Batman and Tee-ball

On Christmas morning, Miss R was the first one up. She got us up around 8:15AM. I was thankful that she let us sleep b/c I didn't go to bed until 3AM. We got out of bed, excited for the kids. Jeff and I decided that we'd let them open the stockings before breakfast.

The big problem was getting Henry out of bed. He didn't want to get up. In fact, he ended up crawling under his bed and trying to nap under it.

It wasn't until 8:45AM before we headed out to the living room, having made our morning stop in the bathroom so that Henry could get ready for the day and his big boy underwear. The kids enjoyed the stockings, but we still don't think that they really "got" the concept of Christmas (spiritual or materalistic). Miss R especially enjoyed the Pez candy dispensers that I put in the kids' stockings. She managed to find Henry's and polish off his candy before anyone could notice.

After a breakfast of french toast, we opened presents. Miss R did catch onto the fact that there were toys to be had on top of the bar. In fact, she went over to the bar and put her arms up and said "Help! I can't reach it! I can't reach it!"

We took our time opening presents. Rather than opening everything at once, we let the kids look at their gifts and play with them for a bit before opening the next set of gifts. Henry really liked this ball and mallet set that I bought him. He and Miss R took turns hitting these balls that would roll down some ramps and out the side of a little tower. Then, one of the kids would replace the balls while the other one would hit them again with the mallet. Miss R seemed to like a shoe lace and wooden objects lacing set. Henry was thrilled that Santa gave me a Harry Potter DVD (the half-blood prince). We put Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (more kid appropriate), however, in the TV, which made Henry very happy.

The big hit was the shopping carts. My mom bought Miss R one (pink). I bought the last one at Toys R Us on Christmas Eve for Henry (blue). My mommy instincts told me that there was going to be pandemonium in the house if we only had one shopping cart. After the kids opened them (Henry immediate knew what they were), I managed to put Henry's together in less than 10 minutes. Jeff, on the other hand, put Miss R's together in about a 1/2 hour. It had A LOT of parts. The kids weren't very patient about it either.

Jeff was a bit disappointed that the kids didn't go crazy over the trikes. I'm not sure that they really understood what they were. Or perhaps nothing could compare to a shopping cart! During our unwrappings, we had visits from Yvonne and her dogs Chocolate and Banjo. The visit was cut short by Henry having an accident. But we are pleased at least that he seems to know when he's wet (unlike when he is in pull ups). Later, Hal stopped by with Annie and Luke. Annie tried to walk into the house. We would have let her wander, except that she hasn't been around cats before.

The kids didn't go down for a nap until the early afternoon. When they got up, it was time to head off to Grammy and Poppy's house for Christmas dinner.

Miss R looked cute in her new sparkly dress and silver tennis shoes. She refused, however, to take off her pink jacket the entire time that she was there. She was also shy. In attendance were my parents, Aunt Carolyn, Aunt Erin & Uncle Brian, and my Aunt Gloria (my dad's sister). It took her a couple hours before she warmed up to people and would walk a couple feet from me.

Everyone got the kids wonderful gifts. The big hit of the evening was a Batman playset from Aunt Carolyn. I think that everyone was surprised at how Henry latched onto it. It is a neat toy. It is Batman's lair, with an evevator, windows, hook, ladder, ramp, etc. But it isn't as though we've ever shown Henry anything Batman related before (although I'm pretty sure that some kids at school have Batman shirts). The kids were very entertained with it. Henry was upset that we wouldn't open (in the house) the tee-ball set given to him by Grammy and Poppy. Silly Grammy wasn't comfortable with Henry playing tee-ball near her Waterford crystal. Henry hugged the tee-ball set box for several minutes, but distracted by the Batman set once again when Jeff opened up it so that they could play with it fully.

Henry claimed not to want dinner, but I coaxed several bites of ham, a bite of green beans, and a couple bites of mashed potatoes into him. Plus, he ate some of Aunt Erin's biscuits. At dessert time, he almost had a whole slice of pumpkin pie. Miss R just ate the whipped cream.

After dinner, the kids horsed around. Henry tried to get Miss R to dance with him. He came up to her and said "I want to dance with you, R." Alas, she rebuffed him and said "no" even though he asked politely.

I taught Henry how to do jumping jacks. I was hoping that it would tire him out, but I think that it only managed to tire me out.

When we neared our house, Henry said that he wanted to go to bed, which was probably a first. He did get distracted by the shopping carts on the way to the bathroom to brush teeth. Miss R was not sleepy. I had to rewind the lullaby machine several times before she finally went down.

This morning (Saturday), we went for a walk after breakfast. The kids rode their trikes while Jeff and I used handles that fit onto the trikes to push them. It worked out pretty well. We learned that Henry can climb the front wall that's about as tall as he is. We talked with Swanee for awhile. She returned Lily who had scampered out into the road. I took the kids outside to sprinkle bird seed. Henry powered through his. Miss R had fun sharing hers. She'd take out a handful and put it in Henry's cup and then he'd dump it out.

Then it was lunch time and nap. Miss R yammered for about an hour. Luckily, she didn't wake up Henry. I wish that they wouldn't fight sleep so much.