The New Year

Well, it has indeed been a busy month. The time seemed to fly by once we got back from Cuba. Bernie, I promise I'll get some Cuba pictures up here for you soon. We had loads to do the week before Christien went back to work to get ready for Christmas. Got the tree, did some shopping, started making some "to do" lists. Then he was off again. I managed to stay really busy while he was gone, trying to get a few things ticked off my list everyday. You have to be much more planned out when you are doing errands with a baby, I find. There's no way I can do 5 or 6 stops with the little guy. He's done after two stops. We did our best, and got a lot of things done.

Christien was back only a few days before the grandparents showed up. Cleo's flight arrived early Christmas Eve morning. I have a feeling she was pretty excited to see Reid. The last time she had been here to see him, he was only four weeks old. He's sure changed a lot since then, and turned into his own little man for sure. He definitely kept her laughing while she was here. My parents arrived just before lunch. Although they get to see Reid quite often, they are still always very excited to see him again, and again, and again. It was great having all those grandparents under one roof. Lots of people willing and wanting to hold, rock, feed and clean the baby.

Christmas morning was one for the record books. Reid was hilarious. He had no clue what was going on but he was sure excited by all the commotion. We got everyone up so that they could be there to see his little face when he came down to see what Santa had left. He was kind of weirded out when he first came down with Christien cause everyone was just standing there looking at him. Christien put him down, and he looked at the tree and the presents and went crazy. He jumped at Gerome, his giraffe. And hugged him, and jumped up and down, and squealed. He loves that crazy giraffe. It took us ALL morning to open presents. Reid had no real interest in actually opening anything, and he had the lion's share of what was under the tree. His interest was all over the place. He'd take a shining to a few presents and ignore the rest, then he'd turn his attention to a few other new things once he figured it out. He does love his Mega Blocks and his tunnel. He also loves all the stacking blocks. He just loves to knock them over. And he loves all his bouncy balls. We've sorted the toys upstairs, main floor and down stairs, and put away a lot of his "old" toys so that we aren't overwhelmed. And the house is still over flowing. But they keep him entertained. He also loves all his new books. Sometimes I'll be in the kitchen and it'll get really quiet and I'll go into the living room to look for him, and he'll just be sitting there, by the tree flipping his book open and closed. Looking at the pictures and feeling the pages. Not only is he handsome and cute, but he's also going to be super smart :)

We had our regular "open house" for Boxing day. Didn't have a big turnout this year. A lot of people were out of town, and those that were going to be coming had the flu. Still the friends and family who were here made it totally worthwhile. It's too bad that Davis wanted to go home so early :)

The flu ended up hitting the Short household just before New Year's Eve. I came down with an intense bout on the Wednesday night. And I was 100% out of commission the next day. I'm so lucky that I have such an amazing husband who was able to keep Reid away for the day. Unfortunately Reid and Christien both caught it too. I think that I might have had the worst of it, which was good, cause if Christien were any sicker, I would have thought he was for real dying. So dramatic. Reid is still feeling a bit gross. Today is the first day he's worn real clothes. He's been in his jammies for a week now.

The New Year always seems to bring with it a punch of reality. Not only are all the festivities of Christmas and New Year's over, but you're looking at a long stretch before there is a holiday at all. And a long, cold stretch, filled with snow. It's doubly worse for me this year, cause I've got to start back at work in a month and a half. Some days I'm OK with it, and others it just makes me want to puke. We've got Reid registered in a day care. It's not our #1 choice, but he's close and it's much cheaper then bringing him downtown. He's still on the wait list at our first choice, and nothing seems to be changing his status on that list, so we needed a back up plan. That's a relief. And I'm sure once I get back to work, and into the swing of things it'll be just great. It's going to be interesting how the two weeks that Christien is away goes. With me working, dropping Reid off at day care and picking him up... I was saying to Christien that I'm going to leave him there till 5:30 or 6:00 every day. Even though I'm off work at 4. It will just give me a few hours to get some errands done. Even get dinner started. Or to go for drinks after work. Kidding!!

In order to alleviate some of this depressing reality, we've decided to head to Mexico for a week. Might as well get some sun and sand before I'm back from my year long "vacation". Reid was great in Cuba so I'm sure he'll be just as good in Mexico. Shorter flight too, which is a total bonus. Not that he was bad during the flight, but holding him for the two 4 hour flights was hard on the old back. So that pretty much reminds me that I should get back to looking for deals to Mexico. We knew we were just going to last minute this trip. We know when Christien is off, so here's to hoping that some hotel, somewhere in Mexico will have the availability for us to stay for a week.

Much love to you all in the New Year!