Christmas Day. Welcome to the Thunderdome.

So Christmas morning happened.  Shockingly, later than expected.  As a rule, Darby wakes up at 5:30, but she cut us a break and didn't wake up til 6:30.  And we were able to stall her until Dalton woke up at 7:30.  So it was a leisurely morning...
 

 

There was the expected Christmas carnage.  Darby had asked Santa for a FurReal puppy, a Barbie (or rather Barbie's little sister's) swingset and a pair of light-up shoes.  Dalton wanted a Kindle and a trash truck.  As expected, Santa delivered - despite dubious reports from Party the elf.


Dalton had some issues with his presents.  He decided to wear the Kaleidoscope like a unicorn horn, the robot box like an astronaut's helmet, and Daddy's stocking like a hood (that's him in that picture btw - see if you can pick him out...)


For her part, Darby was the perfect sweet angel...or at least that's what it looks like from these pictures... (not quite sure how that happened!)


I gave her my Holly Hobby doll from when I was little. She was very sweet and appeased me. Dalton enjoyed his new stretchy toy and the drums that Daddy got them (not quite sure what crack he's been smokin'...)


The morning's festivities went well. After the initial Bacchanalian celebration, there was a nice breakfast, and then the ultimate letdown of nap.

Then we went over to Nana and Pa's for dinner - which was awesome.

Ella had an incident with Pa's chair which put a big damper on her evening, but for everyone else, a lovely time.

Just as we left,  Mommy insisted on the now annual fireplace picture.  Some turned out friendlier than others...

Santa's Having Mince Pie in Texas.

As followers of the Blog should know - we are loyal disciples of Peppa Pig in this house.  Peppa is set in England, and apparently they leave mincemeat pie for Santa there.  I had explained it to Darby (when she grilled me) by saying that Santa has dinner in England and dessert here - which is why we leave cookies. 

Of course - I looked like an idiot when we were in the grocery store Christmas Eve, saw a jar of mincemeat filling and I read the label - it's apples and raisins. Hence that meant we had to buy the filling and some pie crust and make a pie for Santa.


Of course we couldn't forget the reindeer. They got carrots.

 As far as the family goes - we got PJ's.

...to be cont'd Christmas morning...

Running Amuck

Wow.  Holiday weekends.  What a beating.  My hat is off to the stay-at-home moms.

Thanksgiving was pretty good.  The kids were reasonable well behaved and the meal was awesome - not much more we can ask for at this point. 

Hi - I look like the spoiled preppy villain in every 80's teen movie...

Lovin' him some pie - with a lot of cheese.

I even took Darby to Walmart on the way home to shop for a Human Rights Initiative charity family that we were shopping for, and she was quite good.  Out strategy this year is that anytime she sees something she would like from Santa, we take a picture of it.  Then when it comes time to make our list, we will look through the pictures and she can decide what she really wants.  Look at the plaintitive look she is working here for Santa.  

Mommy did put her foot down though. I refused to take a picture of Pooper-Scooper Barbie (probably not the real name...).  She comes with a dog, who comes with a leash, bowl, food, pooper scooper and little plastic dog turds.  Darby is completely enamored with it (don't you get any ideas Michelle Morgan - I know how your brain works).

Things took a nosedive Friday.  Darby, Nana and I left about 8 to shop the sales. We were initially unable to find a cart at Kohls which was  a nightmare.  Toddler uncaged is not what you're looking for in these situations.  We did finally find a cart by stalking the check-out, and then upgraded to one with a kid seat by bemoaning the lack of one in front of a lady who had one and didn't need it (it's all about the strategy).  At Old Navy, she continued with the nightmare theme, but did make friends with many of the mannequins.  Her love for the dog was a given, but she had many secrets for the little girl as well.


When we got to Target she had settled down a bit, but the day had clearly taken a toll. She did request her picture with the Christmas trees. 


In the end, Kohls, Old Navy and Target is a bit much for a 3 year old, so by the time we got to TGI Fridays for lunch, everyone was done, done, done.

My one main triumph for the weekend was that I had a talk with Darby about her favorite phrase -  "can I ask you a question?"  She especially likes to bring this out when she's stalling - often at bedtime.  It is then followed with some ridiculousness like "I really like the pockets of your shirt" or "I really like your buttons".  Whatever is in her sight-line.  Now, I know better than to try to squash that technique, but I did teach her what a question is.  So now when she's stalling, she says instead "can I tell you a statement?"  Small victories.

On Saturday the kids got long awaited haircuts. Dalton's hair was so long and thick that every time he woke up it would stand straight up and out like a member of a 80's New Wave band.  When we sat down in the chair he exploded in screams, but after the savior known as Darby's Kindle was brought out and set to Monster's Inc., the Great Clips took a collective sigh of relief.  There were lollipops as reward.

After a rousing game of no one napping, we braved the Castle Hills Christmas tree lighting.  We found a bunch of friends there which was nice - there was much screaming and running around.  We saw reindeer and rode what can only be described as the "Crazy Train".


Then there was Mexican food dinner and a viewing of the big tree (post-lighting).  Darby thought it was fun to sit on the barrier chain - until she ended up on her ass...
 

Sunday is where we did a full spiral into the world of the teenager.  After no naps all around - yet again - Darby was in full-on sass mode.  We did time-out - setting a timer for 7 minutes.  Ever time she misbehaved we re-set the timer.  After about 20 re-sets, she hadn't yet made it to the 5 minute mark.  We then escalated to putting her in her bed.  At that point I had this conversation with Dalton:

D: Where's Darby
M: She's in her room - she's being punished.
D: Why?
M: Because she's being a bad girl.
D: AGAIN??

When she finally got out of the typhoon of time-out and punishments we had a long conversation about her attitude.  It centered around her bad attitude - which I spoke about and she exemplified.  It included this exchange:

M: Mommy's very unhappy with your sassy attutude
D: That's unfortunate.

Sorry - is she just a very short 16 year-old?  Did I Rip Van Winkle the last 13 years??

We ended the night with a viewing of Frosty.  I had limited hopes for it, but she made it through the whole thing (he made it through the first minute).  As the credits were rolling she informed me that she'd had enough Frosty.  I told her that that was fortunate.

P.S. It does nothing for my ego that I have now become known (as Dalton is screaming from his bed) as "Mommy Pig".  I get that it's a Peppa Pig reference, but still. I have to say though I do like that because of that show they refer to a flashlight as a "torch".  Too cute.

P.P.S. Of course, just as I was feeling guilty about being secretly glad to get back to the nice, relaxing office, they pulled out this cuteness this morning.  Well played children...well played...