Pre Christmas Catch Up

I failed to write about Lily helping me decorate the Christmas tree this year. 

She was super excited to help! 

 

 

She did a pretty good job of putting the ornaments on.  Well if the look you're going for is every single ornament on the same branch - then I'd say she did way better than "pretty good!"

 

 

 She especially enjoyed helping Daddy put the ribbon on the top.

 

I'm pretty sure she was choking Joel with the way she was hanging on!

 

The kiddos sitting in front of the finished product. 

I tried to get a picture but you know how that goes....

 

 

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Most of the time, dinner is a stressful part of the day for me.  Trying to come up with something to eat that's within whatever points I have left for the day.  Then hoping that at least Tyler will eat it.  Then knowing that Lily won't so figuring out what to fix her instead.  Then trying to get Lily to eat it.  Then trying to remain patient while she makes 47 excuses not to eat.  The most frequently used excuse:  "I have to poop."

 

But sometimes, we have a good laugh at dinner time.

 

That's a "shit-eatin'-grin" if I ever saw one.  

 

And that's an adorable grin.  "Take my picture too Mommy!!"

 

We've been having a hard time with bibs on Tyler... he hates them and spends more time trying to remove them some nights than actually eating.  Half the time we end up with a bigger mess than if we just went bib-less.  So we tried an "eatin' shirt" but it was way too big and this is what he did with that.

 

Peek-A-Boo!

 

So then, of course, Lily had to get in on the peek-a-boo action with her napkin.

 

Peek-A-Boo!  Haha! 

 

Then Daddy had to show her how to be a bandit with her napkin.

 

Which she thought was hilarious. 

(Take note of Tyler in the background of this photo....

he has the shirt pulled over his head.  Goofball.)

 

Tyler thinks it's HILARIOUS to put his hands in his hair.  This hairstyle is the result of pork and beans for supper!

 

 

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We've had a lot of fun with our Elf on a Shelf, Jingle, this year.  I'll have to write more about him later, but he left this gingerbread house for the kiddos to make.  They had a blast!

 

 

Tyler was most definitely more interested in eating the house and candy than building it.

 

We did decorate a little Christmas tree, but the candy lasted about 15 seconds affixed to the tree before Tyler ate it all off.

 

And then he went for the whole cookie.  And let me tell you, these gingerbread house "cookies" are like barely flavored, hard cardboard.  Didn't stop him.

 

 

I absolutely love it when he says, "Eeeeeeeeeese!" 

 

Lily did pretty good decorating a gingerbread man.  Of course she wanted to put pretty much all purple candy on it. 

I thought Joel might have a meltdown when we started all this.  See, he likes these houses to be perfect.  He's IN to it.  I mean, I'm OCD, bad, so I get it.  But I go in to these activities knowing it's going to be a mess.  Nothing will be symmetrical.  The colors will not be balanced out.  The sizes and placement of the candies will be all wrong.  But it's ok.  Cause, IT'S FOR THE KIDS!!

 

But Joel did chill out and relax after we got going.

 

Aren't we the most gorgeous gals you've seen all day?

 

In order to minimize opportunities for Lily's decorating to impact the structural integrity of the house (and to let Joel loose with his artistic icing abilities).....

 

.....I gave Lily some graham crackers and marshmallows to decorate.  She made a snowman and some other random things.

 

Lily did end up putting quite a bit of the candy on the house, once the icing had dried enough that it didn't want to fall over if you looked at it sideways.

 

 

The finished house. 

 

About half way through decorating the house, and approximately at the same time that the cardboard cookie was gone, Tyler was sick of sitting in his high chair so we let him loose.  Of course, we were focused on the decorating and not on the toddler.

 

Mistake.

 

This kid loves this plant.  Or rather, he loves to EAT THE DIRT from this plant. 

 

The plant is really thriving.  I wonder if it's because the soil gets turned over regularly and is watered with baby slobbers.

 

The next day, Jingle left another note, thanking the kiddos for his play house.

 

 

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Last weekend, I wandered in to Lily's room and she had barricaded herself and Tyler behind her table and chairs and told me that they were in her house and I couldn't come in.

 

I dropped what I was doing (probably laundry, so who cares?) and ran to get an old sheet and helped her build a "house."

 

 

She got the biggest kick of out of this.  She kept inviting me and Joel to come in to her house.  "All the way in.  Not just your head."

 

That was no easy task, seeing as how neither of us are 3 feet tall.

 

But we did it.  And it was fun.

 

And then it was nap time and she didn't want to come out of the house.  So I put her pillow and blanket in there so she could sleep in there.  That lasted approximately 6 seconds before she decided that she would rather sleep in her bed.

 

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Tyler has a favorite pastime.

 

 

It's called, remove all the bowls and whatnot from the cabinet and climb on in.

 

Often times, he tries to shut the door.  His own personal escape?

 

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No need to buy presents.  Let the kids (all three of them) play with the wrapping paper rolls.

 

 

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Tyler is a scrappy fighter.

