I can’t believe how excited I am about Christmas this year. Because of the doom and gloom I feel on a daily basis about our economy, I honestly didn’t think I was going to be able to muster up the excitement. But, it happened, and it’s all I can do to wait out the long weeks ahead.
What is it about my 2-year old that causes me to spend all the money I have (and a lot that I don’t have) on cheap, made in china toys that she won’t like after a couple of months? I figure it has to be one (or more) of the following reasons:
1. How she can’t contain her excitement when she sees a Christmas tree, or how she wants to go next door Every.Single.Night to see the big blow-up Santa Claus and Reindeer in the freezing cold.
2. The way she says, “Night night mommy. Night night daddy” 30 times from her bedroom when we’re trying to get her to go to sleep.
3. How, when she starts crying when we tell her it’s time for bed, she accidently slips in a “boo-hoo” (literally) without even realizing it.
4. When she’s past her naptime or past her bedtime and she’s becoming hard to get along with, she will start whining, “Mommy, I gettn fussy.”
5. Or, maybe it’s because when I asked her what she was going to tell Santa Claus that she wanted for Christmas she said, “Blocks…and a castle”…out of ALL the toys out there.
Let me just say that when she says that she wants a castle for Christmas, she is referring to one of those inflatable jumpy things that people have at birthday parties and such. She first experienced one of these at Emma Kate Kirkland’s 2nd birthday party, and then at Ava Parker’s 2nd birthday. Now, it’s all she talks about wanting. I’ve been doing my research and you can actually buy these things at a fairly reasonable price…of course, these are ones for personal use, not the commercial grade ones. But STILL, how FUN would this be? And, it’s basically all that she’s asking for. Dan has put his foot down and said no.
I will be back with the verdict on the “castle”…and also how much damage I end up doing to the credit card this Christmas. 🙂
Dan had to be in Atlanta all day Friday and Saturday so he decided to stay with a friend up there instead of driving back home Friday night. When I found this out I decided to make it a girls night with Brittain and me. I wasn’t exactly sure what we were going to do, but I told her that she could sleep with me since Daddy wouldn’t be there and she was excited about that. Friday afternoon Amanda called and said that she and Kyla Rose were going to be in Griffin. Yay! I knew this would make for the most perfect girls night.
While Amanda and I sat in the living room and talked non-stop because we had an ADULT FEMALE to talk to, the girls went back and forth from the living room to Brittain’s room to play. There were a few times we would have to check on them because we would suddenly realize they had been gone a little too long and instead of hearing the sound of children playing, we heard a strange silence coming from the back of the house. There was one time we got up to check on them and when we reached the hallway, both Brittain and Kyla Rose came out to greet us. I wish I had had my camera at this moment because Brittain came out in nothing but her t-shirt, panties and her frog rain boots…on the wrong feet. In her hands were her pair of red boots. She was holding them up saying, “I want Kyla Rose to put these red boots on.” After a short struggle with Brittain trying to help Kyla put them on, Amanda finally stepped in to help. These were the pictures I got:
We knew it was time to call it a night when Kyla and Brittain started acting as if they had been shooting up instead of playing. This didn’t happen until about 10:45 that night, so Amanda and I had gotten a whole lotta talking in. Of course, we could have sat there and chatted for a few more hours. Once they left, I felt sure Brittain would fall asleep immediately, so we both got in bed. Going to sleep was not going as easily as I had hoped, but after reading, watching some TV, and 14 sippy cups of milk, she finally just passed out. It was 12:07.
I was so tired by then that I decided to call it a night as well. After taking a few minutes to stare at Brittain just because I could, I snuggled down under the covers. Something was wrong, though. I couldn’t go to sleep and it should have been easy at this point. I tossed and turned for a couple of hours before wondering if perhaps I couldn’t sleep because Brittain was on my side of the bed and I was on Dan’s. I finally decided to carefully move Brittain to the other side and I got back to the side I sleep on every night. Aahhhh…yes, this was it. I drifted off to sleep now being thankful that it had been a late night. I just knew that this would buy me a few extra hours of sleep the next morning. To be able to sleep in! It was going to be great.
And, this was what I dreamed of until 6:00 a.m. when Brittain woke up…and didn’t go back to sleep.
On the weekends when Dan works, I am very used to having either Aunt Susan and/or Mimi and/or Pappy and/or Doot over at the house. Somehow, I got extremely unlucky because everyone was gone. Mimi and Doot had gone to Amelia Island with some friends of theirs, and Aunt Susan had decided to take a last minute trip to Mexico Beach. I was really disappointed to say the least, but Saturday afternoon while Brittain and I were out running errands I got a call from Aunt Susan. She was on her way back from Mexico Beach and was heading straight to our house! Now, call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure she cut her trip short so she wouldn’t miss out on seeing Brittain. After giving Aunt Susan a dirty look for leaving the state without my permission, we then had a great time. We were SO glad to see her:
Even though Dan was back on Saturday night, he still had to work on Sunday. After our nap after church, Mimi and Pappy came over and spent a couple of hours. Poor Pappy. Brittain was really barking out the orders. As they played ball in the living room, Brittain first explained they were to sit on the floor and throw the ball back and forth. Then, she decided that they needed to stand and kick the ball to each other. This went back and forth for a while. Pappy was a real trooper. I just hope his knees aren’t paying the price now!:
