Sunday, December 18, 2011

The holiday madness has descended

Oh. my. goodness.  I completely underestimated the insane effect of the impending holidays on my 3 year old.  She is a train wreck right now.  She needs wants everything.  She doesn't understand the passage of time (duh) so she thinks Christmas should be here already.  I mean, the poor kid has been seeing commercials and advertisements since practically the day after Halloween.

We have been trying very hard to explain the true meaning of Christmas.  She has gone to Mass with me and we talk about it a lot.  When I told her it was Jesus' birthday she was confused.  We even picked names off the giving tree together and she cried because she thought it meant that she was going to have to give her gifts to someone else.

I know that her reactions are pretty normal but sometimes I am still shocked at just how egocentric this 3-year-old can be.  I think that normally she is very giving and willing to share.  Well, she has a hard time sharing food sometimes.  But she is very generous with her toys and her stuff in general.

On top of it all we have not been keeping a great schedule.  We have had some later nights and some family visits.  She is way better at adapting than she used to be, but she is still very much a schedule kid.  The combination of all this led to these pictures today:



Charming, no?  It was 3pm-ish and right smack in the middle of nap time.  I actually think the pictures are hysterical!  She is with her (mine really) cousins Jack and Nolan, both of whom she adores.  We were able to get a few cuter ones after my cousin, their sister, Victoria talked her into it.
 
 Lilly was kind of smiling in the one with Jack's arm around her but I missed it.  I like the one where she is jumping, though. And why did we not get pictures of all the cousins?  Victoria? Do we remember why?  Next time...

Anyway, it was a great day spent with some wonderful family members.  I am hoping that now that I am aware of this craziness, I can be more calm about it.  Hoping...but maybe a glass of red wine each night will help with that this week!

4 comments:

Rachel Siegal said...

Mel this was so funny! while my holiday craziness isn't the same type as yours (with 3 tests tomorrow and a few essays thrown in...) I'm feeling a little crazy myself! If you're treating yourself to some red wine, I'll have a nice cup of cocoa. Merry (early) Christmas!

Unknown said...

ugh...no I think the tests and essays are craziness for sure. Maybe I should have some cocoa tomorrow because the red wine made me sleepy. :) Thanks for reading my babblings Rachel! xoxo

VanBeads said...

One of the reasons I am so, so, so glad that we do not watch t.v. in this house. I can't imagine what it would be like if Colden (who is 4 in like two weeks!) were bombarded with commercial after commercial after commercial. That said, he has been having the same sort of meltdowns lately. He has never, ever asked for anything in the store before, but last week, he nearly had a fit in the middle of the drugstore when I wouldn't buy him a $10 toy car. Ugh.

I know what you mean about wanting to teach your kids the true reason for the season. True, we aren't Christian and don't go to any church, but we still feel like we want to raise Colden with the understanding that Christmas and the winter holiday season are all about spending time with families and being thankful for what you already have. So hard in this day and age where you see "adults" pepper-spraying each other over a stupid plastic video game console.

I hope this isn't too much of a rant! I just feel very strongly about this kind of stuff (as do you, apparently)!

Unknown said...

I didn't realize that Colden doesn't watch TV, but yeah, the commercials drive me nuts. The whole commercialism of holidays actually drives me crazy. I think that these meltdowns are totally age-appropriate, but KILLERS to be going through right now. I mean, even though I *know* that it's normal, it still makes em lose my patience.

But soon enough Christmas will be over and we can get back to our normal everyday lives!