There's only two parts to Christmas this year, which makes me a little sad, but I guess it's nice to be moving on, now.
We were in Barnum for two nights this past weekend, and had a really nice quiet time. The girls handled their visit with Patrick really well (possibly better than I did), and he was so happy to see them. Trav said that after we left, he was definitely less chipper. Emily found a tea party set in the toys that they have available, and she had a great time actually playing, not just sitting and talking and sucking her thumb (sigh). I asked her to sing with me so he could hear her sing, and she did such a great job. Audrey was a little more of a stinker, but still, she is such an agreeable little thing that it was hardly objectionable. On our way in, another person in our visiting group noticed our girls and made a point to tell us that her daughter wouldn't put grandchildren on the visitation list so their uncle could see them. It was just what I needed to hear. It validated my hesitation and apprehension about continuing to do these visits, without me having to raise an unnecessary stink about it, since it really is all right, just an overall sucky situation. For example, Emily was really upset that Grandma was going back in to visit the following morning. What are you going to do: leave your granddaughter in tears, or not visit your son on Christmas? The ripple effect of prison is really awful.
Other than that, it was very quiet and relaxing and delicious and fun. Trav and his youngest brother stayed up super late on Christmas, leaving a bottle of Templeton Rye empty on the counter for our amusement in the morning. They sure have a good time together. They went out in the snow with Emily one afternoon, and were soon distracted by pelting each other with snowbricks. Since it was too cold to make snowballs they just threw whatever they could find, like a couple of 10-year-olds. Emily was impressed, you might say.
Today has been hard, getting back to normal. Travis was impressed yesterday by how much there was to put away after being gone from home a few days, but I had to put it all away the previous week while he was at work and he had no idea what I had done while he was gone. So today Trav went to work and we had a "normal" Monday, plus whining/screaming/protesting out of both girls nearly continuously. There was probably about half an hour where they were playing pretty nicely together, and another 2 hours where Audrey was napping, but the rest of the time was really tough. It didn't help that I was feeling grouchy overall. We'll get back into it, but days like today make the silence of bedtime especially sweet.
Audrey's getting a lot closer to walking. She has been pulling herself up to standing using nearly everything, but tonight I watched her stand up without using any help at all. She looked at me with the funniest expression, like, "Didja see that?? whoa!!" It was really impressive - I mean, can you stand up from squatting, no hands? So, she'll take some steps soon here. In the meantime, I'm loving the crawling, cuz she's got such character about the way she moves.
Emily is really, really good at naming letter sounds now. She sings her ABC's really nicely now, which I'm sure she could have done months ago if I had worked with her, but they do it at her daycare a lot. I'm pretty relaxed on stuff like that, because she'll learn it quickly enough once it's presented to her. She's got two more years of preschool ahead of her so I think the pressure is off at home! She likes to ask me what letter words start with and then guess the answer herself, and although she is really confused by "C" and "S" words and sometimes tripped up by "H"s, she's got the rest down really well. It's a nice game to play while we're shopping or in the car or whatever. My favorite exchange:
E: "Mom, what's Panessa start with?" me: "Vanessa? Vvvvv..." "V! V for Panessa. What's Panelle start with?" (that's Vanessa's mom) "Lynelle? Lllllll..." "L! L for Panelle..." at which point she got really thoughtful and probably realized she might not have that name right. I'm going to miss it when all those little 'isms go away. There are only a few left and although I don't reinforce them, I never correct them, and I do my best to stifle snickers until later because I don't want her to feel laughed at. She's really delightful company, when she's not wigging out about something! I know it's typical 3-year-old stuff, but I actually miss the sweet girl when the demons come out! :)
And one more Emily story that I love: When I was going in early to work last week, I was getting Emily out of bed, snuggling up a bit, and I told her that I was leaving and that Dad would take her to daycare. She protested, and I told her I'd pick her up, and it'd be fine, and she looked up at me so earnestly and said, "but I, but I, but I, I love you!" I love you too, sweetie.
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