Bachelor Training Begins
Hello to everyone.
Today has been arriving (or looming depending on the day) slowly for several weeks now. Earlier in December, Rebecca learned she was to report to Patrick Air Force Base in Coco Beach, Florida. We had expected this trip to be in August of this year, but things change—and quickly with this one!
The stay in Florida is for training Rebecca must have for her job. A recent Inspector General's visit in Wyoming found the base not compliant by having personnel appropriately trained. The IG waved its magic stick and poof! August moved to January, sending Rebecca and a co-worked to school—for six weeks.
We planned on this being a family move, but Rebecca quickly learned from the school registration materials that families were not permitted and that she would not have time for them. Her classes start at 0800 and finish out at 1800 Monday through Saturday. And, of course, there is homework, so Sundays are pulled in as well (not to mention Sunday seems the only time to do one's laundry).
So, Xavier and Dad are home alone while Mom toils away in humid, spring-like weather.
Our plan getting up this morning was to drop Rebecca at the airport (DIA) at 0800; her plane's planned departure was 1030. We woke up to snow, and not just a little! Mix in the fact that it would be the beginnings of rush hour when we started to the airport, and that nine out of ten people in that rush hour crowd seem not to know how to drive with two inches of snow on the ground, we arrived at the East Terminal right at 0900. 0900 was the time I was to be dropping Xavier off with his sitter so I could go to work.
Rebecca's flight departed on time and she arrived a little early. She had a day and a half before she had to report for duty, so on Saturday, she went to the beach, watched dolphins in the bay and see horseshoe crabs scavenge the coastline.
Meanwhile, back in Denver, Dad and Xavier began their own school: Bachelor School for Boys. It's a six week crash course designed to introduce Xavier to fending for one's self like a man.
There is a little wrinkle in the training, however. Rebecca took care of several details before she left. Like all the sitters for Xavier so Dad could go to work. She even arranged for sitters so Dad would have time to himself. That, friends, is the loving care of a wonderful woman!
Not only that, but Rebecca, before she left, prepared and froze dozens of meals. We have lasagna, steak, spaghetti, pizza rolls, chili, breakfast sandwiches, lunches, dinners, even chocolate chip cookies! I've got a menu spreadsheet taped to the kitchen cupboard along with a list of weekly supplies. All I have to do is decide what we want to eat, then remember to pull it from the freezer in the morning.
With only the weekly exceptions of milk, fruit and pepperoni, neither Xavier nor I need to darken a grocery store for weeks!
Though I can teach Xavier how to pop pizza rolls into an oven, then sit and eat them in front of the TV while sitting around in his diaper, I guess I'll have to teach Xavier about ordering pizza, deciding on takeout, and falling back to the blue box of Mac & Cheese in a follow-on class.
Christmas 2015
Merry Christmas!
This morning started by us getting up late: 7:30. Xavier slept in, and really did not want to get up. We planned on going to church to worship the reason this great event of Christmas Day commemorates, so Xavier needed to have some running around time before being asked to sit still. 7:30 was as late as we dared let him sleep.
As we pulled into the garage after church, Aunt Chelle pulled up in the street. She brought gifts and food to further celebrate the Day. Rebecca had a feast planned and friends on their way; she even broke out the fancy China tableware and silver flatware.
On Christmas Eve, we Skyped with Rebecca's mom so she could enjoy Xavier opening the gift she sent him. It took some while to get the Skypes talking, but we did. The rest of the day, Xavier drove this and Aunt Kathy's gift all over the house.
Xavier spent many weekends while his mom was in Cheyenne using scissors and glue. He compiled a pictorial documentary of his life from the womb through his first birthday. As hinted by her expression, it deeply touched his mother's heart. Everyone gathered around to flip through the pages and remember some things nearly forgotten and to reminisce over Xavier's first year of life.
Xavier began an unpleasant habit a few weeks back: splashing bath water out of the tub. We figured if he had a new set of bath toys, it may help hold his attention and he would keep the water inside the tub. This pole uses a magnet to catch fish floating in the bubble bath.
