A Day in the Life

Hi. What a day. No photos to go along with this one, just a peek into this lovely day.

Troy had to go to Moab for work. I was happy for him because he loves Moab and I knew he'd get a chance to ride his bike a bit. When he's gone, I have a bad habit of staying up even later than usual. I'm so crazy (I know we already covered that in the last post, but it must be said.) I am so exhausted, yet sometimes the emotional exhaustion outweighs the physical, and I must stay awake after the kids go to bed to have a little free time. So I stayed up and watched "Stranger Than Fiction," with Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson - I loved it. I went to bed at maybe 12:30. RAP has been sleeping well lately... until last night. 3:30 she wakes up - and is obviously in some sort of discomfort because she can't settle down. She's in bed with me, which usually helps, but she rolls around and sits up and asks for grapes and asks for water and sits on my face and stands up etc. until almost 6:00, where upon I let out an inhuman, yet strangely mother-esque shriek: GO TO SLEEP! Guess what. It worked. She started crying, then lay down and went to sleep. I'm prepared to try this technique again.

I let her sleep until 10:00, figuring I'd just try to make her skip her nap. Wow. Grumpy baby. I of course did not sleep until 10:00, but until 7:30 when CTP got up. Wow. Grumpy mommy. Then this afternoon RAP was running outside and tripped and fell, and of course caught herself on her arm. She came in sobbing and holding onto one wrist with the other hand. Oh dear. I let her cry for about 15 minutes before I decided that Friday at 4:00 was a good time to call the Dr. before it became an evening trip to the ER. I must say, I do love our Dr. Durham. (Hooray for your dad, GHD3.) Luckily, R has no broken bones, just a sprain or a bad soft tissue injury. I was a bit of a bummer to leave the office with her still holding her arm and crying, but at least she was castless. She fell asleep on the way home, had a brief nap, and as soon as she woke up, started acting like nothing had ever happened to her arm. Which is good, right? Troy got home from Moab shortly after. He came home early due to it being too dang cold to do much.

***

Well, now that "today" has become "yesterday," and we've all woken up from a long night of deep sleep, I think we'll be okay. It didn't feel like that at about 4:30 yesterday!

Rachel's Weird Dreams

Meet Steve. He's the now-retired host of Blue's Clues, which I have watched perhaps more than I should have in the past few weeks. Sorry, but all-day morning sickness can lead to some extra t.v. time. This may be more info than you want to know about me, but I just have to share two crazy dreams that make me laugh every time I think of them. One was that Steve and I were really good buddies, and we headed out to grab some lunch one day. Who should be there but Matt Lauer - host of the Today Show. The three of us sat and had a lovely conversation, enjoying lunch, and then Steve and I gave Matt a ride home. Such nice guys....in my head, anyway.

My other favorite dream concerned me and my new knife. I just got the most wonderful knife - it's a really nice chef's knife that's so sharp it almost seems like magic. Yes, I love it enough that I dreamed about it. I dreamed that I was in charge of planning an entire summer girl's camp with no one's help my but old boss and Matt Damon. (Yeah, I don't know. I'm crazy.) I also had to cook lunch for both of them. I was so discouraged and overwhelmed and kept making horrible mistakes until I realized I had my trusty knife with me. Hooray for the Santoku Knife! With the help of my one dependable sidekick, I saved the day.

I still chuckle when I think of these dreams, though they're certainly only funny to me. Ha ha, anyone who actually read this entry. Sorry about your wasted time! Perhaps I have revealed too much about myself...but now you have proof that I really am crazy.

That's My Boy!

A couple of nights ago CTP and Troy and I were up late, chilling out and watching a little t.v. CTP asked if he could watch his own show. I was expecting a request for Blue's Clues or at least Prehistoric Planet. No, he asked for "the guy with the funny hair and the glasses who is silly and cooks food." It took a moment for us to figure out what he was talking about, and then it dawned on us that he was requesting my favorite cooking show on the Food Network - Good Eats! This is Alton Brown, my food hero, and host of Good Eats. His is the first show I've ever watched that actually teaches WHY food does what it does when you cook. And he's very silly. CTP just giggles when I have it on. He actually asks me to rewind some parts several times. I was so proud! My boy wants to watch cooking shows with me! Troy instantly started searching for some sort of sporting game...just kidding. Troy loves Good Eats too. Half the time we feel like we should be taking notes on all the information. Alton, you've done well!

