Christmas

We drove to Cincinnati for Christmas this year, our first super-long car trip with all seven of us in our Subaru Ascent that seats exactly seven. It went amazingly well. Everything was in our favor as far as traffic and weather, and Thomas handled it pretty well. We stopped only twice, and it took us 10.5 hours. 

I stayed with Timmy and Thomas at the "Jeffersonian," which is what I like to call my parents' house. Tim got a hotel to stay at with the other kids, so that everyone might be comfortable. 

The day after we arrived, Tim and three of our kids accepted an invitation from Scotty and Faith to go spend a day at their Airbnb about an hour away in Kentucky. It is what you might call a hobby farm--lots of land and things to do, animals, fishing, hunting, canoeing, etc. They all had so much fun; it was just what they needed after a whole day spent in the car. I stayed at my parents' because I had a whole mountain of packages to open and gifts to wrap. Annie was a big help with Thomas so that both Mom and I could be upstairs wrapping presents. We had a ball up there for hours, talking and laughing and asking each other repeatedly where things were. I'm sure it was never more obvious to Annie as she sat downstairs with Thomas sleeping on her, listening to us carry on, that we are mother and daughter.

Thomas warmed up to both of them right away, but it was really "Papaw" that he was obsessed with. He'd yell for him over the gate if he thought he was downstairs. At times my dad can be kind of aloof with the little kids since they're always crazy about him, but he's not always in the mood for them. Once while he sat in the living room and Thomas tried to climb up his legs, Mom commented wryly, "See, if you act like Mt. Rushmore, they can't get enough of you." That really cracked me up, the image of his face carved into the side of a mountain. I could see it!

The view of the Cincinnati skyline, from their hotel which was on the Kentucky side of the river

I don't even remember hearing him cry, but oh, that sweet, sad little face!

Of course we had to walk around the corner to Anna's, and see her newest babe, Forest, who was just three weeks at the time. Anna's house is an enchanting place to be. A bird sat in the window watching us approach, and once we got inside, I saw that two more birds call this place home. Anna introduced us to each one and told us a little about their personalities. The one on the left was the one watching in the window, and Anna said she can be kind of mean. I wanted to give her space, but then to my surprise I found her on my shoulder. I was like, please don't hurt me!

Anna said that one of the birds sits on John Paul's head and kind of grooms him as he does his school work, and that made for such a charming visual. It made me really want a bird... until I remembered two things: 1) Willow would absolutely lose her mind with a bird in the house, and 2) We all know that the bird I would end up with would be swooping around, pecking at us, and probably pooping all over. 

There's Thomas not knowing what to make of this, and Mom just looking like the crazy bird lady.🤣

Ready for Mass on Christmas Eve

After Mass on Christmas Eve, we went to Scotty and Faith's. 

Christmas morning at the Jeffersonian

Christmas morning at the Embassy Suites

We had a fun and relaxing Christmas morning together, after Tim and the other kids made their way over. Later on, we went to a gathering with extended family on my dad's side. My grandma was not feeling up to going over to the clubhouse with everybody, but we walked over to her condo in small groups to visit. My mom took me over there, and it was so nice spending time with her. She is so sweet. She'll be 97 in March--crazy.

There's no way we would leave town without going to Grace and Joey's beautiful new house -- new to us anyway. They moved there a couple years ago when Grace was pregnant with Israel, and Israel was born in the master bedroom with the big picture window overlooking the hills. Dreamy...

Thomas and Israel either engaged in parallel play, or in tug-of-wars over various toys. Come this summer, those kind of tug-of-wars could get pretty ugly between two-year-olds.😆

Here are a few last pictures: the mall so that Tim could exchange something at LLBean, just hanging out with cousins, and having one more great day before heading back.

We had another easy, uneventful trip home, and when we got there we had a few more presents waiting under the tree. After we unpacked the car we opened them. There was the Rice Krispie wreath Aunt Jayne usually sends, which we made quick work of; and everyone was excited about tickets to the Hurricanes game against the Bruins--with Grandma and Grandpa in April.

Phew! Only took me till February to finish this post. I blame Thomas. I have very little margin in my day for this kind of thing, with him keeping me so busy. There are so many little things I like to do with a free moment, and the old blog keeps getting bumped down the list. Plus, I can't help but roll my eyes at the fact that I still have the same old blog from 2009, and I feel like such a dinosaur. I do miss the days when everyone was doing this instead of Instagram Stories, and writing captions that are five paragraphs long, that make me want to say, "If only there were a format better suited to these long stories... oh wait, there is!"

I wish I did the toddler updates the way I did with the other kids. I'm going to forget so much about this stage, like:

- the way he grabs our hands to make us do our bidding--either taking us by the hand to pull us around, or taking our fingers to get us to press buttons or do buckles or something. He's very persuasive too, getting his way most of the time. 

-The way he says things in his cute little voice, like "Go?" while shrugging (he means "where did he/she go?") He calls Timmy "meemee," Annie "Nanny," Delaney "Nay-nay," and Joey "Doey." He refers to himself as his nickname "Toot," which is beyond cute. 

