Our Attempts at Holiday Cheer

I have very good intentions, really I do.  I also have this apparently unrealistic vision of an iconic Christmas filled with happy children and twinkling cactus lights and sweet songs.  So far, none of that has happened yet.

Don’t get me wrong, there are many things I’ve really enjoyed about the last month or so.  I love that Elayna yells ‘Surprise!’ every time she sees a gift-wrapped store display.  I love that she can be bribed with candy canes.  I love that she’s trying to sing Jesus the ‘Happy Birthday’ song when we use her advent wreath.  But aside from that, our jam-packed holiday-celebration-o’rama isn’t really happening.

Last night, we attempted to take Elayna to see Santa at Kierland.  I love the Santa there – he’s a great Santa, the house is adorable, and usually there’s a great holiday vibe.  We’ve been the last 2 years.

2008:     Wonder of all wonders, she adored Santa.  Or at least she sat with him.  No crying.  We waited over an hour to see Santa but there was fake snow and carolers and we felt very festive.

 

2009:  Elayna is completely not in the mood.  She barely sits with Aaron in the close proximity of Santa.  Again, we had waited over an hour but the mood was great and Ms. Claus danced with the kids.

 

2010: 

If you can’t tell from the picture, Elayna is clinging to Aaron in panic and SCREAMING!  She is not going anywhere near Santa and he doesn’t appear all that thrilled with her either.  This year, we went before sunset and there was no crowd, no singing, no Ms Claus, no – well – anything.  It was wonderful to not fight the crowds but somehow seemed anti-climatic. 

But most of all, I’m left wondering where my sweet little holiday cherub is.  What I mostly have had over the last few days is this…..

Our devious hiding spot

We’ve purchased a play kitchen for Elayna for Christmas.  This is the middle-of-the-line variety – a step up from the standard grubby nursery set but not nearly as fancy as the Pottery Barn version.  It’s cute and fun and I think she’ll love it.  It’s also huge.

Yesterday, I threatened life and limb to keep her off the front porch after it was delivered.  Last night Aaron and I figured out a very devious hiding spot.

Think she’ll figure it out?

Last Little Gym Class

Today was Elayna’s last Little Gym class.  We’ve been going once a week for the last 6 months.  For the most part, Little Gym is a great play-time and exercise…. although I’m learning that Elayna would much rather do her own thing than the actual class activities.

A few examples:

 

Charging around the room with her hula hoop.

Swinging from the high-bar.  She LOVES this and will go again and again if I let her.  She’s by far the bravest kid in her class.

Hijacking the ball to play on the balance beam with it.  Notice all the other kids are actually playing on the mat.

Resting during bubble-time.  What kid skips bubbles?

Getting a stamp on her belly.  Thanks Ms Rachel!

Christmas Decorations

Last Sunday, Aaron and I spent the better part of the day trashing our house and putting up Christmas decorations.  This was accomplished with a ridiculous amount of bad Christmas music, spiked eggnog, and Elayna at the movies with Aunt Lic.

Elayna’s reactions post-decoration have been mixed.

She ignores the tree, lights, stockings, and candles for the most part.  She has managed to break Joseph’s head off on the nativity scene.  But her favorite thing by far is a poor little mini-tree we’ve installed in her room.  We have mini-ornaments that she happily puts on and then removes in a glorious version of the ‘Clean-up’ song.  ‘Ta-Da!’  On.  Off.  On.  Off.  Repeat.

Love it!

My 2-Year Old Teenage Daughter

Elayna is truly growing and learning at an exponential rate.  Daily she has new words, sentences, or can figure out amazing tasks without help.  She can mostly dress herself, is mostly potty-trained (we still have a few accidents), and daily adds new words to her vocabulary (bagel?  Christmas tree?).  I’m awed by her every day.

