Zoo Lights and More

So Tuesday was an eventful day. It was the day Ramona turned 14 months old, the day we decided to go to the zoo lights with my parents, and the day Joe went to staffing agencies to do some hard core job searching. It was also the day I got my first postpartum period. It wasn't that big of a deal except that I wasn't expecting it at all. I mean, I knew it had to happen at some point and that my weaning of Ramona meant it would happen soon, but I didn't expect it that day, when Joe had the car so I couldn't run to the store to buy tampons on my lunch break. And then when I finally used a tampon for the first time in two years and had the worst cramps ever and spent several hours schlepping around the zoo with a cranky baby who refused to ride in her stroller and insisted in being carried ONLY by Mommy. No, it was not an ideal timing for that event. But we did have fun at the zoo and Ramona eventually cheered up (after eating a gingerbread cookie, of course) so it wasn't too bad. And it's certainly a sign that the weaning is almost complete, which I'm happy about.

Of course, the big excitement is Christmas. We had a really great time and Ramona was in an awesome mood pretty much the entire time. Christmas Eve we ran around finishing everything and wrapping presents and all that. We finally got everything together and went to my parents' house for dinner, church, and presents. We got some good stuff and I saw some people I hadn't seen in ages at church, so that was nice. Of course, it's always nice to spend time with my family, and Erin was a good sport about Ramona opening Erin's present a million times. After that we went home and crashed and got up early on Christmas to get more wrapping done before we headed down to my aunt's house near Columbus. It was the first time I'd seen her house and it was really cute. We had a great time there and got all kinds of great presents and good food and I saw a lot of family members (a few I hadn't seen in years, which was really cool.) We had to leave a little earlier than I would like, but we had to get back up north to eat Christmas dinner with Joe's family. More good food, presents and fun were had there.

So far it looks like Ramona's favorite presents are the activity walker thing she got from my Aunt Chris, and the toy broom she got from Joe's brother Chris and his girlfriend Stephanie. I think the thing I was happiest that she got was a hat and mittens, and I've got her trained to wear the hat already, but the gloves are not going over very well. Everyone was so generous, not only with the gifts, but with the time spent and the conversations had. It was one of the best Christmases I've had in a long time, and I was so happy to see Ramona spend time with her extended family on both sides.