Balloon Volleyball
Greetings to all.
Xavier got to do many things with Aunt Kathy. He even let her put him to bed one night. It was a Christmas miracle!
One of the games played was balloon volleyball. Xavier found a balloon in his toy box. We blew it up and it became a nightly ritual before going to bed to play the game.
I don't know if the nightly games helped tire Xavier out, or wind him up. Fortunately, Aunt Kathy offered to put Xavier to bed the first night.
With Xavier wound up, and knowing how difficult getting him down in such a state can be, I took her up on her offer. As she led Xavier to his room, I secretly laughed.
Kathy returned less than fifteen minutes later. Xavier was in bed and stayed there. In fact, he fell asleep very quickly. Try as I might, I could not convince Kathy to do this for us every night until Xavier turned four.
Christmas 2016, Part 3
Hello to all.
We have had several guests over the last two weeks. Kathy arrived late last night. We kept the stockings until her arrival, thus our final day of celebration.
This Christmas Xavier finally understood enough to get excited, but he still did not understand the whole stocking deal. That would change when Aunt Chelle arrived and we all had our stocking handed out.
Santa had some problems containing all the gifts to the stockings, so we did have some overflow. Xavier noted this and got suspicious that his stocking might have more stuff than what lay underneath it.
Xavier had much to play with while Mom, Kathy and Chelle fixed breakfast. He had play dough, a Nerf basketball set, a harmonica, card games and a whole plethora of little windup toys and other tiny gizmos.
Xavier had a good Christmas this year!
Reindeer Food
Greetings to all.
One of the problems with trying to accommodate the celebrating of Christmas with so many people whose schedules did not align was trying to keep the magic in it for Xavier. His class in school, unaware of our plight, provided us some help.
One of the school projects he did was create a package to attract Santa's reindeer to our house.
The instructions, in effect, read: spread the food in the lawn and the reindeer will know to land at your house.
We held on to the food during Christmas Break. Tonight, we set the food out as per the instructions. We told Xavier it would help Santa find the house since Christmas Day had passed. We said Santa was going to make a special trip just to fill his stocking.
We waited until the sun had set and dusk had passed. Xavier thought it best to pour out the food in the front garden. So, that is what we did. After spreading the food out, Xavier had a little excitement, then wanted to return to the house.
A few hours later, before I left to pick Xavier's Aunt Kathy up at the airport, I took a rake and roughed up the ground and buried the rolled oat mix (aka Reindeer Food).
My plan tomorrow morning is to go into Xavier's room excited when I wake him. "The reindeer food is gone! Santa came! He found the house. He filled your stocking!"
Christmas 2016, Part 2
Merry Christmas to you all!
Even though we celebrated Christmas last week with Xavier's Grandma Penny and Aunt Chelle, we still had some gifts in reserve for Christmas Day.
The first set came from Xavier's Aunt Kathy. She sent her gifts ahead of her arrival, which should be tomorrow. We called her on the phone so she could at least hear Xavier's excitement at opening his gift from her.
Xavier was excited! He had picked at this present all morning. While we caught up with Aunt Kathy's plans, Xavier sneakily kept undoing parts of the wrapping. Finally we let him have at it. It turned out to be a drill and screw gun combo. He knew exactly what it was and what to do with it. It was a gift that stole the day.
Next was Grandpa Danny's present. Though we could not get Dan on the phone, Xavier still ripped into the large package with the same gusto he did with the drill.
Xavier had not seen Lincoln Logs before. He had no idea what to do with them. It was Dad to the rescue. We opened the box and built a house.
Xavier knocked the house over. Then we built a second. This time, Xavier got engaged. He wanted to put the doors and windows in. Then, upon getting the last window in, Winter Storm Xavier demolished the house.
Now, we build houses that form tunnels for Hot Wheels track and garages for Hot Wheels cars.
Christmas 2016, Part 1
Greetings to all.
Christmas came early for us this year. Actually, it came in two parts; one is yet to come.
Xavier's Aunt Chelle graduated with her MS degree this past Friday. Grandma Penny flew in for the event. This created a trifecta of events, if we fudged the Christmas date a little. We celebrated Chelle's conferral of a post-graduate degree, Rebecca's birthday and a little Christmas while Grandma was in town.
Next week, we will host Aunt Kathy, and will celebrate Christmas as well.
Grandma Penny sent her gifts ahead to Chelle's home. Both Penny and Chelle wrapped their gifts when they arrived at our house. Xavier was excited by the large gift Grandma Penny had. It was wrapped in Spiderman paper, and that alone got his heart racing.
Once it got set under the tree, he tried several times to open it up. He sneaked into the room with the tree (or thought he sneaked—Dad caught him on digital film) to open the gift.
Shortly after that, he was back near the tree, and the two bows on the package had mysteriously found their way to the floor. Shortly after that, the tape holding one of the sides of the gift no longer secured the wrapping paper.
We made him wait to open the gift, which took much straining on his part to comply.
When he started opening other gifts (after the adults were finally ready), his joy from the other presents distracted him from the big gift. Distracted, but he never forgot.
At last, he got to the big, Spiderman decorated box. It was worth the wait; the Tonka truck inside made him light up with glee!
Not to be outdone, the last gift he opened came from Mom and Dad. His joy at the new Hot Wheels kit sent him through the roof! He dropped everything and hastened Dad to help him set it up.
Friends came up from Colorado Springs for dinner. They also brought Xavier a gift. Once again this year, Xavier's parents' gift was overshadowed (two years ago, it was the Red Ryder wagon; last year a train set). This year, the Buzz Lightyear toy stole Xavier's heart.
