Back to.... normal?

After a flurry of activity, life seems to be getting back to normal.  We had a very fun Christmas Eve celebration with my family (as seen in the last post), Christmas day around our place and then went for a jam-packed visit to Ottawa for a few days.

The boys have had lots of fun... especially when they were opening presents at one of the many gift-y venues.  I think I'll have to add an annex on the rental house for the toys, but they sure are happy.

We rented a suite at a hotel while we were in Ottawa and it was great.  I thought it might be weird being there as a visitor, but it was very nice and easy.  Didn't even feel emotional driving by the old house!  The boys slept in the same room and never woke before 8 a.m., which may not sound like a Christmas miracle, but you can bet your sweet baby Jesus that it is.  I need nothing more for Christmas.

Oh.  Except this:

IPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay.  I'm going to state upfront that I like to think of myself as a non-consumerist and that I'm usually fine to live without the newfangled creations that seem to reign the world, but OH MY GOD!  My delightful husband SUPER-surprised me with this (by not giving it to me until the 27th) and I instantly lost my mind.

Seriously, I told him that if I wasn't already married that I never, ever would be, because the IPad would be my best friend and soul mate forever and I'd never have the need to meet anyone else.  

Is this over-stating it's glory?  I don't think so.

It was all I could do to not kiss it goodnight at bedtime. (Okay, so I might have smooched it a tiny bit).  

Thanks Hub.  It's super-duper great.

Now that I've shown that I'm just as bad as all those techno-gadget hoarders, I will return you to the concept that less is more.  Specifically, the 2 boys and their vast enjoyment of bath time at the hotel.  I didn't haul any of their usual bath-based accoutrements to Ottawa, so they had to make their own fun.

So, I say to you:  If you don't have this much fun with 2 plastic hotel shower caps, then you are just not trying hard enough.

There was much giddiness over the discovery of these magical items... They were, at different points, hats, shoes, underwear, bags, magnifying lenses, jellyfish, a drinking vessel and possibly a suffocating hazard, but not to fear; they were well supervised.

Having a 2 and 4 year old can be quite exhausting at times, but when they find the most mundane objects that amazing it reminds me how great it is to have kid-brains in my world.