The 6 months of Christmas

David's six months of Christmas, which extends from the early Christmas presents he receives at Thanksgiving through Gotcha Day in May, is in full swing. Last Monday we had an early Christmas with Grandma, Grandpa, GG, Uncle Dave and his fiancee. The run away hit of the night was David's (first of three this Christmas) tool set. He insisted on opening it first and spent the rest of the evening wearing his ear protectors and sawing Grandma's furniture.
Ear protectors are necessary not just for working with power tools but for helping Grandma open presents as well.

David has also been taking full advantage of the winter weather. Tuesday Alma took him sledding with Sabrina and took some pictures in the spirit of the Christmas Story snowsuit.

We left Wednesday evening for Columbia and made it to Nahnee and 'Ramma's house without much difficulty despite sleet and freezing rain in Chicago. We went to church Christmas Eve, and, much to Kevin's dismay, followed that up with the annual LaBorde viewing of Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. If you don't know how Santa makes it down all those skinny little chimneys with his big brag of presents, you really must see it.
We had a very low key Christmas day. I stayed in my pajamas all day, and David had a great time opening all his gifts. Unlike last year, when it took over a week to finish going through his pile, he tore through all of his presents and everyone else's in no time and then demanded "more Santa!"
David with items from tool sets #2 and 3

Another picture in his stylish new safety vest and his Gamecocks basketball jersey.

Christmas Day was low key because my parents invite every single person they know to their house the day after for a Boxing Day get together. It is a lot of fun, and you can't beat grits, wings and a Chick-fil-A party platter. Yum. We got to visit with lots of family and friends, and David got to play with some of his SC buddies, including the lovely Haley and Kendall. We also went over to Haley and Kendall's house later that evening and watched David and the girls ignore their newly opened Christmas gifts in favor of running back and forth across the living room as fast as they could for the better part of half an hour.

Torturing Bette. Playing with Haley (who was a fan of David's safety goggles)

Having fun at H & K's house

We made it home just before 1:00am last night/this morning. It will probably take a few days to get back into our routine and detox David from the nonstop attention he received over the weekend. So far he seems to be recovering quite nicely. He had a good time going to Sabrina's gymnastics competition this morning and spent the afternoon playing with all his loot.

Based on this picture, I think my decision to sign him up for gymnastics was a good one. The yellow hat has a working light which will no doubt drive poor Pete to the brink of insanity.

Catching up

Like everyone else in the world, we've been busy with holiday this and end of the year that, so I am delinquent in my posts. Here is a brief recap of the last couple of weeks.

Alma's daughter and David's hero, Sabrina, is on winter break for 3 weeks. David thinks he hit the mother lode. He has been having all kinds of fun with Sabrina, including a trip to see The Princess and the Frog. Never in a million years would I have thought to take my maniac child to sit through a movie, but he apparently was very good and enjoyed himself and the movie thoroughly. This is likely due in no small part to the fact that he got to sit with Sabrina and that Alma bought him a hot dog and his own popcorn at the theater.

We made the drive out to Dekalb Friday night for Adam's Christmas party. As usually happens with Adam's parties, the weather was questionable. Wintery mix + long boring drive + Friday rush hour = good times. Fortunately, David managed to keep it together for most of the ride. Once we were there, he parked himself by Adam's candy train with his new friend Logan and could not have had a better time. As a bonus, Adam and Laura gave David a marble set that lets him force Kevin and I to build various downhill courses for his marbles with all kinds of ramps and spinny things. They chose this gift not only because they thought David would love it (he does) but because he spent most of our last trip to Galena throwing some marbles around the house and screaming "NARMLES!" to everyone's amusement, especially his own.

Sabrina and David at the movies. David and Logan with the candy train. Narmles!

Saturday we went downtown to the Christkindl market at met up with our friend Nickie. We'd never been before and really enjoyed it. They sell all sorts of German things that your grandmother would love at outrageous prices, and the food was fantastic. Adams, if you come up next Christmas, you must go.

Today Kevin and David went to the Blackhawks game with Grandpa. We gave Grandpa an early Christmas gift of a Blackhawks jersey, or as the cool kids say, a sweater.
Kevin and David shovelling snow. David with his cheezborger cheezborger cheezborger before the game tonight. 3 generations, 1 sweater

I'm sure there is more to tell like what a great job David has done with potty training and how he hit my boss (and, quite frankly, if you'd been there, I think you'd have a hard time blaming him...sorry, Lyna) at our office Christmas party. Unfortunately, it is past my bed time and I have 3 days of you-have-to-give-me-antibiotics-because-he-CAN'T-be-sick-for-Christmas visits ahead of me at work.

