Christmas 2012 Part I

So Dan and I live in Logan.  We're not bragging.  We're not usually real happy about it.  But we do. 

This makes Christmasing a bit frustrating. Especially now that we have Atticus.  You see, we'd like to have our own Christmas morning together around our own tree and with our own family traditions.  But because we live in Logan, coming back up between Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas day with Dan's, is just a ridiculous idea.  So unfortunately we decided the best way (and really, we don't love it) is to have fake Christmas and have Santa come early to our house the morning before going down south.  That way we don't have to haul everything down with us and it's sort of like having Christmas together as a family.

This year fake Christmas fell on the morning of December 23.  Christmas Eve Eve, if you will.  I made Dan wake up at 6:30 since Atticus and I were up already.  Pictures:

Before Santa came. (don't worry, some of those were for other people) (Oh and yes, that is a star made of pipe cleaners.  I made it with my preschool students back in 2009.  Dan won't let me replace it.)

 Santa brought a truck.  Among other things. Atticus loves to spin wheels.

Dan discovering the Millennium Falcon Lego set Santa left for him. 

 

 New toys

Dan spent 10 minutes trying to find an item in Atticus' Jr. Eye-Spy book. 

 He really had no interest in opening presents.

 His favorite present. He likes to eat them and knock them over.

Reading Star Wars ABC's 

Little Elf 

Dan being a child, eating nasty popcorn and working on his Legos 

Santa brought me a new lap top which I am still struggling to type on because I now have a number pad and it off-sets the center of the keyboard.

That night we attended the second annual Christmas Eve Eve Cousin Party at my parents house.  This year we invited Justin and Megan Parkinson and Lindsay and Ryan Power and family.  Jen made us delicious spaghetti and Megan made delicious dessert.  Lindsay came later in time for the games.  Which is truly the reason we have the cousin party.  And by games, I mean one game.  Pounce.  The designated game of Christmas Eve Eve.  We all sit (stand) around the table slamming into each other trying to put down our cards before the others whilst we scream, apparently cheat (...Sam...), and fall on the floor laughing.  The last being a ridiculous amount as my mother could not figure out how to count her cards and kept combining her point cards with her unused cards.  

I love Christmas Eve Eve cousin party.  

Thanks be to the Silers for bringing Pounce into our lives.

9 Months!

Well Atticus is 9 months old.  The last week of month 9 was the most eventful.  He learned to crawl (and army crawl first), wave bye-bye, pull himself up effectively, sleep through the night, and eat his snot.  He also had his first play-date (with Henry) and celebrated his first fake Christmas. (We do our Christmas before we go down to visit family so we don't have to haul everything down and so that it can be just us at our own house with our own tree.)

The rest of the month was just as great though.  I can't believe he is already so big.  He's still a very good baby.  Even when sick he is happy and playful and smiley.  He's also still a very alert and thoughtful kid.  He investigates everything and is always very aware of his surroundings and likes to check it all out.  He especially loves hair and spinning wheels.  

He still loves wrestling (and by wrestling I mean throwing him all over on the bed and hanging him upside down and all kinds of craziness) and he still loves the bath.  He has a new after-bath ritual that has become my favorite part of the day.  He used to like to just lay his face down in the towel while I put lotion on him and just squeal but now as soon as I sit down with him after his bath, he'll whip around and climb up to put his head on my shoulder.  Always my left shoulder.  And he'll either rest his head or gnaw on my shoulder.  Sometimes he just cuddles quietly and others he bounces up and down.  He almost always jabbers the whole time.  But if I try to lay him down to put on lotion or a diaper before he's done with his snuggles, he cries.  

He still has no teeth.  He thinks peek-a-boo is just about the funniest thing ever.  He claps when we say "yay".  He sleeps with his legs tucked under and his bum in the air.  (I always know it's time for a nap when he does that on the changing table.)  He still loves watching the washer go but he's started to be nervous about it unless we're holding him.  He knows what sounds mean daddy's home and he's always looking in the den for him.  He loves the sound D makes this month.  The sleepier he is the more he'll try and touch your face.  He's on formula during the day now.  I nurse him in the morning before work and at dinner time.  I'm sad but it's so nice to be able to get stuff done on my prep at work now instead of pumping the whole time.  Plus Atticus is a good eater so he's been fine. He also went through this little phase this month where he'd squint his eyes when he smiled.  I don't see it much now though.

His 9-month check-up isn't for another 2 weeks so I guess I'll post his stats then.

36 Weeks

 37 Weeks

 Out of control smiling!!!

 

When he gets super excited he puts his face on the ground and screams. 

 38 Weeks

And done with the 9 month pictures.

 Helping with the tree.

 

 I put one ball down low to entice him to crawl.

Love it. 

He'd get up on all fours then pick his hand up and put it back down 3 or 4 times before he'd take a step forward, then revert back to the army crawl.  He'd did this for a few days then one night he was up all night and when I peeked at him on the video monitor, he was pulling himself up in  the crib and/or crawling around.  The next morning he was an old pro.

 Cute kid.

His old after-bath routine. 

 Playing with daddy

 

Watching the sunset...

 ...and not knowing how to get down.

He suddenly loves to play with this hat.  It's way too small for him these days.  Sad. 

 Atticus and Charlie Chaplin.

 Starting to actually get kind of chubby.

Handsome boys.

 Tongues out.  Of course, Atticus is just licking his snot.

 Love this one of Henry.  Atticus was jealous Dan was holding him so he had to be held too.

 Love Henry's concerned face.

Into the presents.

Fall Things-Thanksgiving

So apparently I never blogged about Thanksgiving.  Well that was a long time ago so I"ll give you the gist and then put some pictures.  We went up to our condo in Sun Valley which always makes it feel a lot more like Thanksgiving.  We had to get an additional condo as there are about a million of us these days.  Hearts was played, people ate food, Atticus realized a fear of Oaklee, I made sweet potatoes, Jonah was grumpy, we watched While You Were Sleeping, Jersi left her shoes at home, Atticus slept in the shower as there was no where else to put him that was even remotely quiet, we went to the toy store, all was well.

Love Jersi in this one.

 Thanksgiving

 This one is just to see Jameson's attempt at No-Shave November.

 This one makes me laugh at Kamron.

 Food, glorious food!

Atticus had turkey and sweet potatoes.

 Kid table

 Immature adult table.

 We had to embarrass my mom before we could eat.

 I seriously love sweet potatoes,

 Jonah looks like this for every picture.

 Hilarious.

 My dad just sat sharpening his knives and laughing.

 Lotioning the bum.

Typical. 

 She loved him that day.

More grumpy Jonah.

 My kid is cute.

 "Hey Sharli, take a picture of me."

 Atticus kisses.

 The only sleep the kid got all week.

 Atticus, Jersi, and Kyndi.

They played with that paper in her hand for about 20 minutes. 

 Movember

 Grandpa

 Photobomb

Atticus is obsessed with spinning wheels.  He did whatever he could to never lose a visual on Jonah's stroller wheels.

 Grump.

 Feeding the ducks.

 Partial cousin bath.

This one they are shocked to find there's a camera involved.

 The sponges were very exciting.

Oh and best part of the cousin bath was when I told Anna that Atticus wasn't scared of water on his face so she proceeded to wring out her sponge right in his eyes to see if that was true.  It was.

 Playing with Anna

 Kisses