Two Weeks!?

Has it really been that long? Geez. I blame work.

I last left off at Ellie scaling her crib, or the Great Prison Break of '08 as it is now known.I ordered a safety rail, and it got here later that week. Wouldn't you know that it specifically says on the box that you can't use it for a toddler bed. Would have been nice if that had been in the description on the website. Or maybe if that particular safety rail didn't pop up when "toddler bed safety rail" is searched. Hmmmm.

So that safety rail was out. Another google search, and I found that the only safety rails that can be used on convertible toddler beds are these wooden ones made by the manufacturers of your specific model. OK, fine. Harry calls the store we got the crib from, and they quote us a price of $218. For a safety rail? That can't be right. The crib was only $260! And it would have to be ordered and could take up to 16 weeks to receive. 16 WEEKS. Yeah. No go on the wooden rail.

We decided that Harry would just build a safety rail, but even that didn't really pan out because he couldn't find the right thickness of wood for the job. How very frustrating.

We ended up deciding to ditch the crib-converted-into toddler-bed all together and just get a toddler bed with the rail already on it. They only go for $60-120. Go figure.

I then remembered that my niece's toddler bed was in storage at my mom's house. Um, FREE is always good in my book. We went and took a look at it, and it was still in perfect condition minus the crayon on the rails. We brought it home, cleaned it up (even the crayon came off!), and voila! A brand new big girl bed for Miss Ellie! She's been sleeping in it for the past 3 days, and, knock on wood, it's been fab. She loves her new bed. And she's been sleeping even better. It's crazy. And the best part... she still waits in bed in the morning for us to come and get her. It's so sweet. She'll just lay there and talk to her baby dolls until we get up. I love my little girl.

***

Now for the holidays. Christmas Eve was interesting. I got out of work around 3pm, and we headed on over to my mom's house for dinner at 6pm. My little sister, her boyfriend, and Kaylee joined us for some good eats (which I couldn't really enjoy because of the awful stomach bug I got from Ellie the beginning of the week). It was an interesting evening, to say the least. My sister's boyfriend is a little *ahem* young, to put it nicely. And he likes to hug. A lot. I'm not really much of a hugger. Oh, and they were both tipsy from going to the bar beforehand. Yeah. Fun.

We got home a little after 7, spread out the reindeer food on the lawn, gave Ellie her bath, then settled down with "The Night Before Christmas" and "The Christmas Key", two books that will be traditions in our household for years to come. For those of you who don't know what The Christmas Key is, it's a magical key you hang on the outside of your house that only Santa can use to open doors to those homes that don't have fireplaces. Nifty, right? We then put out milk and cookies for Santa, and then Ellie went to bed. We brought all the gifts up from the basement and set them under the tree, and then I got to work making homemade sauce for our Christmas lasagna the next day.

We got up around 7am the next morning, brewed some coffee, and opened gifts. Ellie loved her new bongos from Santa, and she got a few new books and DVDs from Mommy and Daddy, as well as a bunch of new bath toys, which she's super psyched about. The girl loves her bathtime.

We went back to my mom's house for our annual Christmas Crepes Breakfast, and it was SOOOOO good. We exchanged a few more gifts, experienced a few more antics from my sister's boyfriend (the boy is strange), and then I finally got to spend some time with just my mom as we cleaned up her kitchen and chatted. It was nice.

We went back home for a bit to shower and get dressed, then went back to my mom's for a third time for "supper". We visited with my older sister and her family there, ate some turkey with all the trimmings, and exchanged yet some more gifts. By 1:30pm, Ellie was TIRED. So we packed up and got home so she could settle down for a nap. I ended up napping, too, but only because my stomach was killing me and sleep was the only thing I could think of to combat it. What a nasty little stomach bug.

Meanwhile Harry picked his mom up from the nursing home, and they proceeded to watch hours of TV. LOL. It's what she likes to do. I got up, made the lasagna, then ended up laying back down again while they ate. I couldn't even have one little piece of it. So sad.

The evening ended on a quiet note, and I was kind of glad it was over. The next afternoon, Christmas was at an official end when we took the tree down and boxed up every last decoration. I have my house back!

***

Of course, family time wasn't over after Christmas though. My niece's birthday is the 28th, so we trekked our butts up to Torrington yesterday afternoon to help celebrate. We spent the majority of the visit running around after Ellie because my sister's house is a split ranch with an open stairway right smack in the center of the house. FUN. And there were lit candles all over the house when we got there that my niece's all dutifully ran around like mad-girls to extinguish to save my child any 3rd degree burns. Thanks Jenn and Jes!

Ellie only napped for 20 minutes in the car on the way up, so we knew it was going to be an interesting day, but once we got her into girls' bedrooms away from all the people and staircases, we had a really nice visit. And Ellie was fantastic in the car. I thought for sure she'd fall asleep on the ride home. Harry and I were chatting in low tones all the way, and at about the 1/2 way mark, when I was sure she was asleep, we were talking about the chocolate cake my sister had made, Ellie pipes in with "Choc-y! Choc-y!" Yeah, she so wasn't asleep. And she's totally addicted to chocolate. She found the stash of M&Ms while we were there, and totally destroyed them.

Which resulted in an extremely spastic Ellie once we got home. Chocolate overload will do that to you. She could not stay still, and she was talking up a storm. I thought she'd never go to bed.

***

So that's the last two weeks. I'm back at work now while Harry's at home with our little monster. Poor guy. Heh heh.