Everything from December

Well, we have quite a few things to update everyone on, but first of all, we hope that each of you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May 2010 bring you all good health, and happiness with your friends and family. We’ll start this update by giving the biggest news of 2010 – Tyler is now wearing big kid underwear!!! (One day, he’s going to look back on this blog and want to strangle me for the things that I share.) His teachers had been telling us that he was doing very well with staying dry throughout the day, and wanted to start him in underwear at the first of the year. We were noticing that he was staying dry as well, and he was even disappearing every once in a while in order to go potty all by himself. It’s quite unnerving to have your almost-3-year-old tell you, “I’ll be right back, Mama. You stay there.” You worry about what he’s getting into, especially when you hear the toilet flush. But then you realize that he went to the potty all by himself, and your little boy is indeed growing up. We started him in underwear for the long weekend over New Years’ and he never had one pee accident. We even ran tons of errands and met up with friends – no accidents. We are so proud of Tyler, and he is VERY excited about wearing his underwear – Diego, Nemo, superheroes, you name it. He had a pretty good day at school with his underwear, and we hope that it continues. He will still wear a pull-up at night, and at nap, but we are definitely on the right track!

Going back to December now, as many of you know we had quite the snow fall about a week before Christmas. We ended up with somewhere between 10 and 12 inches! We were lucky that Tyler’s snowsuit still fit him from last year, and we were able to shove his feet in his old boots for a few minutes of play. It was definitely pretty, but also bitter cold with a steady breeze. We didn’t stay outside long, only about 30 minutes. The snow was hard for Tyler to walk in since there was so much of it, and I think that he was getting frustrated with his mittens and being limited in his movement. But we did build a small snowman, made a few snow angels, and threw a few snowballs. I think the part that Tyler liked best was when we got in the house, and we shared some hot chocolate. And I have to admit, I enjoyed that part of the day too.

We also took advantage of that snow day to make our Christmas cookies. Tyler did all of the decorating. He was really into the process in the beginning. You could tell which cookies were part of that batch, as they are all loaded down with about 3 pounds of sprinkles. Each. As the batches kept coming, the sprinkles got lighter and lighter, until the last batch when there was barely 10 sprinkles on each cookie. We had fun though, and he enjoyed giving the cookies to our neighbors, who we hope enjoyed eating them.

Christmas was a lot of fun this year as well. Tyler really understood what was going on around him and I hope that we helped him understand the importance of giving. We had lots of guests for Christmas this year. Uncle Eddie & (soon-to-be) Aunt Emily came in on the 23rd. We all went to Bass Pro Shops on Christmas Eve for playing & lunch, then we came back home to get ready for the traditional Woody Christmas Eve dinner. As I've mentioned before, this was a dinner that my mom used to make every year, and after her passing, I wanted to keep it going as best as I could. It's a big feast, but it's been scaled back over the years. But it's still wonderful, and hopefully we will be able to continue the tradition as our family becomes "blended". (This is a fun term that's thrown around the Woody family a lot lately, as we have Eddie marrying Emily in 2010, and Dad marrying Cindy this year as well! Lots of new family members and extensions of family! Exciting time for the Woodys!)

Dad & Cindy came to our house on Christmas Eve for the feast. And since Eddie & Emily were heading back to Lynchburg that night, we opened our gifts that night as well. Tyler had a great time unwrapping all of his gifts, and even paused to help hand out a few gifts here and there. We spent the rest of the evening playing Guitar Hero (thanks Eddie & Em!), watching Dad & Tyler climb through Tyler’s new tunnel system, and preparing for Santa’s visit by setting out the milk & cookies. And since you can’t forget the reindeer, Gramme Snead had sent over some magical reindeer food for Tyler to sprinkle on our lawn so that Santa knew how to find us. He had a lot of fun with that, and was very excited to see if Santa would really come to our house.

And boy did he come to our house. Santa outdid himself this year, with a new Leap Frog ClickStart computer, a new chair, lots of books and movies, and a Little People learning zoo for Tyler. He was so excited to see all of the goodies that were left for him, and it was so much fun to watch him absorb it all. We ate breakfast with Grandpa & Cindy, and unloaded our stockings and then it was time for everyone to hit the road. Grandpa & Cindy headed back to Lynchburg, and we headed to Louisa to visit with Gramme & Granddad Snead, Aunt Jenn, Uncle Brian, & baby Landon, as well as Great-Grandma Smith. We had lunch with them and Tyler got even more gifts, which he thought was the best. He did get a moment of greediness that made me a tad upset. As the presents were dwindling in number, he walked over to Gramme and said, “Gramme, where’s more with Tyler’s name on them?” I was appalled. We had to remind him that Christmas was not just about getting stuff. I hope we got through to him.

All in all, we had a wonderful Christmas. The only downfall was that I ended up with a horrific sinus infection that put me out of commission for most of Christmas Day. I spent the majorityof our time at Trav’s grandmother’s house in a recliner, just resting. And this stupid thing has taken its time leaving! Almost 2 weeks later, and I’m still dealing with some stuffiness and pressure. Ugh! We stayed in on New Years Eve this year, and we really enjoyed that as well. We didn’t even make it up to midnight this year. It’s one of the things you must sometimes give up when you have a child that will still get up at his normal time, no matter what time you went to bed.

We are looking forward to 2010 and all that it holds for us. We have a big year ahead, with weddings and beach trips and a certain little man who will be turning THREE in less than two months! It’s so hard to believe that he’s gotten so big. We’ve already started planning the birthday party, which will be here before we know it. Best wishes to you all in 2010 and here’s hoping that we see you all at some point during the year!

Oh and one last note. Tyler got to stay at his Gramme & Granddad's right after Christmas so that I could give Travis his Christmas gift from me - tickets to see his beloved Cowboys play the Redskins in Washington. Though it was a sad game for us Skins fans, Travis had a wonderful time.