Happy New Year to all! We went to a NYE
party next-door and made it all the way until 9:00pm!! Wild and
crazy party folks we are :) Now Alan is working and I’m
blogging and we might actually make it to midnight.

Eve in
her party clothes. Babydoll came to the party
too.

The party
was fun. The kids always like to visit Parrish and there were
two other kids there, an 8yr old boy and a 3yr old girl. Eve
adored the 8yr old. He was super silly and played with her and
taught her how to slide down the stairs head first. Important
things for a 21 month old (yup, 21 months today!) to know. The
stair case was only 6 stairs high and well carpeted and she had
a blast. We are going to have to teach her very quickly that we
DON’T slide down the 13 hardwood stairs at our house! Lex
played with all of Parrish’s new toys and ran around with the
other boys and found a puzzle map of the US and thought that
was pretty cool. Alan and I ate and socialized. All in all I
think a good time was had by all :)

This toy
that Lex is playing with is the coolest toy! It’s a bunch of
plastic beveled square shaped pieces that you can stack and
configure to make a ton of different things. The paper that Lex
is looking at shows lots of ideas. All of the kids (ages 21mo –
8.5yrs) and several of the grown ups had a good time playing
with it.

Choo-choo! Looks like everyone had a very Thomas
Christmas.

Here she
comes, head first down the stairs. Such a brave (and silly)
girl!
(In case you’re worried, I was right there
with her every time and she listened well when I asked her to
stop if I wasn’t able to stand guard.)

Now, as we head in to the new year
I feel as though I should have something deep and meaningful to
say, but alas, I do not. Tomorrow will be another day and we’ll
get through it, just like the next one and just like the last
one. Perhaps I’ll take some time for deep reflection next
month. Or not. For now I’m going to remove some redeye (my
camera’s redeye reduction feature is lame) and then add a few
pics here and then pry Alan away from the computer so we can
watch some TV. Love to all. See ya in 2009!

Our
morning
Eve spent the morning with no
diaper on. She is very eager to use the potty and insistent on
no diaper, but she doesn’t quite have the hang of things yet.
After three pee accidents and one poop accident (that reminded
me of an “It’s
always sunny in Philadelphia” episode so much that I
laughed out loud when it happened…) we decided to spend the
afternoon with diapers ON. She does like the potty though and
her, Lex, and dolly had a nice tea party on the potty.

Our evening
I made a
fantastic dinner of beans and rice, green beans, and
tomato/mozzarella salad and proceeded to listen to Lex have a
complete tantrum because he wanted a bagel instead. I stuck him
upstairs and told him he could come down when he was ready to
taste one bite of everything on his plate. He fussed for
awhile, then threw his blankets down the stairs, then got
quiet. I figured he went into his room to read books. When I
brought Eve upstairs for a bath after dinner I found Lex sound
asleep at the top of the stairs. Guess he was tired!

Our neighbors came to visit this afternoon
and while the boys played with the train set, Eve served tea.
Hmm….. They all had fun anyway :)

Cheers!

She was
adorable today in her new clothes (and Anya’s hand-me-down vest
that Eve LOVES!)

Lately Lex has been taking his quiet time
with books in our room. This is good, but still not as restful
as a nap. This morning we went to the science museum and he ran
around with a friend of his. After lunch he insisted he wanted
quiet time instead of a nap, but I think we ended up with both.
:) This is the first time he’s ever fallen asleep while
reading.

I put the Christmas pictures on the photos
site: photos.datdec.com

Merry Christmas (a few days late!) We had
a great Christmas this year. We decided to host the festivities
at our house to make the day easier for us and the kids. It was
great not having to pack up gifts and food and clothes and
everything. Everyone came over on Christmas Eve for a delicious
dinner of pizza and cookies, and lots of hanging out. Normally
we decorate the tree Christmas Eve, but I put the tree up a few
weeks ago, forgetting that the festivities were at our house
this year. Oh well.

Lex is sort of into
the Santa thing this year. A few days before Christmas he
started telling me that he would laugh when he saw Santa “in
spite of myself.” Its so funny when he says things like that
because you know he’s quoting something (“‘Twas the Night
Before Christmas” in this case). No three year old comes up
with that stuff on their own. :) I tried to take him to see
Santa after he started saying that, but alas, Santa has limited
hours in our neck of the woods and apparently was no longer
available so close to Christmas. Lex did choose to leave a
plate of cookies and carrots out on Christmas Eve, but when he
woke up Christmas morning he didn’t seem all that amazed with
the living room full of gifts. In fact, he said “Mommy brought
the presents out of the office.” (I had a few wrapped gifts in
the office, but no where near as many as were in the living
room Christmas morning!) When people asked if Santa had come,
he said “No.” I think he’s skeptical because he didn’t get to
see Santa bring the presents. He’s a very literal boy.

I’ve been kind of indecisive about the Santa
thing anyway. I want him to have fun and believe in the magic,
but neither Alan or I are good liars and I doubt either of us
could keep up the Santa facade when faced with a doubting
little boy. On Christmas morning I started wondering how people
teach kids to be thankful to those who gave them gifts, when
they think that everything is from Santa. I was raised to write
thank you notes and I’m raising them the same way, so we talk a
lot about who gave them the toys that they play with. I wonder
how other people handle that.

