Babe-O’s First Christmas

Today was Babe-O's first Christmas and before the week is over, she'll also get Christmas number two and Christmas number three under her belt. Being the popular little lady that she is, she has two sets of grandparents, a handful of great-grandparents, and assorted other family members waiting to celebrate with her.

But today was just our little family – Mom-O and me, along with the pet parade.

She woke up in her requisite Christmas PJ's (as did I, despite them seeming a bit more snug around the waist than I remembered) and we went downstairs to do the whole presents-under-the-tree thing.

Mom-O and I exchanged some very small gifts between the two of us, but the headline act was clearly Babe-O and her gifts. Full disclosure, my beautiful wife did receive among her gifts a brand new shower curtain – there I said it. Fellas, I don't recommend that you go there, but it feels good to get that off my chest.

Anyway, for a girl that isn't even four months old yet, Babe-O did a great job getting into her presents. She managed to get her little hands into the wrapping paper and tear it away and lit up when she saw each colorful new toy. She was a pretty cheap date, all things considered, and the handful of gifts that we got her were very well received.

Today was also cool because I got a new appreciation for Mom-O. All of Babe-O's presents were wrapped with different kinds of paper to indicate who gave her what – Mommy, Daddy, Santa – which made for an impressive looking little spread under the tree. Aside from that, she also unpacked all the toys, put in batteries, and got rid of all the stupid, stubborn packing materials before packing it all back in the box and then wrapping it up. So instead of opening up a present and then watching Daddy cut his finger off on the heavy-duty plastic wrapping and then searching for another three <expletive deleted> AA batteries, Babe-O got to pull of the wrapping, ditch the box, and play. Very cool – I hope the Mommy of the Year people are reading this.

And speaking of Mommy of the Year, Mom-O got me two of my favorite things: a bottle of whisky and a Sandra Boynton book to read with Babe-O. If you haven't read a Sandra Boynton book, I really recommend it. She's great. If you haven't had whisky then, well…you probably don't have kids.

But enough about my awesome presents. Another reason today was fun is that this is the first time that Babe-O has had any serious interest in toys, except the little ones that hang in her pack-n-play, which she will smile at and bat around with her hands. Now she can push buttons with her hand and watch motorized stuff move around. She's also got the coordination to grab something that is moving and is strong enough to have a little tug of war with you. The bottom line is that she is getting more and more fun every day. She'll be playing handball and beating me at Scrabble before we know it.

Even though it was just us today, she was pretty wiped out by bed time. She perked up in her bath, thanks to her new bath toys: stacking plastic cups that sieve water in different patterns. She loves pouring water and splashed around like a fish in shallow water when we put those in with her.

Now we've got her in bed and we are getting ready for tomorrow's trip to Mom-O's parents' house (an hour in the car) followed by my parents' house (eight hours in the car). Babe-O travels well, but wish us luck anyway.

And speaking of traveling, ol' Santa is going to have a rough time flying around tonight, at least in these parts. The wind is really howling and you can hear all sorts of stuff blowing around outside. It feels like the house is going to blow over.

Oh well…this storm shall pass. Merry Christmas, everybody!