Friday, January 29, 2016

Holidays and More

Eli had a full holiday break.  The first week off he got to relax a bit.  Then we were off to Grandma and Grandpa Erickson's for the start of Christmas.  When we got there, Santa was visiting Grandma's babysitting kids, so our kids got something too.  Eli is questioning Santa's existence, but he's still all in.  He got his present and after opening it asked me if "this is all we are here for!".  He obviously missed the mountain of presents engulfing the Christmas tinsel that Grandma calls a tree.  I explained to him that we were opening all the presents the next day and this was just the beginning.  He was happy with that.

The next day came and we went swimming with his cousins at the hotel in the afternoon.  He didn't even need his floaties and was careful and did well.  He and his cousin Sophia are about the same size, so they stayed in the same area they could touch.

After that we headed back to Grandma's house to open everything and have dinner.  Eli liked the majority of what he got and a few things he wasn't expecting.  I don't think he complained about any of it to his Grandparents even if he didn't like it.  He and Christian put something's together and went back to the hotel to hang out with Mom because they were bored.  They put something else together at the hotel and relaxed.

The next day we took off for home to the presents Santa left for us at our house.  For the most part the ride home was pretty uneventful, but Eli was a little disappointed that we didn't stop and eat at the packed IHOP on the way home.  He settled for a quick snack and getting home faster instead.

As soon as we opened the door the presents were sorted and the opening began.  Eli got a lot of Lego's, Buildable Star Wars figures, Infinity characters and his own gaming chair.  He spent the next few days building sets and would take a break when he got tired of them.  He eventually got help from his Dad, Uncle Dale and Christian to complete them all.  I think he still has a couple lego sets still completely built a month later, which is a long time for him.

New Year's Eve Eli managed to stay up until midnight and went outside and did popper fireworks in the cold.  Everyone slept in and had a good time that day.

Eli decided to continue doing Kuk Sool Won and is now a blue belt.  He has passed 3 tests and could test next month for his blue belt.  He still seems to like it, but the time off at Thanksgiving and Christmas seemed to have given him some new life in it.

He has been giving himself a couple headaches recently.  Once when the substitute teacher at school told the to make a bubble with their mouth to get them to be quiet.  Well, Eli stopped breathing and caused a stress headache.  Then he went to Kuk Sool Won that night and got upset and stressed that he fell down, which caused him to hold his breath again and cause a headache again.  We'll have to figure out how to help him deal with that issue going forward.

All in all, Eli has had a great start to 2016 and seems to be enjoying school and Kuk Sool Won.  Only a few more months and we'll be into spring break and ready for some fun.