Christmas Part Three

The Saturday after Christmas we traveled back to PA to visit my Dad's side of the family. We saw my grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins. There were 24 people in all! It was a fun celebration! Kyle loves running around with all the cousins. My cousins range in age from 8 to 32 so there are lots of older kids. I don't think I saw him most of the time we were there. He was having so much fun he didn't even need me. It's amazing to me how outgoing he's becoming, considering how clingly he was just a year ago. My little boy is growing up! Even though we only visit once or twice a year (last time was in the summer) he remembers Ben and Jillian's house (my 8 year old twin cousins) and looks forward to going there. We spent the night there and he actually cried the next morning when we had to leave to come home. Max wasn't feeling great, but did manage a few smiles and let a few people hold him (mostly "Ma"). He was in bed by 6:30 that evening and actually slept well there in his pack and play. I was a little worried, but he did great and it gave me a chance to visit with everyone that evening/night practically kid-free. It was strange, but nice to have some time to actually visit with the grown-ups!

Christmas Part Two

Unfortunately Max was sick on Christmas Day so he and I started the day at 4:30am. Kyle was nice enough to sleep till 7:30 so that's when he and Jason came down to join us. We started our morning by singing Happy Birthday to Jesus and blowing out some candles on our breakfast of Krispy Kreme donuts! Then we opened presents. They were both very cute opening gifts and Kyle had the best reactions! I knew he would be excited about his big gift "Thomas Action Canyon" so I got a video of him opening it and he sure did love it! After opening gifts we ate our breakfast and played for awhile. Then we got ready to head to Uncle Carey and Aunt Casey's house to celebrate with Jason's family. Grandma and Grandpa Luster, Grandma and Grandpa Inman, Uncle Carey, Aunt Casey, and Uncle Jonathan were all there! At their house we enjoyed a large assortment of yummy food! And then once again opened presents. Kyle enjoyed handing out his homemade gifts again and definitely enjoyed opening his and Max's as well. He got Mickey's Motor Raceway - a popular item with both boys! And he got his first transformer, some clothes, and a V-Tech laptop computer. Max got some fun new toys as well. Both boys got a nice DVD collection of popular children's storybooks with such selections as "Where the Wild Things Are" and "Harold and the Purple Crayon." And they also got matching Thomas engineer hats! Another fun day!

Christmas Part One

We celebrated Christmas with my family on Saturday, December 20th. My Mom, Dad, and brother came to our house to open presents and enjoy yummy food. We had a yummy ham and I actually did most of the cooking and made homemade macaroni and cheese, stuffing, and a green bean casserole. My Mom provided sweet potatoes and cookies for dessert, as well as a cake to celebrate my birthday! We all had a great time and the boys were so excited to open their gifts. We've had lots of fun new toys to keep us busy! Kyle's favorite gift was Morgan's Mine Adventure Set (Thomas of course!). He also got an assortment of other Thomas trains and accessories, some "dollars", as well as some new clothes. Max has been having fun with his Busy Zoo, Learning Tool Bench, Busy Ball Choo Choo Train, cash register, and stuffed Nemo toy and book. He really got into opening presents! He got some new clothes as well. Kyle was also very happy to give out his homemade gifts this year. Max was even kind enough to take a nice afternoon nap so I could get all the food prepared and in the oven. It was a fun day!

Kyle's preschool Christmas program

Today was Kyle's first preschool Christmas program. It was very cute! They sang "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" and "Jingle Bells." Then his teacher read the Christmas story followed by the kids singing "Happy Birthday, Jesus" and wishing us a Merry Christmas! Here is a clip of the performance.

After the performance we had a Christmas party! Kyle gave us special gifts - an angel ornament and a candle.

Then we had some yummy food with gingerbread man (and other assorted) cookies that the class made on Tuesday for dessert! Kyle was very proud of his gingerbread man cookies! It was a really fun morning!

Our Little Genius

Kyle got a Rubik's Cube from Grandma Luster about a month and a half ago. The age on the package says ages 8 and up and Kyle has already got it figured out! I'm amazed at some of the puzzles he can solve. Jason mixes it up for him and has gotten progressively more difficult and Kyle is keeping up. Here's a glimpse at him solving one. You can see the wheels turning!

Jingle Bells

We are counting down to Christmas using an Advent Calendar that I bought this year. It has a nativity scene on it with numbered windows. We open one each day and read a verse of scripture that tells the Christmas story and then Kyle gets to eat the chocolate inside that has a picture of something "Christmasy" on it! We also started the tradition of choosing a Christmas song to sing at the end of our time and Kyle's favorite is "Jingle Bells."

He also made a little Advent candle set at preschool and we light a candle each Sunday as part of our Advent calendar time. He's very proud of it and is always asking "Is it Sunday yet?"

Progress

Max has made some progress in the area of eating/drinking so I thought I'd share. This area has been an issue for him since he was born so I'm very excited! He seems to really like milk. We're up to mixing half formula/half milk and he actually gets excited about his bottles now. And he ate pasta with spaghetti sauce for the first time tonight and seemed to enjoy it! I've offered him noodles in a variety of forms, sauce and no sauce, etc. but he's always just touched it and seen it wasn't a "dry" food (like his favorite and only finger foods - toast, cheerios, puffs, and crackers) and wouldn't even try it. If I tried to put it in his mouth he'd immediately push it out with his tongue. Tonight for some reason he decided to give it a try and gobbled up quite a few noodles. Kyle was eating pretty much all table food at this point and would eat and drink pretty much anything you put in front of him so this is a big deal for Max! Here he is enjoying his dinner!