Christmas with a two year old!

donna723

Well-Known Member
It just doesn't get any better than that! Last Friday my son and I drove all day to get to South Carolina to spend Christmas with my daughter, sister in law, and my first and only grandchild, 2-1/2 year old Ethan. Everything went well and we had such a great time! We haven't seen them since last Christmas and the little guy has changed so much! Two and a half is such a wonderful age (when he's not cranky)! Everything is new to him. And he talks so well now that you can have a regular conversation with him and he can (and WILL!) tell you exactly what's on his mind! So funny though ... this is the first year that he's really been aware of the Santa Claus bit and is trying to understand it all. They didn't take him to see Santa Claus because he's going through that "shy" toddler stage where he's afraid of strangers - Ethan would have been a screamer on Santa's lap. But they've been explaining to him that on Christmas Eve, after he was asleep, Santa would come and leave him lots of nice gifts that he could open on Christmas morning. Allison (my daughter) asked him, "Ethan, who comes at Christmas and brings you presents?" Ethan thought for a minute, got a big grin on his face, and said, "GRANDMA!"
:rofl:
He got up Christmas morning and ran down the hall towards the living room saying,"I want to see Santa Claus!" Apparently he thought that after delivering all the gifts, Santa would stick around, kicked back in the recliner, to see him open them, so he was a little disappointed at that. But he had a great time! His favorite gift was a huge play table with a whole little town on it and a train that runs through it, over 100 little pieces to put together with the train, tracks, bridges, buildings, little people, etc. His daddy, a traffic cop, had to work Christmas Eve night (but was home before Ethan got up) so my son and daughter put it together and spent over two hours getting it all arranged just right. He played with it all day, then shoved all 100 carefully arranged pieces into a huge pile in the middle of the board! When my daughter came back in to the room and saw it, her face fell, but he proudly stated,"I cleaned up, Mommy!"

Nothing is better than grandbaby hugs and my son has never smiled more than when he's around his only nephew. The only bad part was having to say goodbye to them and drive back home Monday! A year is just too long to go without seeing them though and I'm hoping to make it down for his birthday in May this year. And you know you're getting older when it takes you a full day to recover from making a 10-hour car trip! After that long in the car, you almost feel like you've forgotten how to walk!
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
I am so happy for you Donna. Really it doesn't get much better than Christmas morning with a young chlld. Glad your trip went well, too. All in all sounds like a holiday to remember. DDD
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
lol....Sounds wonderful. And yes. A year is much too long. Maybe you can arrange to have him come spend time with you now that you have retired.
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
Janet, we've talked about them coming up here to visit, hopefully before too long. Up until now he's been a little too young to make that long of a car trip without getting really impatient and cranky. He gets so bored in the car! They just got a new van with a DVD player in the back and he has to watch his little Nick Jr videos just to go a mile down the road to day care. Flying up here would be a lot better for them if they could ever get time off at the same time but sister in law is relatively new at his job so it's not easy. Ethan said he wants to come to my house and play with my dogs (Bostons). He saw pictures of them and thought they were kitties because their ears stick up! They have two big dogs but their dogs look like dogs ...
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Ohhh should have started him on car trips earlier...lol. Keyana has been a travelin lil fool since she was a baby. We could put her in her carseat and she was content to just ride anywhere. Once she was about a year and a half old we got the portable dvd player and she watched that but only part of the time. She also played with other toys. We made it a plan to stop every two hours or so to get out of the car and let her run.
 
Top