 

 

He pants'd his sister.

 

 

And then tickled her belly.

 

We do not do this.  I have no idea where he learned it.

 

Hilarious.

 

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This was in Lily's folder from daycare this week:

 

 

It says:

 

This is the season for giving gifts.  What would you put in the present and who would you give it to?

 

Answer:

 

To:  Mommy

From:  Liliana

 

Flowers

 

Awww.  Sniffle, sniffle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Presents for Haley.

This year, the group that I work in raised some money to buy gifts for 10 children in need this Christmas. Joel and I donated money, but I also volunteered to be a "team leader," which means that I was responsible for buying gifts for a 4-year-old little girl named Haley.

I spent more time buying for this little girl than I have spent on buying for the entire rest of my family. I just kept thinking, this girl has nothing, and I wanted every penny I was given to spend on her to really count.

One of the times I went shopping for Haley, I took Lily with me. The whole point of that trip was for Haley. I was trying to explain to Lily that we were buying presents for a little girl that didn't have very many clothes or toys and she needed our help. Lily found all kinds of things she wanted (for herself) but I reminded her that we were shopping for Haley. She got in to the spirit of it after a while and was putting all sorts of goodies in the cart - for Haley. I let Lily pick out some clothes, socks, scarf/hat, coat, barrettes and little Hello Kitty purse. I hope Haley likes purple cause many of those things had a purple theme running throughout.

Yesterday, my work group got together for a party to wrap all the gifts. I picked Lily up from daycare and took her with me so she could see the rest of the process and help wrap presents for Haley. She really got in to it and wrapped several presents!

She fell asleep on the way there.  It was nap time so I was glad she got a 15 minute power nap in.

She really wanted to do the wrapping and taping herself.

And didn't care too much for me trying to distract her to take a picture.

She may have used a little more tape than most people... you know, on second thought, there were a bunch of men involved in this activity so I'm willing to bet she probably didn't use much more tape than they did.

Sort of cheese face....

Mommy and Lily... CHEESE!

I want this to be a family tradition for us. This year, we did it through work, but in upcoming years, when the kids get older, I may shift to adopting a family ourselves and all of us going out and getting all the gifts together.

Tyler's 15 months old.

Tyler had his 15 month check up on Monday.  He's perfect.  Of course.

 

 

The Stats:
Length 31 inches (50%)
Weight 24.44 pounds (50%)

We switched him up to the 18 month ginormous tub of clothes a couple weeks ago.  This kid seriously has enough clothes from his cousins to probably only have to wear each outfit once.  Maybe twice.  It's pretty ridiculous.

Sleeping habits: 

Bedtime at 7:30.  Sleep until anywhere from 6-7:30 depending on the day.  Now that he's in daycare, he only gets one nap a day for 2 hours.  And, frankly, it's not enough.  On the weekends, he almost always takes two naps.

Eating habits:  

He still eats really well.  His favorites are beans, waffles, cereal, breakfast bars (notice the breakfast theme), anything cookies/cakes/candies/sweets.  In the meat department, he eats chicken, pork and brats.  He's probably eat steak if we ever cooked that in our house.  Veggies:  sweet potatoes, corn, peas, green beans.  Fruit:  oranges, strawberries, cantaloupe, watermelon, banana, grapes, apple, pretty much everything we offer.  He likes rice as long as it's flavored some how (like Mexican rice). 

He can feed himself with a spoon!

 

Activity/Play time:  

He's walking a lot now - probably on the verge of walking as much as crawling.  He plays really good by himself and where Lily is involved, he pretty much wants to play with whatever she's playing with (and vice versa).  He likes to play with cars and makes "vroom" sounds when he rolls them.  He loves to dump things out and then pick them back up (like a bucket of blocks).

He loves to climb on everything.  He will climb up into one of the dining room chairs, no problem, and then tries to climb up on the table.

He doesn't know any of his body parts yet.  That was the main "test" he failed at the doctor.  She seems little disappointed that Tyler doesn't know where his nose is yet.  Oh well.  However, he does help me when I'm getting him dressed.  As in, if I tell him to "give me your arm" so I can put it in his shirt, he does.  If he has something in his hands and I tell him to "switch hands," he will.  So he understands instructions and probably even some body parts.  He just doesn't point them out when you ask "Where's your nose?"

He gets in to everything we don't want him messing with.  Joel comments all the time that when Lily was little, if he told her not to mess with something, she listened and only had to be told once, maybe twice.  Not Tyler.  He has to be told once, maybe twice, every 5 minutes not to mess with something. 

Talking/Communication: 

He says "ball," "da-da," and "bye-bye" the most often.  There are a few other words that are starting to become clearer like "tree" (since we put up the Christmas tree). 

 

He grunts and points and definitely communicates questions with the way that his voice inflects. 

 

He can sign "more" and "all done" and uses them pretty often, though most of the time, we initiate it.

 

Meltdown Free Christmas Program.

Yes!  You read that right.  No one cried today (not even me) at the Christmas program!  Glory, glory, hallelujah! 

