15 Days Later...

I'm back! It's been 15 crazy days since I took the time to sit down and record the life of the Villines family. Things have been a little wild around here since I last wrote.

Caleb has gone back and forth from being a complete and total grump to being our normal fun-loving kid. I like the fun-loving days a lot better, but who wouldn't? We've been blaming it all on teething (the usual scapegoat) because nothing else makes sense. He hasn't had fever and hasn't shown any signs of ear infection or any other horrible sickness. He's just mad at the world. He isn't sleeping well either. He's been waking up every night somewhere between midnight and 2 AM and cries like he's been stung by bees until we give him some milk. He usually sucks that down by the time his diaper is changed. We've tried putting him back in his bed and walking out, but that starts the wailing all over again. At first, we were determined to wait him out and just let him cry, but that's impossible. He will literally cry all night long - which means no sleep for anyone and some very miserable days. So - we give in (I know...I know) and get him. We've been taking turns sleeping in the guest bed with Caleb for over a week now. It's getting old. I'm hoping that the transition into the new house is a natural time for us to cut that out. However, we have some crazy days ahead of us with the schedule that we have for Christmas break. Tonight, we resorted to Benadryl to (hopefully) help him sleep through the night. We'll see.

We close on our house tomorrow at 3:00. Everything has come together beautifully. Last night, we went by there with our Realtor to make a punch list and I literally got tears in my eyes when I pulled in the driveway. The house is just so pretty and so much more than I ever dreamed I'd be able to have at the age of 31. I can't wait to live there. The movers come Saturday morning!

Santa

We took Caleb to see Santa at the Promenade on Friday night. We stood in line forever! Once we finally got to the front of the line, the bozo running the camera decided that it was time to refill the photo paper, but didn't know how. So...that took what felt like eternity! In the meantime, Caleb runs over to Santa and laughs, smiles and does everything you want your child to do when they meet Santa. As soon as the camera moron figured everything out - Caleb was completely done with Santa. He didn't want to sit there anymore, he didn't want to smile and he didn't want to have his picture taken. I finally got him to say, "cheese," and the camera moron missed the shot because he was tinkering with the computer. The camera moron stood there and shook some danged bells while Caleb sat and cried, pouted and reached for Rudy and I. Aggghhh! The guy showed me the 3 shots that he took and I simply said, "never mind." Rudy and I took Caleb and left. I was not a happy camper!

Tonight, I decided to brave it again and give it another shot. I took Caleb back to the mall. Santa was on his dinner break, so we walked around for about 20 minutes while we waited on him to get back. We waited and waited for the people in front of us to finish. When they did, I took Caleb over to see Santa. I had thought ahead and brought his squeaky Santa toy for Caleb to hold. Well...here's what we got:

Yes...Santa is flipping off the camera while holding my child in his lap. I can't decide if it's the saddest thing I've ever seen or if it is downright hilarious. I could crop it to just be from Caleb's shoulders up so that he isn't traumatized in the future...or I could just leave it alone and laugh about it for years to come!

Ho Ho Ho!