Not so amazing:  a few teenager-ish behaviors.  Including:

• Turning on and off any light-switch – usually in the room we’re in just to annoy us.  It’s like a disco around our house.
• Prancing with her hands on her hips.  I rather love this one – I think she’s adorable as a diva.
• Storming in a huff to her room and slamming her door.  I believe this is her new temper tantrum … and actually very effective outlet for her frustration.  It also saves us from enforcing the time out.
• Fun new saying like “Mommy, leave me alone”, “I do it!”, and “DON’T WANT IT!”

Of course, she makes up for her little outbursts with a lot of love, kisses, and “See ya soon!”s. She really is pretty adorable.   

The Family Photo Opp

We are spending a week in Oklahoma with Aaron’s family for Thanksgiving.  Allyson flew in from New York, Jerry and Carol have been generous hosts, and Elayna has expanded her dictatorship to a new state.  We’re having a fun time – especially Elayna who’s demanding daily rides in the golf cart and all-you-can-eat M&M’s.

Yesterday we celebrated the day after Thanksgiving with Aaron’s other siblings from Oklahoma City.  Jenny, Mike, Laura, and ALL of their families joined us in Blackwell for a great day.  Of course, I declared a photo shoot and forced everyone to sit for family shots…  I’ll just assume everyone enjoyed it as much as I did!

The full family!

 

Laura, Jenny, Aaron, Mike, Allyson

Jerry and all his kids

The Lee’s:  Sam, Jenny, Chris, and Amanda

The Cudd’s:  Sean, Dylan, Laura, Rich, and Ryan (and new member Elayna)

The Kellum’s:  Mike and Will

 

Sisters!  Allyson, Jenny, and Laura

Vegas Baby

I spontaneously took a girls’ trip to Las Vegas last weekend. I feel like its been years since a spontaneous trip so I am very proud of myself….

Tammy Hagan and I drove out to Vegas Friday morning.  I did try to convince her that not much happens to Vegas during the day so we didn’t need to hurry – but we were up at 6am anyway.  Our friend Catina Mackelfresh flew in from Chicago and we miraculously were able to check into the Excalibur early!

The weekend was a great vacation from life!  We ate amazing food – including Rick Moonen’s RM Seafood.  We went to the Price is Right Live show.  I lost $$ and we shopped and walked a ridiculous amount.  Our massages on Sunday morning were heavenly.  And I spent a fun evening catching up with my old friend Jenny Gilbert Scott.

A few pictures:

Too many pictures….

October was a busy month for taking professional pictures!  First Elayna had her school portraits done (yes, they do this at daycare).  And THEN we had Amy Lee do our family Christmas card pictures.

To see Amy’s pictures, go to www.amyleephotography.com

Click on Client Sessions.  Username is Ckellum.  Password is Elayna

Here are copies of Elayna’s school pictures.  I still don’t know how the photographer convinced her to pose and sit still like this. 

Her class picture and teacher Ms Cindy.  There are more than 4 kids in her class and several girls – I don’t know where they all were this day!  But look at Elayna’s head-tilt.  She’s a natural model!!

We love Ms Cindy.  She’s convinced us that Elayna is ready for big-girl panties (even though she’s boycotting the potty at our house) so today’s is Elayna’s first day without diapers.  I sent her to school with 3 extra pairs of pants.  We’ll see how it goes….

Trick or Treat

I love Halloween!!  Elayna did such a great job trick-or-treating this year and looked adorable in her costume!  She was a white and pink horse, complete with Princess crown, and she loved showing off for the neighbors.  With some coaxing, she’d say ‘Trick-Tweat’ and a sweet ‘Thank you’ for all her candy.  I also learned to give her a sucker to satisfy the candy cravings and she’ll work on that for hours.

Playing with Brook and Clancy in the afternoon.  Thanks Brook and Alicia for coming up for dinner!!  Clancy was not into his pirate costume but it was cute watching Elayna dress him.  He’s a pretty good sport.

Trick or treating.  She’s all set to go and we stopped at our neighbors Rich and Belinda’s first.  So cute!!  The horse was pretty cumbersome and droopy after a few houses.

