We had a great holiday, one of the best I can remember. Dinner and family-time with my dad's family was Christmas Eve. It was a long drive in the snow, but we made it fine and had a great time. My mom came with and despite it being very tiring for her, had a good time as well. It's pretty crowded as my older sibling's kids are all having children that are the same age as Leo, but it's great to see all the kids having such a good time together.
Christmas Day, Eric, Leo and I went to Como Conservatory. There were maybe 20 cars in the parking lot and we literally had the place to ourselves-it was really awesome. I haven't been successful with adding a slideshow, so I'm just going to put some pics up, but the full slideshow can be accessed via my facebook page. It was snowing really hard outside but the conservatory was warm and humid, full of beautiful greenery and orchids. We played with the Koi in the ponds and really enjoyed our time. Leo had a tough time leaving, but we promised him we'd go back again very soon.
My mom decided not to come with us and to stay home X-mas day. She is medically & emotionally doing pretty poorly and decided to stay home for the rest of the holiday. My sister and I are looking into several things with her doctors, but all of the medical problems are being compounded greatly by some the lifestyle choices she is making and we walk the line with her about spending our time and efforts only if it's something she's interested in making efforts herself to change. It's something we deal with every day with her right now and speaking for myself, I have to carefully measure my actions against what her wishes are.
Leo got some great presents from us, santa, and family. The highlights of new toys are a airport terminal for his wooden trainset, a tow truck, and some other smaller trucks & construction equipment. He is deep in the land pf pretend very often at home and it's fun to watch and participate. He also likes to pretend to fly, during which he rides his wooden rocking airplane and wears my airplane headset.
Leo: Mom! I'm flying away, I need a kiss!
Me: Ok, Pilot-Leo. (kiss) You have a great flight. Bye.
Leo: Brrrrooowww, here I go, up up up in the sky. Bbbrrrooowww.
usually at this point he delivers some cargo to people below or uses his water tank to put out a fire. After he understood that some pilots deliver goods to backcountry people, he started dropping fruit, vegetables, and candy to them. I'll try to get a picture or video of said flights in the future.
I had one other parenting highlight I wanted to share. Last night he came home from preschool pretty tired and wanted a lot of laptime from me, which I'm only too happy to give him. I made a quiche and we sat down to eat. He ate a few bites and leaned over to nuzzle me and put my hand on his face and said out of the blue, "Thanks for making good food, momma." He's a sweet kid who is pretty good at 3 for manners, but I was so flattered that he said that on his own and that it obviously came from his heart that dinner from me comforted him after a busy, stimulating day. It was by far the highlight of my week. Ah, those kind of parenting highs are so amazing.
I got good news from my ortho-doctor yesterday that brought me a great deal of relief. I have been having pain in my leg still, though it had changed in location and kind. So I was worried that the fracture wasn't healing properly and feeling pretty discouraged. He X-rayed it and talked to me about the pain and feels very confident that vigorous physical therapy and perhaps orthopedics will really set things back to rights. He feels the level of activity I'm doing is fine and that a little bit of running and impact should be OK as I progress and other kinds of exercising is totally OK. So I was vastly relieved and looking forward to starting PT, finally, on the 7th of January.
That's about it. We are going out on a datenight tonight, rollerskating, so I'm sure it's going to be fun and lots of pals will be there. Wish me and my tailbone luck! :)
