Highlights from the day: Kyle to Riley: "Quality, not quantity." and "Don't be afraid to use another color besides red."

Now, if you will excuse me, I have to supervise the children while Dan puts yet another coat of white paint on his Christmas creation for Riley. For three weekends, Dan, with the help of his Dad, has been working on a window seat for Riley's room -- to go along with her new, big girl bed.

Merry Christmas!

Blast from the Past

I don't know many people who can say that they are still friends with people they have known since kindergarten. And not just friends, best friends. Friends who would fly across continents to see you get married or to love on your new babies. Friends who you know that although you haven't seen each other in months or years, it's like nothing has changed.

Diana and I have that type of friendship. I am so blessed to have grown up with Diana and her sister, Marcie; her parents took care of me like I was their own and mine did the same. They introduced me to the Colombian culture and taught me how to roll my "R"s and my parents indulged Diana in her favorite bar-b-que restaurants and kept her stocked up on Claussen pickles.

I got to spend some time with Diana and Marcie at my parents house this past weekend. They laughed with my girls (Reese for the first time), we drank wine, and my parents made one killer dinner. After I laid Reese down to sleep for the night, we had more girl time, thanks to my parents for Riley duty. We talked and laughed and I kept thinking --- this is the girl that we would make up names of our fake boyfriends (Todd and Scott, thank you very much) as we daydreamed about our future lives...and here we are. Diana is married to a wonderful man, Holger and me to Dan...not exactly Todd and Scott, but it works. As we sat there that night, catching up and telling old stories, I thought to myself, how lucky I am to have Diana in my life and to have shared our life together. My hope is that one day, my girls will get to have the same experience.

Sums it up

This picture with Santa pretty much sums up our life these past months, hence the reason the blog has been so neglected.

Here is the breakdown (no pun intended):

Riley: Stubborn.

She is pretty adamant about not wanting to do anything I want her to do it when I want to do it. Follow me? Typical 2 year old fashion, she talked about Santa, was pumped about telling him the three things on her wish list, and then froze when we tried to pry hr off of us and onto the big guy in red. Would not, under no circumstance, sit on Santa's lap.

Reese: Frantic

Anytime she is not in a 3 inch radius of Momma's boob, she's pretty pissed.

Me: Delirious

With Reese still not sleeping through the night, and as we get closer to her 6 month birthday, I find myself uncharacteristically delirious. I have a hard time finishing sentences, thinking of words, and pretty rude to door-to-door salesmen. I'm not sure if I even remember taking this picture.

Dan: Goes with the flow

You see, he knows there is mass chaos happening, and he is in the thick of it, but refuses to freak out (see above) and just goes along to get along. Yin and yang, I tell ya, thank God!