Birthday Party, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Years... Oh My
So I actually do have a good excuse this time for not updating earlier. First, I tried to cure my minor sinus infection (and bad cold) with penicillin. It turns out that, just like Simon, I'm really allergic to penicillin. So I spent my week off (and the week after that) with hives - REALLY BAD HIVES. And, if that isn't enough, it seems the holiday season was non-stop celebrations of one thing or another and visiting and family and, really, when you're having that much fun between itching sessions, do YOU turn on the computer and blog? My third excuse is that I bought a new camera only the cable allowing me to get the digital photos off of the camera broke. Having just solved the problem, I've uploaded those photos to Flickr where you can "oooh" and "ahhh" over our December activites.
First off, Adlai turned two! The Feefadders came along as we celebrated by taking Adlai out for steak. Mmmmm... steak. Know many two year olds who would want steak for their birthday? He was delighted with the dinner and dessert and made sure everyone in the restaurant knew that it was his birthday as he shouted: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ADLAI!"
We went home and celebrated the final night of Hanukkah and the Feefadders went home and welcomed the Seattle Kagles for a visit.
Saturday we welcomed the Seattle Kagles to California with a trip to our local little-kid theme park. Each boy drove a car, they saw fireworks, and Adlai was overjoyed to watch a railroad crossing signal in action. Seriously. I've never seen him happier. I thought he might burst with excitement.
Sunday was Adlai's birthday party. We decided to have it at a local indoor bouncy house place to avoid weather problems and small-house-induced claustrophobia. Matthew made a train cake which Simon and I helped to decorate. Adlai had a wonderful time. He bounced, he drove a plastic car, he climed the stairs to the big slide and went down all by himself. He even sat in the big birthday chair and sang along to the Happy Birthday song and clapped for himself after he blew out the candles.
The next morning, Adlai woke up early and opened his presents before spending the rest of Monday and Tuesday bouncing around the Bay Area with the five bouncing Kagle boys. Lots of fun was had. I started to itch. Luckily, the hives didn't overwhelm me until Wednesday. Simon escorted me to the doctor to make sure it was safe for me to continue with our plans to visit Sacramento for Christmas. Assured that I most likely wasn't going to lose my ability to breathe, Simon and I went home and I tried not to leave the house so I wouldn't scare strangers.
Here is a little video:
Thursday morning, Adlai and Simon and I drove to Sacramento to celebrate Christmas with Grandparents' Rubenson. Simon helped to decorate the tree and put out cookies for Santa (he admited earlier in the week that he doesn't believe in Santa but he felt it important to play along). Both boys also ate a lot of cookies and went to hear cousin Sarah sing a solo and when it was time to go to sleep, they slept on the bed, with me in between them, almost without trouble.
Christmas morning we waited for Aunt Tonya, Uncle Art, Amanda and Sarah to arrive and then the true fun began. Adlai, fresh off of Hanukkah and his birthday, was ready and willing to open every gift in sight. And there were so many to open!
Once we had more than we could reasonably fit into the car, the boys and I packed up our things and I drove home in time for dinner with Daddy.
But guess what? The fun wasn't over. Uncle Richard was in town and met us, along with the Feefadders, at the most fun restaurant (for kids) ever, Benihana. Watching the chef prepare the food was laugh-out-loud funny for both boys (and we all liked the food as well).
I went back to work on Monday but the boys continued their vacation by visiting the bouncy house place, the Palo Alto Junior Museum, the Tech Museum of San Jose, etc., etc. On New Years Eve we celebrated by making a chocolate bombe cake, eating out at an Italian place, and counting down to the new year (complete with noise makers and crackers) sometime between 7 and 7:30 pm, Pacific.
Happy new year to all and to all a good night!