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Thursday, December 18, 2008

William @ 14 months

William is 14 months old. He is a busy, walking, trying-to-be-talking, happy little boy. I think I forgot how nonstop this stage is. At three, Henry is able to sit and concentrate on doing something for a small, but somewhat extended period of time. When I say extended I mean maybe 20 minutes. But even so, 20 minutes of seated (sometimes standing), concentrated efforts. William is nonstop on the go. He is a cuddly baby and loves being close to me throughout the day; there are literally times that I trip over him while doing dishes or coming out of the bathroom because he is right there. He makes a game of crawling between my legs when I'm standing. He also loves when I say "no no" and hearing those words is like a special magic to him that makes him want to only do whatever it is that he's doing more and more. I try not to be too dramatic when I say it and just simply move him away and on to the next thing. He and Henry are playing nicely together more and more which is so sweet to see. But I have to treasure those tender moments in my heart, because Henry's still not quite ready for his baby brother to be playing with all of "his toys" and William hasn't quite learned the art of taking turns (versus simply snatching).
William loves looking out the windows and our French doors.Where's William?
He loves playing Peek-a-Boo and starts it spontaneously now.
Peek-a-booThis is the Starbucks accident aftermath. He grabbed my nearly empty, and lukewarm latte off the table and came into the kitchen to show me while trying to drink it. He's a big helper and loves taking things out and putting them back in. He loves building block towers and proudly claps for himself after he puts each block on. Dangerous, I know. But look how proud he is. Another fave place to stand.And after all of this, a boy's got to sleep.
Some 14 month milestones:
  • Blows kisses, loves to clap (for himself, or along with anyone else--TV included).
  • He loves to read. He sits in his room by his rocking chair and takes books out one by one to read through.
  • He is a serious animal lover. Mostly cats lately. But he really loves anything that moves, even bugs.
  • He loves cars, trucks and tractors and makes the vrrooom noises as he drives them.
  • He has his top two 1-year molars.
  • He is almost constantly wearing a bib - lots and lots of drool. I've never seen anything like it!
  • He's officially done with his bottles. This is always a little bit sad for me. I feel like it's the end of his "babyhood". I had a harder time letting go of them than he did. He has a sippy cup of milk before bed now (his bedtime bottle was the last to go) and sometimes he drinks it and other times he isn't interested.
  • Words: car, this, cookie, cracker, juice, kitty, go (if I say, "ready-set", he says "Go" enthusiastically. We do this in the car...a lot!), no-no (sounds like nah-nah-nah, there's usually a few of them).
  • He's very addicted to his pacifier. These things should come with a warning. Warning: If this thing works and your child uses it for soothing purposes, there will come a day when your child will want this thing nonstop throughout the day making you a nervous wreck worrying about how you will break him of the habit. Something like that.
  • Still takes two naps, although I'm wondering if he's almost ready to give up his first. There have been a few days recently that he really fights his afternoon nap. I remember this being a tricky transition with Henry, so we'll see. As always, I'm going to try to hang on to them as long as he will!
He is a sweet and happy boy. I feel overwhelmed at times with gratitude for the family that God blessed me with. I feel so blessed to be the mother of these two precious boys. I'm really excited for Christmas this year. It will be so fun to experience the holidays through the boys' eyes. It's precious to see their joy, wonder and awe at even the simplest of things.

Yummy to the tummy : Christmas Baking 2008

It has become an annual holiday tradition for my mom, Sara and I to gather together and bake. We have established some favorites that we make every year. Sometimes we venture out and try a new recipe, and sometimes we dare to tweak a recipe that we already love in hopes of making it even better (i.e. this year's Peppermint Bark, we added a chocolate bottom layer). Sara was the this year's hostess with the mostest. She and Dan have the perfect set up in their kitchen and dining room with lots of space to spread out and bake.

Supplies!
This year was extra special because Henry and Gabe joined in the fun. They were master chefs in the making, helping make a few different goodies. Although they mostly focused on their delicious and superbly sprinkled sugar cookies. My mom bought special holiday aprons and chef's hats for the occasion. The boys added so much joy to the holiday fun.
Gabe ready to bake in his apron and chef's hat.Oma and Gabe
Henry wasn't so sure about the apron and hat, so my mom tried it on for him to see.Henry and Gabe
Finally Henry agreed to wear the apron, but only the Santa apron and only with these green sunglasses.The chefs
Suited up and ready to get cookin'.Gabe mixing up some caramels.Henry helping Sara make the sugar cookie dough.Henry and Gabe
Later, sans the aprons, rolling out sugar cookies.GabeHenry
Gabe and Henry's tray of sugar cookie cutouts.
Decorating their sugar cookies the next morning in their pj's. Gabe Henry
His cookies got lost beneath mountains of rainbow sprinkles.The finished product =
yummy to the tummy sugar cookie cutouts!
William, Caleb and Gabe
It will be so much fun when the little boys want to help next Christmas.
Gabe and Caleb

