So, back on December 20th, I was trying to get a few nice photos of the kids together while the tree was being decorated. Did not work. The Boy was having none of this (get closer to your sister! no, closer... no, you're not close enough..). So, I decided to take some photos of the Little Girl by herself on the Boy's chair. "No! I want to sit on my chair!!" was the Boy's response to this. I said, ok, here ya go!
The Boy's method for hanging ornaments was really innovative - hang the ornaments from each other! We had quite a few bundles of ornaments hung around the low branches of the tree. Most of these were moved to the upper branches within hours, as Anya discovered these awesome bundles of what she figured were cat toys. All night long I heard jingling and rustling..
We had a lovely Christmas, although the Boy is still asking about presents in his sockin' - which has been put away. He has not quite gotten the idea that presents are only for special occasions. Little Girl got many sets of new clothes and the Boy has way too many toys. Actually, he had too many toys prior to Christmas, but there is so much fun stuff out there!
Here is Boy Friday on Christmas morning with his first gift (he opened it while I wasn't looking, and it's one of only two gifts he opened on his own!). I was trying to get him to say "donkey" (bawh-key), which he only started saying after I brought out the Christmas nativity (the fisher price Little People set). He also says "Jesus" now, too. Sounds a lot like "cheese." He also just started saying "daddy!" I know, late bloomer this one. We're chopped liver apparently - Chester, cheese, shoes, and cars are all more important that saying mommy or daddy.
So this week he started saying - donkey, daddy (dee), anya (aaah-eee), Jesus, and I think he's working on a word for train (choo). Not too interested in saying mommy or mama (although I've heard it a few times). Loves to say "mee" which means "meow" or cat. Every time he sees a cat he says "mee!" Oh, and he'll snort if you ask him what the pig says.
I think it's so funny that he enjoys putting hats on! This crazy-colored one that I knit a couple years ago looks so cute on him. And definitely cuter on him than on me.
Friday seems to be enjoying all of his gifts... except the couple that MOVE on their own (Let's Go Thomas, and Lightning McQueen shake-n-go car). Those make him cry. He has two little wooden trains (Percy and Victor from the Thomas wooden set) that he really likes, and he loves hearing his Tonka trucks talk. Ok, he's not aware that he's received clothes - I think I opened all of those for him. I'm not sure what he thinks of his new stuffed toys, but I have to say the striped lion is so fun and colorful (and even machine washable)! Both he and the gingerbread man have been hugged and sat upon.
It actually rained all of Christmas day - all of the snow was melted by late afternoon! Not that we'd had much yet anyway. Today, however, it snowed all day and we now have a few inches of light, powdery snow.
This trip to the Botanic Garden did not quite go as planned... we did not get in to see "Winter Wonderland," as apparently you need tickets in advance to go see the free event (but are charged by ticket*****r). Well, we were certainly not the only ones there without tickets! At least our kid is too young to have any idea that he might be missing out.
Sorry about the lack of posts and photos in the last couple of months. Things have been hectic and in constant flux. Chester was back in the veterinary hospital last week due to a hypoglycemic episode that just wouldn't go away. Although it is unclear what happened, or why he was diabetic for the last four months, something has changed and he's been off his insulin for almost two weeks now. I'll need to check his glucose levels at home so that I'll know when he comes out of remission, but his behavior is seemingly getting back to "normal." Unfortunately, some of the bad habits we'd hoped were gone are not... alas.
Photos. Um, yeah. The house is a serious mess and it's always so dark that the photos haven't been turning out at all without a flash. So I've gotten a bit lazy. I do have a few more videos, but none of them are quite as fun as the Friday Dance Session below!
Friday is now 32.5 inches tall (75th percentile), and 23.8 lbs (25th percentile). He got a shot today, but seemingly did not even notice! His very favorite word to say is "car." And, yes, it really does sound like the word "car." Every single time we go outside - "car! car! Cccar!" We have moved on to the "careening" stage of learning to walk - running about the house with reckless abandon.
We are hardly prepared for Christmas - what? decorate? where? And pulling out ornaments would include a Closet Expedition - treacherous. Of course, I think my winter socks are in there somewhere, too.
I'll check out the three or four photos I've taken in the last month and determine if they are worthy of upload. Or there's a short video clip of Friday yelling "stop, thief" as I read him "Peter Rabbit" (no, it doesn't sound like stop or thief, but it's pretty amusing all the same).
I don't think Baby Friday is *quite* ready for opening gifts yet. I had to help, and it appears that he was a wee bit startled by the noise of the paper (it was tissue paper - who knows what happened to our wrapping paper in the move? did we bring it? maybe?).
The little guy got lots of clothes, and a few toys. He would've gotten more if we'd remembered the stuff that his grandmother sent that wasn't wrapped! Oops. I just remembered today that he had a sock monkey, and where was it? Oh, still in the mailing box! It was like Christmas all over again. Well, I finally got around to taking the Leapfrog Musical Table out of the box today - and I think Santa did well. Looks like I'll enjoy it, even if Friday doesn't!
I guess opening presents was a little too tiring for the little guy!
He kept falling asleep in my arms the next day, too. I guess Christmas dinner in a strange house was rather exciting and exhausting! Boy Friday did really well (much better than on Thanksgiving) - he slept through dinner (!) and didn't even cry when he woke up. Despite the presence of tall, loud strangers.
In weather news - we are all happy that most of the snow has melted. The streets were an absolute MESS a few days ago. When we got back on Christmas night we had to park down the street and around the corner, then walk the baby home on icy sidewalks. Would you believe it was in the 60's today? Just the other day there was a high of 4 degrees!
We've been getting ready for Christmas, winter, and babies being more mobile. So, let's see... we got a tree, a tree stand, a tree skirt, and some more lights...and even hung some fancy ornaments we'd collected and never used. I'm not even sure where we got all of them! Boy Friday decided he wanted to stay up and see the tree all put together before going to bed (after midnight). I think it wore him out, though, because he's been in bed before 9 every night after that! Christmas-in-a-box arrived the other day, as well (from Arizona - although there was no warm weather included).
Winter came early this year. Although the solstice was today (ok, yesterday), we've been having snow for nearly a month already. Today - ridiculously low temperatures. It was five below when I woke up this morning, but the wind chill was -31 degrees F! No, I did NOT take the baby out in it. We stayed in and watched people try to get their cars out of snow-piled spots on the street (really not sure why they didn't just get out and shovel a bit. probably would've been faster).
Baby Friday is continuing to practice his moves. He's not super mobile yet, but he's working on it. As you can see below... (the toys in his hands impede his progress a bit here, but he refuses to let go of them):
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