Christmas 2011

Christmas 2011 has come and gone, and it was a very Merry Christmas for our family!

Tucker got so many gifts from family and friends that he got tired of opening them, haha! Santa stuck to the 3 present rule (my mom had that for us, we got the same number of gifts as Jesus got, though not the same ones, haha). Those presents were well-received, as they were a big kid Spiderman bike, a talking moving firetruck, and a new IPod Touch for all of Tucker's music, games, and pictures. Chris and I have finally learned how to text on it so that hopefully we will soon transfer all of our photos and videos to his IPod for his amusement. As of now, when I walk in the door he demands "phone!" then he takes my phone, and scrolls through the photos until he finds whichever one he wants that day. Lately it is the picture I took of him with Grace, Morgan, Gina and Jene'e at the Poche's last week. He loves it!

He got all kinds of other great toys and gifts, but more importantly, we were all well and together on Christmas day instead of stuck in the After Hours clinic with strep throat like last year. Last Christmas we actually got take-out Chinese food for lunch, it was pathetic! This year Chris got a stomach bug two days before Christmas, just in time to leave all of the last minute wrapping and errands to me ;) So Tucker and I made ourselves scarce so that Chris could rest. We had fun visiting with Lacy and Josh and Gina; we also took Gina to breakfast one day, and Tucker was very upset when the eggs we ordered showed up on his plate already cracked and cooked! 

A few weeks before Christmas, Tucker decided that a little bear with a Santa hat was his new best friend. He calls him "Chri-mas bear" or "santa bear" depending on his mood. Well, Christmas bear is Tucker's imaginary friend, or imaginary baby, we can't decide. He puts Christmas bear into all of Kinley's seats, like her high chair and walker. He also makes Christmas bear have his own couch cushion, so if you think you can move Christmas bear out of the way so that you can sit down, you are wrong! One time I put Christmas bear into his own seatbelt next to Tucker's carseat, and he was so excited. So now Christmas bear always has to be buckled up, that was a mistake starting that. Christmas bear goes everywhere that Tucker goes, so for example, when I say "let's go to Sissy and Pops", he says "Chri-mas bear come wit us!" haha

We spent a lot of time with family over the break; I was off of work for 11 days, and it was so nice. Of course we spent a good bit of that time in doctor's offices, we wouldn't be us otherwise. On December 20, Grace and Morgan came with us to New Orleans for two appointments. Tucker was ecstatic to have his cousins riding with him all the way to Nola and back, although he was upset that Christmas bear didn't get his own seat.  The girls each wanted to push Tucker in his stroller, take turns feeding him his tube feeds, really anything they could do to play with Tucker and/or help him. The ENT said that Tucker's ear tubes both fell out, so now we are watching him closely to see if he will need replacement tubes or if he has maybe outgrown the need for them. Tucker put Christmas Bear in the patient seat, and asked the doctor "check Bea's ears" she said no she had to check Tucker's ears! He is such a mess ;)

On the same day as the dr. appointments, it was Grace's 9th birthday, so after the first appointment (ENT) we took the girls to the mall and had pizza for lunch. I took Morgan and Tucker to the Pottery Barn Kids store, where Morgan fell in love with the Star Wars bedding, and Tucker fell in love with the beds and lamps. He is like Goldilocks, trying every bed to see which one was just right, even though there were tons of toys. Our second appointment was a bust, as we got there 5 minutes late, got checked in, then were left in a hallway and the waiting area for 30 minutes, then told that we were 40 minutes late and the dr. couldn't see us! Seriously, we were so angry.

The girls were so good, though, and they were happy to be heading home a little early. We stopped at McD's on the way home for ice cream, then we bee-bopped the whole way home to Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber, and Maroon 5. Christmas Bear also got into the spirit, Tucker made him dance, it was adorable.

The day after Christmas we left for Lake Charles, then onto Houston for Tucker's EEG. I'll post about that in the next few days (hopefully!).