Christmas Grump

I'd like to put together a little post about how magical and Norman Rockwellesque our Christmas was. Because let's be honest here. That's what every mother imagines and that's what every one tries to capture. Well, it certainly didn't happen for us this year.

We made all the preparations, had the perfect gifts, planned all of our shopping and shipping of gifts so we wouldn't have to scramble once we arrived to St. George. Most of all, I was excited about spending Christmas with family (mostly my Dad). I wanted it to be perfect in every way. Wah, wah, waaaaaaah (insert Debbie Downer music).

To sum it up, Cruz was a big Christmas Grump. Let me preface this with the fact that more times than not, he wakes up a big ole grump. Its always been bad but lately it has been down right horrible. Mostly just after nap but sometimes in the morning as well. We have a waking up ritual for him; open his door and allow the natural noises to gradually wake him up. It has to be on his terms. God forbid you just walk in and wake him up. And you better make sure you are happy and jolly when you greet him. I honestly feel like sometimes I need to enter with a dog and pony show wearing a top hat and doing a tap dance with jazz hands. It can be that bad. Mark actually prefers to have me do it. We actually do rock-paper-scissors with our eyes to decide who gets to "go in". Not it!

Can you tell where I'm going with this? We woke him up Christmas morning. Santa came to my parent's house and had everything set up there. The kids knew this because we told them Santa comes where the tree is. And they decorated the tree at my parent's house pretty much all by themselves. Cooper woke us up and the plan was for the boys, Mark, myself and Grandma Mickey to load up in the car and head to my parents house---in our jammies and all.

One would think making the announcement that Santa came would be enough of a dog and pony show for Cruz when Cooper ran in and woke him up but sadly it was not.

I should have known better. Yes, he knows who Santa is. He wears a red suit, has a white beard, all the ho-ho-ho'ing. But any time we asked Cruz what he wanted Santa to bring him he'd answer 'Diego and chips and cheese (aka nachos)'. The kid loves both. He already has an arsenal of Diego toys and he eats chips and cheese quite a bit. I guess he figured what's the rush?

With that said, Cruz was whiny, grumpy and irritable Christmas morning and it really didn't let up until after nap when we made sure to wake him up on his terms. I truly am scared to see how it will be trying to wake this kid up when he is a teenager!!

I look back and laugh at it now (maybe not a full on belly laugh just yet) but I can't tell you how disappointed I was that morning. I really was bummed that our perfect Christmas morning didn't happen. Cruz was so bad that it was hard to remind myself that Coop was still having a great morning. Hopefully I'll look back at the smiling pictures and forget all about it. Looking at the pictures, it looks like we had a great time. I could have left all this Debbie Downer narrative out.

Once again I was reminded that with kids, you really do have to aim low.......

New Year

Happy New Year! Let me quickly regurgitate the past couple of weeks on the ole blog as I welcome 2013.

We are in St.George and have been since the Saturday before Christmas. We drove with the doggies and Grandma Mickey flew in the day after we arrived.

We rented a house again since my parents don't have enough space for all of us to sleep but we've spent most of our days at my folks' place watching football, eating and enjoying each others company (most of the time). The kids haven't been complete angels the entire time (normal 2 & 4yr old stuff) but the good has far outweighed the not so good. Mark and I have noticed that often one kid is having a "moment" while the other is on the little angel end of the spectrum. Why can't we have them both be happy at the same time more often? Maybe it just seems more noticeable since we're with both Grandmas and Grandpa and we want them to be sweet little angels for them the entire time. Luckily, grandparents are far more forgiving than parents. I'll leave it at that.

I'll try to divide up our Holidays into a couple of posts. Let the Holiday Recap begin....

Snow Day

Today was our first official "snow day". Yes, we've had plenty of snow days while living in Estes Park. But we've never had a day when school was cancelled while Coop was actually enrolled in school. When I broke the big news to him first thing this morning. He was very disappointed. He wanted to go to school. I had to explain to him what a big deal having a snow day actually was.

Dude, someday you'll get it. I guarantee.

Coiffed

It had to be mentioned. Our scruffy little dude finally got a hair cut. We (mainly I) had been putting it off forever and eventually his crazy little mop kind of defined him.

Everyone always commented on his crazy do (even strangers) ---not that it meant they liked it but my bias interpreted it that way.

