Christmas: Part 2

After celebrating in Fall River, we took a day to "recuperate". I put that in quotes because not much recuperating was done. Instead my parents came up to celebrate Lily's birthday - that was birthday part "I have no idea, we celebrated so many times" (I still need to do a birthday post, but the short story is that our planned celebration was FUBAR'd due to snow) They also helped me do 10 loads of laundry and find homes for the new toys - so it was a much appreciated visit. We packed up that night and on Saturday morning took off for the next phase in our Christmas celebration: New Jersey! One note: we are unclear how we will ever travel with two kids because the car is completely full when it's just the three of us. Where will all the stuff in the backseat go when there's another car seat back there??

All of Saturday was spent driving to Gordon's brother's home in Voorhees. It should be about a 6 hour drive - but for some reason we ALWAYS seem to hit tons of traffic. This trip was no different. First we hit a stoppage on the Mass Pike, then again on the Merritt Parkway in CT and then AGAIN on the New Jersey turnpike. So although we left Boston around 10:20, we didn't pull up at Gabe's house until 6:20 that afternoon. We are very lucky in that Lily is an excellent travel companion. We stopped once for lunch at a diner in CT and that was really all she required. There was a tiny bit of complaining at the very end, but really minor. And honestly, at that point I was wondering when we'd be able to get out of the car too! She's really enjoying the new Elizabeth Mitchell CD that my parents got her - so that definitely helped on the trip too.

We arrived just as Gabe and Que were getting our Christmas dinner out. Sadly we weren't there early enough to change Lily for the occasion and settle in at all, so it was a little hectic. Gabe did a great job with dinner - 6 very yummy courses - and we got to meet his partner in his medical practice. Here are some pictures of the girls in their party dresses looking adorable as usual:




One surprising side effect of the trip has been Lily's new sleeping arrangements. We had brought her pack and play with us figuring that she would sleep there. But then Gabe & Que had set up the girl's old toddler bed. Once Lily saw that she proclaimed "I want to sleep in THIS bed". At first we were skeptical - will she STAY in the bed? Will she be up in down all night? Is an unfamiliar place the best place to attempt it? But in the end she was so insistent that we decided to follow her lead - and she was right! She did great in the bed all weekend - naps, overnight, the whole bit. We told her that if she got out of the bed she'd have to sleep in the crib and she never once got up from it. She did enjoy testing that the monitor worked by calling "Mommy! Daddy!" a few times before falling asleep - but that was it! Our little girl looked so big and grown-up sleeping in that bed - it was really awesome. Here's a picture of her cousins joining us for some songs and hugs before bedtime:



As a follow-up: I'm writing this now from the Holzes and Lily is still eschewing her pack and play. She slept in it poorly the first night here and then we gave up and put a futon mattress on the floor for her instead. She's done great on that as well. So it looks like when we get home we will be moving her to the mattress on the floor and saying good bye to the crib. We had hoped she would transition sometime between now and next October (when baby #2 will be ready for the crib) - so yay Lily. We're still somewhat amazed at how smooth it's been so far. I guess we'll see if that continues when we get home!