29 months old on the 23rd Day of Advent (and catching up on the 21st and 22nd!)

Tate and I spent the day together doing alot of nothing.  I can't even figure out what we did all day.  I do remember looking at the clock at 2:36 thinking 'what am I going to do to entertain him for another 4 1/2 hours?'  We did have a few meltdowns...tears from him, raised voices from me, but overall we had an ok day :)


This evening I fed him early, put on his jammies with no bath, let him choose his Advent gift then bundled him into the car to go look at the Christmas lights in Uptown Park.  There is a gorgeous display there (see below).  Tate wasn't as enthused as I expected him to be, but no matter, he had fun nonetheless as is evidenced in the video.  On the way home, I drove us through the richest area here in Houston, River Oaks, and enjoyed the majestic, over the top lights of the oh-so-rich.  (Yay!  Tate fell asleep...as I wanted him to!)

 

 

Tonight was the 23rd day of Advent.  Tate seems to still be excited for it to be Jesus' birthday and I'm so thrilled.  I ran to Whole Foods the other day and ordered a 9 inch egg-free chocolate cake for us to decorate for the Baby Jesus.  I bought icing and sprinkles today, so I hope Tate will enjoy icing the cake this weekend.

He really enjoyed his book yesterday for the 22nd day of Advent.  Mickey Mouse is always a hit for my little guy.   

And on the 21st day he opened the Bernstein Bears.  A little too old for him with all the words, but we got through to the second to last page before he went off in search of Thomas.

He slept until 6 on Wednesday morning which had me at 5:30 in a panic when I woke with a start.  I checked the time and realized I had not heard a single peep from him all night.  I ran to the crib to make sure he was still breathing.  I almost had a heart attack in the time it took me to run those 10 feet.  He woke up just before 6...I wonder had I not had a panic attack would he have slept longer.  He opted to save me from myself on Thursday morning and woke around 5:15.  I reassured him that it was still nighttime and brought him into bed with me.  The 4:54 wake up this morning made me less than thrilled, though I had gotten into bed last night around 9:45pm.  I've been sleeping poorly as Christian and I are having some issues (not related to Tate) and I'm hurting right now, so that adds to my poor sleep.  But the joy of celebrating the birth of our Savior is smoothing all the hurt away.  It will all work out the way God intends.


So as we go into this Christmas weekend, I'm excited, joyful and full of the spirit.  I anticipate that Tate will be quite overwhelmed with the amount of gifts he is going to receive.  As I loaded up my sister's SUV today and more people brought more presents over after she left I was in a bit of shock.  I'm thinking we will open presents in stages simply so that he can sit and have some time to enjoy what he's receiving as well as it not just be all about the gift getting.  Yes, Christmas is for children, but it's for children for a specific reason in my opinion...because we're celebrating the birth of a beautiful child.  We give gifts supposedly in remembrance of the gifts He received from all those that loved Him.  


And give a quick read to my sweet friend's Lara's latest  post...'I'm Going to Wrap Just One More' in her blog 'This May be a Dream Come True.'  She is being sure to have a gift wrapped for herself from Santa Claus, so her sons will hopefully know that Santa is for everyone, as he is.  Whatever we feel about Santa Claus and what he stands for, we mothers, parents, fathers need to remember our children are watching our every single move.  They notice when we're left out.  They want us to feel the love of Santa too.  I'm going to remember that going forward from this year.  Next year there will be a gift from Santa to Mommy.  Thank you my sweet friend!