Lex got
the trains that he so desperately wanted and has spent the past
few days happily building and unbuilding his train sets. He got
two wooden sets that fit together, but he is convinced that
they must be kept separate. He builds the big KidKraft set and
then builds the smaller Thomas set next to it. Lex insists
Thomas the Train can only drive on his tracks and the KidKraft
train can only drive on it’s tracks. He is a funny boy. Eve got
a tea party set and walks around all day drinking tea (like her
mommy). The other morning she yells “make tea now!” and ran
into the living room to make some tea :) She also got a baby
doll that she loves and lots of adorable clothes. I think all
in all it was a good Christmas.

Now the
extended family has left and we’re on our own to dig out the
living room and recover from our cookie-induced sugar comas.
Bring on 2009!

Lex was
excited to put out cookies, milk, and carrots on Christmas Eve.
He was less excited to pose for a picture. Luckily Eve is
always happy to pose for the camera :)

A
Christmas morning hug.

Feeding
the new baby doll.

Lex had
trouble getting through his presents because every time a book
was opened he was drawn to it (like a moth to the light!) and
we had to tear him away long enough to open more
presents.

Eve was
particularly silly on Christmas night and Aunt Katie, “the
instigator,” did her best to encourage the silliness.
:)

Reading
stories with Mema.

Wait,
who wanted a train set for Christmas?? ;) Really we’ve all been
enjoying this toy!

Yoga Eve
in her new sparkly pants :)

I’m going to go play
with the family now. Maybe I’ll put up all of the Christmas
pics on the photos site tonight. It’s been awhile since I’ve
updated that! We’ll see what happens :)

We are having a snowy, patient Christmas Eve.
When I was a kid we used to wait (patiently, I’m sure!) for
what seemed liked FOREVER (usually until 3:00pm-ish) for my
Grandma to arrive. The day felt so long as we waited and
waited. Today I’m having dejavu as we are waiting (patiently,
I’m sure) for my family to arrive!! It’s getting close to
3:00pm and I suspect they won’t be here by then. We started the
day with blueberry pancakes. Yum! I thought I was being so nice
and making everyone a treat, instead 1/2 ended up under cooked,
the shapes I tried to make failed miserably and it took awhile
to talk Lex in to even trying them. He flat out refused until
he realized that Jack, from one of his Eric Carle books, liked
pancakes. Then, and only then, was he willing to give them a
try. Not surprisingly he loved them! He even had more for lunch
and now, not surprisingly, won’t take a nap!! We have to go run
an errand in a few minutes so hopefully he’ll get a little car
nap in. Anyway, happy holidays to all!

Please make it stop!!! Just kidding! It’s
been snowing for days now and it feels like winter should be
over by now… but wait, it’s only just begun! Happy Winter!
It’s actually been really nice snow. A lot of it, of course,
but its light and fluffy and not too windy, so we’ve been
having fun playing outside. Today I bundled them both up for
some outdoor fun. Eve ended up angry because our neighbor was
not home (she really wanted him to come out and play!) but Lex
had a blast. We walked around the yard for awhile (that in and
of itself is an adventure!) then up and down the street, then
headed into the back yard to play on the “snow slide” and try
to find the picnic table. I think I need to get Lex a scarf
though. He spent the entire time licking the top of the zipper
on his snow suit. Almost every photo I took has him with his
tongue out. Crazy kid! I’ve been lucky so far that they seem to
get bored/cold/tired/whatever after 30-45 minutes, which
coincides with when I’m getting bored/cold/tired/whatever :) So
we all go in and have warm chocolate milk and life is
good.

A little
boy in the front yard.

Flop!
Down he goes!

I tried
to get a picture of them sitting together on the picnic table
(see it?) I don’t know why I ever bother trying to orchestrate
pictures of them sitting together… it never
works!

She sat
patiently for awhile while I tried to talk him in to joining
her…

And as
soon as he headed for the bench, she started crying. I, of
course, snapped a quick picture then consoled
her.

Down the
snow slide! This swing-set is an awesome four-season
toy!

Whee!!

Tired
kids trudge home.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKda5A_ket0]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLSkN5SxAYY]

Here are a few videos that I didn’t have a
related post for already (scroll down to see more!).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlvk3zxfwGQ]
This
is Eve “looking” at the sticker chart. She does this alot and
it cracks me up! She says “looking!” and then squats down and
shakes her head back and forth. She does it in the grocery
store, at the bookshelf, the sticker chart, etc. Hysterical.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bucp5YeRQc]
Just a
little silliness with the stuffed animals.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-14RNGJOWk0]
Daddy’s idea of doing laundry is to grab the camera and
put the kids to work! They don’t seem to mind much. The video
is pretty long (7 minutes, I think), but it’s cute.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMewK31q2xA]
I
don’t even have a comment for this one. Silly kids.