What Christmas Looked Like In Our Home

Christmas Eve at OBC

Would you believe that until about 3:00 p.m. on Christmas Day, our kids were either eating, sleeping, talking to family, or opening presents? They are much loved. And, well, they take a while to open presents.

Every once in a while we got the camera out, so here's what it looked like.

The Christmas tree the night before

Christmas morning

The kids had bananas in their stockings. Josiah took the bait :)

Sarah with her first present of the day.

Josiah liked the key ring a LOT more once he realized it was a flashlight.

Wind chimes, just like at Papa and Goggin's

Josiah's present to Sarah was purple sparkly nail polish.
It was purple, it was sparkly, and it was nail polish. He's a good gift giver already. 

Thanks, buddy!

What could be in the big box Sarah got for Josiah?

A Patriots balloon!

They each got water bottles just like Emily's

It was a lovely Christmas for all! After nap time (but no naps, unfortunately!) we went to the Everson's home and shared a yummy Christmas dinner with their kind family and the Dennens. The kids were worn out by the end of the day! But a special moment was still to come.

Before Sarah brushed her teeth we all sat down on the floor upstairs and talked through the Christmas story one last time. This year Sarah understood most of what occurs in the story, and it was such a joy to retell it one more time before bed. We finished with a rousing rendition of Go Tell It On the Mountain, a family favorite since Sarah sang it with the children's choir at church. Jesus Christ is, indeed, born!

Delivery Day

It's not what you're thinking.

Or at least not what I was thinking when Dave announced that Delivery Day was upon us :)

It seems that Delivery Day is what Dave called the reminder he put on his calendar. It was to remind him of the day that we bought our house. And even more specifically, the day that we have pizza delivered to the address that we bought on December 23, 2010.

The tradition began on that very first day. We signed for the house in the morning and Dave found our Christmas tree in the garage where we were storing about half of our things. In the evening we went to our mostly empty home (the estate of the previous owner left several items at our request) to set up the Christmas tree and have pizza delivered to our new address. It was another couple of weeks before we moved in, but that was a special night eating pizza on the coffee table in the living room by the Christmas tree.

We celebrate this day to remember how good the Lord has been to us. Dave told the story to Sarah as we ate our pizza in the living room and we had a special time of prayer before we ate, thanking the Lord for giving us a home and helping us to keep it up. We also asked Him to help us use it well, to use it for His glory.

So happy Delivery Day and Merry Christmas!

Crisis or Comfort?

We had a problem. For the last several weeks anytime Sarah cried, Josiah would aggressively come over and start hitting her. Not only did I have a sad Sarah to comfort, but then I had to discipline Josiah, and often discipline Sarah for retaliating. It was overwhelming- I couldn't rightly do it all at the same time!

While Dave was home over the Thanksgiving break he saw the same senerio play out a few times, but at least we could divide and conquer to comfort and reprimand. And then it hit us. (Pun intended!) He was trying to comfort her.

Sarah has always had a compassionate heart when it comes to Josiah's sadness. Early on we taught her to pat his back when he was sad. And it was that pat on the back that he was trying to imitate.

So we taught him to gently rub Sarah's back and now we are good to go. It was a grand misunderstanding that has turned into a much appreciated act of kindness. And also a reminder to us as parents- we've got to rely on the Lord, because there is often so much more at play than our eyes can see!

Happy 18 months, Josiah!

I'll be honest, I am really liking this age and I know it only gets better from here! Communication is blossoming and we are back to being able to do more fun things as a family. It is hard to believe that when Sarah was this age I was about 6 months along in my Josiah pregnancy. In fact, it makes me tired just thinking about it . . . So glad our little boy is here and growing and giggling. We do lots of giggling!

Weight: 28 lbs 4 ozs (92%)
Height: 35 in (99%)
Head: 19 in (72%)
Diaper: cloth and size 5
Clothing: 18 and 24 month, some 2T, shoe- size 6

Likes: markers (we don't always like that he likes them!), sandbox time, swinging, holding a finger, whispering, saying "amen," being chased, doing whatever Sarah is doing (especially when she is pretending or showing me what she has drawn), rough-housing with dad, maracas and the tambourine, water bottles, tickle time (especially his feet)

Dislikes: being dropped off at nursery (though he really loves playing at church and settles down quickly), new people (sometimes- he doesn't fuss, but he keeps a firm grip on mom or dad), not getting the food he wants to eat (so don't let him see doughnuts before dinner!), pooping (he was a little constipated this month), Sarah swinging in the baby swing before him

Schedule: When we are home we still stick to this routine and we try to always be home by 1pm when Sarah also has a rest time.

7 am: Up and at 'em
9am: Nap (when we're at home)
11am: Wake and eat
1pm: Nap
3-4 pm: Wake and eat (then eat a little more at dinner)
7 pm: Bed time!

