A little late but.....Christmas finally arrived!!!

   I was so exhausted yesterday I fell asleep around 9pm! It was glorious! Nixon and I got comfy in my bed and settled in to watch Chipwrecked together, when it was over we both fell asleep.

  And now, some pictures from our Christmas morning! Mac came home and woke us up around 630am, because he would be going to sleep as soon as we were done with all the gifts.

Santa was here! 

opening his gift from Santa!

His big gift from Mac and I....I think he likes it, eh?

gifts from the grandparents and his great-grandparents

Mac, fading fast

Clothes from nana!

The carnage!

My first macaroni art gift! 

My surprise gift from Mac...Catwoman figurine!

   Nixon came up to me later in the day, upset because Arwen's stocking was empty. He said "Santa forgot her!"
    I said "Maybe Santa didn't forget her. Maybe it's empty because she's on the naughty list for being mean and chasing Amber all year long. Do you think that's possible?"
   He looks at me, shocked and says "That's real?!"

It's finally Christmas Eve!

Dec. 24th
Christmas Eve!
Day 359

* Today is Christmas Eve. Nixon and I were in full Santa-prep force! We cleaned the kitchen together, so we could make the cookies for him. We made peanut butter cookies with Hershey kisses on top and cake pops. The cake pops ended up looking more like elf vomit on a stick....not pretty! But at least they're tasty!

* After dinner, Nixon got into his jammies and he got into his skunk costume from Halloween. Why? Because it's warm and we were going for car ride to look at christmas lights on houses! I made hot chocolate in travel mugs and we got into the car. We drove around for about an hour and it was beautiful! Almost no one else was on the roads, so we could drive slower and not annoy any other drivers.

* Then we came home, made Santa his coffee and plate of goodies and left it under the small tree. We also got C3PO and R2D2 and put them with the coffee and cookies too, because Santa's bringing them back to the North Pole with him tonight.
   We'll see them again next year!

Dear Santa, I hope you like coffee because that's what was decided we're leaving for you Tuesday night!

December 22nd

day 356

* Some days you just wake up and feel loved. This morning was that day. Nixon, for some reason, ended up in my bed around 2 or 3am. He woke up when he heard Mac come home and went to play in his room for a while, letting me sleep.
  Around 9am, Nixon climbs back into bed with me and says "Mommy, you need a cuddle" and cuddles up with me and took a little snooze, sleeping on my shoulder. 

* I had some errands to run, and took Nixon with me of course. Nixon was content in the backseat, counting stop signs! No PSP, no iTouch...just me and him with my GPS telling us where to go. And he was great!

* me: Nixon, guess what we're doing Tuesday?

Nixon: What? Is it Christmas?

me: No, but close. We're making cookies that we'll leave out for Santa Tuesday night. 

Nixon: Yay! Oh yeah, cookies, oh yeah! *doing his little butt wiggle dance while he says that*
me: Nix, what should we leave Santa to drink with his cookies?

Nixon: I don't know. Umm.....I got nothing, Mom.

me: Well, a lot of people like to leave him milk with his cookies. But...Santa has a long journey to make on Christmas Eve. Do you think he might like something warmer? Like maybe coffee?

Nixon: Yeah! Mommy, coffee is a perfect choice! Santa will be SOOOOOOOOOO happy with a cup of coffee and cookies. Coffee is good for Santa!
me: How do you think Santa takes his coffee? Creamer and sugar or black?

Nixon: Mom, you're hurting my head....it's coffee! Just make it hot. 

* me: *switching the channel to the Eagles game* Whoo! Yeah baby! 

Nixon: Mommy, you need to be quieter, you hurt my ears.

me: Nixon, the Eagles are winning 14 to nothing right now! That's awesome!

Nixon: No it's not! The Eagles need to lose win!
me: What did you just say?!? Did you just say the Eagles need to lose?!? In my house?!?
Nixon: *laughing* No I said lose win! 

me: I don't even know what that means, but I'm choosing to only have heard "win".
Nixon: Yeah, I want them to win! Go Eagles!! *and he runs around the living room flapping his arms* 

Days like today make me so proud of Nixon!

