Thanksgiving Break

Rain, cold, fog...just a dreary, dreary beginning to Thanksgiving break.  Bobby was bored.  He wanted to go "outside" all day.  I kept trying to find new activities to keep him entertained. I got out the marble maze and he enjoyed playing with this for a while...

He then gathered up a bunch of items to make a "Bobby Masterpiece"...

The cups are plastic solo cups (just in case you were wondering!!).



We went up to his room to play.  I set up some of his wooden train track and got out the train cars.  He put them on the track and we took turns pulling the train around the track.  I pulled it around my side of the track, stopped, and he pulled it to the other side, stopped, and I took over.  We played like this, taking turns, for almost 5 minutes (which is unheard of in Bobby's world!!).  I was beyond excited that he played trains with me.

The only, only thing that was going to make him happy today...

ride in car!!!!!

When we got home, it was only 4:30.  Daddy was working afternoon shift, so Bobby and I had hours to go before bedtime.  What to do, what to do!! 

We had a big mess to clean up in the basement on Sunday, thanks to our beloved Bobby, who went downstairs to watch a movie on the big screen.  When he went to the bathroom downstairs, he decided to play in the sink and for some reason put toilet paper in the sink, which in turn stopped up the sink.  Bobby didn't turn the water off, he let it run and by the time I went down stairs to check on him he was happily splashing around in an inch of water on the floor.  Long story short, the water ran into our storage area.  We cleaned it up with the shop vac, towels, mop...  But the tile floor downstairs still needs steamed.  I was going to go do that and started thinking that I should pull out the Christmas storage containers first and get the Christmas tree stuff instead of cleaning twice in a few days. 

Why, oh why, is putting up the Christmas tree such hard work.  To make matters worse, I had to take apart Bobby's trampoline in order to have space for the tree.  I had every intention of doing all of this work next week while Bobby was in school so that it would be a lot easier.  I went over to the trampoline and pulled on it to see if I was even going to be able to take it apart.  No big deal, a half hour later it was apart and put into 2 large contractor size garbage bags.  Whew, task one completed!!

I brought three storage containers upstairs, 2 containing the tree, 1 with lights.  Bobby immediately lined them up so that he could organize....

I just had to stand back and watch with amazement (while of couse taking pictures) what happened next...

He found the power strip in the storage container,

plugged it in,

got the lights out (yes, it took me a long time to untangle his mess),

plugged them in (I wanted to go get the white lights that were in another storage container downstairs, but Boby wasn't "having" it, so colored lights it is),

he put a couple of branches on the tree,

and tried to string some lights on his tree. 

He hasn't watched me put up the Christmas tree in a couple of years since I have put it up while he was in school.  Obviously he enjoys being a part of the tree assembling process.  I finally put down the camera and started working on the tree.  Bobby was happy Mommy finally got to work...

He must have been worn out, because he perched himself on the back of the couch while I put the first row of branches on the tree.  I put on the first row of branches, then the lights, next row of branches, lights...until the tree is complete. 

Bobby inspecting my work!!!

Zoi had to be in on the action too!!



When I was about half way finished, it was evident that we were going to have to go get more lights since multiple strings were fading in and out.  The last thing that I wanted to do was take Bobby out on a dark, foggy, rainy night to get lights.  But he was not going to wait until the next day to finish.  So off to Lowe's we went.

When we got home (7:30 pm), I realized that we hadn't eaten dinner.  I heated something in the microwave, but Bobby would not let me eat.  He brought branches over to me and pulled me to the tree.  "Mommy, you have work to do!!!"

"Mom, I am way to excited to stand here for you to take my picture in front of the Christmas tree." 

Now, to decorated the tree...

Stay tuned :)