Happy anniversary, Nahnee and 'Ramma!

David (and the rest of us) would like to wish Nahnee and 'Ramma a very happy 40th wedding anniversary today. We'll see you soon!

Back to school

When Kevin visited Saguaro National Park last month while away on business, I was accused of neglecting the pretty cactus pictures he took because they did not include me or David. He went down to UofI with his brother, Allen and Adam this weekend to gorge himself on the food of his youth and take in a football and basketball game; and I will not make the same mistake twice. Here are the boys at Memorial Stadium, Assembly Hall (insert Aunt Judy's obligatory orange-is-so-tacky comment here) and in front of the creepy Alma Mater statue.

After Kevin got home this afternoon, we attempted to decorate the tree and get pictures for our Christmas card in the process. David was not particularly interested in either. Pete, however, was gunning for his second consecutive Christmas card appearance.

Holiday lights

We hit Michigan Ave. last night to check out the holiday lights. It was beautiful, and the weather was nicer than it will be for at least the next six months. Here are a few pictures.

The tree at the Hancock. 4th Presbyterian Church

Water Tower

Inside the Hancock building

Potty training, Turkey Day and GG's flesh wound

A little over a week ago, David looked down at his diaper and said "Me wear underwear." Alright then. Since then, he's been making much potty training progress, including going accident free all day when the poor kid had to spend the day at work with me on Wednesday because we were Alma-less. In addition to not peeing or pooping all over my office, David was ridiculously well behaved the entire day despite going without a nap. Many thanks to my co-workers, my medical student and to our receptionists' niece Abby who were such a help keeping him busy and me sane. Here are some pictures of David entertaining nurse Josy and med student Amanda.

We spent Thanksgiving morning at our second home, Brookfield Zoo. It was pretty chilly, but we took in some of the indoor exhibits like the primates, the fish and the play zoo. After naptime, we headed to GG's and ate until we couldn't eat any more. David had fun playing pool with Kevin, Kevin's great uncle Frank, Uncle Dave and Grandpa. He also received his first Christmas present which will probably top all other Christmas presents--Lincoln logs complete with a little train set from great aunt Vic and John. He loves them.

This morning while I was busy saving the world from the common cold, Kevin and David built a village out of Lincoln logs and then headed off to Grandma and Grandpa's house. David helped Granpa put up Christmas decorations and helped Grandma, GG and great aunt Barb with their annual Christmas cookie baking. The boy knows his way around a rolling pin.

I joined them after work and got to decorate cookies. Plus I got to suture the hole GG stabbed in her hand while cutting up snacks. Until those stitches come out in a week or so, Lil needs to keep that hand dry. That means no washing dishes. What do you think the Vegas odds on that happening are?

Weekend in Hotlanta

We spent this weekend in Atlanta visiting Aimee, Allen and our goddaughter Amanda. It has been well documented that David loves older women, so this trip was right up his alley. Despite the fact that he called her Haley as often as he called her Amanda, they had a really fun time together. They were always hugging and holding hands. Very cute.
Kevin took Friday off of work, so we were able to arrive in the afternoon. David gave Allen and Aimee a real taste of what it is to be a boy. And by that I mean he ran around their house frantically turning every thing he touched into either a weapon or some sort of sport. There was also a lot of random shouting involved.
Saturday we went to the Georgia Aquarium, which was fantastic. Kids and grown ups were all very impressed.
Kevin and David checking out the oceans exhibit which included a couple of enormous whale sharks and a very cool tunnel where you were surrounded by fish, sharks and manta rays.

David and Amanda checking out the river exhibit and outside the aquarium (note David is carrying Amanda's purse).

Afterwards we went to the Varsity for some delicious greasy food.
David and Amanda looked very stylish in their paper hats. David hijacked my banana pudding ice cream.

Sunday before we flew out, we went to the Atlanta zoo. Highlights included an enclosed area full of parakeets that the kids could feed (we managed to get out of there without getting pooped on), the pandas and a train ride with Amanda.

Many thanks to Allen, Aimee and Amanda for being such great hosts and letting us drag them around all weekend. The three of us had a great time and can't wait to come back.