Sleeping: Again, I can say we are so thankful that Josiah usually is happy to stay in bed until 7am. We don't take that for granted with this boy! He is also still generally napping in the morning when we are at home, but we don't sweat it if he doesn't. I find that even if he just lays down upstairs for an hour he is more likely to happily make it to his 1pm nap. The 1pm nap is the nap we really fight for since it is when Sarah also lies down. When everyone is healthy we are at church three mornings a week and are probably out one other day for shopping and such, so he probably takes his first nap about three mornings a week- I love it!

Eating: Josiah loves his "muk" (milk) and asks for water more than Sarah ever has between meals. He usually has eggs or banana with peanut butter (with peanut butter because Dave did it for Sarah and Josiah wants to be like Sarah) for breakfast. For lunch we have leftovers or a peanut butter sandwich. His favorite sides are mozzarella cheese, fruit (haven't found one he doesn't love), and crackers. Still doesn't love vegetables, but eats them in small regular doses. The sweet boy definitely has a sweet tooth!

Moving: He is an active boy. He loves it when we let him walk up the stairs with us and likes to try to jump. Josiah loves to slide. Climbing is a favorite activity now and he sometimes surprises me. I recently put him in his booster seat to color and pushed him up to the table, but didn't strap him in. Rather than calling me when he was finished, he slide/twisted down and surprised me by showing up by my side. He still loves to jump on the couch and turn the lights and fan on/off.

Communication: This is the area where I feel like he has blossomed the most and it is super fun! He will repeat any word we ask him to say, though, of course, he says it quite his own way. He says "thank you", "please", "hi", and "bye bye" really consistently, often without being asked, which makes us so proud. He also likes to say "bite", "shoe", "crayon" (but he now means marker!), "down down" (when I'm holding him), "amen", "baby", and "night night."

Teething: I don't even know :) I seem to remember his being fussy and we thought it was teething a while back, but I don't remember now!

Random:
-He had his first cold of the season last week. It was not fun for anyone. He didn't mind having his nose wiped so much, but generally became quite the fussy pants. So glad our little guy is feeling better now!
-Recently he accidentally elbowed Sarah in the nose and I asked him to say he was sorry and he just kind of smiled, so I asked him to give her a kiss and he leaned right in and gave her a good open mouth smackeroo!

Next appointment: Monday, May 5, 2013 at 10:20am

Let's travel!

Everybody loves a good baby swing :)

Bubbles!

Dad is getting him started early

He has many smiles, but I think this is my favorite :)

"Look, Mom, I have eggs on my toes!"

Those cheeks just need pinching

The beginning of his love of apples

My favorite way to spend lunchtime this fall- pack a lunch and eat outside at Starbucks. We all love September/October on the Cape!

Playing in the jelly house at the Osterville Farmers Market

Getting geared up for trick or treating

Business as usual. . . until he went down the slide. Then he decided he was not a fan of the snow!

Helping Dad finish up the enormous task of pruning the rhodys 

Cupcake moustache!

Vacation Part 2: Adventures in Our Nation's Capitol

One of the really exciting things about going to DC was that we got an extra day of fun (a day we would have been driving to Niagara Falls). So we arrived late Friday night and started our Saturday morning with a big breakfast (thanks for being such a good customer, Papa!). We set out to tackle the metro and take on the city. 

The Smithsonians were at the top of our to-do list since they are free and kid friendly. We started at the Natural History Museum where we saw a really neat photography exhibit, dinosaurs, one extra-large squid, the Hope Diamond, and lots of rocks. For lunch we took a break to eat a hotdog on the National Mall. We then quickly went through the American History Museum and saw an old American flag, famous guitars, dresses worn by First Ladies, and Dorthy's red slippers. By this point not even Sarah was excited to see sparkly shoes, so we headed back to the hotel for naps. We went back into town for the evening and walked around the White House.

The next morning we got on up, had another awesome breakfast, took the metro to Union Station, walked toward the Capitol, watched lead runners in the Marine Corps Marathon at about mile 15, continued walking around and marveling at the Capitol, and walked up the road to Capitol Hill Baptist Church for worship. We all had a great time at church, though perhaps Josiah the best of all, as he promptly fell asleep in the stroller on our walk to lunch. We enjoyed some yummy queso (a novelty on the Cape!) at Qdoba and headed back to the hotel for naps and football- go Pats! For our last evening in the Capitol City we walked past the White House, through the WWII Memorial, and up to the Lincoln Memorial. I think President Lincoln left quite an impression on Sarah who has spent the day telling us that President Lincoln died. The sun was setting as we walked through the campus of George Washington University to a Whole Foods to pick-up dinner to-go and hop on the metro to go back to the hotel.

Monday morning we enjoyed one last mega-breakfast and hit the road just before 10 a.m. We had several memorable potty stops along the way, but by the Lord's grace made it home just in time to get the kids settled into their own beds. It was a wonderful vacation full of good memories and rest from the normal routines of life these days. We return home with full and thankful hearts!