Nicole Tasker Woods

I work a half day today. Ryan has the whole day off. What sense does that make!? Glad I can get up at 6:00am to be in to work by 8:30am and take off at noon. But hey, beggars can’t be choosers, right? I’ll take the early release! Ryan’s going to stay home with Aidan so that he can get much needed rest. I’m glad I don’t have to wrestle with him to wake up this morning because that has turned into a real chore!

Tonight, we are going to dinner with the family to Mastro’s. We are all getting dressed up, even the Big A, to enjoy a nice, relaxing meal.

In years past, we always changed out of our fancy clothes into our PJs after dinner, then huddled around the tree at Clark & Carolyn’s house to open presents together — yes, you read that right — we open gifts on Christmas Eve until the wee morning hours. This year will be the first year that we are not doing it that way. We are going to have a great holiday meal together then go to our respective homes. We are going to tuck Aidan into his own bed at a decent hour so that he can get enough rest before the big day tomorrow. The idea of struggling with Aidan to get him to sleep upstairs while we opened gifts downstairs was frightening. Equally frightening was having a tired boy wander around the house while the adults opened gifts. What if he wants a gift? We have to include him! But what about Santa delivering gifts on Christmas Eve? We can’t tell him one thing and then do another.

This year, we are going to wake up and see the smile on Aidan’s face when he walks downstairs from his room to see all the presents under the tree — and an over-stuffed stocking — waiting for him to rip open. Last year he struggled with the opening. He stopped after the first gift (and believe me there were tons!) because he just wanted to play with the first thing he got. I think this year he will be all about opening. We’ll probably make him wait every few gifts so that Ryan & I can open some gifts as well. In hopes of pumping him up, we keep talking about Christmas morning, all the presents at our house and then even more presents at Grammy & Pop’s house when we go there for breakfast.

I get the feeling that the hype is already there, he doesn’t need any help getting excited.

Aidan had his first gift exchange with his cousins last night, everyone was all smiles & happy to tear open some gift-wrap.

Aidan walked downstairs from his room this morning, turned on the Christmas tree and looked at it for a few minutes.

Then he made his way back upstairs.

I met him halfway and he said, “Mommy, there are no presents under the tree.”

“Nope, not time for that just yet, buddy. You still have a few more days until Christmas.”

“Oh man!”

My first gift from Aidan is a mug he decorated himself at school.

Love. Love. Love.

Some might say December 22nd is a little early to start trying on your Halloween costume, but Aidan would disagree. He used to be frightened of this Darth Maul mask, especially when you push the horn on the side and it says one of the few phrases programmed. But not this kiddo, he is pumped to wear the mask with the (matching?) hulk hands. He even has it all worked out that I will carry his pumpkin bucket for the candy because his hands will be busy wearing the hulk hands. Ok buddy, whatever you say!

Santa came to our house last night! He left Aidan a little treat…

Sick days are not fun, especially when you aren’t the one who is sick. Taking care of a sick little boy is hard. Keeping him hydrated, giving him medication, getting him down for a nap. It certainly sweetens the situation when he’s in as good a mood as my little Aidan is. Right now, all he has is a cough and congestion of the chest and nose. But even when he has a fever, he is always so nice to be around. Always smiling. Always happy.

The last two days, Ryan and I split up staying home with Aidan so that he could get rest and one could go to work one day and the other on the next day. We have high hopes that two days home from school and then the weekend will help him kick this cold.

Ever since he moved from a stay-at-home nanny situation to preschool, he comes home with new germs daily that ultimately lead to a new illness each week. We can’t keep him healthy for more than 2-3 days in a row. It’s the absolute worst time for him to get sick because Ryan is coaching soccer after work and I’m too crazed at work to get out on-time, never mind early. It’s these sick days that make me wish he was still staying at home with the nanny. I know he needs to go to school, make friends and learn new things he could never learn from home, but this is killing me! It puts a lot of pressure on both myself & Ryan. It’s hard enough not seeing him for more than an hour each night, but the time we do spend with him is accompanied by persistent coughing & sniffles.

With the bitter cold and rain outside, I have the heat pumping inside to keep him cozy and on the road to recovery. Feel better my A-man.

It is finally the Friday after our biggest film of the year opened. It is always a bear working on one film, crossing all the t’s & dotting all the i’s. But now I can say it is finally over!

Now we have 3 easy days next week then we start a mini vacation off from work from Dec 25 through Jan 2. We don’t go back to the office until Jan 5! Crazy. Love it!

Old Saint Nick was at mall and we kept trying to make time for a visit. Finally, we got to the mall and waiting in the dreaded line. After 20 minutes of watching Santa entertain kids and photos, the Big A finally got to meet Santa! He shook his hand, sat on his lap and gave him a big hug (while touching his beard). This year’s visit was really great–last year ended in tears.

Aidan was not scared of Santa at all. He was excited! Except when the visit was over…

…when he hopped off Santa’s lap and took my hand he said to me, “He didn’t have toys.” I guess I didn’t explain that very well! After all the pep-talks, helping Aidan rehearse & recite what he wanted for Christmas — so that he wasn’t silent when Santa asked — we failed to tell him what Santa would do with that information. Aidan thought that by telling Santa, he would get those things IMMEDIATELY. As if Santa had a big boy bike and color change hot wheels underneath his chair. Sorry buddy! Santa has to go back to the North Pole to make those toys.

Poor guy, he was pretty disappointed!

Seriously, my son couldn’t be any sweeter. He makes friends everywhere he goes and loves to give anyone a high five or even a hug. He always tells me he misses me and hugs me so tight. Love those bear hugs. Today, my sweet boy is 3 1/2 years old. I want to put him into a bubble so he doesn’t get any bigger. Make him stay this way forever.

Aidan has not one but two advent calendars. One is a red wooden box with 25 numbered doors that open to reveal the perfect sized cubby hole for 25 trinkets or pieces of candy.  Every Thanksgiving, I drop it off at my mother-in-law’s house and she stocks it full of surprises.  The other is the traditional cardboard one you buy from the grocery store; it as molded pieces of candy inside each flap.

Every morning (and every night, but I deny the nighttime requests) Aidan asks to open a door. We look at the monthly calendar and I point to which day it is. He reads the number and then we count that many doors (or flaps) on his advent calendars. As he counts higher and higher, getting closer to the number of the current date, he gets more and more excited. His voice starts to trail upwards and he squeals with delight until he can open the doors and claim his prize.

I keep both calendars up on the kitchen counter because he’s just too curious to be trusted, but he’s craftier than I thought…

…I came into the kitchen this morning to find him on his hands and knees hovering over the cardboard advent calendar — he had already popped 3 pieces of chocolate in his mouth! I exclaimed in horror, “Aidan! Stop!” but before I could retrieve the calendar, he was scrambling to pull a 4th candy from a random numbered door…giggling all the while.