Fun with Friends and Family

I was hoping to post a Wordless Wednesday post yesterday with our fully decorated Christmas tree....well that didn't happen! Our tree is up, but the lights aren't on it, and neither are the ornaments. We got a fake tree from Maw Maw Mimi. Chris put it up on Monday, and I fluffed out the branches yesterday. Chris put it right near an outlet, which we thought made perfect sense. Well, Tucker was way into plugging and unplugging the lights, which is a definite no-no. We kept being firm with him, to no avail. So we decided to move the tree...well, two moves later (for different reasons), along with other furniture being moved, and we were done! The tree is now close enough to an outlet that the lights can reach, but the outlet is behind the TV, so Tucker would have to work extra hard to get to it! Hopefully having it out of the way will put the idea out of Tucker's mind. Maybe we will decorate it tonight:) Tucker and the whole family have been having lots of fun lately. This is a picture of Tucker riding the pig on the carousel. It's from the same day that we saw Santa. He was SO happy to ride the pig, haha! On Thanksgiving night, Molli spent the night at our house. This was Tucker's first sleepover, and the kids had a blast:) I didn't know how Tucker would like sharing his toys for a whole day (his playdates usually last just a few hours), but he just loved having Molli at his house. Molli is actually my first cousin, but she is about 10 months younger than Tucker. Her mom (Susan) and Gina hit the Black Friday sales, while we slept in and enjoyed the kids. Molli and Tucker just played and played; Molli took out toys that Tucker hadn't played with in months, and Tucker loved doing anything Molli was doing. I stayed with them in the toy room, because Molli was scared of Chris! I couldn't believe that, but she told me that Chris was not too nice. He is not sure what he ever did to make her scared, but she was. I wanted to make Molli feel comfortable so that she would enjoy herself and want to come back. I got out some princess Barbies and some old crowns I had from when I was little, and she loved all of that. Tucker usually sticks to his routine of toys (depending on which ones are his favorite at the time), but Molli wanted to try every toy he had. At one point, she asked to paint. I was hesitant at first, but it rained all day, and the kids were running out of stuff to do. So I got out some paint and old tshirts for them to wear, and they had so much fun. They also had lots of snacktimes. Tucker sat right next to Molli each time and licked his food.

It was actually much easier to have Molli over to play with Tucker than to just have him all by himself. Apparently, she is great entertainment:) Once Molli was comfortable enough for me to leave her, she and Tucker hung out in the toy room together. She kept calling me to the back. She would call out "Leigh, Leigh, Leigh" until I would go see her, then she'd say "I like this horse," or "Tucker is playing with his blocks." She just liked keeping me informed. Once she called me back "Leigh, I just made a big fluff," (her code name for passing gas) haha! After she left, the house was much too quiet and Tucker was back to being bored! Chris and I agreed that we have to invite Molli over more often, maybe she will even get to the point where she likes Chris, hopefully!

My best friend from childhood, Jessica, got engaged a few weeks ago. Her boyfriend rented out an ice skating rink, and he painted a backdrop to look like New York City; he even put up a little Christmas tree so it would look like Rockefeller Center (she loves NYC, but she visited in the summer and didn't get to ice skate). So he took her ice skating and proposed, and of course she accepted:) So on Saturday Mom and I went with Jessica and her parents and sister, along with some friends, to search for her wedding gown. It was a great day, we really had fun, and we all shed a few tears. My mom was hilarious and very informative; she discussed the good and bad points of each gown, and we all told her that her true calling is to be a wedding consultant.

Sarah and Brad had offered to spend that day with Tucker; Tucker loves them (even before he could talk, he used to carry around pictures of Brad and point to him). Brad took Tucker riding on the Rhino and the lawnmower. They also took him for a ride in the truck to McDonald's to get a hamburger, which he licked. After that day, Brad, Sarah, and Tucker all needed a nap!

That same day, Chris shot a deer. He loves to hunt, but he hadn't seen any deer so far this season. He doesn't get to go hunting very often, as he spends a lot of time home with us. Maybe soon Tucker will be able to go with Chris to the camp, but I don't think I'm ready for that!

Tomorrow Tucker's class is going to the Christmas Tree Farm for their field trip. On Saturday he has the Dreams Come True Christmas party, complete with Santa. On Saturday night we are riding in a firetruck in a parade. Jackie's brother and dad are in the fire department, so they asked Tucker to ride on Saturday. We hope that he loves it, I hope to post pictures of all of these adventures soon. Please pray that Tucker has enough energy to keep having good days, and that we have enough rest times to keep up his good behavior.