Merry Christmas!

AJ had a very merry Christmas. My mom came up from Arkansas and spent the week with us. AJ LOVED having her here. He was sad about having to go back to daycare the next week and asked for Memmaw. He knew she went back to Arkansas and kept asking for us to go to Arkansas to go see her. Usually, most things are "mommy's turn" except for playing chase, but AJ was content to let it be Memmaw's turn quite often while she was here. AJ was very funny. Mom had always wanted to be "Mammaw" as her mother and grandmother were. However, AJ began calling her "Memmaw". At one point, I asked him if he could say "Ma-maw." He did, then shook his head, and said, "No, I don't like it....this is Me-maw." Mom decided it was precious when AJ says it, so is just fine about being Memmaw from now on. AJ has been the same about my dad. Although we have always called him grandpa, AJ calls him Papa. It isn't that AJ can't say grandpa...he calls my Kansas mom grandma and he calls Dave's dad grandpa...it's just that he has decided that my dad is Papa to him.

AJ had a super Christmas week. Since he has no idea what Christmas is at this point, we let him open various packages and get a gift from Memmaw each day of the week so he could enjoy a week of getting new stuff and not overwhelmed all in one day. AJ seemed to really love all his gifts except initially for the Tickle Me Elmo grandma Kay sent him. He was terrified of it for some reason, but then one day about two weeks or so after he got it, he suddenly loved it and laughed and rolled around on the ground trying to copy the Elmo.