After dinner, Xavier and the two children of our friends (Emerly and Ben) headed outside to play in the snow. We had a nasty storm move through Friday night and it left behind six to eight inches of snow and single digit temperatures.
Ben and Emerly brought with them an inner tube and a toboggan. The three of them spent much time outside making snow angels and riding the toboggan. This was Xavier's first time at sledding. He loved it! The slight hill in the back yard was just the right length and pitch for him to enjoy.
Of course, we celebrated Rebecca's birthday. After enjoying a wonderful meal of ham, green bean casserole, home-made cranberry jelly, buttery popovers and scalloped potatoes—all on the fine china, we hunted down some birthday candles and put them on the two cakes brought in to celebrate with.
Happy 43rd, Rebecca!
2016 Christmas Pagent
Greetings to all.
Today, at noon, Xavier sang in his school's Christmas Presentation.
He was not feeling up to it today. Dropping him off at school, he clung to Dad like a Velcro® monkey. He clung to his teachers throughout the morning.
Entering the auditorium, one of Xavier's teachers carried him down the aisle while all his classmates walked.
He spent much of his time on stage hiding behind a chair. Mom managed to walk around to a place he could see her. That settled him a little. He actually engaged in singing O Come All Ye Faithful and performed the hand and arm movements.
After a short reception following the program, Xavier was ready to go home and sleep. He slept on the floor inside his new house we erected last night.
A New house
Greetings to everyone.
In less than a week, we will have been living in this house three full years. Still, we have not fully unpacked everything from our move.
As Christmas is nigh upon us and we have guests flying in to stay with us over the next few weeks, Rebecca wanted to hang some of the pictures still packed in boxes and lining one of the walls in the basement. She especially wanted to hang a mirror and some pictures on the newly painted wall over the fireplace. There already empty stocking hung waiting for Santa to fill, and garland and lights made festive the hearth. The mirror and pictures would pull the seasonally decorated room together with a cozy feel.
The process of hanging the items required not only some rudimentary math, but tools. And tools, of course, attract Xavier, who we knew would want to help.
So, on a shopping expedition this evening, Rebecca found a cardboard house on clearance. Designed for children to color in the prints decorating the house, Rebecca also picked up a set of forty markers. These, she thought, would keep Xavier busy and out of our hair while we hung the items.
It was a good plan for any child other than Xavier.
Of course, we had to build the house. Though it came with an instructional set of pictures, it still took nearly an hour to put it up. Then, as we left Xavier to his own devices coloring his own house, we heard it.
"Mama. Daddy. Come color with me."
Oh, how pitiful he can sound when he wants to! So, Xavier helped hang pictures but staying out of the way and playing with tools he found in the open toolbox. After we had hung enough for the night, we followed Xavier into his room to help him color his house.
New Snowpants
Greetings to all.
We got a little snow last night and this morning. Before school today, Mom convinced Xavier to try on his new snow pants to test for fit. He has resisted trying them on before this morning.
He was excited to try them on and to go outside, especially since Daddy had already been out shoveling the walks, making pulling the family truckster out of the garage easier and pulling the trash cans to the curb.
He posed for several photos. He had to pose for many as Dad was excited to test out a change to camera settings to see if they corrected an underexposure problem plaguing pictures for some time (was it some obscure setting or was the light meter on the camera dead?)
Happy to report, it was a setting on the camera and not some expensive repair.
Xavier, however, was not so happy to learn he had to take his snow pants off to go to school. He did not even get to feel the cold, frosty breeze on his cheeks. After school, however, he gave them a proper first field test. He decided they made the grade.
Forlorn
Hello to all.
Tonight was the wing Christmas party. Aunt Chelle drove down to overnight with Xavier as no child care was available this year.
Xavier grew more and more excited as the time for Aunt Chelle to arrive neared. He also pulled a chair over to the front window and waited (occasionally) for Aunt Chelle to arrive.
When she arrived and told him it's nap time, then afterward they can play. I've never seen Xavier leap into bed so quickly! They had games and fixing pizza for dinner planned. Obviously, Xavier anticipated great fun and did not miss Daddy leaving.
Well, why Mom and Dad were enjoying a 40s-themed shindig, decent food, good company and free dance lessons, Xavier's expectations did not live up to the dream. Instead of helping fix pizza, he knelt in the chair by the window with a melancholy expression, wanting Mom and Dad to come home.
But I Said Please
Greetings to everyone.
Bedtime for Xavier has grown into something of a monster. In part because on school days he takes a late nap and does not want to get up no matter how much badgering it takes to wake him.
But the biggest issue is Xavier seems to be something of a night owl. He grows more awake as the night grows late. The preferred bedtime for him is 9 o'clock. This means starting about eight thirty on a uncomplicated night.
Xavier has started a massive squirrel campaign when it comes to going down for bed. We'll agree to read two books, he'll press for three and four after finishing the second.
We'll sit a while after reading. He'll sense it's time to move to the bed, then want a banana, or milk, or water or yogurt or anything that gets him out of his room again.
Most recently, after exhausting the food angle, he's added "I have to poop," which requires turning on a light and him sitting for ten or fifteen minutes doing nothing (because it's a squirrel! technique). He has refined this to needing to use the big potty (regular toilet) because his little potty (in his room) "hurts his butt."
Last night, he quietly lay in my lap. I grew all the more confident I had wrangled the last of the squirrels and he was on his way to a restful sleep.
Just before committing to putting him from my lap to his bed, Xavier looked up at me and said, "I want an apple, please."
Tired myself, I told him he had just eaten yogurt (a nightly bedtime ritual), and that this was just another squirrel technique (yes, I used the word squirrel in my explanation of the denial to his request).
Xavier looked at me with a wounded expression and in a forlorn tone said, "But I said please!"