Robert and Elizabeth's New Year's Bed Rest Rockin' Eve

The last time I spent New Year's Eve with Kelly was way back in 2008. It was before toddlers, back when they lived in the hill country, and when it didn't appear I'd shoved a rather large watermelon under my shirt. I always feel a bit bad about spending that day with Kelly; it's her wedding anniversary. I mean, Robert and I don't do anything fancy on our anniversary either; an expensive dinner (other than our first where we ate hot dogs and drank beer...but hey! We were at Fenway!) and back home to pay a babysitter. Kelly always says she'd rather not go out because everyone goes out on New Year's Eve and restaurants are known to jack up their prices to gouge you one last time before the year ends.

Robert and I had already planned on fondue and crispy oven latkes and cookie dough dip, and figured it would be fun to have friends over. We even busted out the toddler roller coaster. My brother begged me via text messages to ride it and send him a picture. This was the closest I came:

Ma'am, this is a safety violation.

Hmmm, something seems familiar. I seem to recall another NYE where I jammed my pregnant belly into a toddler toy. No fear, I didn't ride it.

The boys did, though. We thought we had a great assembly line of ride! Push! Share! Wait! Ready, Set, Go!

Ready for launch sequence.

Kelly explaining to Cameron why sharing is fun.

...except that toddlers? Yeah, they don't exactly take well to the all the waiting and sharing.

There was a nuclear meltdown at one point, and so we put up the choo-choo, as the ride had been dubbed by both boys, and stuffed ourselves full of food and conversation.

After our friends had left, Robert and I thought it would be okay if Evan took one last ride or two down the tracks.

He got more and more daring each ride, eventually leading to this:

I sent my brother the preceding picture and he responded back with "Yeah! I knew this would probably be the only time I could buy Evan something like that. I knew if he was anything like you were as a kid, he'd love it."

Did you hear that noise? That was my heart shattering.

After doing nothing more than cursing this big, clunky gift for a week, I finally saw the thought behind the gesture. My brother bought it for my child because when I was little, I loved roller coasters with a passion. If my family ever went to theme parks, I'd be the lone ranger begging for loop-de-loops and fast drops over and over and over again. My brother remembered that, and thought about what might make my baby happy.

Needless to say, we'll figure out where to store the roller coaster. Some how, some where, because of happiness.

Evan went to bed, so exhausted from all the play that he barely flinched when the people down the street set off their illegal fireworks celebrating the calendar change. Robert and I toasted a glass of sparkling juice and gave each other a kiss and fell asleep, listening to the thunder of crackles and pops that littered the air until well after 2:00AM. As I laid there quietly, watching our bedroom flash like it was lightening I thought to myself, Happy New Year.

Indeed it is.