Christmas Eve

It's Christmas eve and I am warmly ensconced in a blanket at my mother's house in Ohio. The boys are soundly asleep upstairs. Are they dreaming of sugarplums? Probably not since neither know what that is...more likely dreaming of cars and milk. I just CAN NOT WAIT until morning and seeing Tam's eyes all aglow when he sees the tree lit and surrounded by a plethora of presents for him and the family.

This last week before Christmas has been frantic, and it is hard for me to believe that it is finally December 24th. What have we done?

Well, I have finished all the Christmas shopping between Thanksgiving and December 22. This year I did nearly all of it online and used many additional coupons/sales to score great deals. I'm very proud of the money I have saved this year while shopping for additional people (new brother-in-law, new niece, new son!) I whipped up 3 different types of cookies with Tamlin's help. I finished grading my final exams and submitted their final grades (which took forever since I had a final on the last day of the week.) I finished several sewing projects for the kids, including a bowtie, stuffed animal, and doll clothes. I collected and read Tam a new Christmas book each night for the entire month of December. (He loved finding a new book each evening). I drove to Ohio in 7 hours with two wee ones in the car and didn't go insane. I loved my family all year long and...I still love my family :-)

And Brian? He's been busy too. Lots of work since this is the busy season with all the shoppers around the restaurant. Then, he's been singing quite a bit. We both participated in the Medieval feast at our church by singing in the choir. Additionally, Brian sang a solo both nights as part of the dinner entertainment. It was fun for all of us to dress up for this during the winter season. He's also been singing with his Victorian group. I bundled up Tam and Jude and we heard him while he was performing a strolling gig among local shops. I love listening to my husbands voice...and it just makes me smile widely when he's singing favorite Christmas carols. Earlier in the month, he got out the Christmas village decorations and set it all up, along with the train running through the tiny houses. Tamlin LOVED this and that daddy let him drive the train too. Brian also wrapped a ton of the gifts this year while I was grading finals. I love that he helped out with this task. Busy, busy.

What about the kids?
Tamlin has been a rambunctious 3 year old. He has tried to help us with every task we attempt to do, from washing dishes to choosing Christmas gifts to stirring batter for cookies. He's made Christmas tags with glue and glitter. He's decorated cookies with sprinkles and m&ms. He's wished everyone Merry Christmas. He can't wait to open presents. He's playing relatively nicely with Jude...or at least trade's him toys when Jude has something he wants. He's been walking around, reading, and sleeping with the Toys-r-us catalog for weeks (he loves looking at all the cars). He got to meet Santa and tell him what he wants. And he traveled wonderfully in the car on our journey east to see the family.

Jude's been pretty good too. Now that he is on a low-lactose formula and eating more solids, he is often sleeping better at night...though still a bit gassy. Since he is getting more sleep, he's happier during the day. He's been mastering sitting up and lunging out to reach toys placed nearby, including big brother Tamlin's cars. He's been busy jumping like a mad-man in his jumperoo. He also got to visit Santa and sit on his lap. No tears! Just a general staring at the jolly man in red with a white beard. And Jude also did awesomely on the trip to see the family...barely any crying!

So, like I mentioned at the top of post, it is Christmas eve...
We went to the early family service at church. Brian sang two duets for the congregation and would sing harmony with me on the hymns. Jude is becoming our little musician since he was "singing" along with the music two with happy squeals and sounds of delight. I love the service of readings and carols both because I love hearing the Christmas story, but I also love singing the favorite holiday hymns... You know, the ones that aren't played on the radio ad nauseum all month. Tamlin's been playing with cars and telling everyone Merry Christmas still. However, he did know it was baby Jesus's birthday when asked at church tonight. It makes me feel good that he realizes the it isn't totally a commercial holiday. Most of the day, Tamlin has been talking about Santa and tracking Santa's journey off and on all day on NORAD on the computer. Now it is nearly 11:30pm and I'm home watching sapping Christmas movies and staring off at the lights on the Christmas tree. Brian, mom, and Dale are back at church for the 11:00pm service. When they get home, we grown-ups will celebrate and open our gifts in the wee hours of Christmas morning. Then, hugs all around, while we head upstairs to listen for jingle bells to note Santa's arrival for the little ones.

Well, I better get out my kerchief and ready myself for the upcoming winter nap :-)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Latest achievements

Jude is now nearly 7 months old; what has he been up to?

• He is now sitting up unassisted, though very hunched over to try to maintain his balance.
• He's grabbing at puffs and successful of getting into mouth about 50%. Most times he can rake them into his hands, gets the hand to the mouth, but can't quite figure out how to let go once there.
  
