Cousins

The day after Christmas, we drove up to see my brother, his wife and their twins. We had a great time and as usual, the kids played great together.

They had a little slide which Christopher enjoyed.

Emmy has her own special technique

Christopher cheering on Emmy

Christopher brought out his laptop to show Emmy and Cole

Who immediately loved it

I made Beef Wellington for dinner that night.

MMMM

It kinda separated, just means I'll need to try again... on a smaller scale

But it tasted perfect...

And everyone seemed be enjoying themselves

The next morning, we just hung out.

Breakfast...

Timmy made pasta for dinner. Doesn't he look great in that apron?

Then he took a "break" and hung out with the kids

All in all, we had a great time. The kids all played so well together. It really is great they are all so close in age, three kids 7 months apart. We are already looking forward to our next trip up there :)

Christmas 2010

Christmas was absolutely wonderful this year. Christopher has just been enamored with the whole thing. From the "bubbles" (translated- Xmas Lights) to "Frosty" he loves it. What is great about Christmas with a 2 year old is that all of his "joy" of Christmas is just pure joy. It's not about the food or the gifts, it's just about the lights, the songs, the weather and the season. He has no presumptions about what will be under the tree Christmas morning, he isn't expecting anything, just that we turn the tree on for him when he wakes up "Mama, tree on please". That he gets to point out his favorite Santa ornament to Pop Pop when he comes over and gets to show Grandma the nativity and Santa in his play area. He likes for the Christmas lights to be on in the house, on the mantle and the tree. He just likes Christmas for what it was meant to be. It's been taking whoever picks him up from daycare a little longer to get home since we take him around a street or two with lights before heading home. We are usually pulling into the driveways with Christopher serenading us with his ever improving version of "Frosty the Snowman". I think if I had one wish from this Christmas is to remember it like my son did.

My parents came over Christmas Eve as is our usual tradition.

Oh, and did I mention that Christopher ABSOLUTELY loves his Santa hat? He'll wear it forever!

We did dinner for Christopher while the adults ate some appetizers, then we bundled up to go out to look at lights.

This face, right here, I love it. I don't think his smile could get any bigger.

Ok, really bad video on the "visual" part since well, you can't see anything. But great on the "sound" part. Listen for Christopher's little voice. He sings it, then loves the "hey!" part

A little better, but not by much

Then we went home, Christopher went to bed and the adult had dinner and put presents out for the next morning for him.

I apologize in advance for some blurry photos, he's a two year old... moving, fast.

He was great with the presents, loved unwrapping them, stopping when we wanted to and very patient (I'm sure this will be the last year that happens).

He started with his new chair from Grandma and Pop Pop

Which he loved

Daddy helped him with his gifts.

Waiting very patiently for daddy to open his new train

Sitting and waiting for his next present.

His new easel from Mommy and Daddy

And he got a tricycle from mommy and daddy

We will have to wait till it warms up just a bit

And he got a helmet to go with the tricycle. He loved it, wanted to wear it right away... his new "hat".

It's a 3T helmet and almost too small.

And then insisted on playing basketball in it with his new hoop he got from Grandma and Grandpa Wing. So cute

He loves his basketball hoop.

Frosty the Snowman...

So, after this holiday season, Frosty might be taking a restraining order out on my son. I mean the kid is obsessed! We can't drive away from daycare without him seeing the blown-up frosty across the street and yelling "Frosty! Mama, Frosty! Look, Frosty!", like he wasn't there every day for the last few weeks since Thanksgiving. Then into the chorus of Frosty the snowman... on and on and on. He received as a gift a Frosty the Snowman toy. Not just a toy, a singing toy.

I always tend to get him on the second go around and he isn't as into it. But his smile says it all

Our 2010 Christmas Tree

I loved it! David loved it! Christopher adored it! "Mama, Tree on please" EACH time we'd go into the living room and each morning he woke up.

The living room mantle

The other mantle

and our "other tree" in that room. It's our fake from when we lived in an apartment.

Happy (Belated) Holidays

Limoncello

David and I decided to do something "homemade" for gifts this year for some our friends and family. We started in in September when we got back from Michigan...

LIMONCELLO!!!

Oh my lemony goodness!

Lemons from our tree, Vodka from bottles and some simple syrup.... oh my!

mmmm.... worth the effort and the wait.

The Dicken's Party

Every year, my parents throw their annual Christmas Party that we call the "Dicken's Party". This is because once everyone arrives, we all gather for a reading of the Charles Dicken's the Christmas Carol. They serve Turducken (if you don't know what that is, look it up, awesome)which is one of my culinary highlights of the year. Here are some of the pictures from the evening...

The Tree!

Pop Pop and my little man. I loved him in that bow tie!

Olympia

(Christopher saw this picture when I was uploading it and shouted, Santa!)

Christopher and his new babysitter.

Mama and her boy

I love this one

The Christmas Carol reading...

All in all a ton of fun.

Busy bees

Sorry it's been so long with no blog updates. It's been a busy and fun holiday season for us. Before I start posting pictures of what we've been up to, I'll give an update on Christopher.

So what's going on with our little munchkin?

He's growing up so fast. He'll be 27 months old this month and is definitely our little boy.

He eats fairly well when he doesn't want to eat and eats very very well when he does want to eat. He can put down a breakfast big enough for an adult then slow up through out the day. He loves, eggs, yogurt, pancakes, waffles, fruit (any fruit really), french toast, oatmeal. Breakfast is the easy meal :) The rest of the day can be hit or miss. He also tends to eat better when he's been a part of the process. If he's helped pick out what he's eating, or he's "helped" make it. And by helping, I mean sitting on a chair on his knees watching me cook. 

He is the champ of sleeping. Naps between 1.5-2 hours without fail, and he is asleep by 8pm and wakes up between 7-7:30am. Lately he's slept till about 8am which has been nice during the holidays. He does have the occasional earlier rise, but who doesn't?

He has become much more stable with walking (for a while it seemed like his body was just going too fast for his little feet). He can take the steps (all two of them) in our house and the big ones out the front without help, up and down. He's learning to jump (he actually jumps when you ask him what sound a bunny makes).

He knows all of his letters, we are working on his colors, if he's focused he can count to ten. His vocabulary is constantly growing. Like his body going faster than his feet, he still tries to talk faster than his mouth can handles and it's like listening to chipmunk babble. If I could just put him on slow speed, we might understand so much more! His favorite song this holiday was without a doubt, Frosty the Snowman. In November it started out as "Frostee the sssnman.... blah blah blah blah" over and over. Last night as I was putting him to bed and we were singing it, he sang it with me getting probably 60% of it down. It was cute, he's obsessed with Frosty.

I have no stats, since he doesn't have frequent appointments anymore, but he's growing in height, that's for sure. He's still a skinny guy, about 27.5 lbs I think so we still keep him on whole milk, whole fat yogurt, etc. His asthma has been fine, if he starts to cry it can get worse and then he panics, which makes it even worse. If we give him the inhaler, it helps everything very quickly. This has only happened about 3 times since we got the inhaler so it hasn't been a major problem. We give him allergy medicine each night before bed per doctors orders and that has seemed to clear up a lot of gunk.

He was under the weather for a few weeks and we weren't sure what was going on, then pow, December 22 or so, he broke through his first 2T molar. He always tends to get cold symptoms with teething right up till they cut through, and I figured it would be worse with his 2T one's, I was right. He hasn't had a cold since it cut. Now just 3 more to go.

I think that's all on the updates... more posts of actual activities and photos to come.