Christmas - part 3

The day after Christmas is my dad's birthday. We took him out to dinner to this small diner near their house that he enjoys. During dinner my dad and Ryan cracked each other up with sayings and hand motions that accompanied. The first is them saying 'hmmm' in a thinking tone. The second is them saying 'oh, no' - which has been a Ryan favorite ever since. The third was a new one that night saying 'holy, moly'. They are also famous for 'no way, jose' and 'oh, man'. Then of course, is Emma just enjoying the day.

On the 27th, we attended the going away party for Aaron Stone. I've known Aaron, well probably since he was born. His dad, Tom, was a friend of my dads from high school. And his wife, Sally, is my mom's best friend. So we consider them our Aunt and Uncle and the boys, our cousins. Aaron is the youngest of three. Adam is my age and lives in Baltimore with his wife, Jenny, who is expecting their first baby next May. Nick is a few years younger than us (I want to say 3) and lives in Boston with his wife, Kathy. And then Aaron, is another few years younger than Nick and graduated from MSU a year ago. He was living in Boston for the last year working out there before he decided to enter officers training for the Marines. This is the first person in a while that I've know who has entered the military of any kind (the other being my cousin, Derek). Overall, I'm very proud of him for signing up at a time like this and I hope for the best.

But back to his party. We brought the kids who were a hit. There were other little girls there who let Ryan play ring around the rosie and balloons with them. The dinner was great, but the highlight of the evening (as always is with the Stone family) was the entertainment. Everyone was asked to tell a joke or do some kind of entertainment. Because of the kids, we were asked to keep it in line with the audience and to be funny. If not, a whip cream pie in the face was the punishment. Uncle Tom was the first to get it and Kris was the second! My mom even got up and told the joke that the boys had prepared for her since she had flat out refused to do it before that time. Ryan brought his camera and spent some of his time taking pictures of the dark lights and the floor. At least it kept him busy. The night ended with us going home early. When Ryan got sick before Christmas he managed to give it to Kris, who had it on the 22nd. My mom came down with it on the 23rd and my dad on the 24th. And I got it on the 27th. Luckily it was another 12 hour bug that you get over pretty quickly! Besides that it was such a great night.

Christmas - part 2

We got my parents a Wii for Christmas. As anyone who has it knows, the sports that comes with the Wii is pretty fun. Ryan especially liked the bowling. While, he couldn't do it himself because his hands just weren't big enough to go around the controller, he thought he was doing a great job. Here is a video of him bowling. Listen carefully, because him making a wooshing sound is one of the best parts of it.

Christmas 2008 - part 1

We spent Christmas this year at the Zebrowski's. We decided that we are done with doing both families over the holiday season. While we have the time to visit both, we no longer have the stamina or the patience with our children. Ryan is a great traveller, always has been, but Emma is not and she longs for her bed at home.

We travelled to my parents on the 20th. This was going to be an unusally long visit due to two reasons. First was my sister, Robin, had bought tickets for the Lions game on the 21st for Kris, my dad, myself and Robin to go. It was birthday presents for all of us. While the game wasn't a big thrill, because it was a pretty boring losing (0-15 at the time) game and season - it was nice to go to our first NFL game. We had fun seeing Ford Field and even walking in the freezing Michigan air. The second reason was our 'psuedo' cousin, Aaron is leaving for the Marines and his parents (my parent's best friends) were throwing a going away party on th 27th (more on that in a later post).

So we had a lot of time to relax and spend with my family. We shopped and ran errands and all the rest before settling down for the Christmas activities. First on the agenda is celebrating with the Zebrowski's at Aunt Dawn's house. This is the most rambuncious time because of the 15 kids under the age of 11. There's screaming and tearing and most of all searching for your own presents before it's time to open. Reminds me of when I was young. Santa even visits and while Ryan was the only kid who wouldn't sit on his lap at least he didnt cry. All the kids had a great time. Emma spent her time eating wrapping paper while everyone else opened her presents, eventually taking a little nap on Daddy. Ryan spent his time playing with the boys guitar hero guitar, opening gifts and eating all the treats that Uncle Phil would give him (which was a lot - see picture). The kids got so many great toys and presents.

