It's Official

It's official:
1) The holidays are over;
2) So is 2009;
3) Our vacation time came and went, too quickly;
4) Peyton is sixteen months old;
5) I'm way, way, way behind on blogging and completely overwhelmed and at a loss as to where to begin.

I threw up my hands the other day and declared that since I was so far behind, I was done with this blogging business. But, after several days at home with blog posts and words circling around in my crazy head, I realized I wasn't truly done blogging. I guess I'm just having a bit of blogger's block.

So, today I'm digging deep, letting go of my need for perfection and embracing this stubborn block of the blog.

Steve worked through the 22nd of December and we've been enjoying our daddy time every since. Until last Monday, that is. Peyton's been searching the house high and low for his Daddy since the moment Steve left for work on Monday morning.

Although we enjoyed plenty of quality family time (Christmas Eve with the Russell side of the family and Christmas with the Parr side) we've pretty much been on the go these past few weeks and have hardly had a chance to sit down and catch our breath.

Peyton has been a trooper and has accompanied us everywhere we've gone. He has enjoyed many opportunities of fine dining, socializing, long car rides, plane rides, snowshoe hikes and travel adventure. He has endured sleeping in closets, bathrooms, car seats and pretty much everywhere, but his own bed. He barely protested when we had no heat or electricity, so long as there was food, milk and plenty of attention. He did protest, rightfully so, when we plunged him into an icy cold bath one morning when he was quite dirty and we were desperate to make his stink a bit more tolerable. We've eaten and napped out of order and side stepped routine. Through it all Peyton's been fairly resilient to all the commotion, travel and stimulation. At least it seemed that way then.

Now that we're home, I realize that while it takes many days of patience, consistency and repetition to instill good habits and routines, it only takes a few days of casualness and circumstance to undo all that hard work.

The one thing he has maintained - and even taken to a new level - is his ability to communicate when he is "done" with something. For example, I am done napping - today, maybe forever! He carefully tucks his froggy under the blanket and kindly shares his binky with the now "sleeping" frog before lifting his arms straight up in the air and shaking his hands (the signs for "up" and "done"). While he was been practicing this routine after nap time for a few weeks, it wasn't until we arrived home a few days ago that he had perfected it and with such seriousness and intent...at the BEGINNING of nap time. This is so irritatingly cute because it's adorable, but WE are so NOT over napping. Not today, maybe not ever!

In summary, here we are at the end of many good things, including this long blog post:
Vacation. Year. Holiday. Naps.

Enough with the babble and on to the photos. I've made each event a separate post, but they are all dated today (for obvious reasons). Enjoy a quick peek into the happenings in our small corner of the world these past few weeks.