With our neighbor Ella.  Elayna wore this cheerleading costume last year – go Sooners!

Elayna at Daycare

I love to know what Elayna does at daycare all day.  Usually I get a glimpse of her activities when I stalk the class – kneeling below her classroom window observing before picking her up.  She’s often quiet (strange), playing with dolls or reading books.  Nice. 

Her 2-year teacher Ms. Juliana displays pictures, activities, and quotes around her room.  They are so funny, I had to steal some photos.

Of course this warms my heart – she wants to be with MOMMY!?  Over the park!?  Or maybe I should be distressed at her grammatical use of a person instead of a place?  Nah – I’m just tickled that she misses me!!

I’ve mentioned this Princess fascination before.  I am *pretty* sure she actually said “Princess Aluna” (not Princess Arianna).  We still don’t know who Princess Aluna (or Arianna) is.

<Wait …. not Mommy?>  I’m already replaced as her best friend?

This is funny because Elayna LOVES Aaron’s clothes.  She frequently picks out shirts for him to wear and is really bothered if he’s relaxing shirtless.

Days 2 and 3 of Single Motherhood

Aaron is settled into Toulouse and having a very productive week so far. He's over his jet lag, he's sampling wine, and he's sufficiently impressed by his French employees and their awe-inspiring offices. He's having a great time.

Elayna and I are missing him but getting by pretty well. Aside from Saturday's mommy-tantrum, I think I can do this. I can tackle single motherhood! Of course, my confidence comes from a few simple strategies:

(1) Have some good 'girl-time'. Friday night, I had great sushi with my friend Tammy; Saturday night I finally went out with my friend Shelle in Mesa. Great times. Of course, Elayna was asleep at Shelle's house (her niece babysat for us) by the time we got back so I had the joy of waking up a sleeping toddler and hauling her home late at night.

(2) Keep toddler out in the evenings as long as possible. (see above about Saturday night)  But then I tried it again on Sunday when we went to Brook Wiggin's welcome home celebration. Brook is Alicia's best friend and has been in Afghanistan for the last 18 months. We're very happy to have her home safely!!

   

(3) Outsource all my parenting. Elayna has been at daycare for the last 2 days. She eats better there, she's almost fully potty-trained there, and she spends most of her time with a new best friend, Riley.

(4) Introduce her to delicious fried food. This is on tap for tomorrow when we spend the afternoon at the State Fair. :)

So overall, we're managing fine in our little house of 2 women. And a dog. And a cat. But come home soon, Aaron!

For Sale …. Cheap

I can hear Elayna chatting away in her room.  She’s been in there for over 2-hours, refusing to take a nap.  I’ve been trying to slowly wear her down … politely reminding her to lay down.  Reapplying her way-ward diaper.  Or scolding her fiercely.  So far the only thing wearing down is Mom’s patience.

I write this all because Aaron has just flown out for a week-long work trip to Europe.  He’s just left Philadephia and the further away from us he gets, the more I’m realizing this is going to be the longest week of my life.

So if anyone would like to purchase a 2 1/2 year old who refuses to nap, please make your best offer.

October Craziness

I love October.  The temperature has finally dropped to a manageable level, football season is in full swing, and everyone is waking up after our summer slumber.  And in honor of this fall festiveness, I try to keep us as busy as humanly possible….

So far this month we’ve attended Alicia’s birthday party, Aaron’s bike race, a Cardinals football game, had our Christmas card pictures taken, and gone to both the Children’s museum AND the Arizona Mills Aquarium.  It’s been busy but fun.  I’m looking forward to a normal week before Aaron leaves for France on Saturday.

Here are a few pictures of our craziness from this last weekend:

At the Children’s Museum

At the Aquarium

Disco Roller Party

Happy 25th Birthday to my baby-sis, Alicia!! 

Today is her actual birthday but we celebrated all weekend long – first with a roller-disco skating party Saturday night and then with a, well, quieter dinner home last night.  Here are a few pictures of the festivities…..