A Birthday Party!

We celebrated Leo’s 4th birthday the other day. He shares a birthday with Nana in mid-December but since he was in Albany then- we got to celebrate it with him here after Christmas.

It was a monster party! Grrrrh!

Fun!

What a cute 4 year old ..huh?

The Circle of Life

Some lessons in life are just hard.

For months before Christmas Alec had been asking for a fish tank and a hamster. He was going to ask Santa for them but I explained Santa doesn’t bring live animals. He took that answer with very few questions which was a nice rare treat. Erik and I had decided much before Christmas that we were going to get him a fish tank and I wasn’t about to share the glory with the man in red.

After some negotiations on the size of tank and where it would go- we purchased and wrapped the tank.

We were pretty psyched about giving it to him.

On the 27th he finally opened the tank.

And he was psyched!

Due to the unforeseen holiday present overkill and since it was the last present Alec opened, by the time we got the tank set up, water acclimated etc…it was New Years Eve.

In the afternoon, with much fanfare, we went to pick out a fish for Alec.

He was giddy.

We told him he could pick out pretty much any fresh water fish he wanted and a even a couple if he wanted.

He just wanted one 15 cent goldfish.

A tiny cute thing…he named him Gulpa. 

The entire ride home I had to hold the bag up so Alec could check on Gulpa.

We acclimated Gulpa to the tank water temperature and then let him swim free.

Alec was thrilled.

We fed him.  (Erik and I- having owned many fish noticed that he didn’t eat immediately…bad sign)

Evening rolled around and Alec was invited to have a sleepover at his grandparents house. (Sweet!). It was Alec’s  first time spending the night there and I think he was pretty excited but a little nervous about leaving Gulpa. We assured him that he was in good hands.

All the trust in the world with mom and dad doing the fish-sitting so off he goes…

Off Erik and I go for our fun evening….

All well and good.

Happy New Year!

BUT

The next morning….Gulpa was not swimming.

Shit.

It broke our hearts to tell Alec.

Oddly, he took the news very well.

He was sad for a while but then decided that putting Gulpa in the compost pile to breakdown into dirt to feed the flowers was the right way to honor “my sweet little Gulpa”.

We treated the water and a few days later we went to pick out a new fish.  This time Alec was stacking his odds for a  surviving fish and instead of just 1 fish- we ended up with 3 neon's and 2 platys.  

Say hello to  Rockstar, Gulpa 2, Crocodilla, Clairese, and Patty the Platy. 

I am not really sure who is who and I think their names are subject to change in a moments notice.

Welcome to our family little fishies.

The 26th…

We got up the 26th like it was Christmas morning and started in on the presents again. We had all morning without plans so we took our time again.

The multitude of presents is not that we and/or Santa bought too many presents-  we were/ are fortunate that all my family had mailed us presents, Alec’s godfather mailed him several presents and Alec has sweet talked his way into several others hearts and they had sent him presents including my boss (way to go little buddy…keep me in good graces!)

A remote control Tarantula. How cool.

And what we didn’t finish on the 26th…we took care of on the 27th. I’ll spare you those pictures! :)

Christmas Day!

Growing up, my Christmas was simple. When you have no relatives to spend it with it there isn’t too much to do. You got up- opened presents –played with presents- had Christmas dinner- you might take a walk in the woods- you played with your presents by the fire and you went to bed.

Very simple.

Erik’s Christmas past was never that simple.  I have become part of that.  I must admit – I do not embrace it well.  I stubbornly fight it every step. It’s a flaw. I’d change..but I am too busy fighting it.

His (and I guess mine now)are exhausting. Very exhausting.

We were up at about 7:15 (Alec somehow forgot it was Christmas morning?!) and we opened some presents.  I refused to rush and we let Alec open and play with everything he wanted at the time. We didn’t make it very far.

The noisy gun.

We only made it through his  stocking a few presents before we had to shower and  and leave the house around 9  to go to the grandparents house to spend Christmas day.

After opening a gazillion presents and making/having Christmas dinner we were then off to visit Aunt Sue’s (Erik’s mom’s sister) for another celebration.

And then finally back to our house around 7pm for more of the presents we didn’t get to in the morning.

(the marble thingy)

We only made it though a few more before he crashed.

Although it is not what I am use to  - it was, for our boy, a merry Christmas indeed.

Santa Baby…

Here is Alec’s letter to Santa that was transcribed for him by one of his teachers.  Unfortunately for Alec, when he was home with pink-eye, his class took a field trip to the post office to mail their letters. He was concerned that Santa would not know what he wanted.

I told him to share the info with Mark the Elf.

I am sure you know what that got me.

So next option- I e-mailed Santa. Being the clever gal that I am- I had not yet shown Alec the Portable North Pole e-mail I had created for him. He was in awe when I opened up the ‘response’ from Santa.  Of course Alec thought he was skyping with Santa so he couldn’t figure out why Santa wasn’t talking back to him.

I was completely thrilled that his request had changed from a dress-up area to other items. Not that I have a problem with dress-up but because we had not yet figured out how to complete this task.

It took a little detective work to figure out what a play bridge is. OK maybe not.

It just took me saying ‘Alec does Santa know what a play bridge is?’

Turns out it is one of those Matchbox/Hot Wheels tall launcher things. Technical I know.

Now that was something Santa could do. 

It was questionable whether Santa would bring Alec a gun. There were many long discussions about it. Dad and Mom doubted Santa would bring a gun. Alec was convinced that he ‘knows not to shoot nature’ so Santa would bring one.

FYI- people are not included as nature in Alec’s world.

Yikes. 

A Happy New Year!

The weather made our annual tradition of a New Years Day walk on the beach easy this year with the balmy temperature. It was 45 with a slight breeze. Just awesome.  It felt so good get out and release the holiday emotions, spend some time soaking up the fresh ocean air and look to forward to all the fun things that 2012 may have in store for us!

We were not the only ones who thought it was a perfect day for a walk. We ran into Courtney, Noel and Leo! (And Aunt Susan too but I didn’t get a chance to snap her pic!)

Happy 2012!

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve consisted of a trip to church (with a gazillion other people) and then a visit to Nanny’s house with Erik’s dad’s side of the family.  I didn’t manage to take any pictures but see just last years post (click here) and see #12…now age everyone by a year subtract Dee and Zbig and add Courtney, Noel and Leo and you have Christmas Eve this year.  The boys were wild. It was like 85 degrees in there. Alec was sweaty. Alec was underfed. Alec was overstimulated.

He melted down.

I told Erik to find his own way home. (It’s only a mile away- he could have walked if he needed to  but his cousin Joe and family were kind enough to drop him off.)

I carried Alec out sobbing, kicking and screaming.

He screamed and sobbed the entire way.

He ate copious amounts of food and settled down again into the nice little boy I know and love.

Just in time for:

Reindeer dust!

And then opening his one token present on Christmas Eve.  Always new dreammines from the Simmons Family.

(this cutie..wild and screaming? NEVER!)

Alec with a little confusion “It’s a Macys box!”  (Those usually only come from Nana.)

Off to put dreammies on and great ready for the big guy.

I had bought Alec ‘The Little Critters –Night Before Christmas ‘  to read to him before bed but he wouldn’t let me,  He just doesn’t care for that story no matter who is in it. 

We turned off all the lights except for the tree. There was no music – just Erik , Alec and I sitting –looking at the lights on the tree and chatting.  Alec leaned over- snuggled in with doggie and blanket – put his head on my lap and fell asleep. My sweet boy.

And no matter what had happened in the days before – or what would happen the next day:  for a moment- Christmas had settled into our house.

And it was bliss.