Christmas at the in-laws

We were supposed to have our third and final Christmas this past long weekend. It didn't happen as planned. We had been hearing about a big storm coming this way and we were planning to head to Sean's parents house on Christmas Eve, but to beat the storm we left a day early and made it there before the ice and snow began. Sean's parents live in a remote area and I remember stories about them losing power quite a bit when Sean was growing up. I was worried about that and how to cope with an 8 month old in such conditions. They have wood burning stoves so we wouldn't have been cold at least. But they had just put some new power lines up in the area so the power worked just fine the whole time we were there. Sean's brothers were supposed to come over too and the one that lives the closest made it but the other one that planned to come didn't. He lives 3 1/2 hours away and wasn't able to leave until after the storm began. At which time they closed down the interstates and highways leading to Sean's parents house so travel was impossible and treacherous.

As you can see from the picture, though, Kaelyn still had a good time. She's too little to understand presents just yet so she didn't notice them sitting under the tree nor did she care that we weren't opening them. She DID get to open one, though. Socks! Yeah! :) They went with her Christmas outfit and kept her toes toasty on Christmas Day.

Kaelyn's newest trick is to take off during diaper changes. I take the diaper off, she rolls over, sits up, and takes off. In this picture I at least had gotten the diaper back ON, but no buttons have been buttoned and no pants in place. I think it was a good 15 minutes before I was able to do the pants. She just has way too much to do. Normally empty the diaper box. One diaper at a time. They just go shooting over her shoulder one by one as she grins with glee. At least it's a harmless thing to do and doesn't make TOO much of a mess. Who would have thought, of all the toys I brought, she'd want to play with her diaper box! Tis the season to be a baby.

Kaelyn also MAJORLY worked on standing up over the Christmas at the in-laws. Or non-Christmas, as the case may be. She constantly pulled herself up on things, the table, the couch, the diaper box, my leg, my hand, my face...yes she used my nose and lip at one time, ouch! And then once standing, she'll sway back and forth, wobble around a bit, sometimes test things out and let go of whatever she's holding. So far her record is standing alone for 5 seconds with no assistance before dropping to her butt. I'm just glad for that diaper, her little butt bone would be broken by now! :) She's getting better and better and I'm afraid she'll be walking, no, running, in no time! She wants to practice standing continuously. I was just thinking the other day that on occasion, she'll play alone with things and I can read or open the mail unassisted. But now that she's always pulling herself up on things and falling over, the danger for head banging is always there so I have to put anything I want to do aside and make sure both of my hands are either on her or close and available in case I need to shield her from any edges, floors, corners, toys, or anything else that gets in the way as she goes down!

The snow at Sean's parents house was very pretty. They have some huge pine and evergreen trees that were weighed down with all of the snow and very festive. However, the guys that had to dig THROUGH the snow, were NOT very pretty. This is actually Sean. And believe it or not, Kaelyn wasn't afraid of him like that! Though she didn't grin at him either. Sean's parents has a 12 foot drift at the end of their drive. The wind was blowing JUST the right way. Or wrong way as the case may be. They pulled Sean's brother's truck up to the drift and shoveled snow into the back of it and moved it elsewhere. It took three guys three hours to make any headway. And two of the three guys put in more like ten hours to dig a hole big enough to get a car through. Their main goal was to get a car out so they could go buy a HUGE snowblower to finish the job, which they did. Though when Sean and I left, it was still like driving through a tunnel of snow. The snow was completely surrounding the car on both sides, up much taller than the car. I've never seen or driven through a drift like that and dreaded getting home to see our own driveway! For Sean's sake, of course, because I knew I'd be inside playing with Kaelyn. And I certainly didn't mind that over the alternative!

We spent the 5 days at Sean's parents house playing pool, cards, watching Christmas movies (I think we watched about every one ever made!) and eating, of course. Kaelyn's appetite for real food seems to have increased. Right after we got home she actually ate a WHOLE container of carrots in one sitting, I couldn't believe it! Her record before was one container in a day, but spread out over three meals. She just kept opening her mouth and I kept shoveling it in! She never did push my hand away like she does when she's getting full. Not even once!

Our last evening of the visit, Kaelyn was giving me major trouble when I was trying to put her pjs on. She was completely naked and just took off and wouldn't stay put no matter how many times I laid her back down and attempted to diaper her. Sean finally came to see what was going on and ended up just taking her back out to the family room as a nude-y baby. We played our last few hands of cards with her alternating between Sean and I and the table. I only hoped she didn't tinkle on the table. Or me, actually. Sean? That would have been okay! :) hehe

So since we didn't get to celebrate Christmas this time around, the plans have all been re-arranged for next weekend. Sean's brothers and parents will gather on New Year's eve and day to open presents and have the big meal etc. The full extended family gathering will be over the weekend. All of the uncles and aunts and cousins etc. It always seems like chaos to me. We're talking about like 40 people here! They're a tight, close family and it's wonderful. I only have 2 uncles and 5 cousins and they're never all in the same room so I'm used to smaller gatherings. Hopefully Kaelyn will enjoy the commotion, I guess we'll find out!

As for sleeping, that hasn't gotten any better. We were only home one night between my parents and Sean's parents and she did GREAT that night, only getting up once at 3am to eat and going right back to sleep. But at Sean's parents she started crying for long periods of time again and I didn't want to make her scream too long at someone else's house so I gave in and went back to the old ways. So she went back to her old ways. Getting up at 10:30 or 11, then again at 1, 3, 5, and 6. It's like clockwork. We're back home and I'm anxious to see how tonight goes. She's been a happy little screamer ever since we got home and she took a nice long hour nap (that's long for her!) so we shall see. If things don't go well we'll have to regroup after our NEXT Christmas/new year's celebration and go from there. There's probably no use messing with it much now since we'll only be home a few days and then off again for a couple of more days away. I'd probably just get it worked out only to mess it up again by being in someone else's house again. I hope she works it out herself because I just HATE hearing her cry. But I also hate getting up 4-5 times a night when I know she doesn't need to eat more than MAYBE once.

It's good to be home. I'm looking forward to our nice big king mattress. Even if it is on the floor (we ordered a new bed but it's not here yet). Both of our parents have full sized mattresses so I feel like a sardine sleeping. I'm not a cuddly sleeper, I like my space, and in those small beds, Sean has nowhere to go but my face, it seems. As in, he's always in my face! I don't like being breathed on. I sound crabby about sleep, don't I! :)

One good thing about the non-Christmas is that now we have another Christmas to look forward to. Next Christmas isn't 11+ months away, it's less than a week away!!