sleeping...I think

Ok I think Mr. Baby has given up the fight and finally gone to sleep. I am so hesitant to type about it, though, because so often he'll start howling right when I type that he's finally asleep. So I'll stop talking about it fast!

Back to our Washington trip. Joshua had a great time visiting his great grandma Norma - she loves him so much and really liked showing him off to the staff and residents at her retirement home. He really brings smiles wherever he goes...and he got to try some cantaloupe - that went over well. Some of it even made it to his mouth before most of it went over well right onto the floor. We went to Emmanuel with Mom and Dad on Sunday morning for church and on Christmas Eve night (and Geoff came to that service, too), and it was really nice (overwhelming yes, but still nice!) to see a lot of wonderful people that I haven't seen in three years or more, since Mom and Dad were living in Kingston for awhile and not attending Emmanuel as often. One of Mom's good friends, Deb, made Joshua a red and white ball that he loves - that was so nice of her - people are so good to us. It was so nice seeing Laura and Linda (and Tom and John also), though a little sad, too. Looking back on the years between 13 and 20, Laura and I barely talked at all, and it's really hard to know why. To me, she's not just a friend I lost touch with, she's a sister...and while I remember how we did go our separate ways, it just seems silly. We're both pretty different than we were when we were little, but something that I really really hope is that we'll be able to regain a friendship that we'll be able to have as "grownups." Hanging out at Ashley's house with Adam, Ashley, and her mom and sister, was a lot of fun, even though it was just for a short while. It brought back a lot of memories of junior high when I'd walk over there after school and we'd do pretty much nothing together for hours and it was a lot of fun. Ash and I became sisters at a different part of our lives and have gone through the rockiest of times together (and sometimes not together for a time, but then together again) and I think she knows me better than pretty much anyone, except probably my mom. Even Nathan doesn't know a whole lot of what she knows about me (10 years creates a lot of stuff to know) BUT Nathan knows a lot about me that Ashley doesn't. Not that it's a competition. Anyway - I'm grateful for Ashley! Even if she did just tell me she ate hand sanitizer about half an hour ago. whahahahaha! Hopefully I won't have to delete any comments she might make on this post...happy first day back to med school Ash.

Back to Christmas! This year, having Joshua around really changed things a lot for me. I started thinking so much like my littler panda self that it was quite surprising to my dear husband. The magic of Christmas is a little different now - I spent awhile online watching the videos of Santa all over the world that were captured by our National Defense department, and tracking which cities he'd already stopped in. I scampered quickly off to bed when I realized he was just leaving Seattle and probably headed straight to Brier. I left cookies and milk out for Santa, as well as a carrot for Rudolph. No, maybe Joshua doesn't know that I did those things, but next year he will, and every year after, and I want Christmas to be a really special time for him. I want to make an effort to focus on the Christmas story and the birth of Christ, and all that is most important about the holiday, as well as some of the less important, but really special things like preparations for Santa's arrival.

It was a beautiful white Christmas morning, which I loved looking at, but was nervous about driving to Marysville in. It ended up that it wasn't snowing north of us, and there was barely any ice when we came home, so like I said in the post with the pictures, we had all the good stuff of a white Christmas, and no scary ice. We went to Aunt Lynn's and got to meet Chloe (who is stinking adorable!!) and spend some time with family that I have really missed. It was really sad that Tracy wasn't there, and speaker phones and webcams just aren't the same. She'll be up here in August, though, and I'm really excited for that! We had delicious food and good time with family, and a safe ride home. It was a great Christmas. Oh and a really frightening hampster/bunny thing that makes chattering and chomping noises when you squeeze his belly. Thanks Kris!

Since we've been back, we spent some time with Jeremy (Nathan's best bud), went to Alex's wedding reception (another of Nathan's friends), watched a movie with Ashley and Adam, and got a new internet jack put into our apartment. While that may not sound very exciting, it is, because we're going to move our desk and file cabinet (the essential components of our "office") out of the living room...into the dining room, sadly, but it will give us more Joshua space in the living room. We got a playpen/fence type thing that we're going to be able to use to fence off the living room area, and with the desk out of there, he'll have a lot more room to play. I do spend a lot of time at the computer during the day, though, so I'll have to get used to balancing my computer time with my Joshua time, when they used to be sort of combined a lot of the time since he'd be right there and I could play with him and interact with him while sitting at the desk if I needed to. We'll figure it out, though. I think that even with any drawbacks it'll have, this setup will be preferable.

There are some other things I wanted to post about, but I think I'll wait til next time - I'm getting a bit tired of typing and staring at the screen. Nathan got a bunch of pictures up - we're just waiting for some more Christmas pictures from my parents, and then he'll put up the week that is missing there in the middle.

Goodnight everyone - thank you for reading and commenting :c)