Christmas comes but once a year...

unless you have grandparents who live out of town! Tonight two big boxes arrived filled with presents, and because I have no self control when it comes to presents, we decided to open some. After all, what if there was a puppy inside?

Connor was pretty happy to see a brightly colored car. He probably knew it was his because nobody else in the household gets happy looking things in primary colors. It makes a popping sound when it rolls, sort of like the old popcorn vacuums that Ed and I had as kids. He seemed pretty intrigued by the gift. He also got a bear that sings, talks, and plays games. He wasn't quite sure what to do with it, but in time I'm sure he'll figure it out. And then...he got a bunch of books, two of which I read to him before bedtime tonight. Tomorrow we'll open more presents, but this should give Connor something new for tomorrow during the day. And this is a good thing, because Connor's attention span is sometimes about 4 minutes long. Now that he's staying awake for longer periods of time, it can be a real challenge to entertain him. Ed or I pick up his toys, play with them, and then quick...find something new. Maybe a couple of baby sit-ups. And then it's on to tummy time, where he can show off his brilliant head control. (By the way, his head has advanced to the 75th percentile, which is fairly impressive since he's still hanging onto the 5th percentile in weight.) After big head Connor bobs around a bit, it's time to flip him over and maybe do a little baby massage. But, don't get too used to that because pretty soon he'll need to be put in the bouncy chair. And that's all in the first fifteen minutes. OK - I'm exaggerating a bit, but really - it's challenging to entertain this guy with his brain moving so fast. It takes a lot to keep him impressed.

Well, I better get some sleep since I'll be working again tomorrow. Tonight Ed is taking on night time duty since Dr. Gandhi assured us that Connor does not actually need to nurse every hour throughout the night. We're hoping to limit him to twice a night, and eventually push that to once. Connor needs to get a good night's sleep tonight because tomorrow afternoon Ed is bringing him to my office to go to the annual Children's Holiday Party along with my center's party at a local pool hall. Hopefully Ed will teach him how to play pool earlier in the day.

Elaine