First Christmas

Except for his birthday, Christmas marked the last of Max's "firsts." I can't believe it's already been almost a whole year since he was born. Thankfully, this holiday week is turning out to be a lot less eventful than last year's. This week is bringing back a lot of memories for me -- I went into premature labor a year ago on Christmas day. This time last year I was sitting in the hospital, trying not to have a baby. This year I'm chasing said baby around, watching him investigate his new Christmas goodies.

We had a very nice Christmas. As my husband predicted, I was up way too late on Christmas Eve, finishing Max's stocking. There's nothing like waiting until the last minute! ;) Of course, I suppose that could almost be considered a tradition, rather than poor planning, since I did the same thing with our original set of stockings. But, the stockings were all hung by the chimney with care by Christmas morning, so it all worked out. The kids seemed to enjoy their presents. Max helped open the first couple of his gifts, although he seemed to like the bows and the wrapping paper better than the actual presents! He was quickly overwhelmed by all the new toys and sights and sounds. At one point he crawled away from his new toys and went to play with one of his old, familiar toys. About halfway through the gifts, he decided he'd really rather have his breakfast than open any more presents.

With all the excitement, he only managed a half hour nap all day, so by the time we were ready to go over to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner, he was pretty worn out. He was not at all interested in opening any more presents that evening, although he did deign to play with the present his aunt and uncle got for him. He had to forego the roast beast dinner for cheerios and squash, although he did get to try a tiny bit of chocolate pudding (MmmMMm). He was more than ready for bed by the time we got him home, but he was so overtired and overstimulated that he didn't sleep well. His schedule is still totally off -- he had started sleeping through the night again the week before Christmas, but has gone back to waking up all night and refusing to go back to sleep. We think he might be getting more teeth, which could account for the sleeping issues, but I can't see any on their way up.

There's definitely some birthday in Max's hair -- we're gearing up for a small celebration on Friday. It'll be fun to watch him make a mess of his cake. I'm not sure he'll be ready for another round of presents so soon, but we'll see how he does.

For anyone who is a glutton for punishment, there are lots of new photos on Flickr!