There are many moments of sweetness with him, and increasingly more moments of exasperation as he gets closer to turning two. But as Tim reminds me, and I know it to be true, I'm going to miss him needing me as much as he does now.

A fun little Halloween

Every once in awhile--ok, twice since I turned 40--I want to be a fun Halloween person and dress up. Thomas and his riot of baby curls inspired me to make this one of those years. What do you think I did?

Whatever I felt like I wanted to do, gosh!😆😆 

It started with Thomas as Napoleon Dynamite, and then one thing led to another. I had no trouble getting Timmy on board as Uncle Rico. I got Joey to humor me as Kip for just long enough to take a picture; he didn't even need to change out of his school uniform to do it! I just penciled a mustache on him and had him pull his shorts up extra high. I rocked a side pony and fanny pack as Deb. I thought maybe I could get Annie to be Summer, and Delaney to be Napoleon's date to the dance, whose mom made her go. But they weren't interested; they didn't seem to be into Halloween this year. Tim, the self-described Grinch who stole Halloween, wanted nothing to do with it; otherwise I think he'd have made a good Rex.

Dang it, why did I give him a choice?!?

Once the obligatory pictures were taken, Joey was excited to put on his sumo wrestler costume to go trick-or-treating. He, Thomas and I left the house together, but once he saw his friend across the street outside, he ditched us for him and his family, and the other friends they had going with them. Timmy went with some of his friends. I was about to take Thomas back inside, but he got SO sad when I turned toward the garage--he knew something fun was happening. I relented and said, "OK, we'll just walk around." Then Tim and Delaney joined us, and we had a nice time just walking around seeing all the kids in their costumes and the decorations. We didn't go to any doors, but he did get one handful of candy when a neighbor approached his stroller to give it to him. "I love that movie," he said. "Nacho Libre."😕🤣 I didn't bother correcting him. I honestly don't think most people got it, but the ones who did appreciated it.

At the end of this video, Tim asked what we did when it was Delaney's first Halloween. Besides a little parade at the mall with other members of a 'mommy and me' group, nothing. She was three months old! With the exception of Joey, they were all little babies their first Halloween, and I didn't care to do much of anything with them. This Halloween was a good memory.

Tim might have to be ready to be part of an encore next year... We'll see.

Here are some pictures from a fun family visit we had last month. Tim and Carolyn stayed with us for over a week, and Karen and Matt came for the last weekend they were there. 

We celebrated Tim's 49th birthday. I made my first ever cheesecake and it turned out great. It may or may not have been able to come out of that springform pan, though.

They got picked up from school by Daddy and Grandpa one day, and made a stop downtown for ice cream on the way home. For Timmy it's always a shake, and that must have looked like a good option to Joey too.

Thomas was at such a good stage for enjoying the extra company every day. He and Grandma were buddies.

Carolyn came with me to pick Annie up from cheer practice one day after school, and while we were in the parking lot waiting, we watched marching band practice. The view was way better than it is from the stands.

Tim snapped this picture while they were out early one morning.

Delaney didn't get to spend as much time with everybody as she would have liked to, between marching band and work; but at least she got visitors.

They went to a JV football game one night to see Annie cheer.

I really wish I'd taken a better picture of everyone at the dinner table. This was the night of the father vs. son meatloaf challenge, the idea for which came about after we had meatloaf for dinner, and Tim Sr had some critiques for it. They each made meatloaf their way, then we had a blind taste test followed by a vote. Although I think we all agreed the two versions were very similar, the winner was Tim Sr. But here was the kicker: Tim Sr voted for his son's meatloaf! 

As one of his birthday gifts, Tim's parents gave him a certificate to Bay Leaf Indian restaurant downtown, and he took me there one night for dinner. Back outside the restaurant, I became distracted by what sounded like the chiming of a grandfather clock or something. It was constant. Tim said, "I don't hear it." I said, "In Stranger Things, the one who hears the chimes is the one who's getting it next! Tell me you hear it too!!"🤣 We ended up driving around just to see if we could find the source of the chiming, which we never did even though it got louder sometimes; but it was a fun tour of the historic houses all lit up, big porches all decorated for fall. Some of them were made to look like spooky haunted houses too, and were very well done. I think I just stared out the window with my mouth open the whole time. I love driving around these neighborhoods any time, but this time of year they are really something special. I said, "You know we have to come back at Christmastime."

I came in the door that night gushing to everyone about how much fun we had driving around looking at those old houses, so the four of them -- Tim Sr, Carolyn, Karen, and Matt, along with Annie -- went for a drive the next night. Karen came in the door awhile later, saying, "That was amazing! That was incredible! We have to do that every night!" I was like, "I know, right?" because I don't always catch on to Brady sarcasm very quickly, haha. I think maybe I am much more easily impressed than they are. I'm a cheap date--this is our version of dinner and a show!