Told Ya it was Funny....

For a long time I've been trying to get a photo and/or movie of RAP doing my two favorite signs she does, and I finally got them:

"Cold"

"Scared"

Here's the video:

Other than that, not much exciting has been going on. We're just enjoying some beautiful early spring weather here, getting outside a lot. It's amazing how much easier the days are when we can just open up the back door and let the kids wander.

Dancing Queen

Tonight we were invited to attend a play at the local elementary school to see my sister Margaret's daughter K do some serious singing and dancing and puppeteering. It was quite a show. I took both kids, hoping we'd get a chance to see at least some of the show before RAP made it absolutely clear she was leaving the building (kind of like church) (or any other setting requiring holding still and listening.)

Much to my surprise, once the singing started, R was glued. We were sitting on the floor just in front of all the seating and though C made a few "I'm bored" type comments and mostly just rolled around on the floor, R sat in my lap and avidly soaked it in. Every time a song ended she applauded wildly and then turned to me, signing for more music.

Within a couple of songs, she couldn't contain herself any longer and with every song she'd leap out of my lap and twirl furiously in front of me, bouncing her little bum, swirling her arms and basically dancing her little heart out. I SO wish I had my camera there. I did have a flashback to the Steve Martin movie "Parenthood" in which his toddler escapes on to the stage of the school play and basically destroys the whole thing before they can grab him. Luckily R kept back from the actual performance enough to not be too much of a distraction, but I did catch one dad aiming his camera at her as she danced for a few moments. I felt that that was permission enough to let the dancing go on.

Oh, the joyous moments of parenthood we enjoy when we're not too tired to notice what's going on. Here's a shot of R helping me make our "once was alive but is now dead" (see previous post) chicken we had for dinner. Salad, anyone?

Mousecapades

We have been invaded by two teeny tiny thieves. Two little mice - the tiniest I've ever seen - have taken up residence in our house. They don't seem to be very shy since they tend to come out and keep us company (especially when I have friends over) and I know they are light-weight since I have seen them sitting on the traps eating peanut butter without disturbing the snapping mechanism. After a couple of days of this, we decided to maybe try something else, so we put a little D-con under a drawer where we figured the hideout was. CTP wasn't really into the poison idea - he was stalking the mice with a pair of tongs claiming he wanted to squish them to death. Nice.

Of course yesterday while I had two friends and their combined four children over for lunch the mice made their usual appearances. Due to their rather NOT shy nature I decided to just trap one, which I easily did. Of course, once CTP saw the tiny creature his attitude of being the bearer of horribly painful death changed into, "Can we keep him?" I tried to explain about wild mice bringing filth and sickness into our home but he didn't much care. He came unglued when I tried to talk about other means of extermination or even letting it go. So we waited for a few hours, C periodically checking in on our new pet.

By the end of the day, it had become obvious that the mouse had eaten some poison and was very sick. I talked C into letting it go so it wouldn't get more sick....I couldn't think of anything else to tell him. We took it to the very back of our yard and let it go where I could see it was in dire straights. C wanted to make a sandwich for it. Hey, a sandwich always picks me up when I'm down.

Well, I got him distracted enough to come in (and WASH HANDS) and do our evening stuff and go to bed. I had forgotten about it - I figured the other mouse had/would suffer the same fate as the first (minus four hours in a Tupperware container) and let it go. That was until today when C was playing outside and came to me with the dead mouse IN HIS HAND (AHHHHHHHHHH!) - actually, that's what I really said. I scared him so bad he threw the mouse on the floor and burst into tears, which he was close to anyhow due to his pet's discovered death.....man. Sometimes I seriously need a parenting manual. After further hand washing we did some talking about the passing of animals into the Heavenly Realms and he seemed to feel better. Sweetly, he did mention that Alex wasn't ever going to die. This I take as a good sign of C's affection for Alex, which isn't always clear. Mostly C likes to torment him or ignore him. Lately he has taken to feeding him his toast crusts - yes, he's realizing the true purpose of dog ownership. I hope their relationship continues to blossom.

Anyhow, as a final note of C's new contemplations regarding the circle of life, tonight for dinner as I gave him a piece of chicken, he asked, "Mom, is this the part of the used-to-be-alive and now-is-dead chicken?" Pause. "Yes." What else could I say?

Other Pix from the Week

Snowed In!

