Christmas & Other News

This was Nicholas's first Christmas - he certainly enjoyed the wrapping paper a lot. The 1st Christmas hat that I had when Ben & Ella were little - the one that didn't fit Benjamin at 6 months - definitely does not fit Nicholas. I still managed to take a picture or two with it sitting atop his head. :-D

Benjamin and Ella didn't even notice that Santa had come and brought them stuff until they were gently nudged in that direction. I would think next year, they will notice. Ben & Ella (especially Benjamin) really enjoyed playing with Nicholas's toy - it's this.

They enjoyed their new puzzles a little bit too. Ella seems to really enjoy playing with the playdoh we got for them.


Nicholas is starting to stand up only holding on with one hand. Last night, he is getting a little adventurous and tried to stand all on his own. That lasted all of 1 second, if that.

We watched "Up" the other night. Benjamin and Ella seemed to enjoy it. Ella did get a little bored halfway through, but then at the end asked if we could watch it again. Benjamin picked up the "big snipe" part of the story. During the movie, we ate some popcorn. Ella wanted to give Nicholas a small piece, but I told her that he was too little. Well, Ella didn't like that - she showed me that piece is little like I make his food, but I told her no. At one point, I think she snuck him a piece as it looked like he had some big piece in her mouth, but I didn't feel anything in there. Nicholas was not happy either by my decision, so I asked Jon to get him some cheerios. I do wonder when he's going to get more teeth.

So, I'm a little paranoid. I watched My Sister's Keeper the other night and then I saw a bruise on Ella the next day. But I'm trying to tell myself that it was just a bruise she got when playing as it was just one small bruise not like ones I saw in the movie.

For Christmas, Oliver & Sophie got a new scratching toy and some catnip canes. They seem to be enjoying both items. Oliver tried to open the catnip canes before it was Christmas, but somehow, I managed to keep them under their wrapping paper.

After spending Christmas morning at home, we traveled to Tacoma to visit my in-laws. We had dinner and the kids opened some gifts. It was a nice time.

And the best Christmas news is - a couple friends of ours have learned that they were chosen to adopt a baby that was born on Monday. They were able to be there for the birth. I look forward to seeing them and their new baby soon! Congrats to Paul & Ally!

Catch-up Time

When I last wrote - it was just before Thanksgiving. We had a small little Thanksgiving - just the 5 of us at home hanging out the entire time. It was nice - we had chicken parmesan instead of a turkey - it was yummy. Later that weekend, we had Jon's family over for dinner and I made some enchiladas - which were alright. Jon's mom hadn't been to our house since about a week after Nicholas was born - not sure why it took this long to get her to come back. Jon's dad and sister - well, it was a while before then. We've visited there a few times. We plan to go down to their house on Christmas in the afternoon and spend some time with each other in the morning. On New Year's Eve, I'm going over to Spokane to visit family - specifically, my grandmother as she found out recently she has cancer all over her body. It isn't looking too good, unfortunately. I'm going over on my own - I will my family terribly!!!

Anyway, some time ago, we took the kids to see Santa at my work. Nicholas enjoyed looking at Santa's beard while the twins didn't want anything to do with him and didn't want to go near him. We had to force them to stand with us. Toward the end, Nicholas was screaming. Maybe next year, they will like Santa. Though, I suppose it is good that they are nervous around strangers.

And now onto specific things about the kids...

Nicholas - cruising all over the place. He gets to a standing position with no problem at all - it's the getting down that he is still trying to figure out. His latest sounds are "da da da da" and he has said "ma" and the other day, he made a sound that sounded like "ella". :-D One of his favorite things to do is pass the baby between one adult and another. Another is for him to have a toy or something in his hand and put it up to my mouth (or whoever is holding him) so I "eat" it. He thinks that is hilarious! He also finds it funny when I blow on his hair. He's been copying me too - which is fun too. :-D

Ella & Benjamin

I find it cute when Ella wakes up in the morning as I'm getting ready for work and she quietly asks for "bekfas" or breakfast. Most of the time, all 3 kids are still sleeping when I leave, but I love it when they get up in time for me to see them before I go. The other morning, she asked for a "banna" (or banana).

Last night, Ella had a full on meltdown. Nothing was calming her down. Eventually, the only thing that was going to calm her down was being in our bed as one of us was in there with her. Seriously - last night was the worst night by far I've had with her.

When Ella says "here" - it sounds like she has a Boston accent.

Lately, Benjamin has become more interested in helping feed Nicholas - which can mean a fight between Ben & Ella. Ella has always been our little mommy ever since Nicholas came around. It has taken a while for Benjamin to want to help out.

Both of them like to count. At first, they would leave out some numbers, but I think they got all the numbers now. The other night, they were counting the number of boys and girls in our house. It is so cute the way Ella says "girl". They had a conversation a while ago on whether the pink baby was a boy or a girl. Benjamin said it was a boy. Now, I think he says it is a boy. Funny. Oh, that reminds me - whenever they find something enjoyable - they say "that's funny". :-D

Both of them are starting to get more into the tv. They will ask to watch this dinosaur DVD with Diego that I got at the holiday library book sale. Lately, I've been letting them watch a half hour show while I get dinner ready. These days, it's been Christmas shows that I've recorded. Benjamin was very mad the other night when I told him no tv tonight. I think this might be my fault - I introduced that Diego dvd to them - only because it had dinosaurs - which for a while, Benjamin was really interested in. I thought they would be super excited by some dinosaurs that I bought for Christmas until we went to go see Santa and one of the gifts they had were the same dinosaurs I got and Ben & Ella did not care.

They helped put together our tiny little tree - I think they enjoyed it. I think next year, we'll be getting a bigger tree. Well, I'm going to see what goes on sale the day after Christmas.

O.K. That's about it for now.