Christmas at Nana & Papa's

I love Christmas at my parents' house - it's so fun to be able to continue on with the traditions that I hold dear from my childhood. It doesn't matter how old we are or how the group has changed, some things are just the way they were when I was a little girl, and there is something very comforting about that.

With the exception of a nasty cold that made its way around the family, Christmas day couldn't have gone any better in my opinion. I just wish everybody could have felt well!

Here is Ryan on Christmas Eve, hanging his stocking with Nana:

We had a rather full house this year - 12 stockings barely fit!

Another Christmas Eve tradition: Grammie reading "The Night Before Christmas":

13 people yielded quite a lot of presents under Nana & Papa's tree:

I couldn't wait to see Ryan's reaction to that tree, and he certainly didn't disappoint :)



Here he is pointing out his stocking, ready to dig in!

... and stocking time!

The babies looked so cute in their Christmas outfits that we had to get some photos - here is the first of many Kaeden-Atticus photo shoots that week!

...and of course we needed some with big cousin Ryan:

Grammie with her great grandsons:

.. .and Kaeden smiling for somebody (can't remember who!):

Ryan was very good about being patient through breakfast, showers, and getting dressed. Finally, it was time to open the presents under the tree. Ryan would have been the perfect elf if he could read. He loved handing out presents to everybody, but he needed assistance to tell him who they were for. He was quite particular about everybody having one each time around - luckily we were able to even them out during nap time so that he wouldn't realize that not everybody gets the same number of presents. After one round, he stopped in the middle of the room, looked around, and said "Everybody good?" We just cracked up! He was such fun to be around all day and was better than I expected at being patient in between opening his presents.

Here he is with one of his favorite gifts of the day: a duplos fire station!


Uncle Dain gave him a real digital camera (for kids if you couldn't tell), which he showed some interest in initially, but got very excited about when it was time to watch "The Grinch" later in the day - he was determined to take a picture of the Grinch... so funny! This continued on for the rest of the week, that every time we watched a video, he had to have his camera ready. I guess real life isn't as exciting to him.


Finally, some more photos from our wonderful Christmas day - here's our family of 4...


...our sweet Kaeden on his first Christmas...


...and our family of 13!...

Thanks to everyone for making it such a memorable Christmas :-)

Advent excitement

This was the first year that I was really able to talk to Ryan about Christmas - both the Christmas story and our own Christmas traditions. There was a lot of excitement in our house leading up to Christmas this year.

The first thing we did was to made an advent chain - this is something I loved doing as a child and was glad to be able to share with Ryan now. He enjoyed decorating all of the strips, and then we worked together to staple them into a chain. In theory, we were to cut off one every day leading up to Christmas, but we often forgot. And since we didn't bother to bring the remaining chain to Connecticut with us, I have to admit that there is still a little chain hanging on our wall. Oh well!



A new tradition that Ryan & I started was decorating a gingerbread house. I had great intentions of baking our own gingerbread, making our own frosting, and buying candy to decorate, but then I remembered that I have a newborn and opted for the $8 kit from Michaels instead - wise choice on my part!




Once we got to Connecticut, one of the first things we did (after a nap, of course!) was to decorate Nana & Papa's tree. We decided not to bother putting ours up at home this year since we were rather busy & wouldn't be here for Christmas anyway. So, Ryan was very excited to put ornaments on the tree & did a great job!



this is what Kaeden was up to while we decorated the tree... he had been playing & just fell asleep. Don't worry, though, we were right there keeping an eye on him!

And, of course, my favorite thing to do leading up to Christmas is making cookies! Thanks to extra baby-holding hands, we were able to do quite a bit of baking & decorating at Nana & Papa's house :-)

First, candy cane cookies:

showing him how to roll, twist, and shape the dough into candy canes



Then came the sugar cookies. Ryan was sleeping while we rolled & cut them, but he did a great job helping to decorate. He did his first cookie all by himself, start to finish, but after that, he wanted me to frost it and then just do the sprinkles on his own.

working on his first cookie

showing off the finished product


meticulously adding red hots

this might explain why the whole house got sick this Christmas... (just kidding... it's all part of the process!)

And that is just the beginning of a Christmas full of wonderful memories :-)

This is what you get...

...when you give a boy a dollhouse for Christmas

apparently, this is how the people get their super powers. sigh.

And these guys? "Watching Go Duke"


At least he's having fun with it!

Two Months Old

Dear Kaeden,

Today, you are two months old. You are not a newborn anymore... I can hardly believe how quickly you are growing.


You are tracking well, and I love the way you focus so intently on things. You look very serious so much of the time, but when your mood is right and you lock eyes with someone, your smile takes over your face (who knew your mouth was that big?).


