Are We in Boston Already???

I say that because it sure feels like it.  I told my dad that it was very rare that I got to say this to him but it was actually colder here yesterday than it was in Boston.  At 11 am, it was 46 with winds blowing up to 25 MPH.  That did not stop the Grodack girls, however!  We bundled up and off we went to the playground.  Sure, we were the only ones there but we had a great walk and the girls seemed perfectly happy being out in those windy conditions.  Just preparing ourselves for the weeks ahead!

The "inclement" weather as they call it, has been messing things up a bit plans wise.  It's rather annoying actually. Tonight Santa was supposed to make a visit to Ron & Elaine's neighborhood on the fire truck, as he does each year, but it's been postponed until Thursday (when we'll be gone).  I never knew Santa to be such a wimp.  Then, on Sunday, we went down to SeaWorld for the evening.  It was open until 11 pm, with a bunch of Christmas shows, and I had the schedule all planned out.  We would leave here at 4:30, just after naptime, and hit all the highlights including the Sesame Street Christmas show (a favorite of Calleigh's, obviously).  Well, we arrive at the park and there's a sign up saying it was closing at 8:00.  We get into the park and they have programs that have been printed up that show all the revised show times based on the 8:00 closing.  So obviously they had planned an earlier closing much earlier in the day.  I had been on their website checking the showtimes as late as 2 pm and there was no mention of closing early.  I was really ticked because the last Sesame Street show ended up being at 5:00 (which we missed) rather than then 6:30 it had been scheduled for.  Despite that minor setback, we did enjoy ourselves very much.  Sure, it was a little windy and cold but we were dressed for the conditions (I even had my long johns on).  They added a new thing this year called "Sea of Trees" which is pretty much how it sounds.  It's all these Christmas trees in the lake that are lit up and the lights change and go on and off to music.  It was really awesome and added a lot to the Christmas ambiance.  We hit the Shamu show and the ice skating (Calleigh was intrigued again) and topped it off with fireworks.  Aubree kept her face towards my chest the whole time but didn't whimper.  Calleigh was sitting on Grandma's lap and Grandma was able to keep her calm through it but Calleigh told me afterwards, quite emphatically, that she does NOT  like fireworks.  On her own, she did tell me that she liked the fireworks at the hospital (which was when she was 18 months old but I know she's seen the movies of it) because she was eating a cupcake during it.

Aubree enjoying the "fake" snow.

Watching the Sea of Trees

We're biased but we thought she looked so cute with her hat and braids.

Eating supper while watching Shamu.  Apparently the fact that there was a big brown spot on her banana, didn't phase Aubree.

Since the Sunday morning family picture taking didn't go so well, I figured we could try it at SeaWorld.  No luck.

This was a mime at one of the shows.  Look at Aubree staring at him!

The Sea of Trees...at least some of them.

Sabbath was a good day.  Church was uneventful although I did get to see one of my friend's, Leslie, who is due a few weeks after me.  She hasn't been around much because she's been having horrible morning sickness.  She doesn't want to take the Zofran so she's been miserable.  Speaking of Zofran, most days I'm only taking one at most, if any, so that's been good.  The second trimester is off to a much better start than the first.

Later in the day, Ron, Elaine, Chuck, and Angie came over so they could help us hoist our old 57' giant TV into the back of Duncan's truck to take to the Salvation Army.  The thing weighs a ton and we've been waiting for a time for people to be around to help us get it into the truck while the donation center was open.  Of course, we wanted to get it done before 12/31 so we could get the tax deduction.  We bought that TV almost eight years ago with our wedding money.  It's funny because the new ones is essentially the same size but it was half the cost.  And, obviously, it's much better technology.  After that was finished, we were off to Ron & Elaine's for supper and some visiting with Chuck and Angie.  They left on Sunday morning so this was the last visit.  The girls had a really great time since Aunt Angie is so much fun!  But the highlight of the evening was when we noticed some police lights flashing so we ran outside.  It was hundreds and hundreds of bike riders, with their bikes all decorated for Christmas (some with flashing lights), riding through the neighborhood.  A local bike shop had organized this ride for anyone who wanted to join in.  A police escort led them through the neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights.  There were many people pulling along little trailers with kids in them so there and then, we vowed to do it next year!

Aunt Angie

Sunday morning was one of those frustrating moments of futility.  We went back over to Ron & Elaine's for Ron to try and get a picture of us for our Christmas card.  I should have remembered that that time of day is not a good time for Aubree but there we were, nonetheless.  As I half expected, she was pretty uncooperative with nary a smile to be seen.  I take that back.  There was one smile but Calleigh had her hand in her (Calleigh's) mouth during that one picture.  Figures.  In times like those, you just go with the picture where she's at least not frowning and fortunately we did get one of those.  I so look forward to the day when everyone's a little older and will smile at the same time.

You try to take a picture of just the two of them and this is what you get.

Finally, something decent but Aubree still looks a little weird.

Now begins the panic of thinking of all the things to do before we leave on Thursday.  That list includes laundry, packing, taking Calleigh to the dentist, taking Marlee to the vet, cleaning the van, putting the roof top carrier on, picking up the pictures from JCPenney, going to David and Yully's tomorrow night for David's birthday, cleaning the house at least a little bit, stopping the mail, addressing and mailing all our Christmas cards which I picked up today, packing all the presents I have here, making my Dr. Laura CD to take with me to listen to during the wee hours of the morning while I'm behind the wheel trying to stay awake, and the list could go on, I'm sure.  And, I'm sure it will all get done one way or another.

One disgusting note from Calleigh.  Sunday night I'm brushing her teeth and we're about thirty seconds into it and she says to me, completely nonchalant, "This is my toilet brush."  So I immediately stopped to further question her.  Yup, turns out she had put the toothbrush into the toilet.  I feared for the rest of her collection of  brushes but she insisted it was only that one.  Pretty gross, huh?

As for her sleeping, she is still staying up just about as late as we are.  The binky shut her down like an hour earlier than she's going to sleep now.  We're lucky if she's asleep by 11.  In an attempt to get her to take a nap on Sunday, Duncan had made the futon into a bed and as you can imagine, she's insisting on that being done every time now.  We just go along with it in the hopes that it will get her to sleep faster.  We did get her some new bedding for Christmas so hopefully that will motivate her to stay in the bed.

I'm moving Aubree into the next size clothes.  May I just rant a little bit on kids clothes??  It's so frustrating with her tiny size because all the 12-month pants are way too short but fit in the waist whereas the 18-month clothes are the right length (or a little long but you can cuff them) but the waists are way too big.  Ahhh!  Fortunately Old Navy provides an adjustable band on their pants so I can make them tighter but I didn't have any of those from Calleigh so I had to go buy a bunch.  Most of Calleigh's 18-month pants were from Children's Place and they sag down around Aubree's knees because there's nothing there to keep them up.  I wish someone would create toddler pants in a "short" and "long" version so I could just buy 12-month pants in "long."

I don't know when I'll post again since we leave Thursday afternoon but I promise that it will be at least this year!