on monday peter left midday for nj, and erik and i spent a nice quiet day together at home. we went to meet mom, scott, and the boys for dinner at olive garden, and it was crazy busy there. we waited for over an hour for a table, and probably another 45 minutes for our food. it was good to be together, but an exhausting ordeal! i think we were there almost three hours! the highlight was when the food finally arrived and kyle was so excited that he accidentally knocked his dish out of the waitress's hand as she was trying to set it down in front of him. that and the waitress spontaneously bringing michael a side of broccoli, his favorite food (NOT!). heheh ... good times. i guess the holidays are a bad time to do much of anything, as the next day (marisa's birthday!) we were going to go to the children's museum with all the cousins and it was so crowded and all the lots were full, so we (erik and i) turned around and headed back toward home. i had promised erik "more choo choos," so i took him back to phipps (where we can get in free), and let him run around there for awhile.
the older cousins went to the children's museum and had a great time, so i think it worked out for the better. we stopped and picked up a pizza and salad from rialto (YUMMY!) on the way home, had a good lunch, and i spent some time going through and editing my christmas pictures while he napped. we had another quiet afternoon of playing and reading books. it was great getting so much alone time with my little boy, but we both missed peter a lot. i ended up staying up way later than i wanted to, but got a lot of laundry done and finished processing all my christmas pictures and uploading them. woo hoo! i also took some "interesting" photos of our fiber optic christmas tree.
the next day was new year's eve - time for the laemmle family christmas celebration. YAY!!! peter hit some bad weather on the way home, but thankfully made it back to pittsburgh safe and sound and in time to get to the spaghetti and steakhouse for our traditional new year's (rockin') eve dinner. the older cousins had their own table, which i think made everyone happy!
erik had some issues with his cheese stick, but ultimately he prevailed.
back at my parents' house, erik and maggie discovered the pure joy that is the macarena turtle, and i loved every second of it!
presents were opened, beer was drunk and spilled (by me), cranium was (sort of) played - this year by the older kids and adults, and things were blown up as is our way.
nary a glass was broken by my mom, ending a fairly long-running tradition, but maggie made up for that at lunch today by tossing a plate and breaking it on the foot of the table at rock bottom. for what it's worth, i think the plate was asking for it, and we were able to officially ring in 2009.
new years day brought sleeping in (thank goodness!), more family togetherness at adam and chrissy's house, and the rose bowl (ack!). we all know how the rose bowl turned out (penn state got smoked), but other than that it was a really nice day. erik loved taking out every toy he could find and playing with it, especially the doll house. he was also mesmerized by the train around their christmas tree. the older kids ran around like a bunch of crazies like they do, and much food was eaten and football watched.
friday brought a little more r&r and some shopping. erik loves the silly merry-go-round at walmart.
on saturday marisa had her birthday party at fun fore all. everyone (especially peter!!!) had a great time at the new indoor playground called ballocity. it had a really awesome long fast winding slide and all kinds of other coolness.
poor erik was playing one of the games and a large heavy lever fell on him and conked him good in the face, causing his nose to bleed. luckily his aunt chrissy and unkie newt were on top of things and adam stopped his tears with some skittles while chrissy ran for an ice pack and i gave him lots of tlc. things were very chaotic, but i think marisa had a great time at her party. the people at fun fore all did a great job of keeping everything running smoothly and taking care of everything from food to opening presents to goody bags (mental note for possible future birthday party for erik). in the end, erik got his revenge against the machine that injured him, and peter won the jackpot of tickets, enabling us to buy erik two crappy cars and two crappy light up dinosaurs. why is it that even the most expensive prizes at these places suck? no matter ... it was just fun watching how excited peter got when the machine started spitting out tickets. i'm not sure whether he had more fun with that or in ballocity ... probably in ballocity!
monday was my last day of vacation, and we took erik to the children's museum to make up for the missed day with his cousins. it wasn't at all crowded and erik loved it, especially the train tables.
i noticed some interesting reflections from the windows in the pool in the water play area:
after that, it was back to real life. i have plenty more to say, but it will have to wait for another day. it was an awesome break which we sorely needed. i'm already missing the extra time i got to spend with my little boy, who is changing and growing up so fast.
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