Here comes Christmas!

Auntie Raquel sneaked Dom from Lala, he had no idea who was holding him

We finally got a pic of the babes with Santa, missed him at the Christmas Stroll due to severely cold toes

our Precious Babes

a sweet breakfast

hey no cameras in the tub Mom!

a kiss for her number 1 man!

Tis the season to get crazy if you have kids. Jeesh. I mean really, how many Melissa and Doug toys do they make?! I spent the afternoon wrapping the kiddos gifts while Dom took an unusually long nap. Dana was in the room next to him fighting a stomach bug. Dana sleeps when he is sick. He does what we are all told "go to bed, sleep, get better and don't spread your nasty around". I don't do that. I have never been able to sleep anything off, even the nastiest hangover, it was always my punishment to endure every single throbbing and pounding handed out to me. When I'm sick I walk around like a zombie mumbling "no no I'm fine, I have to do this do that, hachoo!, cough, spit, groan, omg how will the world go on without me!?" I could feel myself get a little resentful that Dana was getting so much sleep. Why wasn't he out here with me, wrapping these gifts and thinking how just over two years ago we didn't have Autumn and only a year ago no Dom. Why wasn't he going through memory lane with me and LOVING IT. :) It didn't last long, the resentful feeling, it left as quick as it came. I enjoyed the quiet time and I had a mess of paper, scissors and tape spread all around me and not one little finger to grab it and shove in a mouth. I started thinking how the snow that fell last night finally made it seem like Christmas. I held a wooden puzzle that we got Autumn and I remembered when I was pregnant with her and Dana and I were washing her clothes...you know the brand new parent thing, wash everything in extra sensitive detergent sanitize the house over and over before she gets here, have the carpets cleaned, baby proof before she takes her first breath, that kind of thing. We were in Buckeye AZ.. My Mother said "you're not in hell, but you can see the flames from here". We were standing in our laundry room and Dana had a baby sock. I watched him put it on his thumb and he was very quiet. He had a look of awe, "can you believe this is going to fit her? I mean look how small this is". Then I thought back to the day that we found out we were going to have a girl...We went for a drive through cactus and sage brush and brown. We got out and walked up a little hill just to see if maybe there was something worth looking at from the top. Dana was pacing back and forth, hands in the pockets and out. "Summer, we're gonna have a girl. I need to get a gun". We laughed and hugged and started talking about Autumn like she was going to be 18 in a few weeks.
I grabbed another gift, some crinkle toys for Dom. What does the boy really need, I mean his sister has tons of toys. Anything he touches she is suddenly interested in and in order to limit meltdowns I tried to put blue stickers on boy toys and pink on girls. Great idea except Dom eats the stickers and Autumn takes them off and puts them on the fridge. I thought of Danas last birthday in AZ. I threw him a surprise party with the help of his parents and all our friends. Jessica even hauled a drum set out to our house with her newborn in tow. Dana was going golfing that day with a buddy and when he came home the house was filled with all our friends including his parents (they flew in the day before). Anyway, that day I told Dana we were having another baby. Autumn was almost 11 months.
I came out of memory lane for a minute and realized Dom had been sleeping for a long time and crept down the hall to check on him. I watched him through the crack in the door (the mesmerized way you watch the clothes to make sure they are going up and down), when I walked back to the wrapping station I cried and smiled thinking of little Dommie and his first month on earth. I cried because I was so afraid that first month when he didn't gain weight and he couldn't take breast milk and I smiled because we found a solution and I cried again because he is an incredible little boy. His smile melts my heart. Now that he is walking it is the cutest thing to here flop flop flop, grunt, grunt, slap and then a touch on the back of my leg. He does laps around our fireplace and loves "im gonna gitchoo" game. I never thought we would be here. I never thought this would be my life. I love my life. I love my husband. Even when he's sick...;)
Now, instead of Christmas being about how I'm going to get home to MT, or what should I ask for (come on you know you thought it once upon a time) or me me me, it is finally back to family. Today made me feel like it's one incredible circle. That my parents felt this way about me and now I know what they meant when they would say "you will understand when you have children of your own". It truly is my heart walking around outside of my body.

Merry CHRISTmas friends and family!  May you have a blessed and wonderful year to come!