merry, merry!

Pre-party bouncing in the bouncy thing. I think the Boy knew that it was a special day. He was very excited from the minute he woke up. And he was an angel all day. Not that he's ever not an angel, but he was particularly angelic this day.




Christmas Eve festivities were hosted by my aunt this year. It was such a lovely night. Good food, good family. The Boy "opened" his first round of presents. I would say he was equally enthralled with the packaging and the actual content. I love this photo of the Boy having a man to man chat with Grandpa Har. Looks pretty serious!


   
We got home pretty late, relatively. The Boy is usually in bed and asleep by 7:00. We didn't get home until almost 8:00! We sat by the tree and looked at the lights for a while before heading upstairs for PJs and snuggling. Then, lights out so Santa could come.

It was such a magical night. I know the Boy had no idea what all the fuss was about, but it really was fun to watch him take in all the commotion. He had smiles and hugs for everyone. He tried some new foods (bacon and salmon, among others). He stayed up well past his bedtime and didn't melt down.

Tomorrow, we take our first car trip with the Boy since he was maybe three months old. We're just going to the Cities, so we'll be in the car for about two and a half hours. Hopefully, he'll sleep most (all?) of the way. Then, we get to see how he does in the hotel. I'm sure he'll be fine, but it will definitely be an adventure. Packing should be interesting, too. We may need a bigger vehicle...

eight months (late!)

This post is coming to you late. I did such a good job of posting every day in November, but I fell behind on photo processing. Truth be told, I've really been dreading photo processing lately because our Mac Mini is sooooo slow. Spinning beach ball of death, anyone?

But the word on the street is that Santa is bringing me a new computer, which will be lightning fast. Woot!

Anyways, the Boy is closer to nine months than eight months at this point. But I didn't ever post his eight month photo... So, here it is.

Well, here they are, actually. I couldn't decide. Maybe you can help me choose one?

option one

option two

Which one do you like better?

When the new computer comes and I can process photos in the blink of an eye, I'll post some of my favorite outtakes from the monthly photo shoots. There are some gems!

sad baby

Our Boy had a rough weekend. He had his first fever, and he just wasn't himself. He didn't really have any "sick" symptoms like runny nose, cough, poo, etc. But he was just sad and clingy all weekend. One second he wanted me, then he wanted John. He wanted to be held, then he struggled to get down. He just didn't know what to do with himself.

He had moments of clarity, when he clearly felt a little better. But he still isn't one hundred percent. It's so sad to see your baby feel miserable. And this was pretty mild. Yikes. He hasn't been sleeping well, either, which I know just makes him feel worse.

Maybe he's getting another tooth or two? He's just as confused by the whole thing as we are.

santa, baby

Jack's first visit to sit on Santa's lap was pretty fun. We went last weekend with my Grandma & Grandpa, my parents, and my brother, sister-in-law and niece. We also met my future sister-in-law at Santa's place where she was volunteering that afternoon.

We started our adventure with lunch at the best Mexican restaurant in town. Jack enjoyed two Baby Mum-Mums dipped in salsa. He went crazy over the guacamole, too. He was such a good boy at lunch. I really like this age. He's still easy to take out and about -- he's not to the point where he wants to get down and run around (yet!), and he'll sit and play with a toy for twenty minutes and be completely content.

 

 

His cousin, Dylann, loves him so much. It's extremely adorable. Here she is giving him kisses (on demand, no less, but still). It is so fun to see their little relationship evolve. It wasn't too long ago that she vacillated  between love, hate and indifference towards him, all in the same visit. Now the pendulum has swung more towards love. I'm sure it will swing the other way soon enough... But for now, it's so sweet to see things like this.

My Mom has the disk with all the Santa photos on it. Jack was fascinated by Santa, and Dylann was so over the whole thing by the time it was our turn... But we got some darn cute photos. I'll post them soon.

Have you taken the kids to see Santa, yet?

my music man

My Boy loves to make noise music.

This makes me wonder if he's going to be a band geek, a rock star, a singer-songwriter... Or maybe he'll just collect music like his Daddy.

I wish I could teach him how to play the guitar. Wait, does Guitar Hero count? Because if it does, I could certainly show him a thing or two.

mobility

Today, the Boy scootched.





He scootched off the rug.





He scootched around the couch.





And he scootched all the way over to the front door.

He didn't break any land-speed records, but he's definitely on the move.

Now, we just have to master "forward."

favorite holiday card contest

Jack is a finalist in the Paper Mama Holiday Card Challenge. He is lucky number 13. If you have a minute, would you mid dropping over and voting for him? Thanks!