Parents in Proximity

Christmas is over, the dishes are cleaned up.  Time for some perspective.   What a great day.  One thing that makes holiday times fun for me is having family close.  To say we have an abundance of help from our parents is an understatement.  My in-laws will drive over an hour to come and help if we have something to go to or do.  My mother and father, for the winter months, live five miles away.  My mother will drop everything to come over and she'll stay as long as we need her.  My father is always available to help with anything that needs fixing.  My mother nicknamed him "King of the Crapper" as we all call him when our toilets break.  And even in the summer months, my mother will cancel everything and hop in a car from the mountains to get here if she even thinks we might need help. 

Our parents have the giving spirit year-round.  We're always happy to have them visit and share in the chaos, I mean fun, with the children.   Note to self: don't plan on moving far away.  Ever.

The Big Boy Update:  Too much Christmas fun.   He was overtired all day yesterday.  Missed the morning nap completely and the afternoon nap wasn't as long as it should have been.   Excitement with Christmas dinner and family visiting and he didn't have the night I would have liked him to have once he finally got to sleep.  But it's important that children be flexible.  If there's no variety, he can't learn to adapt.  Things will be back to normal soon enough.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Bring on the over-love.  Some people love babies.  They want to hold them, feed them, cuddle up to them.  Whenever we have people over, I hand off the baby at first chance to one of those people in the room.  I point them to the bottle of milk and let them pass her around.  She gets lots of attention and a chance to interact with new and different people.  I would look over at her from time to time to see adult smiles and a very happy little girl in someone's arms.