Holiday Whirlwind

This holiday season was particularly exciting because Marty and I were both off for an extended period of time, (12 whole days! Paid! Without using vacation days! Working at a school, together, rocks.) so we had what seemed like it would be an enormous amount of time to visit with family, catch up with friends and most importantly spend lots of quality time with our daughter (but of course it went by in a flash). I doubt that Elise will ever again in her life receive such devotion and attention from both of her parents simultaneously for such an extended period of time. We both spent nearly 300 hours in her presence, only taking breaks for sleeping. That’s got to be some kind of record.

And we spent what felt like a large majority of those 300 hours in the car. This at first seemed very unfortunate because of Ellie’s long-lived car hatred. I was dreading all of the driving we were planning to do (visiting various family members in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia) but apparently there is nothing that gets a child used to the car better than forcing her to sit in a car for hundreds of hours. In fact, I might go so far as to say that she actually likes the car now. My mom said that yesterday they were playing outside and Ellie ran over to the car and asked to get in! For someone who threw a stink every time we had to drive 5 minutes to the grocery store, this is certainly a big change of heart!

Ellie playing with Uncle Kevin and Tickle Me Elmo on Christmas Eve
Her new car tolerance made our road trips much more manageable - even enjoyable! And the small amount of time that we weren't road-tripping, we were hosting guests and enjoying the holidays. Last year, Elise was only six months old at Christmas so she had no real clue what was going on and could care less about opening gifts or what the gifts would be. And, at only 18 months, I expected a similar reaction again this year. But Christmas turned out to be much more fun with an 18 month old than I ever imagined. She still didn’t “get it”, but she loved tearing the paper open and was super excited anytime there was something to do with Elmo under the wrapping paper (and she actually enjoyed gifts that were Elmo-free too). The child is in Elmo overload. She now has about 20 Elmo books, two Elmo DVDs, an Elmo Christmas ornament, an Elmo bath toy, an Elmo plate, bowl and spoon, a large Elmo doll, a Tickle Me Elmo and three small Elmo dolls. You’d think that it would be too much, but no. She carries ALL of her Elmo dolls around with her (I am not kidding) and reads her books to them and feeds them from her Elmo bowl. I think Marty and I are the ones that are actually in Elmo overload: she’s in heaven!

Aaron ("Uncle Wolfe"), Ellie and "Neigh" in Colonial Williamsburg
Another fascination that she got to indulge in over the holidays (and the only thing that could distract her from talking about Elmo) is her new found love of horses. While visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Virginia, we spent a morning at Colonial Williamsburg, where horse drawn carriages take visitors on tours around the town. At first, Elise seemed a little unsure of what to make of the enormous animal, and it think it took a few minutes to make the connection that that huge creature was the same thing as the little animal she’s seen in books. But she did make the connection and decided that horses are the coolest things ever. She actually got to pet a horse that was taking a little break, which might have been the highlight of her year. My brother, Aaron, was holding her while she was petting the horse, so she somehow made the connection that he was the “horse guy” and spent the rest of the visit demanding that he show her more horses. Here’s a sample of our afternoon:

Elise pats Aaron’s shoulder while he’s mid-sentence, then begins tugging on his arm.
Elise: “Neigh?”
Aaron: “Ok sweetie, we’ll try to find more horses.”
Aaron resumes talking to the adults. Elise taps his shoulder again, cranes her head around so she’s in Aaron’s face.
Elise: “NEIGH!”
Aaron: “Yes, I know you want to see more horses and we’re on our way to find more.”
Elise: “Neigh? More? Neigh?”
Aaron: “I think there are more up this way. We’ll see more horses, Ellie, I promise.”
Elise: “Neeeeeeiiiiigggggghhhh! More? Neigh?”
Quiet clip clop of horse feet in the far distance. Elise goes very still, listening. Then breaks into an enormous smile.
Elise: “Neigh!” Several minutes go by, the horse drawn carriage passes and she watches silently. We watch until it is completely out of sight. The second it is gone, Elise taps Aaron’s shoulder.
Elise: “Neigh?”

All and all, Elise did extremely well over our holiday vacation, and I am so proud of her. We spent a ton of time in the car, in other peoples houses, around large crowds of family and friends and there were lots of little kids in our house playing with all of her new toys. Through all of this, she remained sociable, happy and pleasant to be around, with few meltdowns in between. Not to mention that our little 5:45am riser slept in until 7:15am - 8:30am every single day of the break. It's a Christmas miracle. Hallelujah!