December 20th
Complimented on his good behavior...yes, MY kid's good behavior!
Day 354

* I picked Nixon up from school today and was given a lovely paperbag gift from him. It's under the tree because it's a gift and gifts aren't opened until Christmas. But Nixon was so happy to give it to me!
   When we left, he asked if he could go look at toys at the place with the tunnel. The Target store closest to us has a parking garage and you drive into it and then up, so Nixon always asks if we can go to the "tunnel store". As I had some things to look at, I agreed laying out ground rules on the drive: no asking for anything, staying with me the whole time and absolutely NO whining/crying/fits. He was awesome and we left without buying anything, even after we walked through the whole toy department...twice.

* After Target, we went to 5 & Below because I had decided to get a last minute stocking stuffer for Mac from there. Parking was insane, but Nixon was awesome! We walked around, grabbed the one item I knew I was going to buy, and just wondered around. Mac was sleeping at home, so the longer we were out the better sleep he got.
   I found an Angry Birds Star Wars launcher toy, something I had looked for last week for Nixon. With only 3 left on the shelf I picked one and showed it to Nixon. His face lit up and he was shocked when I told him I was getting it for him. He asked to carry it and I said yes.
   That toy turned out to be a life (and sanity) saver! The line to check out was long! Nixon was so distracted by looking at his Angry Bird box that he hardly made a peep. Occasionally, he'd ask how much longer we had to wait, but he stayed right next to me the whole time. He was so well-behaved that 2 women standing behind me took a moment to compliment Nixon's patience! One lady was so kind, she said she's seen adults with less patience that my son was showing. When it was finally our turn to go to the register, the two ladies wished Nixon a "Merry Christmas" and thanked me for raising such a well-behaved child.
   I did admit to them that it was the Angry Birds box in his hands keeping him so calm. I know I'm no miracle child-whisperer! But it sure felt nice to hear kind and praising words about Nixon's behavior especially when we'd stood in line for almost 20 minutes and on any other day Nixon may have been making those same women cringe and glare at me for my less-than-patient child.
   But that didn't happen today!

Playing with his much earned Angry Birds launcher!

He has a calendar, the days are marked, but he still asks me the same questions a bazillion times a day: "Is it Christmas now?"

December 19th
Day 353

* "Is it Christmas now?" I have heard this question at least 5 times an hour, every day, since putting gifts that arrived from Nixon's nana under the tree. He sees the gifts and knows he can't open them until Christmas and he asks if it's Christmas yet. For some reason he expects a different answer than the previous one he was given just moments before. 

* Nixon chose a small, plastic yo-yo from the toy basket when he saw Santa on Tuesday. He continuously twirled the thing around and was told repeatedly not too, in addition to throwing it which he also had been told not to do. 

   So, it was not a surprise to me, when it broke because the string snapped and the yo-yo smashed into the wall breaking in half in a way that made it unfixable. He started to cry instantly, and instead of being a coddling and loving mom over the broken toy from Santa, I just told him to pick up the pieces and throw it out. 

   Harsh? Maybe, but he knows that broken toys get thrown out and he had been warned about swinging it and throwing it. 

* Finally, I was wrapping gifts tonight after I thought Nixon was asleep. Nixon had been in bed for nearly an hour and a half when I started wrapping gifts. It wasn't until I started wrapping the gifts from the jolly man in the red suit that I hear his door open. I pause, thinking he had to go to the bathroom, and wait. I hear him pass the bathroom and I quickly swept all proof of Santa gifts out of sight and usher him back upstairs!
Whew! That was a close one....

Nixon met Santa today!

Nixon's school had a holiday party this evening. Nixon got to decorate cookies, play with glitter play dough, made a pipe cleaner/bead candy cane and played snowman cornhole. He even got to see Santa, sit on his lap and tell him what he'd like for Christmas. Nixon was very detailed about the only gift he asked for!

As we left and headed home, it had started to snow. Nixon loved watching the snow falling from the backseat and even better, we went on a little drive and looked at houses with lights and decorations up. 

