Toddler Christmas times two

Christmas is tough as a toddler, but SB and BW handled it like champs.  Mostly.

SB and BW have become much more scheduled than I ever intended.  Pre-mom days, I was one of those people that believed I wouldn't schedule my life around my kid.  They would be flexible, they would be exposed to new people and new things and new places to sleep so I wouldn't be the parent going home or unable to pass my kid off to someone else because they are clinging to my neck.

Oh, I was naive.

Here's the thing.  My kids are depending on me to meet their needs, and that's my job as a parent.  I need to make sure they aren't hungry, or thirsty, or exhausted.  They are too little to get a drink or snack themselves, or put themselves in their crib. And even though they have quite the vocabulary for 18+ months at this point, they still can't formulate or articulate "I'm hungry" very well.  It's just my job to decipher that this time they are a grouch because they are thirsty, or hungry, or have an annoying tooth, or whatever.

So, the hubs and I have *gasp* become those parents who keep our kids on a set bedtime, and plan things around naps.  Because, my kids do.not.sleep away from their cribs during the day.  They do not pass out in their stroller. They do not fall asleep in someone's arms at a party.  They do not take nice long naps in the car (anymore).  Trust me, we've tried. And, since I have now experienced sleep deprivation after having newborn twins, I make it a priority to make sure they get good, restful sleep.  And we are all happy about it.

But I digress.

So, we aren't so regimented that we never deviate from our sleep schedule, and I've gotten a bit more lax as the girls are moving more into toddler-hood since their sleep needs are not as great.  However, we had several things converge around Christmas that made things difficult.

First, we moved 5 days before Christmas.  Don't do it.  Just don't.  Then, we had an unexpected death in the family the  day after we moved, which resulted in a funeral December 23, then we hosted Christmas Eve at our house, and went to family's house for Christmas Day.  Because of timing on Christmas Day, our girls got a nap in the car for about 20 minutes, which was probably only the result of almost nonexistent sleep the two previous days.  By the time we opened gifts on Christmas Day, they were basically running on three days of no nap, and later bedtimes.  They had several mini-crises during gift-giving, which was a chaotic affair with toy stealing by other kids and not enough space.

Our Christmas this year almost felt like an afterthought, a blip in a bunch of other stuff. But there are moments that I will still cherish.  SB and BW being enamored with their Christmas ornaments from last year, which have their initial, their full name, and their birth stats on them.  Daycare is big into their "letter" (the first initial of their first name) so the fact that we have that on their ornaments is huge.  The hubs made them a play kitchen from an entertainment center, which BW especially was thrilled about - she starting banging pans around right away.  SB loved the monkey floor pillow she got from grandma and later used it as a quiet spot to fill her diaper.  Not really the intended use there, SB.

And our new home is such a home.  Although we have been there a week, and our walls are bare, and there are still boxes stacked everywhere, and our window treatments just finally arrived today so I don't have to pee in the dark anymore, it feels like our home already.  It is filled with laughter and books and little girls who slide down the stairs on their tummies.