 

 

And we made it to church in what I believe to be the least drama-filled, non-crazy headless chicken fashion in the history of ever going anywhere as a family. 

 

 

And we were on time.  Never gonna happen again, but it was really nice to have it happen this once.  This is what those put-together moms must feel like.  How nice for them!

 

 

It really was so very nice to see the babies up there singing and signing away.  And not crying. 

 

 

I was so proud, it made my heart feel like it was going to burst. 

 

 

For 13 whole minutes, I was in heaven, smiling like a big dummy, almost crying but not quite, feeling so happy and grateful for my beautiful children.

 

 

They sang:  Christmas ABCs,

 

 

Facts not fairy tales - it's Christmas time,

 

 

Wasn't that a mighty day,

 

 

What Child is this,

 

 

Jesus, Oh What a Wonderful Child,

 

 

And, We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

 

 

They made it!  They did it!  Tyler saw me at one point and I thought it was all gonna be over.  But he just kept on looking around and checking it all out, taking it all in.  Whew.

 

After the program we snapped a couple pictures.  Lily with her new teacher, Ms. Judy.  She has taken to Ms Judy fast.  Loves her.

 

And Lily with her friend Tre.  He's the only other kid in her class who's anywhere near her height.  (P.S. Lily, see that gorgeous smile you have in this picture with your buddy?  Yeah, I love that smile.  More of those please!!)

 

And I forgot to take Tyler's picture with his teachers at first.  We caught Ms Courtney as she was on her way out.  Tyler loves Ms Courtney despite what you see here.  He was just tired and ready to go home.  And we missed Ms Pamela.  My bad.

 

And one family shot.  We're pretty cute. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Santa Claus or Bust.

Uh, that'll be a bust, thank you very much.

 

You know how you have these visions in your head about how cute your kids are going to look in their fancy Christmas clothes.  And they're going to smile for you when take a picture.  Like a real smile, not a "I'm 'cheesing' so hard you can't even see my eyes" smile and not a "I'm so sick of saying cheese that I'll just bug my eyes out of my head and show all my teeth in a bear like fashion" sort of smile.  And they're going to put their arms around each other and maybe even kiss each other's cheeks.  And you're going to go see Santa and they're going to sit on his lap and smile so you can take a picture.  You know those visions?  I have those visions.  And they are just that, visions.

 This is how it actually goes.

 I'm rushing around getting the kids dressed while Joel is scraping the ice and snow off the cars and driveway.  Lily's outfit was a tiny bit big, but it's ok.  I realized I had no dress shoes for her, so cowgirl boots it is.  Except today, she didn't want to wear boots, she wanted to wear light up princess tennis shoes (never fails, if I want her to wear something, she ain't havin' it).  I finally convince her on the boots.  Hallelujah!  It's a miracle.

Tyler's outfit.... well the shirt, vest and tie fit but the pants were like 14 sizes too big.  So, Wranglers it is.

Now that I've gotten the kids dressed and I'm sweating like a pig, I wanted to snap a few pictures in front of the tree while the kiddos were all dressed up.  Simple thing, right?

Tyler's not really in to it.  I tried about 7 times to turn him around to face me instead of the tree.

 

 

I get him turned around and I take a giant leap backwards so I can hurry and take a picture before he runs away.

Lily's all in to the sibling love pose, but Tyler's pretty pissed about the whole thing.

 

And then Lily pretty well loses her patience with the situation and Tyler's flat out cussing me and his sister (I'm pretty sure, though the exact words aren't very clear).

 

Remember that bear like baring of teeth.... yep, got that shot.  Check!

 

How about we try standing up?

 

Nope.  How about not?

 

And, the only good shot of the day.  My beautiful girl.  Smiling like a champ.  Thank you Liliana for giving me the pleasure of a decent picture!! 

 

And then we're off to see Santa.  And let me just say that Lily asks ALL THE TIME to see Santa.  She points him out everywhere we go.  If it's mentioned on the radio, she's like "He said Santa!"  I've been talking to her all week about telling Santa what she wants for Christmas and she was going to tell him Doc McStuffins.  I really thought I might have had her prepared. 

 

This is as close as she willingly got to the man.

 

Here's where one of Santa's Helpers tried to help me get Lily on Santa's lap.  Now Lily's freaking because there are TWO strangers involved in this.  Santa and his helper. 

 

Notice how her legs are WRAPPED AROUND MINE and she is biting her lip in determination.  She IS NOT going.  Santa be damned!  You can keep your presents!

 

So I told her to just stand in front of Santa.  "You don't even have to look at him."  Even that didn't really go over well.

 

Next up.  Tyler.  Who has already been having a really good picture day.

 

Tyler has the unfortunate size disadvantage that his sister doesn't have.  He's too little to hang on quite as tightly as Lily, so he got handed over.

 

Poor Santa.  Ok, poor Tyler too.

You know, I haven't had my picture taken with Santa in a really long time.  Glad we could get that done.