In the past, Keely has not been into the whole getting gifts and unwrapping them thing. So this year I decided not to wrap her gifts and see how it went. So I sat out all of her gifts, and Santa left some too, and she walked into the living room where she saw them. There were several new books, which are her favorite, and she picked up a new 'Goodnite Moon' book. She had the biggest smile on her face. She took it to the coffee table and sat it down. By this time I had squatted down in the floor next to the coffee table. She came running at me, still with her great big smile, and almost knocked me over with a huge hug. I am sure if she could communicate well, she would have said thank you, but instead I got a great big thank you hug, which was quite all right. I learned two things in this moment, one was she really understands how to be appreciative, and the other the great love my sister in law has for my children. When I looked up, she had tears in her eyes, as did I. It is sometimes hard to tell with Keely what she really understands, and she cannot communicate her feelings, so in those little moments when we can totally get what she is feeling, it is pure awesomeness.
And now for the funniest thing she did, she hates having her fingernail and toenails cut so I usually enlist the help of someone else. This time, it was my mom. We were holding her down on the couch trying to cut her toenails on Christmas Eve. She was definately winning the battle. I finally finished, with some battle wounds, and she moves over to the edge of the couch and puts her little feet on the coffee table. She reaches down and starts messing with one of toes, that I obviously, in the battle, didn't do a good enough job on. It was like she was saying "ok, if you two crazies will get off of me now, I'll let you cut my dang nails!" And she let me cut all of her toenails on the foot that was bothering her, all the while giving me a look like I had lost my mind.
So, I'm learning. Sometimes, it's a slow process, and sometimes I mess up, but hopefully she can make it through without needing massive amounts of therapy. And hopefully, someday when she can talk, she will tell me all the things I could have done better so I can pass them on!
And brother had a great Christmas too. This was the first Christmas, he really got into all of it. Santa did let him down a little. He wanted a Dora and Diego Halloween DVD. Really?!?! For some reason, stores don't really stock a lot of Halloween DVD's at Christmas time like they should, which is totally setting the big guy in red up for failure. Thank goodness for mommy and the internet, this problem will get fixed soon enough. Overall though, it was the best Christmas so far!
