We were surprised last weekend when a giant box was delivered to Miss Isabelle Cosby by the UPS man. It was sent from Mr. Pete, Ben's good friend and boss at work. Pete felt bad utilizing almost all of dad's time over the holidays closing two acquisitions, so to make up for it he sent Isabelle 12 pints of ice cream. They were shipped from a family favorite, Graeter's Ice Cream in Cincinnati, Ohio, and were sitting on bags of dry-ice. When Belle opened the box she said "Wow, it's amazing!" She has been enjoying ice cream every day since.
On another note, today was Isabelle's first dentist visit. We were both a little nervous when we arrived but Belle was awesome. She laid so still during the initial exam that the dentist decided to go ahead and give her a full visit and treatment even though they traditionally need the children to be a little older to sit for so long. She had all of her teeth cleaned and a fluoride treatment while she watched The Little Mermaid. She has no cavities and all of her teeth seem to be coming in well and with great spacing. Her bottom three-year old molars are starting to peek through and once she gets her top molars she will have her full set of teeth. The dentist explained to her that her teeth were so straight and shiny right now and that once she was three she needed to throw any pacifiers away. When we got home, she immediately got both of her "luks" out of her bed and tossed them in the trash declaring she was a big girl now and didn't want them anymore. About an hour later, when it was nap time, she cried and said she didn't want to be a big girl anymore and fished them both out of the garbage can. That won't be our battle for now and we will continue to enjoy our sugary ice cream from Mr. Pete with our clean shiny teeth!
For some reason the holiday season and Ben being very busy at work go hand-and-hand. With more motivation and holiday spirit than time, we decided to catch a quick flight up to DFW the Sunday before Christmas to visit the Cosby family. Our flight left at 8:35am and at 8:20am we were still in line to check our bags. Thankfully to a helpful American Airlines staff and a well-traveled and experienced 2 year old, we were on the flight with seconds to spare before take-off. Isabelle was thrilled to see her Grandpa Van and Grandma Ruth, her Aunts and Uncles and especially her cousins Isaac, Lincoln and Elijah from Nebraska. Our trip was short as we returned home on a late Tuesday flight, but Jelly made great use of her time running and playing non-stop for the next 48 hours. We read stories, played games, sang songs, danced and ate yummy food. We visited the Gaylord Texas Hotel where we enjoyed all of the fascinating Christmas decorations and we read/acted out the Christmas nativity story. Belle loved playing the role of Mary and took her part very serious. She had what she considered a "manger" but she asked her Grandpa Van if he could please build her a quick "stable." The day we left, we enjoyed a mini-Christmas morning and opened some fun presents from everyone. Isabelle's favorite was her Shiatsu dog in his own carrying case. She proudly carried it through the airport and carefully onto our airplane, all the while talking to him and showing him to others. Meanwhile, Ben was attempting to close two acquisitions and spent most of our quick trip in his dad's office on the phone and computer. He missed the nativity-story as well as dinner and the Polar Express pajama party but either way we were grateful to visit the Cosby's for a few days and share some holiday cheer. On Christmas Eve Belle decided that she better visit Santa one more time and remind him where she lives and a few more items she forgot to mention on prior visits. We headed down to the North Star mall and bought a few more Christmas gifts before waiting in an unusually long line to sit on St. Nick's lap one last time. We then ate a yummy dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and left for home full and tired. Belle left Santa cookies and milk and happily jumped into bed excited for the morning to come. Ben and I arranged Santa's gifts under the tree, filled the stockings and then snacked on traditional Christmas Eve treats while we watched our annual screening of The Holiday.
Jelly slept until 7:00am when she finally yelled "Mom, Dad, get me out of my bed so we can see if Santa came." The night before I had told her that if she was a good girl all year Santa would bring her a big gift, and vice-versa. I had carefully placed a cute little gift under the small Christmas tree in her bedroom so that she would be surprised when she awoke. When I went into her bedroom Christmas morning she looked at me and said "Oh, I had an accident, so Santa just brought me a little gift this year." Obviously she was beyond joyful when she entered the family room and saw a giant present left especially for her! (Ben and I actually only gave her about half of the gifts we bought as we didn't want to spoil or overwhelm her. The rest we will save for a future holiday.)