We really did have quite the snowy day. Of course the snow started just as we were on our way to preschool - it was a full on blizzard. Traffic lights out, blinding snow blowing everywhere, little sedans slipping and sliding every which way. Thankfully our jeep did fine. The problem was all the other cars that couldn't move anywhere. It took us nearly 40 minutes to get up 1st South from 11th East to 13th East, try to turn south on 13th, then u-turn, go back up 1st South to University Street, south to 4th South and back home on 11th East. It was that bad. We made a good try for preschool, but it was just too nasty. Luckily I called our beloved Miss Patti and she reassured me that they wouldn't be doing anything of vast importance today... as opposed to the unmissable preschool lessons every other day...

Once the snow stopped around noon it was actually a really nice day with some sun shining on the piles of much-needed fresh snow. I thought the day was really going to drag out forever with nowhere to go, but we filled it up with making pizza dough, homemade play dough, and inviting Brandon and his mom over for the afternoon. The kicker was after they left and Troy and CTP spent over two hours in the back yard building a magnificent snow fort. I couldn't believe that C stuck with Troy that long, and vice-versa, frankly. Troy was so cold in his jeans and fleece but C kept wanting turns at digging, which he did very slowly and carefully. They've really had some great father-son time together the past few days.

Q & A

Q: What is worse than having a child with the stomach flu?

A: Having two children with the stomach flu.

Q: What is worse than having two children with the stomach flu?

A: Also suffering from pretty good "morning" sickness.

Q: What is worse than having two children with the stomach flu and suffering from morning sickness?

A: Ending up with the stomach flu yourself.

Not pretty, folks. Not pretty. Just ask Troy. He's the one who had to spend his Sunday mopping us all up, and he's the one who's been sick with a nasty cold for four days. That's all the detail I can give without getting into the severly disgusting...I'll just say this. Shouldn't pregnant moms be off-limits or something? Seriously! Today everyone is pretty much better except me...oh wait, that's just the regular morning sickness.

You know, there was one upside to this day. Well, two. First of all it was a Sunday so Troy was totally available. This was not something I was able to handle on my own. Second, CTP has never been so sweet and tender and polite. He mostly just curled up like a little bug on the couch, watching shows and dozing. He was so sweet with his daddy - specifically requesting Troy's presence next to him because "I need daddy to feel better." He asked for everything he needed in the sweetest little voice with a please and a very deliberate thank you. If only he were like this all the time, minus the barfing, of course. He fell asleep on the floor at 7:45 and that ended our day.

Many Goings On!

So much to tell! First of all, let us joyfully welcome baby L to the Romney clan. Adam has no longer a family of three, but of four. L, a girl, arrived on Friday the 16th at 6:00 p.m. and is beautiful. She actually looks a lot like her big brother S, and he's beautiful too. Adam tells some very funny stories about S on his blog, and the account of L's arrival begins a second Adam-blog. I encourage you to check them out. Adam is turning out to be as funny a writer as his dad and brother. Oh my, that S cracks me up.

Peter's wife, Sheri, is also expecting in October, making the third Romney baby due this year. Holy Fertility, batman. I am hopeful that Sheri and I will have smooth pregnancies and happy births as well. Yay Whitley! L is the only Romney baby born not in the late summer/fall. We have (count 'em) six grand kids all born within three months of each other, three of them within 10 days, and my next one could make the fourth in those 10 days, if we ever figure out when the heck I'm due.

Other happenings? Nothing as exciting as that, I'll tell you. Troy is in San Diego for a few days on business so I'm doing the single parent thing for a few days. Not too bad, but due to the morning sickness we're watching a lot of shows and CTP is having many play-dates elsewhere. Pregnancy is starting to settle in - I'm definitely looking the part, which is nice. I like wearing maternity clothes instead of just the largest articles of clothing I can find. My lump is no longer squashable. Of course, I am wondering if I'm having triplets, due to the two superfluous lumps to be found on my hips, but I think that's probably just the french fries. French fries are what get me through the first three months. I'm trying to just enjoy the journey and feel happy about creating new life along with new hips.