• He is wicked good at gumming gramcrackers
• He is sometimes making "Mamama" sounds
• More often his is making "Bababa" sounds as his means of communication
  
• Lots of raspberries
• He's still very good at squealing with delight
• Sometime he "Sings" along when we are singing hymns at church. Very cute
  
• He's holding a bottle by himself while laying on his back.
  

And Tam. . . he's been doing great too!

• He has been helping with making cookies with me in the kitchen
  
• He's helping Brian with making pancakes. Tam's really good at mixing them up in the bowl.
  
• The latest trick is turning on/off light switches around the house.
  
• He's beginning to do more and more imaginative play with tow trucks and cars.
  
• He's loving Sunday School and playing with other kids
  
• Tam's even talking about things that have happen during the day that have actually happened. Though to get any sensible response from him, I need to ask him quite quickly after it has happened or else it is forgotten.
  
• Oh, and he has been mastering Wii games. A current favorite is bowling, which he is actually pretty good at.
  

The moon

It's the Christmas season and Brian is, once again, singing with the Victorian Caroling Group. Looking at our schedules, I wasn't sure if I would be able to make it to too many of his gigs. So, I chose to haul the kiddos out to one of his strolling gigs through a nearby shopping strip. The weather was chilly enough that everyone bundled up, noses got a little pink, but it wasn't terribly bone-chillingly cold. I strapped Jude into the hiking carrier and swung him up on my back. Tam danced around near my side as we went store to store hearing daddy sing songs and checking out the holiday decorations. Most of the shops had free drinks or treats for strollers; many folk loved to talk to friendly Tam and make sure he got something sweet to eat. Tam's favorite store, by far, was the donut shop! Not because we got a few cookies there (which were great) but that they had a huge display of toy cars around the little cafe. Of course, we kept going back to see the cars. And, we got to hear Christmas carols!

The gig ran a little late into the evening, so the moon was well above us as we drove homeward with a couple of sleepy kids. It was a clear night, so the full moon was bright and shining above us. Tam looked out of his window and exclaimed "there's the moon, mama!", "It's up in the sky!", "It's white!". Yes, Captain Obvious, all of that describes the moon.

Then a few moments later, and a few turns down the road...
Tamlin, "The moon is following us." This seemed to amaze him.

A few moments later as we turned down our street...
Tamlin, "Yoo-hoo, Moon?". Because of the turn, Tam couldn't see the moon out the window any more. He was calling to it to make sure it was still above us.

When we got home, and out of the car...
Tamlin, "There's the moon!"

Just before he crawled into bed.
Sleepily, Tam profoundly states, " The moon watch Tam while I'm sleeping, mama. okay?"
Yes, my little man, the moon will watch over you while you're sleeping.

Tamlin's new trick

Tam has grown a bit lately and he can now reach the light switches around the house. He loves turning the lights on and off now.

He calls it a trick.

He likes to turn them off at inopportune times...like in the middle of changing Jude's diaper or while we're walking up the stairs or any other time when our hands are otherwise occupied.

The boys' 1st movie

I did it...
I was finally brave enough to venture to the movie theater with both the boys to see a movie that I thought we all would enjoy. What prompted this? Well, I saw that my favorite furry monsters, the Muppets, were releasing a new movie. I heart the Muppets. I loved the early movies of theirs and thought this would also be a hit. I checked out the reviews and saw nothing that I would object letting my little ones watch.

I then checked to see when there was a local showing of The Muppets at a matanae time that wasn't during Tam's nap time. (This is no small feat). I stumbled onto a local theater that provides mom showings of movies. This means that once a week around 10am, they show a kids movie with the lights only dimmed and the sound not as loud. Mom's are encouraged to come to this showing and wee ones running around is expected to occur. Excellent. I packed the diaper bag, bundled up the kiddos, dropped Brian and work, and headed out on the new adventure.

How did it go? Here's a hint... we started the movie with about 2 dozen people in our theater room and we ended with about 8 (3 of these were us). Tamlin did pretty good for trying to sit still and pay attention to a 2 hour movie. He sat in his booster seat and ate his popcorn for about half of the movie. Then, he got squirrelly and had to get up and talk / play / dance with the other kids in the room. Jude watched the movie from my lap for a bit, then conked out (it was his early nap time.)

When asked afterwards if he liked the movie adventure, Tamlin said "Oh yeah" . . . but he really couldn't tell you much about it except there was a frog in it.
Cute.

Shoppin = done / Crafts to do

Black Friday...Lots of sales for the kick off of the Christmas shopping season. This year with dealing with 2 small kids, I totally opted to the majority of my shopping on-line instead of at brick and mortar stores. This saved me a ton of headaches and tantrums (Tam's and mine). At this point I am pretty sure that I am 85% done.

Now I just have to wait for them to arrive on my doorstep then wrap them.

Oh...and I still have all the crafts I want to do to finish...sometime between now and Christmas eve.

Happy Shopping!