ANYhow, I had all of this past week off of work and Dononvan had all this past week off of daycare. We had alot of fun and he was good company but the lack of routine played hell with his sleeping schedule. All that post-baby-bedtime champagne and shrimp cocktail time the husband and I were looking forward to--did'nt get too much of that in, I'm sorry to say. Christmas Eve was particularly bad, despite our dire warnings about Not Getting Any Toys. I guess when you try and raise a kid off the consumer grid you cant really leverage consumerism as discipline tool. Oops. The kid also discovered that one way to get Mom to yell is to stand on the furniture. I was going to do a photo montage of Donovan Standing on Chairs but this is the only one I have for you:
The chair is in the Fussy Baby Room at the First Unitarian Church. We tried to attend their Solstice service. Mike told me afterwards that it was very nice.Christmas was here in Pittsburgh this year and the kid got many great gifts. The most popular out of the bag was the set of Felted Ladybugs. The least successful? The apparently horrifying Jack In the Box, which sent our child shrieking into my arms. And, no, it doesn't have a clown, it has a teddy bear.
I guess that's still a shock to the delicate young system. The Shanley family showered the boy with gifts and attention. Aunts Claire and Heather won that heat of the popular toy contest with their 123 book by some graphic artist whose name I'm forgetting but who, like all great artists, is from OHIO. Donny also got a swell ski vest that I plan to parade him around in once he wakes up and has some lunch.Next came Christmas in Elyria, which was the day after Christmas. Donny cleaned up there again and made everyone very happy, especially by playing most with the paper bag his gifts were in:
Unfortunately the first day of that visit was cut short as 3 hours in the car seat and a few more hours without a nap took its toll on the boy. This trip we booked a room at the Elyria Holiday Inn. Donny was very happy to have an unencumbered space in which to run. That and we mixed our parental signals by encouraging him to jump on the bed.
Of course, once we left my folks' house, the boy got a second wind. Not knowing what else to do with him, we took him across the hotel parking lot to the Midway Mall. Those of you who grew up in that Mall, such as myself and Aunt Shirley, might be horrified to know that there is now an Armed Forces Recruiting Office AND a "Truth Booth," which is this big, light up marquee that plays a loop of fetus pictures. Because there is obviously no teen pregnancy problem in Elyria, Ohio, no sir. At any rate, the mall worked its magic:
The next day we visited the folks again and then the Aunts. Then we drove home, dipping liberally into the tines of Christmas cookies that were forced into our hands as we left. We came back to a cluttered house which we proceeded to make more cluttered with boxes, tissue and gifts galore. Good times and good to be back. Onwards to New Years!
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