Isabelle was surprised with the Loving Family Dollhouse and several of the rooms that accessorize. She also cheered when she opened Hi Ho Cherry-O! which she refers to as "Carmel Apple Crunch." Ben's favorite gifts were his books on CD's that he enjoys during his daily commute and I was surprised with my new HP laptop. We spent Christmas morning lazy in our PJ's and eating Mexican food before getting cleaned up and heading to the theatre to see The Tale of Despereaux. It was a quiet Christmas Day, just the three of us, and I don't think Ben worked much at all, which was a real gift. (By 7:00am the following day he was back on the phone and computer still trying to close the deals.) A few days after Christmas, we loaded up the car and made the 3 hour drive to Houston to visit the Christensen Family. We were greeted with another mini-Christmas morning, where we were all spoiled with more gifts than we knew what to do with. Belle was very relieved to finally receive Lily Gray,the horse that goes with her dollhouse. She also opened her very own computer and camera and took about 100 pictures in 10 minutes and then asked me to put them on the blog! Luckily she had many willing models who posed for her even long after her memory card was full. While in Houston we enjoyed jogging together, seeing movies (Belle saw Marley and Me twice), shopping, pedicures and celebrating Grandpa's birthday. We enjoyed dinner at Alee and Nick's new apartment and read books with Aunt Tara. Belle adores her Grammie and Grandpa more than words and Ben and I enjoy them too...especially when we send Belle downstairs at 6:00am and stay in our warm bed a few more minutes. We rang in the New Year at about 5:45pm New Year's Eve with a fire and loud banging of pots and pans. Afterwards, Belle said "that was a great party, huh mom." Once she was fast asleep we stayed up eating all sorts of hors d'oeuvres outside by the fireplace and guessing the answers to some of TIME'S Best of 2008 Lists. I actually was in bed before midnight, but I think Ben may have seen the 2009 ball drop in Times Square.
This holiday season has truly been enjoyable as we have experienced it through the eyes of a toddler. Isabelle sincerely loved driving in the car looking for Christmas lights, baking cookies and delivering them to neighbors, playing Santa's "helper" with some special gifts we wrapped and most importantly singing carols. We have woken up to her singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer many mornings loudly from her warm bed. After many more hours working than relaxing over the holidays, Ben successfully closed both deals by close of business on the 31st and although the break is over, now is in need of a vacation. We are not sad to see 2008 go as this has been a challenging year for all of us. Rather we are excited, motivated and hopeful for a prosperous 2009! Happy New Year!
Tonight we made the 30 minute trip north to New Braunfels, TX to the home of the World Famous Schlitterbahn Water Resort. It had been transformed from a summer mecca to a winter wonderland! The water slides were transformed into sledding hills and the swimming pools were open for ice-skating. Isabelle wore the smallest ice skates available, and although they were still two sizes too big, she braved the ice and took her first trips around a rink. She mostly liked to hold onto me and let me skate while she just glided along. She sat on both Santa and Mrs. Claus' laps and made sure they knew she lived in San Antonio, TX so that they could find her house on Christmas Eve. She played in giant gingerbread houses and saw thousands of lights. One of the funniest moments was when Isabelle saw a few girls join the carolers for a round of Rudolph and quickly made her way up front to sing along. It was 70 degrees at 8:00pm so we were plenty warm but with fake snow falling and everyone drinking hot wassail, we almost felt like it was really cold outside. On the way home, way past Belle's bedtime, she only had one regret..she forgot to tell Santa so many of the things she hopes he brings her this Christmas. Thank goodness Santa is full of magic!
