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Thursday, December 31, 2009

White Christmas



For the first time in over ninety years we had a white Christmas in Dallas, TX. It was coming down hard on Christmas Eve and stuck to everything. We went to the Johnson's house for Christmas Eve and the drive home reminded me of driving through Colorado the way the snow was blowing across the road.


Sam wanted to go outside and play in the snow when it first started snowing, but quickly changed his mind when he figured out how cold it was. We were all excited that it was snowing (but it caused poor Mimi to miss her flight that night). Lulu asked Sam if he was excited that it was snowing on Christmas, but Sam informed us that "it always snows on Christmas." I'm sure he doesn't have much of a memory of his previous Christmases, and of course all of the Christmas specials show snow on the ground. Hope he's not disappointed if we don't get snow on Christmas in Dallas for the next ninety years! It was really cool that it snowed for Ben's first Christmas.


We still had a little snow on the ground in the backyard when it snowed again five days later. It came down hard again and we got some good coverage, but it was all gone when we woke up the next morning.

Cookies for Santa


Sam made cookies for Santa this year.


We got a package of sugar cookies with a snowman on them.


Placing them on the cookie sheet.


Learning how to space them out.


Mommy and Sam with a sheet of cookies before they baked.


Sam picked three cookies for Santa before bed.


And poured a cup of milk.


Of course Sam had to sample the cookies.


And the milk.



Lulu was with us for Christmas Eve!

2 Month Checkup


We took Ben for his two month checkup on Dec 23rd. He got Pentacel and Prevnar shot vaccinations (not really sure what those are), and Rotavirus oral vaccination. The Rotavirus vaccine came out after Sam was born. We suffered through Sam getting Rotavirus, so we are definitely glad they came out with a vaccine for it. Here's the stats ...

Weight: 11 lbs 1 oz (29%)
Length: 22.75 in (36%)
Head Cir.: 15 in (11%)

Ben is smiling at us and starting to make some cooing noises. He's kicking up a storm and he's starting to bring his hands to his mouth and look at them a lot (he even goes cross-eyed looking at them sometimes). His legs are getting stronger and he can push to standing in our laps now.

He's slept from 11pm to 7am a few times, but most nights he's sleeping from 11pm to around 5am. He's also starting to break out of his swaddle. We've been waking Ben up to feed him at 11pm and his pediatrician recommends stopping that soon since it could be habit forming and the ultimate goal is getting him to sleep from around 8pm to 7am. We're still figuring out what will work best for us at this point. Since we may have to drop the swaddling and the late night feed soon we may have some back tracking in the sleep department before it gets better. Fun, fun!


Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Seeing Santa



Lulu was in town last week and we took the boys to go see Santa. We tried on Monday and got there 30 minutes before Santa took his lunch break. They had already cut off the line, so we went back on Tuesday. This time we got there an hour and a half before his lunch break, but they had already cut off the line again. We decided to chance the line moving faster after Sam said that he "would be really, really sad" if he didn't get to see Santa that day. We lucked out and got to see Santa after all. I was surprised that Sam and Ben both did well waiting in line for an hour. Sam was shy, but sat in his lap and told him that he wanted "toys" for Christmas. Easy enough! Ben was warm and cozy in his stroller, so I didn't want to get him out for a picture. We'll wait for next year for his first pic with Santa.



We got to see Blitzen the reindeer too.



Next in line for Santa. Please open the door and let us in!



Tiny the elf was making balloon swords for the boys. Sam loved his sword right up until he jumped on it and popped it when we got home. He cried and cried and wanted me to "pump it back up" because he "really, really loved it." He's been putting "really, really" in front of everything lately.

Seasons Greetings



Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Aunt Sharon and Uncle Fabio Visit


Aunt Sharon and Uncle Fabio came to visit a few weeks ago. Sam had an absolute blast and loved playing all of the fun games they invented. (I'm quite behind on posting pictures with all of the Christmas activities and with both of the boys being home from day care for two weeks.)


I loved having family around! It really helped to have family to hang out with, talk to, and to help out. Melanie even came over one night and made it a team effort to babysit Sam and Ben so Chris and I could go out for our 13th wedding anniversary.


Mimi came over for dinner a few times too. This is Sam's new knees to the chest hug which makes it challenging not to drop him.


Ben loves to be held upright over your shoulder.


Aunt Sharon and Fabio took turns holding him.


Check out the cute outfit Aunt Sharon got Ben. It says "Mom's Prince" on the chest and "Kiss Me" on the feet.


We headed downtown one day for lunch with Melanie. We took this photo in the front shop of the Garden Gate Floral Design where she works.


They made this beautiful arrangement for us to take home with us.


Of course no trip to Dallas is complete without going to see Sam play soccer.




Hanging around the house was fun too. Sam wanted Aunt Sharon to make up a song for each ornament on the tree.



Here is Sam hanging a gingerbread man ornament on the tree that he made at school.


I'm not the only one who likes to take pictures of people sitting around the table together! Fabio took this one of us one night when Mimi came over. Sam ate quite well while Aunt Sharon and Fabio were visiting. Of course Aunt Sharon brought chocolate coins for us to bribe him with. He would get three if he finished dinner.

One night Sam went to the bathroom while we were eating and called for me to wipe him. When we got back to the table he got a concerned look on his face. He stuck his hand down the back of his pants and walked over to me.

Sam: Mommy, I have crumbles in my underwear.
Me: Food crumbles or poop crumbles?
Sam: Poop crumbles.
Me: I know you don't because I just wiped you.

I checked his underwear and he had managed to get a thread from his underwear down his butt crack. Poor guy! We got lots of laughs off of that one.


Ben managed to get his thumb in his mouth and was very happy at the accomplishment.


We got to see Vanessa a few times too.


Friday, December 11, 2009

Trimming the Tree


I'm so proud of us for putting up a tree this year! Believe it or not, it took about four days. The first day (Saturday) we went to Ikea and bought another cabinet for toy storage. I couldn't stand the thought of getting all of the Christmas stuff out with all the mess that had accumulated. Chris and Sam put the cabinet together that night. We cleaned up and organized the next day (Sunday). Then Chris got all of the Christmas storage boxes out of the attic. We got the pre-lit tree in its stand and then we were done for the day. That was the day before I took Ben to the doctor and he had cried most of the day so we were pretty drained. We didn't do anything with the Christmas decorations the next Saturday (see Saturday post below). Sam could barely stand it. He'd been wanting to trim the tree every day since it went up.


We put Ben in the bouncer next to the tree so he could watch for a while. Sam was having a jealous day and climbed all over me any time I got near Ben.


Melanie came over for a while and watched Ben while we went to Costco. She left soon after we started trimming the tree because she had a party to attend that night.


Here's a close up of Ben. He's getting so big.


Sam didn't remember how to hang the ornaments on the tree from last year so we had a little refresher.


We always have to remember to get Daddy out from behind the camera.



Ben got a little fussy so Chris carried him around in the Bjorn for a while.


I always hang the breakable ornaments as high as I can. I debate if I should even put them on the tree sometimes, but what's the point of having them if you don't use them! It was also my job to sneak back behind Sam and redistribute the ornaments. He had a favorite spot in the front of the tree that had quite a high concentration of ornaments.


Just hanging out on the stairs after we were done.


Here's the tree all decorated and lit up with the garland up the staircase.


I wasn't feeling so great that day, so I didn't mind Sam being super clingy and lovey. We even curled up together on the couch under a blanket and watched a little TV. I loved that.


Did I mention that Sam was a little jealous that day?