Before he went to bed, Nixon declared tonight the "Best night ever!".

And we have another cold coming our way....yep, Nixon's sick again!

Dec 16th
"One is better than two"-Nixon
Day 350

* Realized I didn't do a post yesterday:
Mac took Nixon to purchase my christmas gift from Nixon. When they were checking out, the cashier asked if they'd like to purchase a toy for Toys for Tots and said it'd go to a child who might not have a gift otherwise. Nixon, as soon as he heard that, said "Yeah!", and of course Mac agreed. Nixon choose the toy that he wanted to donate and put it into the collection box.
   When they came and got me, Nixon came running over and said "Mommy, guess what?!? We got a toy for a kid that needs a present. I picked it out and put it in the box!", just as happy as could be. Mac explained it to me and I told Nixon that was a very kind and wonderful thing to do for someone else. He says "Yeah, they'll like the toy, because it's cool!".
    He may not totally get the concept, but he knew enough to agree to the donation. And he knew the toy wasn't for him, so he didn't fight abut putting it in the donation box. Mac was super pleased about that!

* Nixon got up this morning, on his own, and was waiting for my alarm to go off. When it did, he danced to the alarm song I have it set to.
   He ate breakfast, and offered a great gem of wisdom to Mac when I offered him a cup of coffee. (Mac, I offered Mac a cup of coffee, not Nixon. In case someone wasn't following that.) Nixon tell Mac, who declined my offer, "It's good for you, Daddy!"
   He is so my son! He knows how important coffee is.

* Speaking of coffee, Mac was making his usual cup of coffee before he goes to work for the night, and for some reason the Keurig was brewing the coffee. He asked me and I tried once, with no luck. I quickly got onto google to troubleshoot issues. Thankfully, the first tip worked (clear out the puncture points as they get clogged sometimes).
   Nixon kept coming over to see what I was doing and I was trying to remain calm and not flip out that my coffee maker might be broken. I finally got down to his eye level and said very calmly to him "Nixon, I'm trying to fix my coffee maker. It's not working right now and you know how important coffee is to me, right? Please just give me a couple minutes to work on it, okay?"
    He sat on the sofa and became my cheering section. "You're looking good fixing that, Mommy!" and when it was working, and I let out a "Thank you, Google Gods!", Nixon repeated the same statement with a big clap!

* Nixon's fighting another cold. Just sniffles and a little cough. Trying to keep him warm.
   Have I mentioned that I'm over all these fracking colds?!?!

* Finally, another Nixon pearl of wisdom:
Nixon: One is better than two, right Mom?
me: Well, if you're talking about kids...absolutely! At least in my eyes!
Nixon: Yeah!
me: But what about cats? We have two cats.
Nixon: We should get rid of one.
me: What?!? Which one??
Nixon: Um....nevermind. Two cats is perfect!

It's sad my kid has better manners than most of the general public during the holidays

* Nixon and I had to go to the post office today (I know, I know!) to send off a couple orders I'd gotten in my etsy shop. We went to the smaller one, closest to the house because I foolishly thought it'd have a shorter line.
   It did not.
   We waited for almost half an hour, but Nixon was really good. He played with the display toys they've got out (the post office is inside a local gift shoppe) and stayed close enough that I could see him and he could hear me. He was really good, a little resistance before we left but nothing horrible. Especially considering he's not a big fan of lines of people.

* And speaking of lines of people....I took Nixon this evening to go shopping for Mac's Christmas gifts. Nixon decided he wanted to go to Target and look for Mac's gifts.
   It took us nearly 20 minutes to find a parking spot.
   The store was stupid crowded, people were incredibly rude, and Nixon? Nixon was his happy "excuse me" self as we passed by someone. He even pointed out a shattered glass ornament to me, and in turn I flagged down an employee so it could be cleaned up before someone cut themselves on it.
   At the checkout, Nixon helped the lady in line behind us. One of her smaller items almost fell off the belt, Nixon noticed it, caught it and put it back safely. She thanked him and Nixon said "It's what's right, right mommy?" Then he goes on to talk to her about the crayon maker she had in her cart! "You can make crayon cars with that!", he told her very excitedly! She was so sweet and nice to him.
    As we were walking out, another woman bumped into Nixon and Nixon said "Oh I'm sorry, I bumped you", even though she bumped him. She rolled her eyes at him! Nixon said, as we kept walking, "She should have said something to me, right mommy?". I explained that there are a lot of people in the store and some people don't realize they bumped someone or don't remember to use their manners.
    None-the-less I did nothing but thank him for using his manners as well as he did and I encouraged him to keep using them!