Anytime the subject of Cruzie needing a cut came up, people actually said don't you dare (except for his Grandpa Pat and Grandma Linda).

I also kept telling myself the process would be horrible and he would never sit still. I think I subconsciously used that as an excuse.

Last Saturday Mark had the boys for the day while I took an overnight girls trip to the big city (Denver). He decided to just make things happen. Apparently, Cruz did great and sat still without any problems. (Sorry I doubted you, little buddy).

He looks like a different kid! I'm going to miss his scruffy little mullet but can't deny the fact that he looks pretty spiffy. And so grown up!!!!!!

Before

During

Viola

Freeze a Cold

It seems a bit off to be posting on the blog about our week filled with colds and coughs after hearing of the tragic event that took place in Newtown, Connecticut this morning.

As 28 mothers tragically lost their babies this morning, I was spending a peaceful morning with one of my babies. It doesn't make sense. Life is strange and scary. It sure puts things into perspective.

While Coop was at school today, Cruz and I joined some friends for a little hike to Gem Lake. I decided to try the approach of freezing a cold because if we let a little snot keep us from doing things, then I'm afraid we'll be housebound all winter.

I heard the horrible news after our hike on our way to pick Coop up from school. Coop was extra excited when I arrived and ran to give me a giant hug. He was over the moon ready to brag to me about how he did on his first day of swimming. I hugged him extra tight. Because I was proud of him and mostly just because..........

Here's our little hiker dude......

Fire Friends

One of the perks of having a fire in your back yard is the fire "eye candy" we were able look at.  I'm not referring to the typical "eye candy" one might think I'd be drooling over.  I'm talking about Cooper's idea of "eye candy"; engines, pumper trucks, tenders, ladder trucks, helicopters, sky cranes.  You name it, they were here and the boys loved seeing them everywhere we went.

The afternoon we arrived back home, Mark arranged to have an engine pull up to your driveway to surprise Coop (Cruz missed out because it was during his nap).  Cooper had noticed this particular engine throughout the week because it was WHITE and it stood out.  He felt like a Fire VIP.

The next day we drove past the engine as it was parked for a lunch break and we waved to our friends.  Coop was quick to tell Cruz that 'those were his fire friends and they didn't get to meet you because you were sleeping'.

12.1.12

December 1, 2012 will go down as the day the boys, doggies and I evacuated from our home. Hopefully it will be our last. It went a little something like this;

Friday, November 30: Mark comes home from work at about 10pm and tells me that he is going right to bed because he has to go back in at 4:00 am to gear up for the high winds that were forecasted.

Saturday, 1:00 am: Half asleep, I notice Mark answer his cell phone and say "ok". A call from the night crew on watch.

4:20 am: The phone rings and I notice Mark isn't in his bed. This isn't a surprise as I knew Mark was going in to work. He immediately says 'have you guys gotten the call to evacuate?'. Uh, no.

So the packing begins......I did a much better job packing this time compared to our evacuation scare this summer; clothes, computer, documents, kids, dogs---check.

Cooper was calm throughout the entire process. He asked if we were packing for St. George. I explained that we had to leave our house because there was too much smoke and the fire fighters needed everyone out of their way so that they could work on the fire. I didn't think he needed to worry about our house going up in flames. No child should ever have to worry about that.

Once the car was loaded, I woke Cruz up and told him we were going on an adventure. As we were getting ready to pull out of the garage, Cooper remembered something he wanted to bring with him; a dream journal he made at school the day before. He had hidden it in a safe spot so that he could show his Daddy the next time he saw him. That was the only moment where I got a little choked up. I saw it as a metaphor that the only thing my baby boy wanted to bring with him were his dreams. And then I chuckled to myself that I might be reaching a bit.

The rest is pretty much the same for the next 4 days. We stayed with 2 different families and split it up into 2 nights each. I figured we didn't want to become the analogy of houseguests and fish. I am beyond grateful for our friends and Estes Park family.

As always, we are very proud of Mark and now our town is as well. The community support was pretty amazing to witness. Mark gets to see that all the time throughout his fire season but rarely are we in the mix.

We are home. We are together. Our town still stands. Thank-you Mark, thank-you firefighters, thank-you friends, and thank-you Estes Park for taking care of our family.




----photo collage taken from Estes Park news.