I'll end with my favorite CTP story of the week. We've had a few days of gorgeous weather (despite the snow we got today...) (and I know, we desperately need the moisture, so I'm not complaining). C and his buddy Ryan were playing in the front yard - actually on our neighbor's front yard, where the hill is much steeper and the grass seems to actually grow, unlike our patchy stubble. They were standing at the top of the hill, poising to leap, and shouting, "CHOWMUNGO!" just as they threw themselves down the hill in true super-hero fashion. I can only assume they were meaning "cowabunga," but the emotion was certainly there. Oh, and he would also like us to name the new baby "Ahmuncho." Let's see what spell-check has to say about THAT one.

Good Things

First of all, thank heavens for a little guy named Brandon. We are in such an interesting situation in our neighborhood - we are so close to the university that almost everyone who moves in is just here for school. The houses in the area are either huge (yeah, I don't know what happened at our place.... :) and only affordable by the very wealthy, or they have been divided into apartments. We only know one other family in our ward who actually owns their house. And, as luck would have it, they have a boy just a little younger than CTP. They'll be in the same grade, and they get along beautifully. I actually have many friends in the 'hood with little boys, but they're all at least a year older than C and none of them will be staying for a very long time. I love them all, and hate to think of them going. I'm so grateful there's a chance that Brandon's family will stay. He's another dinosaur man, (you can see them here being t-rexes,) and his mom and I trade play dates at least once a week, sometimes more. Today CTP went over there for like four hours and ...I got a nap!

Also during CTP's absense, RAP and I played outside a little bit. She, like all kids, just loves puttering around outside. She loves running down our driveway, poking the dirt with a stick and just frolicking in general. Her language seems to be developing at last. For months now she'll jabber like a little loon but will only sign actual words. I would say in just the past few weeks she's started trying more words. It's pretty cute. Today she tried "eat," "bath," "toast," "hold you" and best of all, "poopie."

Up Up and Away

Up into the mountains (well, into the foothills anyway) and away to the zoo. What a wonderful morning. Somehow the smog has mostly cleared out of the valley and the high for the next few days is around 50. Isn't it ... a breath of fresh air? Yes, I heard about the weather & immediately left for the zoo. We're at a good zoo stage here - both kids can run around all they want, I don't really need to carry anyone - occasionally RAP, but mostly she walks everywhere. The animals were up and moving, stretching their legs. Our favorite was the gibbon - he was in his outdoor globe of a cage, and swinging around and making quite a racket. The shot of RAP is of her mimicking him. Here is a sample of the gibbon's antics:

We spent two hours wandering around, stomping in snow, enjoying the wildlife and the expensive zoo popcorn. I think Hogle Zoo is doing a great job with the animals. If you haven't been there lately, I recommend the new Asian Highlands exhibit - it houses the large cats and it's really spectacular. If you can catch the tiger taking a swim, you're a lucky soul. We also enjoyed the great apes. CTP took one look at the huge male organutan and said, "Oh Mom, isn't he adorable?" Hmmmm. Not too sure about that, but okay! RAP's comment was, "Pie!" Anyway, hallelujah for good weather. I don't know if you've picked up the subtle nuances from my previous posts, but I'm about sick of winter. Could you tell?

Filling Up Our Days

My question is, How did the pioneers do it? How do people living in northern Alaska do this? We're scrambling here to find enough to fill our days without watching t.v. 100% of the time. I got a little jealous reading the Durham's blog - I am sure it's still quite cold up in Seattle, but I saw lots of blue sky and kids having outside time. How lovely! Truthfully, we did get some light snow that cleared the valley of the smothering smog for at least a few days, but we're still too wet and cold for much outside time.

Thank heavens for Oma. My mom took CTP on an outing for a few hours on Tuesday to the Dinosaur Museum up at the U of U. They came home with quite a project for him - a little prehistoric rhinoceros kit complete with a plastic rhino to paint and also a little block of sand to dig rhino bones out of. This was a project that really did take the whole day - I thought that because it was a kid's toy the sand would chip away pretty easily. Uh, nope. We dug at that thing all day long until I finally ran it under hot water in a sieve to release the little puzzle of bones. A bit tedious on my end, but it was right up CTP's alley.

As for RAP, she has discovered that she adores drawing. I'm really trying to not read anything into this or get hopes up about having an artist - it's just nice that she'll focus on something for a while. She drew the other night for more than an hour. Yes, she gets messy and so does the table, but I love to watch her immerse herself into the experience. I think I need to find a new medium for her - something between markers, which are so messy, and crayons, which frustrate her terribly. She also started saying a new word during this project:"Happy!" Sorry this video is sideways. I am obviously a little slow, and I'm having great difficulty in figuring out how to get it straight. In the meantime, please tilt your head for best viewing. :) )

A Fine Weekend

Saturday mornings can be great, don't you think? We had a very lazy one this past weekend, filled with extra time in our jammies and sippy cups of juice and our favorite cartoons. We had a little wrestling and hide and seek as well. Our SLC weather this month has been nothing short of wretched (Troy will mock me for using this word, but it's true) and we've all been a little down around the Preslar house. But it was a nice Saturday morning with the family.