Really having the hang of ripping paper off his gifts (he figured that out two days ago with Aunt Kathy's gift), Xavier was excited to get a new device with which to play with his Hot Wheels. Little did he know what else Grandpa Danny sent him!
There was a big squeal as soon as Mom shook the flattened tent so that it popped into shape! Xavier raced around the sofa to get to the tent, trying to crawl in even before Daddy could get it set into position.
Xavier has a strong penchant for music. Rebecca thought this toy would be fun for him. What we did not expect was this toy becoming the most prized gift of the day (at least to that point; Aunt Chelle's present still waited quietly behind the tree)
It took us nearly an hour and a half to get through Xavier's gifts. Being the only young grandson/nephew of the family, Xavier scored copious gifts this year. He wanted to play with the ones he opened while ignoring those still to get to.
I've never heard of nor seen this before: a child not ripping open a present then ravenously moving on to the next one. Feast preparations still had to be done, guests were arriving shortly, and Xavier still had gifts to open. We hurried him through the rest, almost forcing him to open his gifts so we could keep to the schedule!
At last we came to Aunt Chelle's gift, the one we thought would steal the day.
It did not disappoint (that is, until our guests arrived with small Caterpillar trucks for Xavier). We got the twenty-three feet of track set up in the basement. Now, it calls to him, and he runs over to grab a finger to pull a parent toward the basement door. "Down stairs" he asks with hopeful expectation. As soon as the door opens, he races down to play with his train and small trucks.
Merry Christmas to you all! Christ our Savior is Born!
Xavier Inherits Aunt Kathy's Christmas Sneak
Greetings to everyone as the Day of Christmas fast approaches!
Xavier's Aunt Kathy's Christmas gifts arrived earlier this week. One of the neatly-wrapped packages did not survive the shipping in tact; it had a gash in the wrapping paper which left little to the imagination as to what the wrapping meant to conceal.
No problem. We had wrapping tape, and we used it.
We decided to set up a Christmas Tree this year, but left it ornamentless. Last year, the tree was ornamentless from the bottom to mid-tree, but this year we fully Xavier-proofed it. We set up the tree Sunday during Xavier's nap and placed what wrapped gifts we had under it, including the patched gift from Aunt Kathy.
Xavier left the packages under the tree alone, only using a few of the larger ones to climb up and play with the burned out lights (he is obsessed with the lights that do not turn on, and constantly points them out to us, expecting us to fix them).
That changed mid morning today. While using Grandma Penny's present (in a large box) as a platform to reach a dark section of the tree, he looked down and saw Aunt Kathy's torn-but-repaired gift. Something about that package called to him.
Hearing a rustling noise (I was working from home) not common to his previous play, I looked out to see what He was doing. About that time, Xavier squealed with glee as he pulled from behind the tree the torn package—only now, the patched hole was once more open and much wider than when it arrived.
Rebecca and I had to make a decision: hide the gift or let him open it. We decided on the latter for several reasons.
We told Xavier he could open it. He tore off just enough wrapping paper to fully expose the Tonka toy, then waited for Mom to get the scissors to extract it from its packaging.
Xavier power-played with his new toy. He took it to lunch with us, holding it in the car. He even took it to bed with him for his nap.
We thought this would be the end of it, that Xavier would not go back for more packages to open. And that held true until shortly after lunch. Then, he found another package from Aunt Kathy wrapped in the same paper as the Tonka toy. He figured (correctly) since this is the same paper as before, this must be for me. Fortunately, Mom was there to put the kibosh on that!
We may have to pick up all the packages until Christmas Eve; Mom kept telling Xavier, "No, that one is not yours" many times before he went down for his nap.
His antics reminded me of my sister when we were much younger, who blamed the cats for damaging the wrapping on the gifts under the tree. Surprisingly, only her gifts ever got damaged by the cats. Apparently, Xavier inherited Aunt Kathy's Christmas sneakiness.