* Highlight of my day? I taught Nixon the words to the Jingle Bells, the Batman version! He loved it!!

* Nixon got to pick a game, as a reward of sorts for his good behavior at school this week. He chose a new Lego'esque version of Battleship.
   We played it tonight, Nixon was on my side and Mac was on his own side. Once Nixon got the hang of it (and he stopped trying to give away the coordinates of our ships) he had fun!

Family game night
Dec 14th
day 348

Another day, another example of Nixon's infallible logic

Dec 13th
"Elves work in Santa's sweatshop"
Day 347

* Nixon decided this morning he wanted a cool hair style. I gave him a fauxhawk, which looked awesome until it was time to put on his beanie to leave for school. It was no fauxhawk when the beanie came off. He didn't care, he was happy to be at school with his friends.

* Evidently, there's a tattletale in Nixon's classroom. This little cutie saw me come to pick Nixon up and he came running up to me "Nixon's Mommy! Nixon's Mommy! Guess what Nixon did today....", and then Nixon's teacher asked the child to stop tattling and told me what happened: Nixon was being whiny and instead of asking for help he'd say "Someone come help me!" or "I can't do this!". His teacher would tell him that wasn't how to ask for help. They worked on it and by the end of his day he was saying the correct "Can you help me please?" when he needed help.
   On the drive home, we talked about this. I gave him a couple examples of "right" or "wrong" ways to ask for something.

* Finally, another example of Nixon logic:
Nixon: Mommy, Santa's elves are busy making all the toys at the sweatshop in the North Pole.
me: What? Wait...work shop or sweatshop?
Nixon: Sweatshop, Mommy. The elves work there. They're almost done with all the presents.
me: Nixon, I think and hope, you mean work shop. Sweat shops are bad places and I don't think Santa runs a sweat shop.
Nixon: Uh-huh! Santa lives in the work shop, Mommy.

I asked him later, after Mac woke up, where the elves worked and Nixon said "They work at Santa's workshops. Not the other bad places." Good to know my talk this morning about sweatshops being bad got through to him!  

"R2 has to come down from there....it's not safe, Mom!"

* Nixon woke up this morning and was ready to find R2D2. He finally found him...."sliding" down the wall in the living room. Nixon was so upset! He told me "Mommy, he has to come down! It's not safe up there!", then to looks right at R2 and says "R2 come down here!". He even got annoyed that R2 wasn't listening to him.

* When I picked Nixon up from school, he came running over and said "Mommy, I made some bad choices, but a lot of good choices too!" His teacher came over and said "He made all good choices today. He had a good day today."
   His face lit up when I told him we were on our way to go pick up the tress and other decorations! He was so excited he said "Hey everybody! I'm going to go get my tree so I can decorate it for Santa now!" as he was leaving his classroom.
(By the way, I think it's adorable that the kids in Nixon's class will talk to me about random things and I'm always "Hey, Nixon's mom" before they start talking to me. Today the little girl who likes Nixon told me about the big green tree she has at her house: "Hey,um...Nixon's mom, I have a big green one at my house!" When I asked her if she had a big green tree, she said "Yeah! It's a big one too!" Kids are kind of awesome!)

* And decorate the trees we did! We also decorated the windows with some fake snowflakes and Nixon decorated some small wooden ornaments. Nixon told me, while I was setting up our tree, "Wow, Mommy, you're doing a great job! That looks amazing!", and there wasn't an ounce of sarcasm in his voice when he said it!
  He's excited and ready for Santa to come. We've got a few more days, but Nixon's feeling the holiday joy a little more.
 ....even if he did ignore me when I tried teaching to him about Pagans and the truth of christmas trees. I also explained why we won't have a real tree corpse in our house, ever.