Friday, December 12, 2008

Christmas Lights

The little town that we visit for the 4th of July parade also has a Christmas lights display every December. They fill the park with a variety of Christmas lights, blowup Christmas characters, the Nativity scene and decorated trees. It's small, but cute and always worth driving through a few times and walking through at least once. We took the boys last week and planned on just driving through since it was such a chilly night. After driving through once, Henry convinced us to get out of the van and walk around to see the lights. We enjoyed seeing the lights. Fast. And we were ready to jump back into the warm van by the time we were done.
A glimpse at the decorated park. Quite the variety.
Henry plodding through the snow.Me, William and Henry
Hilarious. I'm the only one smiling. Everyone was so frozen.Patrick, William and Henry
Me and William
Ok funnyman. If you're not going to smile for a picture, this is what happens. I love the way William is looking at Patrick. So confused!
William wearing Patrick's gloves.
Bless his heart, he still tried to point at everything with those big, floppy fingers!
More pointing.
One of the boys' favorite things to do this month is to drive around our neighborhood looking at Christmas lights. They both get so excited; William pointing and Henry exclaiming about what colors he sees. I think it's sweet which light displays a child finds the most beautiful. In general, the more lights and blowup characters in one yard, the better.

Visit Santa? Nah!


I've been trying to come up with things to do with the boys to celebrate the Christmas season this month. Ideally every day in December I'd like to do something a little extra special to celebrate; some spiritual and some just traditional fun. We've done a few things, but I'd love any ideas. What do you do to celebrate with your children?

Last Friday I decided to dress the boys up in cozy sweaters and take them to the mall to visit Santa. Lucky for me, my friend Rachel called me that morning and told me she had the day off. So she came with us. It's always so much more fun having someone else to go with, not to mention super helpful. We got to the mall, dressed and ready for pictures with digital camera and video camera in hand. Santa's helper, the photographer, told us that there were no cameras of any kind allowed. Disappointing, but it didn't end up being a big loss because both boys refused to sit on Santa's lap. Henry yelled in his defiant voice from the stroller, "I'm not gonna sit on Santa's lap" and when I decided to splurge on the picture anyway with just William, he clung to my neck with a grip even Santa couldn't pry. Still, I would have gone through with it and had a cute, crying picture to treasure forever except Santa refused and suggested that I come back several times and let the boys get used to him. Ha! Who has the time to commit to that? Maybe if he could be at the mall throughout the year, we could get used to him then and not have to use precious holiday time at the mall acquainting ourselves with him? I'll suggest that next time. Or maybe home visits?

So no Santa in 2008 for us. But we did go for a ride on the carousel in the mall which was equally fun and not threatening like a big, bearded man.
Me, William and Henry
Getting our tickets. This sweet woman cracked us up. She handed us our tickets on this side of the counter and made sure we were all holding them. Then she opened up the little gate and held a bucket down on the opposite side to immediately collect them. So funny.
Henry absolutely loved this ride.Here is he with sheer joy!
I was holding William's hands while keeping him balanced on his horse. The sweet woman didn't like that. She insisted that I "teach him how to hold on" by himself. So, we tried.
Sooo excited.
Rachel and Henry
I wish I had a picture of Rachel with the boys at the mall pushing the huge and oh-so-heavy double stroller. She was awesome! We came home for lunch and Starbucks after the mall.
Rachel, William and Henry
Thanks Rach!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Oh, Christmas Tree

We put our tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving. Sadly, it's artificial. Since we've been married, Patrick and I have always cut down our Christmas tree from a tree farm that Patrick worked at when he was in high school. We took Henry there his first Christmas and brought both boys last year to cut down our tree. This year I'd been putting off getting a tree. Mostly because I was worried about William and his sweet little curious fingers.I had visions of him pulling the tree on top of himself when I left the room to get his sippy cup or some other terrible thing. So for safety, we opted to put our tree in the office. We can still see the tree from the living room, the lights from the tree can be seen through all of the office windows and most importantly, there is a door that can be closed if necessary. We decided to use our artificial tree (a neighbor gave us her old tree a few years ago) since it was going to be in the office anyway.

I worried that Henry would be disappointed, or even a bit weirded out by the Christmas tree in a box that had to be assembled. But it was quite the opposite. He loved finding all of the pieces to help put together the tree. It did seem a little bit unnatural, but it was still fun. And with the Christmas music playing in the background, even this artificial tree started to feel festive. When William first brushed against the branches, he screamed and then started to cry. A tree in the house definitely freaked him out!

We waited until William was in bed and then brought up our boxes of ornaments. Henry literally put every single unbreakable ornament on the tree. For each one he pulled from the box he'd exclaim something about it. "Oh look at this!" or "This one is so cute!" I didn't expect him to stick with it for so long, but he didn't stop until the box of ornaments was empty. He did a great job hanging them; some branches are piled high with ornaments. I actually didn't even move them or rearrange any. I'm usually a little bit of a perfectionist, even with the tree. But this year I love the way the tree looks - just like a three year old decorated it.



Henry putting the star on top of the tree.
When he couldn't get it to stand up, he decided to lay it on its side.
William's first look at the tree the next morning.
Within seconds he's wearing one ornament like a necklace around his neck and he's eyeing another one to pull off next.
William loves to pull ornaments off the tree and carry them around the house. I usually make a pile of the ornaments he's pulled throughout the day. At the end of the day Henry gets to hang them back on the tree!