Year End

I have been really bad about keeping up with this blog lately. The end of school before break was pretty hectic as were the holidays. The weekend that we got off from school, we had Dani's official 1st birthday party. The family came over and Dani was happy, happy, happy. But what else is new? She didn't really care much about her presents but thankful Jack was there, ready to rip all of them open for her. She preferred to toddle about happily, soaking up all the attention lavished upon her.

She enjoyed her beautiful Elmo cake (thank you, Walmart). Yes, yes, I know. For Jack, I slaved away in the kitchen and, if I must say so myself, the 3 (yes, 3) cakes turned out beautifully. And when I proudly set Jack's very own big top tent cake in front of him, he refused to touch it and just cried. They often say that the second child gets the shaft. However, I really don't see it that way. It's not neglect, it's wising up. It's realizing that a lot of that stuff I killed myself over was unnecessary and that there were easier ways to do things. Anyway, I digress. Dani smeared red frosting all over her chair and face and it was much more rewarding than Jack's crying about his. (By the way, Jack has long since decided that it is stupid to cry when you receive cake--that you should only cry if you don't get cake.)

Dani got a lot of fun toys and cute outfits and after the party, we set our sights on Christmas. My parents say every year that we are going to scale back Christmas. So I actually listen and scale back Christmas. Then they walk in with about a thousand presents leaving me looking like a cheapskate. It stinks. At least until I realize that a lot of those presents are mine. It actually didn't really matter anyway, since I didn't get to open any of them. Jack has decided that opening presents is REALLY cool and he opened every single present that anyone got. He excitedly tore open each present, exclaiming with each package, "Oh my GOSH! It's a BOX!" After he got to the contents, he paraded it around and I really didn't get a chance to see what I got until the next morning, which was actually kind of fun, like doing Christmas all over again.

Both Jack and Dani loved the turkey (no surprise with Dani) and the choice of 5 kinds of cookies that we made. The next day at Carmen's they got even more toys. Jack ate a lot of meat but wouldn't touch any of the sides that he deemed scary. Dani, on the other hand gave us the first and only visible clue that she is actually Hispanic by polishing off an entire tamale. Overall, it was a fabulous Christmas with both sides of the family.

Later in the week, we took Dani to her first year portraits. She did absolutely great and we got amazing shots. They really captured her adorable personality. It was interesting because for the first half of the shoot, we tried to do her hair, pulling it back neatly into a side sweep pinned by a barrette. Halfway through the shoot, it just didn't look like our Dani so we pulled the barrette and her crazy hair did it's thing. And we got our perfect shots of our perfect girl.

Just before the end of the break, Nonny, Poppy and I took Jack downtown on his first train ride and his first visit to the city. We prepped him for what we were going to do all week and effectively built excitement. He kept exclaiming that we were going to the "big, Bubble City." (from Bubble Guppies). He was scared to get on the train at first but that lasted mere seconds and he spent the rest of the trip excitedly pointing out everything outside the window.

He was a trooper the whole way and walked a ton. We walked form Ogilvie to Macy's. Then on to Millenium Park (Jack loved the Bean.). We then marched up Michigan Avenue all the way to the Water Tower before catching a cab back to the train station. We all had fun and the kid slept like a rock!

Nonny and Poppy left on New Year's Eve day and we took the kids to a friends for a few hours. We obviously couldn't stay long but the kids had fun with the other kids and Jack learned how to fistbumpl

We really couldn't have asked for a better break, filled with lots of fun, love and together time. Watching the kids really start to understand unwrapping gifts and enjoying Christmas makes it all the more special. I can't wait to see it get better and better each year. It will be interesting as well when Dani finally decides that opening presents is fun too. Could make for some interesting Christmastime wrestling.