He did clean his room....it just took most of the day to do it.

* Nixon was true to his word last night: he didn't wake me up until he cleaned his room. Unfortunately, he and I have differing definitions of "clean" when it comes to his room. He thought separating his toys into piles on his floor was clean, while I told him all his toys needed to be put back into his buckets and be up off the floor.
  He went back to clean his room, well pick up his toys as it were, and he came back to me and said "Mommy, it's too big a job for one person.", which was his way of asking me for help. I gave him all day to clean the room without pressure. I had no plans for the day, other than going to the storage unit and getting the holiday stuff. He eventually asked to take a nap and finished when he woke up.

*  I spent the evening making room for our tree in the living room, by rearranging the furniture (again!) and vacuuming. Nixon helped by picking up laundry and throwing out trash whenever I asked him too. It was late, close to his bedtime, by the time I was done with that, so tomorrow while he's in school or after I pick him up I'll go to the storage unit and we'll get to putting the trees up and everything like that.

* Nixon woke me up super excited because he found R2D2...in his room! He said "Mom! Guess what?! R2 is in my window! How did he get there?" The joy and happiness in his voice when he finds R2 every day is just amazing and priceless.

Back to school after a week off and a mom & me date in the afternoon.

Dec. 2nd...........  day 336

* The day started out not so good...My phone shut itself off during the night, so I woke up late. Which meant I woke Nixon up late. He wasn't really excited to wake up until I told him it was school day. Then he was almost too upset to get up because he was going to miss me. 

   Eventually, with the help of some fresh-from-the-dryer-clothes, Nixon was ready for school.  

* After school, which Nixon had a mostly good day at, he and I had a wonderful mom & me date at the local mall followed by lunch at Denny's. We rode the little train they've got set up at the mall, which Nixon was so happy I let him ride because the last time we were at the mall he didn't get to ride it. He also got to see the giant fish tank at the mall and see the pufferfish, his favorite fish in the tank. 

* Tonight, as Nixon got ready for bed, he asked about our tree and other holiday decorations. They're all in our storage unit at the moment, but I told him if he cleans up his whole room before I wake up in the morning we can go get everything tomorrow and start decorating.
    He was so excited he almost didn't go to sleep, he wanted to stay up and clean his room.

My awesome lunch date (and BeBe) and I, on the train at the mall. 

"I'll tell him it's okay, Momma"

* Nixon woke up this morning and was overjoyed when he saw R2D2 waiting for him! He was a little more excited when he saw C3PO in the window. He tried telling me that C3PO needed to be with R2, but I assured him 3PO was fine where he was. "He's in the window to let Santa know there's a good little boy in the house. If he's gone he's probably talking to Santa, you don't want that."

* Santa was the theme of the day. Nixon and I went out together to grab dinner. On the drive there Nixon and I start talking about Santa and what he (Nixon) is going to ask for.
Nixon: Oh, I want a race track, for my cars. And new cars, for the race track so they are fast cars. And Fluttershy.
me: Sweetie, we've talked about this, Santa only brings one gift, remember?
Nixon: Well, I'll ask for one for me but I think I want Santa to bring you a gift too. You're a good mommy and you deserve it.
me: Thanks baby, but Santa can only bring gifts to boys and girls who are good. Not mommies and daddies.
Nixon: It's okay, I'll tell Santa it's okay, Momma. He'll bring you a gift.
me: That's sweet honey, but that would mean Santa has an extra gift that might mean less room for another child's toy. Is that nice?
Nixon: Oh no! See, mommy, it's like this: The elves make the toys with magic. They take something blank and *whoosh* magic makes it a toy. Santa brings the elves with him, so they make the *whoosh* at each house. See? Enough room!

I wanted so bad to argue with him about that, but man, that is some well thought out logic for a 5-year old!
Ultimately, Nixon settled on Fluttershy because he knows that Santa has elves who run a Build-A-Bear workshop at the North Pole, it's how he got his Iron Cub last Christmas from Santa *wink, wink*