I got a chance to go see a movie with a girlfriend - Terri Lyn. I had been wanting to see "The Painted Veil" on recommendation from my friend Amie, but it was only showing at 11:00 in the morning. So we chose an afternoon matinee of "Dreamgirls." Hmmmm. I have to say that my mom just loved this movie, and for the first hour or so I enjoyed it a lot. The music had so much energy it was infectious, but then it started getting a little long. I wasn't prepared for it to be an actual musical. I liked the performance numbers, but when the cast started singing instead of talking to each other, it got a little weird. Anyway. It was fun to see a movie in the theater.

I thought I'd include here parts of a letter I wrote to my friend Amie in D.C. - I felt I had some celebrations and confessions this week I could share. In the letter I mention a book called "On Rue Tatin" that Amie sent me for my birthday last May which I have just now finished. I thought it was a really fun read and really suggest you pick up a copy.

"Life here? Well, a little dreary, frankly. We're in an inversion pattern in the valley that is just killer. I'm celebrating every day that we get closer to escaping January. We're so close! And on exactly the same day we're done with this month a storm is supposed to blow through and clear us up a little bit. I can't wait. The gloom and dark plus feeling sick all the time has made for a very depressing month. I'm coping pretty well with the idea of another baby joining our family, I'm just ready to be not sick any more.

I'm also celebrating my new midwife. I had been seeing a regular ob/gyn who was a really bully, I thought. She was very committed to her time schedule and her regimen, which just doesn't suit me. Although we weren't positive about having another baby, one thing I did know was that if I did, I would not be going back to her. So with our news came a search for a new provider. Terri Lyn recommended that I see her midwife, who is conveniently just across the street from me. I went this week, and was shocked when she came in the room, sat down, and said, "Okay, what would you like me to know about you?" She stayed for about 40 minutes and didn't rush anything and didn't seem to have a particular agenda besides let's see how YOU are doing. Oh, I loved her. Really a great experience. I still don't know my due date - probably around Sept 1st, give or take a month. But that's fine for now - we're guessing I'm around six weeks and we'll do an ultrasound later.

Confessions? First, I didn't read "On Rue Tatin" right away. I was in the middle of a couple of books when you first gave it to me, so I let it wait for a bit. Then it became my bath-book, and I'd read a chapter every time I had a bath, which didn't turn out to be that often. But over the last month, I started to not be able to put it down. I just absolutely loved loved loved it. Of course I'm ready to move to France now. And live in her house. I just thought it was a terrific book, and I'm finally thanking you properly for sending it my way. At the very end, she mentions her website. I checked it out and guess what. Susan Loomis teaches a cooking school in her kitchen. On Rue Tatin. I think that's even the name of the school. I was afraid that the end of the book would be her sorrowful departure from France, but I was happy to learn that she stayed. And someday, as soon as I win the lottery, Amie, we are going to take a vacation to France and go to her cooking school. I think you can either take individual classes, or there is also an entire week-long course on French cooking. How fun would that be. I just wonder if we would like our week in Paris to be before or after our week in Louvieres. What do you think?

Other Confession. I was at Barnes and Noble browsing around (Troy had shooed me there one night after a long hard sick day) and I came across a book called "Julie and Julia." Have you heard of it? It's about a gal in NYC, just my age, who was depressed with her life there, and her husband knew she loved cooking. She had sneaked a copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by Julia Child from her home in Texas, and he convinced her to cook every recipe in it in one year. So, I was on the verge of recommending it to you after the first chapter, but I have to say I don't know that I can. I'm really enjoying it myself, but Julie is pretty rough around the edges, in the name of humor I think. Lots of swearing - yes, the mother of all swearwords is used often. She's a little crass, but I appreciate her experience and her quality of REAL. So, I'm enjoying it, but read it at your own risk. "

That's my update for now. My sweet parents just called to see if they could bring my a Jamba Juice. Aren't they nice?

