Baby's 2nd Christmas

I have so much to catch up on. More consistent baby (or rather, toddler) blogging is on my ever-growing list of New Year's resolutions.  But for now, I thought I'd recap the recent holiday festivities.  Since we traveled for Thanksgiving we decided to stay put for Christmas and the in-laws came to us, which was as nice as it sounds.  December was one crazy blur of figuring out the daycare dilemma, finishing up work stuff I'd committed to before the daycare drama unfolded, and getting ready for Christmas, which translates to a tree purchased on December 13th but not fully decorated until about ten days later, just to give you an idea.  Good thing Elias was still not all that aware of what this holiday is all about.  Not sure I'll be able to pull off this level of procrastination much longer, though.

On Christmas eve we fulfilled my side of the family traditions by first trekking up the hill to the Mormon Temple, decked out in twinkling lights and with a gorgeous view of Oakland below and the San Francisco Bay beyond, to boot. 

As a bonus, the garden in front of the Temple provided a more or less contained space in which Elias could run free for a bit.  After we were all sufficiently wind-blown, we made our way back down the hill for pizza (courtesy of Zachary's - we got around their holiday schedule by picking up half-baked pies the day before) and the opening of one gift, which just happened to be pajamas (the tradition usually goes like this - pizza, pajamas, lights - but we modified things in order to maintain Elias's 7:30 bedtime and prevent him from falling asleep in the car while looking at lights, which is how we spent Christmas eve last year).  Funny how that Christmas eve gift is always pajamas...

Christmas morning started with various baked goods and a bit of waiting for the families' schedules to sync up, something I'm pretty sure we won't be able to pull off in the future when Elias is more aware of what's going on. 

Opening gifts was definitely more fun this year than last but it was all still pretty abstract and I think a bit overwhelming for him at times, even though we kept our (and Santa's) spending to a minimum, knowing most of the gifts already under the tree were for him. Our main gift to Elias - a toddler chair - sounds a bit dull but was really a big hit. 

This may sound odd to anyone without kids but Elias's latest trick is, believe it or not, sitting.  For the past few weeks he's been pulling this square arm rest cushion thing we have off the futon in the living room and backing up to it and then lowering to a seated position, like he's sitting on a bench.  He's even tried to sit on the cat a couple of times.  And the chair we settled on is perfect in that it comes apart and provides Elias not only with something he can sit on, but something he can take apart, move around, and climb over.

Other new favorites include a wooden train and train-themed backpack that he's sporting in the picture above (have I mentioned Elias is obsessed with trains? And the moon, but that's a little harder to incorporate into gifts...), as well as a few new toys that involve building blocks and/or wheels and other things that spin, lots of books, lots of clothes, and a new theme in his play curriculum: play food.

Two Christmases down, hopefully many, many more to enjoy.  Stay tuned for an official 18 month update and just generally catching up around here, hopefully before 2009 is over.