Monday, December 18, 2006

One hectic weekend preparing for two hectic weeks

We had a really good weekend. I was particularly thrilled because AB was done with classes for the semester and that meant I had another set of hands in wrangling Leif, getting him into the bathtub (and then out of the bathtub) and in putting him down to bed at night. I am so, so proud of him for working towards his Masters in Engineering, but wow will I be happy when he finishes this spring!

We were lazy Saturday morning and spent some time on the webcam with my Dad. We ran out to pick up a Christmas gift for my stepfather. He was the one person (aside from me) that AB was responsible for buying for. I can never come up with good ideas for him, my mom never has ideas for him and so when AB offered to buy for him I didn’t question it once. And he only needed a little help. My stepfather is now AB’s responsibility when it comes to gifts.

Saturday after Leif got up from nap we ran to the grocery store to get a few things that I wanted for meals this week and some more snacks for Leif to have on the plane. Maybe I can no longer laugh/whine about my MIL trying to stuff my husband with food… as a mom, it comes naturally with your sons. A deep set fear that your son will waste away to nothingness. We have individual packets of Goldfish, Teddy Grahams, yogurt covered raisins, chocolate for bribery… or I mean “rewarding positive behavior”. I will buy juice once past security. And Leif should be set for food on our 3 hours of flights. (1 hour to Seattle, 1.5 hour layover in SeaTac and 2 hours to Denver).

We had king crab legs for dinner Saturday night that were to die for. We like crab. But king crab this time of year is just amazing stuff – and a remarkably inexpensive price. When I was a kid I was horribly picky, but usually wanted to try weird stuff. Heaven forbid I try any normal stuff. My parents liked crab and so I think it backfired on them when I tried it and liked it. I am sure they expected I wouldn’t. I bought two king crab legs the other day at $9.99/lb. And they looked fabulous. I told AB I bought them and his response was “you only got two legs?” AB is the “meat” buyer in the family. I have pretty much given up buying any and all meat and fish since what I pick out is never right. But you can’t go wrong with king crab this time of year.

Saturday night dinner and AB was unable to finish his one leg. I joked about his “you only got two legs” comment the previous day. Leif is showing signs of maybe liking crab. He liked it when I handed it to him, but didn’t like it when AB handed it to him. Give it time… I am sure he will become as big of a crab fiend as AB and I are. And then maybe we won’t have leftovers from two crab legs.

That night AB and I settled down in front of “You, Me and Dupree” for a few good laughs... before I fell asleep on the couch midway through.

Sunday morning we got up and took Leif swimming. He was so excited to go and see C since they had been in San Francisco for the previous week. When we were waiting to go in, it was obvious that they had missed each other. There was much squealing, hugs, kisses and silliness. They had a great time swimming and we headed to IHOP, where our morning took a nosedive. The pumpkin pancakes tasted fantastic, how could they not after we had stood/sat in the place for an hour. At least it was an easy nap transition as Leif was out in the car within 3 minutes of getting in his carseat. We scrapped the idea of the gift exchange, put it off till the afternoon and went home. I sat down with a huge stack of gifts, wrapping paper, ribbons and bows and the last half of the movie from the night before. AB ran off to do “some shopping”.

We had a quiet Sunday evening with dinner and then decorating Christmas sugar cookies. I do have one story about that to illustrate my concern about my son’s mental state.

My 2.5 year old is a little compulsive about cleaning. His teacher routinely jokes about this compulsion and says that she wants to see what kind of dorm room/apartment he has when he is her age. My response is that he will be in therapy saying “my parent’s house, it was a pit and I was forced to clean since I was two years old!” He is a little overboard compared to the rest of the class with his compulsion. It scares me.

We were decorating cookies and Leif dropped the shaker of red sprinkles. There were red sugar crystals on the floor, mind you, not a ton, just a circle of them. Leif jumped down saying, “uh ho, messy!” He ran to the utility room and DRAGGED the vacuum cleaner to the kitchen. I told him we would clean it after decorating cookies. No dice. He wanted it cleaned up NOW. Ok, we plugged in the vacuum cleaner and I attached the wand for him to clean. AB didn’t mind the noise then since it was coincidentally the same time that “Please Daddy Don’t get Drunk This Christmas” came on.

When Leif was done with the sugar crystals (and vacuuming up his dinner mess he discovered down there), I reached over and shut off the vacuum. “Nooooo!” He squealed. “Floor more messy.” As he pointed under the cupboard lips and under the bakers rack. The frosting was starting to harden.

So while Leif vacuumed the entire kitchen and dining room floor, AB and I went over and decorated cookies. Leif was happy as a clam. Finally he admitted he was done and agreed to letting me put the vacuum cleaner away. I have a clean floor now thanks to my 2.5 year old. And I am sure there will be some therapy session at some point where my son will have a repressed memory about vacuuming the floor while mommy and daddy frosted and decorated cookies. Sigh.

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