The Northern Holidays Continue

We just completed our third drive up to Northern California, making it the fifth time that Jameson has been subjected to the 6 or so hour drive between us and our families. On all but one of the legs he has held up very well. The only bump in the road (metaphorically of course) was the return trip from Benicia and the DuPertuis family Christmas, but to be fair he could hardly be blamed for being grumpy. That day he was very excited to play with relatives at his great aunt's house, but the excitement mad an afternoon nap an impossibility. We left there just before five and a quick nap began immediately when we got on the road. This, we both knew, had no chance of being a good thing. After an hour nap he woke up and for a couple hours was fine, but when bedtime rolled around sleeping was the last thing on his mind. As it got later he got crankier and he let us know this by crying non-stop for 2 solid hours. He did finally fall asleep, but that was when we were about 15 minutes from home.

On our third trip we were joined by Papa, who gladly accepted his role as navigator and chief Jameson gofer. We stopped off in Merced to have lunch with Oma and Opapa who were more than happy to trade some lunch to the hungry travelers for the opportunity to spend time with their great grandchild. When we get the 4 generations of DuPertuis men together it gives Jameson an good chance to get a look at his future receding hairline in 30 year increments. Poor guy...maybe the strong Helbig hairline will be able to take precedence.

While in Elk Grove we spent some good quality time with Papa. We did the normal duck feeding, played some disc golf and made a trip to the mountains in search of snow. We didn't find much snow, but we did have a nice lunch on the rocky shores of Loon Lake where we (mostly Jameson) enjoyed throwing rocks into the water and watching the splash. This was the second year in a row that we were able to spend the week leading up to Christmas up there and it was especially nice this year, as we were able to help keep Papa busy leading up to his surgery.

The week led us into Christmas in Elk Grove. This was the first year that we really got Jameson any presents. We prepped him in the month leading up to Christmas by telling him about Santa Claus and introducing him to the elf on the shelf. He seemed to get that there would be presents and that Santa Claus wanted him to be nice (although he often confused the nice for naughty when asked which one he was supposed to be) but I'm not sure that he really got the concept. On Christmas morning we took him downstairs together and showed him the gift that had been left under the tree for him, a Cars II themed track with a remote control Finn McMissile car. He seemed to really enjoy it and spent lots of time playing with it. After about 1/2 hour we took him into the other room for stockings. This was a concept that he was not prepared for at all and I think he enjoyed the most. He would periodically throughout the day, and for a couple of days after, ask if we could check in his stocking again to see if there were any more presents in there that we hadn't gotten to the first time.

Jameson also got to spend some good time playing with his cousin Madison, and the two played great together. The fact that they are the same age is great! One night when he was having trouble getting to sleep I went upstairs to try and calm him down. We talked a little and he had some water. I went to put him down and he grabbed a teddy bear and thinking it was another stuffed toy he asked me "Is that Dumbo?" I informed him that it wasn't, to his clear disappointment. I located the Dumbo and gave it to him, to which he responded with the question once again "Is that Dumbo?". I don't know why, but that cracked me up. The idea that he had no way of knowing which stuffed animal was which, but regardless it was imperative that he was able to locate Dumbo before he could comfortably get to sleep.

It was a great Christmas and I have a feeling that when the holiday season rolls around next year he is going to be extra excited now that he has a better concept of all that is in store.

I feel like I'm having trouble these days singling out the cute things that he does. It is entirely possible that it is because he does so many things that crack me up that I can't single out specific ones, or it could just be that I'm getting older and having trouble remembering things these days. It does crack me up the random things that he spouts out from time to time that he remembers from way back. For example tonight on the way home from daycare he reminded me "we don't throw balls in fireworks. okay?" This was a recollection that he was having from a conversation that we had a month ago when we were preparing to watch the holiday fireworks in Manhattan Beach. While explaining fireworks I asked him if he knew what fireworks were and he guessed "we throw balls in them." In informed him that no "we don't throw balls in fireworks". Now a month later he feels the need to remind me of a directive/rule that I don't think I ever would have even imagine would even need to exist. I do also find it hilarious that he likes to punctuate many of his instructions to us with the question "Okay?" The way he says it is priceless.