Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I know I'm late in wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, but the last 3 weeks have been crazy. On December 17, we flew to Chicago to see Rafal's family and introduce them to Alek. It had been 2 years since we had seen his family and they had yet to meet Alek in person. We wanted to surprise them, so we booked our flight and hotel and then showed up on their doorstep. Alek was asleep and when they opened the door they were so surprised that it woke Alek up and he started crying and screaming. Rafal's mom got him out of his carseat quickly and then held onto him for the rest of the night. It didn't take long for Alek to love his aunts and grandma and grandpa. He never had a moment during the whole trip where someone wasn't holding him, playing with him, walking with him, or feeding him. We had a wonderful time seeing Rafal's family and we were sad to go home. We will miss them and hope they will come and visit us soon. The only thing that we will not miss are the freezing temperatures we left behind. It was so cold that on our flight home, the door to our plane froze shut and maintainence had to come and open it for us. Luckily we made it home because on Monday, most of the flights were cancelled or delayed. Alek did really well on our flight to Chicago and slept most of the way. It was a direct flight and was only a little over 2 hours. Our flight home had a layover in Minneapolis and we were running from gate C to gate F so we could make our connection. Our flight was slightly delayed, so we made it with time to spare. Alek was so tired and I thought that he would fall asleep when we took off, but instead he cried and screamed and was one unhappy little guy. I thought it was going to be the longest flight of my life, but finally he went to sleep. I'm sure everyone on the plane was as grateful as Rafal and I were.

We spent Christmas with my family and had a wonderful time. Alek loved his new toys that he got from grandma, grandpa, and Santa. I thought he would love opening presents because he loves to rip paper and make a mess, but he kept getting distracted with everything going on so we had to help him. He got a toy zoo that sings, a train that moves and has little balls in it, a basketball hoop, and a truck that he can stand up and push or ride on. I'm so glad that now he has some new toys to play with since he was getting quite bored with his other toys. He loves to push his truck around and will let go and stand on his own. Since he has learned to crawl and pull himself up on everything, he will stand on his own but is more hesitant now to take steps on his own. Sometimes when he tries, he gets so excited that he loses his balance immediately. He is definitely very busy and I have to keep a careful eye on him. All the doors are now closed as he loves to get into the cupboards and pull everything out. He also loves the stairs and has mastered climbing them all by himself. Of course, I still have to be right behind him just in case. By nap time, I'm also ready for a nap. He is one busy busy boy.

For New Year's we had my sister Desi and her girls Addie and Sadie over for dinner. My parents also came over and we had fun playing and talking. After Desi left, Rafal and I started watching Eagle Eye, but by 10:00 I was so tired. I went to bed and he stayed up and finished the movie. At midnight he woke me up and gave me a kiss and then I went back to sleep.

I will post pictures once Rafal puts his office back together and I'm on my computer instead of his. Hopefully I will be able to get back to blogging more often if I ever get my laundry done. I now have a new dryer that works, so hopefully I can get caught up.