Christmas and Chatter

It's December? Really? Where has the year gone? Our house is beginning to look a lot (or a little) like Christmas. Jim went out early this morning and got our Christmas tree. We used to go out together and choose one but let's be honest, Jim has a little bit of a stronger opinion when it comes to choosing Christmas trees than I do. Does this surprise anyone? So instead of chasing Lilly through the crowds around the Christmas tree lot in the freezing cold, we decided this was an easier alternative. Thanks to Jim's careful selection, we have a beautiful Christmas tree that is all set up in the corner of the living room...without a single decoration on it. This is another one of those things that used to be easier before Lilly came along. Now that she's such a big help, it is impossible to attempt a task like decorating the Christmas tree while she is awake. So we're going to reserve most of the decorating for times that Lilly is asleep. We're not grinches or anything--we want Lilly to enjoy Christmas. We'll save the soft ornaments for Lilly to put on the bottom of the tree but Jim and I would like to enjoy this part of Christmas too. After all, wine and Christmas decorating go very nicely together.

Lilly has quickly taken to the new Christmas books in her book collection. She has one with a Santa that says, "ho ho ho," so whenever she sees a Santa she says, "Hi Santa...ho ho ho." Jim caught her on camera while she doing this yesterday morning. She was sitting on my lap reading her Santa book. Sometimes she'll sit there for ages saying, "ho ho ho" over and over again. Unfortunately, on this occasion, she discovered play-doh on her sock and that took precedence over Santa.

Lilly seems to like having a tree in our living room, although she keeps pointing to it saying, "Hi tree," with a look of confusion on her face. It's not every day that Lilly wakes up to a giant tree in her house. Although it's always fun having a toddler, I'm beginning to see that it's extra special seeing Christmas through the eyes of a toddler. Everything is new and exciting. There's something so sweet and innocent about being able to talk about what we're getting Lilly for Christmas in front of her...and putting her presents in a corner of her bedroom where she looks at them every so often.

Lilly's language has exploded over the past few weeks. And I mean exploded. She repeats everything we say...she orders us around...she loves to tell us to "sit" next to her when she's reading a book or playing with a toy. To the average ear, Lilly saying "sit" might sound like she is swearing. Keep in mind this is the girl who says, "yesh" and "teshy" (for Tessy) so her version of "sit" is the unrated version and it never fails to amuse Jim and me, as you can see from the following video which took place last Sunday afternoon. She kicks it off with her favorite expression at the moment, "oh boy, oh boy" which she says when she's really excited about something!

Yesterday, just before Jim came home from work, I was very proud of myself. Lilly was freshly bathed, in her pajamas and happily playing. The house was clean...and I mean clean by Jim standards of cleanliness. I had even cleared off our little table so that the three of us could sit and have dinner together before Lilly went to bed. All of a sudden, my perfect evening came crashing down on me when Lilly came running over to me saying, "oh no, wine, oh no, wine." My first thought was a mix of pride and horror that Lilly recognizes a glass of wine and knows it by name. My second was immediate panic; nothing good could come from this statement. Lilly had pulled my glass of wine off a corner table and there was red wine all over our white carpet. It looked like a crime scene and I knew that if Jim saw this, it would put a damper on his Friday afternoon, end of the work week, happiness. So, I did what all people would do in this situation. I googled, "how to get red wine of white carpet" and followed all different kinds of advice. How did people survive without google? I know that without these stain removing tips, I would have done everyone that everyone said that began with "DO NOT....." I was blotting up the wine with a towel, trying to stay calm, while Lilly was sitting on my lap with a tissue, "helping"clean up saying, "oh no, wine" over and over again. To make matters even better, the wine was all over Lilly as well. She seemed to be most upset about wine being on her socks. Apparently, she's not impressed with impurities on her white socks. (I'm having horrible flashbacks to the days of Ellie's white sock tantrums. This better not be genetic).

I could bore you with all the details about how Jim remained amazingly calm through the whole experience, how Jim and I miraculously got the wine out of the carpet and how our carpet is now cleaner than it was yesterday morning, but I won't do that. I will say that this experience seems to have stuck with Lilly who has now added, "oh no, wine" to her repertoire of words and expressions to say when she doesn't know what to say. Let's hope this is one that disappears over time.