This is exactly the spirit that has been in our home the last several days. With a 2 year-old, decorating for the holidays is really exciting and very urgent! Jelly and I spent several afternoons this past week slowly getting out a few decorations every day. She especially loves the advent calendar where each morning she finds a chocolate bell which she quickly eats. She asked me who places the candy in the calendar every night and without even thinking about it, I replied the snowmen! When Ben got home from work that night, Jelly exclaimed Dad, did you know this is my special calendar and snowmen-fairies come in the night and bring me candy! (Somehow it always turns into "fairies.") After much anticipation, we finally put up the Christmas tree this evening. We of course wanted to wait until Ben would be home to help and it seemed like the perfect activity for Sunday night. We turned on the Christmas music and I believe it was everything Belle hoped for. We had fun telling her the story of each of our ornaments and when I showed her the 2001 Doves ornament that Ben and I received for our wedding, she said Oh, this was for your wedding? And I was still in Heaven with Baby Jesus and Joseph and Mary, right? She placed about half the ornaments on 3 or 4 branches and thought they were simply perfect! After her bath, she wanted to lay under the tree for just a few minutes before she hopped into bed. Christmas is magical when you are 2!
*Notice she is finally wearing the dress Aunt Tara bought her last year for the holidays. It is a size 2 and was so big last year...now it fits!
We celebrated Thanksgiving this year in Houston surrounded by family and friends. Isabelle nearly drove us crazy as we packed for the trip asking "is it time to go" every few minutes. She was so anxious to get to Grammy's that we were on the road by 10:00am Wednesday morning.
We started our Thanksgiving morning early participating in the annual Coles Crossing Turkey Trot. We all ran in step and Belle was thrilled with her winning medal. We spent the day cooking and watching football and once Chris, Colleen and Max arrived from Ohio we enjoyed a yummy turkey dinner. Ben particularly loved the sweet potatoes, Belle thought the mashed potatoes were delicious and I was quite impressed with the salt-less stuffing! After dinner and a much loved Thanksgiving puppet show, we gathered around the newspaper and planned our attack for the highly anticipated Black Friday shopping spree.
At 4:00am my mom, Tara, Alee, Nick and I headed out for our first store and by 7:00am had successfully spent money in 4 different major stores. Once Belle awoke, she and Ben met us for a few more early morning shopping hot spots in their pajamas before we headed home to shower and get ready for the day. (We bought Belle a JEEP which we had no plans to buy, but one became available at 5:00am and I jumped on the opportunity. There was a line waiting for the JEEP's to be unloaded but Alee got a tip on the store's plan, so we walked straight to the back and picked up the last pink JEEP available. I almost got beat up but I successfully got it back to the check-out counter and Nick and Alee ran it home in between stores since we had already bought too much to fit it all in the car. We do not want to spoil Jelly, so we will probably save it until her birthday in March when it is Spring and pretty outside.) Once we were clean and "rested" Tara, Belle and I headed for the mall and were there just in time for a few more sales that lasted only through noon. Finally at nearly 2:00pm we had shopped and spent all that we had planned and made our way back home.
Grandma and Grandpa took Max and Belle to the movie BOLT while the rest of us watched Four Christmases. Isabelle was thrilled to go to the theatre, one of her favorite things, with her grandparents and cousin all by herself! Saturday was spent preparing for the Newlyweds open house. The backyard was beautiful and the food was delicious. We were threatened by rain but the evening turned out to be lovely and we had such a nice time visiting with so many friends. Nick's parents, Paul & Lynette, were able to make the trip from Colorado and we enjoyed getting to know them better and learning more about our newest family member. We were even surprised by a long-lost friend, Ryan, (and relative) who relocated to DFW and made the trip down to celebrate with us. We also loved seeing Ben's brother Sam and his wife Heather and Belle's only girl cousin Anna over the weekend at both the movie and reception.
Sunday and the end of the break came too quick and Belle was in tears saying goodbye to her favorite people. Max turned 4 years old on Sunday so we had a quick party and then packed our bags. Unfortunately, our usual 3 hour trip turned into more than 5 hours on the road as were constantly needing to stop with Belle who surprised us with a stomach bug. The poor baby started getting sick about an hour into the trip and spent the next 12 hours crying in pain and emptying her stomach like clockwork almost every ten minutes. It was an awful ride home and the three of us spent the night awake lying all together on the living room floor.
Despite the less than perfect ending, we had such a wonderful time celebrating with our family and we cherish every chance we get to spend with each of them. We are grateful we are so blessed and we are eager to get out our Christmas decorations.