You are happiest right after you eat, not surprisingly. You still take frequent naps, varying in length. You typically wake up between 7-8 am, eat, have some happy awake time, nap, and repeat. It sort of throws you off if you fall asleep right after you eat and then you usually wake up unhappy and think it's time to eat again even if it's not. You are still staying up late at night, although we've been able to get you down before 10 pm most of the time recently, which helps a lot. At least then Mommy & Daddy can get to bed on time. Some day, we'd love to have our evenings back to ourselves, but until then, we will enjoy the extra time with you :-) And you are sleeping for one 6-7 hour stretch quite consistently, so I really can't complain. Will you be like your brother and start sleeping through the night now that you are a big 2-month-old?



This month, you celebrated your first Christmas.


You got lots of new toys (most of which you're not that interested in yet), but your absolute favorite is a very colorful little stuffed owl from your Aunt Monica & Uncle Avery. It almost always brings a smile to your face, even when you are being fussy. It's so fun to see you starting to gain interest in toys... though you are still equally amused by blinds, shadows, etc. Christmas didn't mean much to you, except that we had nearly 2 weeks of time with extended family, which meant that you got lots of extra attention, snuggles, and special treatment. You spent almost every nap in someone's arms... not a bad life!


Unfortunately, along with your first Christmas, this month also brought your first cold. It was so pitiful, little one. You were oh so congested and the worst were the days when you had trouble eating because you couldn't breathe out of your nose. You would try and try, get so frustrated, and eventually just give up and go back to sleep. It was as if it just wasn't worth the effort. I am so thankful that it wasn't any worse than it was and that you are feeling way better now.


Things you like:

- Being held (especially for naps)!

- Being sung to, especially when there are hand motions involved

- Standing up (with help, of course) - you're holding your head up so well these days!

- Your owl :-)

- The "mega-swaddle", as Daddy calls it. He wraps you up in a huge blanket and it almost always calms you down.


Things you don't like:

- Your car seat... man, you can't stand that thing! The good news is that you still fall asleep most of the time when we start moving, but I'm not looking forward to the day when you stay awake in the car. Let's hope that by then you have gotten used to the seat.

- Sudden loud noises, like when I blow my nose close to you. You get this big pouty lip, but you are easily calmed with a Mommy hug.

- Any part of your body "falling" (like if we put your legs down too swiftly while changing your diaper) ... you get a panicked look on your face and if we don't comfort you fast enough, you scream harder than I've ever heard and shed big tears. Something tells me you may have a fear of heights when you grow up!

- Being held facing out. You much prefer being held over someone's shoulder.

- Being put down to sleep if you are not already in deep sleep. Mommy is not looking forward to sleep training you!

- You don't like tummy time as much as you once did, but you tolerate it okay as long as you are in a good mood... especially if someone else lies on the floor with you.

The snow, but who could blame you? It's awfully cold & bright for a little baby.


So, happy 2 months old! We love you so much, little one. I already can't imagine life without you. Don't grow up too fast, okay?

Love,
Mommy

Big Brother/Little Brother

I have a feeling that it's going to take me weeks to get all of my Christmas blogging done, so for now, here are some photos from one of the many "shoots" we had while up in Connecticut for Christmas. Some day, I will get a photo of both of my boys looking at the camera with happy faces, but it probably won't be anytime soon.

Kaeden's first bottle

On Monday, we gave Kaeden his first bottle. I was starting to get nervous that he might not ever take one if we didn't introduce it soon. I didn't really need to worry, though, 'cause he was quite happy to suck it down! Ryan was, of course, eager to help, although the intermittent pushing and pulling on the bottle was definitely not a help. Anyway, Kaeden ate 3 oz immediately and then after thinking about it for a few minutes decided he wanted another ounce after all! No wonder he's growing so fast...

Some recent photos of my little one...

Kaeden loves his tummy time - he's getting so strong already!

Kaeden's concerned face


...and some from a recent "ooo... Ryan's napping & Kaeden's happy" photo shoot :)...

Reading to Kaeden

Ryan really likes to hold Kaeden... and get right up in his face when he's lying on the floor... sometimes it goes better than other times. On good occasions, I can snap a few quick photos before having to intervene.




Anyway, last weekend, Ryan decided that he wanted to hold Kaeden and then asked me for a book to read to him (in fact, he specifically requested the "Christmas book"). Ryan has always refused to "read" anything out loud before, so I was shocked when he actually started "reading" to Kaeden. I had to get some video! Note how he ends every page with "Amen." (it is a Christmas book after all!) and when I asked him what he just did, he starts frantically kissing Kaeden in apology as though he's done something wrong. Kaeden was such a good sport, with Ryan's elbow and the book up in his face most of the time!

Look-alikes?

So, what do you think? Do they look alike? (Ryan is on the left & Kaeden on the right... ages match approximately)