Nutshelly Christmas Eve
Friday, which would be Christmas eve, we went over to my parents house and Nina and my mom decorated Christmas cookies. It was a exercise in micromanaging, and Nina got a little frustrated.

The funniest part of that day was when my mom, not intending to string these words together since she was referring to her blowing her nose but Nina dancing, said "Dance around and blow your nose." Nina stopped dancing and proceeded to start blowing air out through her nose, as if she were blowing her nose, but sans tissue, and also with her hands by her side (because she never holds the tissue when she blows her nose). Once a tissue was rushed to her, she stopped this horrific display.

It was also that day she learned to say Bye-bye from my parents. It may have been that day when she said "take a bath" while taking a bath. On Sunday, when Alison told Nina that she was going to take a shower, Nina said "bath."

That night Nina opened her presents from us. Or we opened them for her, as she was a little scared of ripping paper. Her first attempts to eat the play food we gave her were pretty funny. Then she settled into walking around with her little red bowl with a few plastic Pringles in it. Yes, you have to buy name brand fake food.

Nutshelly Christmas
We woke up, got ready, and got over to my parent's house around nine. My sister showed up shortly after and we had a fingerfoody breakfast and then opened presents. Nina liked the marble run, really a ball run, that Kelley gave her the most. Nina got very tired toward the end and then fell asleep in the car on the way home.

After Nina woke up, we had a few hours until we needed to be at Alison's mom's house. Unfortunately, Nina didn't' want to take a bottle. By the time we were over at Alison's mom's house, starting around 5:15, Nina started going into full meltdown mode. She was tired, she was hungry, and she didn't want her bottle because, at least in her mind, she was having too much fun. Or really, the potential for having fun was all around her, but she was very frustrated with everything. We resorted to driving a loop in the car and having her take a bottle. She did, and the rest of the night was pretty good.

It was over there that Nina got her prized toy microwave. Now she has something to nuke her plastic food with. My parents, earlier that day, gave Nina a stove-eye thing, and now she had a complete cooking thingy. Well, no oven, but they are so non-interactive.

Nina flopped into bed when we got home.

The Day after Christmas
In theory, Sunday would be the day that Nina would be able to recover from the abruptions to her schedule. But such was not the case. She didn't fall asleep in the car on the way home from church. I think it was the sun in her eyes. And after starting her nap late, my parents then called up and invited themselves over at two. Alison hussled to get the house less cluttery, but I told her to stop worrying about it.

Nina woke up about 10 minutes before they showed up, crying. She had gotten tangled in her blankets and this may have caused nightmares too. She was really upset for while. We put on Baby Beethoven, and that pacified her. When Kelley, Corey, Tiana, Mom and Dad showed up, Nina was initially very happy to see them all. Tiana got Nina a great little baby stroller for her doll.

However, after about 20 minutes, Nina started to go into meltdown mode. Rather than being loud about it though, she wanted me to hold her. No one else but me either. Occasionally she'd want down to look at something, or to be handed to her Mommy, but that would be for less than a minute and then she'd want me to hold her again.

She fell asleep on the way to church and nearly slept all through the service. She woke at 5:45, and after we left, went by an ATM, got some McDonald's, and got home, she went straight to bed at 6:30. She slept until this morning at 5:20. And though Alison was too tired to want to get up, Nina was in a great mood.

What did I get?
Katamari Damacy (pronounced Damashi), Front Mission 4, Silent Bomber, and Gladius as far as Playstation games. Migraine by Oliver Sacks and Digital Photography Hacks, as books go. Literally pounds of Laffy Taffy and Bit-o-Honey's. The Black Hawk Down Soundtrack (which I feel a little bad, since the song I'd been wanting off that for years I had bought off AllofMP3 for 2.7 cents the day before). A clock radio with presets to take to work. And $100 from my parents.

And me, with a stack of even more playstation games, have no idea what I want to buy. I was going to get the Sandisk Cruzer Micro (512mb), but my lame old 128 mb drive is actually not too shabby. I mean, I have the best kind of coffee maker. Excellent coffee. Overflowing books I still haven't read. Ditto on the PS2 games. Several tactical flashlights.

I think I may buy blank CDs and a storage system. But there are only so many hours in the day I can listen to music.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, I got another fake suede shirt. This one is gray with just a hint of a mossy color.
- posted by Nick Postagulous @ 8:11 AM