Season’s Greetings!

Spring is in full swing and temperatures here in Virginia have warmed up as we hit the eighties over the weekend. Our yard had transformed from brown and bare to rich and green with colorful blooms and I was itching to get out and wake up my lawnmower from its hibernation.

But wait. Why is that ice cream truck playing Christmas music?

That's right. I was in shorts, having just finished mowing the lawn when I heard it. I shielded my eyes from the blizzard of swirling pollen to see that yes, it was in fact an ice cream truck. A dingy green sinister-looking wreck of a van that couldn't pass a farm use inspection and may even be in violation of the Geneva Convention. But it's that creepy polyphonic blast of Silent Night that had me worried.

It's just as well I suppose, because if there's one thing I've noticed about having a toddler in the house (besides having a shirtless guy shouting at me all the time), it's that Christmas....just....never....ends.

Call it the gift that keeps on giving. And while it's bad enough that my neighbor won't remove that plastic poinsettia from her flagpole (despite my desperate offerings to help), or that I'm still finding wind strewn ornaments caught in bushes after decorating the Cypress trees for the holidays, it's what's happening indoors that has me shouting Bah Humbug!

Let me explain. Over the holidays my son commandeered our neighbor’s old toy choo choo train. It was really sweet of her, our neighbor, to let my two year old get his grubby hands on it. It has a track and some cars and it plays merry little Christmas songs as it chugs along headed for the North Pole.

Cute, right?

No. For the love of ice cream the Christmas Express is still chugging along. It's a little worn and wrecked and it chuffs along in a wounded, wobbling way after one too many plunges off the coffee table, but on it goes. And goes....

I remember putting it up sometime in mid-January. You know, when I naively thought that we were kind of done with the whole Christmas thing. Ah yes, the days before I was aware that were raising a real life Buddy the Elf. Those were good times, But then Spring Break happened, when I came home and found the old Chrismas Express charging away with merriment, it’s tired batteries giving it’s song a warbled tilt that rivals the ice cream truck for creepiness supremacy.

Oh and the books. Frosty the Snowman, and a slew of others. Now who wants to be the book confiscator and get all Fahrenheit 911 on a little kid trying to read? Not me, so let the yule tide burn, even while the last time I checked we were on the backside of April and should be breaking out the sunblock and the beach towels.

Maybe I'm just being a grinch here. Perhaps tonight we'll have some egg nogg and go out caroling. Then maybe we'll stop for ice cream? Or even better it will stop for us! I need to get into the spirit, sing with me now...

Have a Holly-Jolly Christmas...It's the best time of the year....

Developments...

As the weather warms and the grass turns green my son is taking notice.  He watches everything around him with wide-eyed amazement.  There’s so much to see, and with 16-18 hours of sleep per day, little time to see it.

Simon is extremely vocal these days, sometimes surprising dad with a loud coo or gurgle. His Tarzan call can be heard throughout the house (and maybe the neighborhood as well).

He spent the past week with his Grandma and Grandpy, visiting from upstate New York in efforts to help us make the impending transition to day care.  They brought with them a trunk full of hand-me-downs, courtesy of his older cousin.  I’ve never seen so many clothes. This kid may never wear the same outfit twice. 

Their week long stay was a lot of fun.  The weather was great, welcoming our northern grandparents with warm temperatures and blooming trees.  With snow falling back home, I think they enjoyed the fresh air and open windows, although I think my mother-in-law could do without the stinkbugs. She didn't come to vacation though, getting down to business on arrival. Since our child's birth I’m not sure the house has ever been so clean.  Clothes were washed before they hit the floor and dishes were rinsed and put away before I could turn around.  

She was on a roll…diaper changes, bottle feedings, even getting the little guy to sleep in his crib—another new development.  He’s awfully lucky to have such great Grandparents.  And we are awfully thankful for them.

For the most part I'd have to say we're really blessed to have such a great baby.  But he is very adept at letting us know what he dislikes, and most of the time this involves sitting.  The little guy likes to be moving, not sure where he gets it from…

I'm still getting used to referring to myself as Dad, but I'm learning some very dad-like lessons in the meantime.  The other night as I lifted him from the table to the tub, I felt something wet and warm.  Sure enough, I got soaked. But it’s okay, all part of the experience I guess…

I'll resist the urge to place an R Kelly joke here...