Attack of the Milk Gnome

I am certain I am not going to be able to pay this story justice. But I'm going to try. Yesterday CTP and Troy had a nice long father/son outing including a movie and a visit to Grandma and Grandpa. They were out quite late and I was sure CTP would be a wreck when they came home, but he seemed okay. That is, he was okay until the milk. He wanted some milk, so Troy poured him a cup. CTP had a couple of swallows and then left it on the kitchen table. A few minutes later he returned for more, went to take a huge gulp, and found his cup empty. He was very distressed and said, "Hhhhheeeeeeyyyyyyyy - where's my milk?" I was in the other room, but I could just hear the guilty look on Troy's face. And then I heard this. "Well C, there was a little milk gnome who came and drank it up!" I was shocked to hear Troy weasel out of a confession and blame it on .... a milk gnome? I started laughing so hard and then Troy started laughing harder, which made CTP
so upset. His little bottom lip was stuck out and he was making every effort to not cry. I assured him we weren't laughing at him, but at what daddy had said. CTP let me know that although I found a milk gnome to be of little consequence, he was very upset by the creature living in our kitchen and stealing his milk.

You Know You're Pregnant When....

So the other day I had a few moments to myself and I decided to use them to fold some laundry. In the meantime, I put on the audiobook of Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. I was near the end of the story and listening happily along when it came to the part where Wendy grows up and is no longer able to go to Neverland with Peter. Oh yeah. I totally started crying. Like snuffling, snorting sobs. It was so sad and so true and so real to me, especially at that moment - and that plus the slight hormonal imbalance made for a very wet and boogery combination. Pathetic? Perhaps.

Surprise!

So, you would think that being on the pill and still nursing my 16 month old daughter would have prevented something like this. I don't know that I've actually prayed for the flu before, but last week, as I felt a twinge of nausea, that is what I did. My prayer was answered with a definetive HA HA! and now here we are, full-on pregnant. I have a doctor's appointment in a couple of weeks and I guess I'll find out then when I'm due - I really have no idea right now - maybe September? Yes, that would be my third summer pregnancy. All in all, we're actually quite happy. Troy and I really weren't sure that we wanted another baby, and now that decicsion has been made for us. And since we are planning on a third, we might as well get the deed done and get on with it. I think I'll feel much better and happier when I'm a: not sick and b: it's not January. So, yahoo for us, right?

My Beautiful Parents

I just had to throw this picture in - I love it. I took it of my folks on my front porch the day after Christmas. They actually like the photo - they said I should keep it to use on their coffins at their funerals. Nice.

Happy Epilogue

Here is CTP with his beloved and oft-requested "Mega T-Rex," specifically the green one. I don't know how many countless people he told he wanted one of these. And here he is, rapturously dreaming with it by his side. Good job, Santa.

The Big Day!

We made it. Christmas actually came. It really was such a fun morning. I think that Troy and I are in the best days, the salad days, I would say, of Christmas - CTP is sold hook line and sinker on Santa. He doesn't even get that excited about him, like he's no big deal, just a normal part of life. He's the man who delivers dinosaurs.

We were all so exhausted from the night before - RAP pulled another near all-nighter due to having the lengthy nap and then snoozing on the way home from my parents' house. So we all slept in quite late. We haven't hit the years yet of the kids being so excited that they wake up at three or something, thank heavens. Troy and I actually woke up CTP a little before nine. He put on this funny bathrobe (more like a smoking jacket if you ask me) that was a hand me down from some dear neighbors. When they gave it to him they said that if he wore it on Christmas Morning he would get extra presents. (Thanks a lot!) Indeed, he decided he had to wear it. He looks pretty cute. Of course, the minute all the gifts were open he took it off, it's purpose having been served, I suppose.

Again, I was so proud of CTP. He was totally able to cope with the fact that not all the gifts were for him. He didn't try to open RAP's presents for her. He was delighted with the gifts he got, mainly a "Green Mega-T-Rex," for which he's been pining. Of course, even as I carefully laid out the gifts the night before, knowing how happy CTP would be, I knew also that within 24 hours he would be asking when Christmas was coming again. Indeed, it was only that afternoon he assured me that it was yet again Christmas Eve and he would be gettting all new presents the next day. I guess this is only normal for a four year old. On only one day a year are most stops pulled - why wouldn't he want it to happen again? As for mommy, I'm good with just the one day.