Thursday we let the kiddos play while the adults relaxed. In the midst of all the playing, I got the kids to help me make peppermint stick ice cream, Mmmm!
Eggs & sugar - Yum! 'Er Carolyn no!
Smashin' the candy canes
Eleanor & Nash
Carolyn & Nash
With more snow on the ground than he's used to, Maddux couldn't wait to get outside. Leaving the little kids inside, Eleanor and Maddux went outside to scope-out icicles, wade in the snow, and even do a little sledding.
Back inside, we hung out a little longer before the excitement of dinner with Mom, Gary, Jennifer, Tom, Danielle and Reid.
Gary brought us a prime which Sven cook to perfection. We also had shrimp cocktail, cheese and crackers, homemade bread, veggies, baked potatoes, lots of cookies, and more than enough wine. After dinner it was Part 1 of 5 gift exchanges.
Our Christmas started on Wednesday when we arrived home from work/daycare and my brother Sven and his family pulled in the driveway from Kansas City. Sven and Charity's first line of business was meeting their newest nephew Hank.
Hank was comfortable with them from the get-go and put a little surprise in his diaper
We had a nice dinner of pizza and beer and Jackie and Emma joined in on the fun. The kids picked up where they left off last June in Kansas City and had a great time together.
Here's Maddux showing off his dance moves. I think we had a bit of camera malfunction because he wasn't moving that fast.
Hank is 3 months old and is so chatty and smiley. If you get down in his face and ask him, "Who's a handsome boy?" he'll smile away! Actually, you can say just about anything and he'll smile. And he's so chatty. His first word was "Ohhh" but sometimes he'll say "Ahh ahh" or "Haa aah". He's a genius!
What's Hank up to at 3 months:
Eating every 4 hours
Bedtime around 8pm
Awake between 4am and 5am
Not yet sleeping well in his crib during the day
Loves baths
Loves being held by Eleanor
Talks, talks, talks
Smiles!
Easily bats and toys suspended above him
Hank is now going to daycare since I'm back to work. He's doing well and even getting into a better daytime nap routine. He's always happy so I haven't been too worried about naps, but I should try to get better.
Poor Carolyn has been hit with every bug that comes around lately. On the night of Thanksgiving she sat up in bed (she was in my bed) and got sick all over. After we got everything cleaned up, she laid on the floor with a bucket. In the morning she was pretty well over it.
But since then she's been so funny when talking about it. She says, "I don't want to puke anymore." I agree with her and she says in her serious voice, "I don't want to puke in a bucket." No, but it's better than puking on my bed. To which she tells me, "Oh no, that's not very nice."
Speaking of not nice, the other night on the news they were telling about how four dogs were stolen. Eleanor was very concerned asking "Who's dogs are they?", "Who took them?", "Why?" (don't you love 4-year-olds) Finally she just looked at me with her shoulders shrugged, shaking her head, and she "Well those guys probably won't get many presents." Can you tell we've been using the old "Santa's Watching" threat lately :)
I asked Hank where his smile was and to my surprise he showed me! Such a sweetie!!!
Our big little guy is two months old and still doing great. He's a whopping 12 pounds 4 ounces and 23 1/4 inches long (70th percentile for both). The doc checked him out yesterday and says he's perfect - we already assumed as much :)
Hank outweighed his sisters at birth by roughly a pound. That along with being a boy, his growth is leaving them in the dust. At 2 months Eleanor weighed 8 lbs. 5 3/4 ounces and Carolyn was 9 lbs. 13 3/4 ounces.
Last night he slept his longest and didn't wake up until 4am. A whole 8 hours after his 8pm feeding and 7ish hour after he fell asleep in his bassinet.
He's also continuing to smile some - mainly when laying on his back for a diaper change or playing. He loves, loves, loves his swing and we put him in it any time we need to free up our arms and he's fussy. He has also been batting at toys on his activity mat and bouncy seat. We got out the exersaucer this week since he's gaining a lot of head control. He liked it but only for a short while.
We're working on the naps in the crib and he's doing decent. Though he still loves being held while he sleeps and I'm a sucker for holding sleeping babies (housework? what housework?)
We gave Hank his first bottle recently. The girls were anxious and excited to be able to feed him. I got out my pictures of the girls and their first bottles...
Wow, how life has changed in just 4 and a half years!
I feel like I've been leaving out my cute little middle child lately. Out of my blog posts that is. She's definitely not forgotten as she is constantly keeping our attention - for both good reasons and bad.
Starting with the good, she recently potty-trained very easily. While she'll occasionally still have accidents, she caught on quickly and her independence made the whole process easy on me. Just days into it, she'd run past me to the bathroom. I'd ask if she needed help and she'd yell back, "No, I do it myself!" Great! And on the occasion that she does have an accident, she cleans herself up and puts on fresh clothes.
She's also an amazingly sweet big sister to Hank. If Hank cries, she stops whatever it is she's doing and runs to him yelling, "It's okay Hanky boy!" Then she gets right down in his face and tells him, "It's okay, mama's here." And then jams his binky into his mouth, "Hanky boy, you take this!"
She's so funny too. She was in the process of getting out a game last night when I suggested we watch a movie. She agreed so I started putting away her game and she screamed at me. I reminded her that we were going to watch a movie and her tears stopped and she smiled and said, "Oh yeah. Haha. I just kidding."
Just now I heard her in the kitchen. Eleanor told me she was getting into a bag of muffins. She had one this morning that she didn't finish so I told Eleanor she could have one if she was going to eat it all. So Eleanor asked her, "Are you going to eat it all?" "Oh no", Carolyn says. "I just eat one."
She also does a lot of repeating. Her favorite thing to tell me is, "It's not bedtime." She'll tell me everyday when I pick her up from daycare. She'll say it over and over regardless of my response. If I say you're right it's not bedtime she'll say, "It's not bedtime." Then I'll say yep it's not bedtime to which she yells "I said! It's not bedtime!"
And then there's the bad. The back-talking. The finger-pointing. The scowling. She likes to point her finger at me and say, "I not naughty!"
Okay, so I'm adding to this post already. My mom, what was she thinking, gave the girls the cutest ceramic tea set. It's in a cute little wicker case and I keep it out of reach of the girls. I'll get it out on occasion when I can supervise. It's been on the top shelf of the girls closet. Well Carolyn just brought it out and opened it. Three plates are shattered. So she's not only naughty, but the can climb to the top of the closet as well. She obviously scaled up there, snagged the case, and dropped it so she could climb down. Ugh!
Eggs & sugar - Yum! 'Er Carolyn no!
Smashin' the candy canes
Eleanor & Nash
Carolyn & Nash
Gary brought us a prime which Sven cook to perfection. We also had shrimp cocktail, cheese and crackers, homemade bread, veggies, baked potatoes, lots of cookies, and more than enough wine.