After that, we took the kids home and put them down for naps, while we went to church. Then we headed to Grandma's house to celebrate with the Knolls. As always, the games there were good and we all came home with some goodies.

Christmas morning, was spent eating donuts and opening so many gifts our heads were spinning. There were too many to wait for everyone to have a turn so we just opened as we could! Unfortunately, some of the pictures from the early morning came out poorly because of the camera being on a bad setting. But you can see all the pictures from our time away at our Snapfish link. We spent the day playing with our toys and helping with a great dinner that we shared with the Stones. Overall, it was such a wonderful Christmas and we were so happy to be able to spend it with some of our family.

Pre-Christmas

This is the third of three posts today covering our Christmas time. Prior to Christmas, Kris and I took the kids to the Cincinnati Museum. Kris had never been there before (he hasn't really been to any kid places around here) and I had just recently discovered (ha ha) that there are other museums besides the children's on at the center. So two Saturday's before Christmas we ventured there. It is rare that we don't have something to do, so we really enjoyed ourselves - although Kris did have to leave early to attend a training session for a Lego competition he is participating in.

We first took the kids to the Natural History museum. Ryan and Kris had fun looking at the body parts area and flossing extra large teeth. We looked through the area that takes Cincinnati through different time periods. Ryan got to play lincoln logs and play in the outhouse (I would never recommend him 'playing' in the one at the farm!). We played for a while at the large sandbox there until Ryan dumped sand over Emma's head. That was the end of that. We saw the dinosaurs and life size area of animals that used to live in the area (some extinct). Yes, that is a picture of Ryan with a wolf. We then went into the special area where they had Clifford the Big Red Dog event going. Ryan got to play mailman and delivered mail and bones to Clifford. They even had a life size Clifford, which was huge. After Kris left, I put Emma in the carrier on my back and we headed to the holiday train section. Ryan loved pushing the buttons to make the trains go and was just thrilled with the large train sections, sitting and waiting for the trains to go by. But his favorite part was getting to ride the train himself, which he did twice and would have all afternoon. All the while, Emma slept on my back, looking pretty comfy!

The week after this was pretty busy with finishing our Christmas shopping, packing and such. Tuesday, the 18th, Ryan's school was early dismissed due to the snow storm coming through, and they did it early enough that Ryan didn't have school at all. He enjoyed himself playing at home. But then Wednesday came, he got on the bus and a half hour later, I was called to pick him up from school because he was sick. On Thursday, the 4 preschool classes were having a presention on Christmas in other countries and my mom was driving down to see it. Unfortunately, that was in vain. Ryan seemed better by Thursday morning but then got sick again. So we ended up missing it. By Friday, he was better and we all headed to Michigan. There was a snow storm coming down there, but that didn't stop us. And by the time we made it there, it had stopped but the roads were pretty bad. It took us 7 hours, for a trip that if you drive straight through takes 4.5 hours.

Breakfast with Santa

On Friday, we had breakfast with Santa. Well, we had two donut holes and an ounce of juice with Santa. Of course, we were running late, but made it on time, luckily. Ryan was stuck to his chair, being scared of both Santa and the people dressed up like Rudolf, Frosty, a penguin and a mouse. He sat and stared the entire time. He wouldn't sit on Santa's lap, only mine next to him and you can see the stress in his face. Emma did fine, no problems with her. She was happy the entire time to chew on her shoe sitting on the floor. Overall, it was worth the $10 to go and not have to pay the people at the mall!

Ryan had another snow day yesterday. Actually, the decided on early dismissal and just cancelled the afternoon preschool classes. We HAD to go to the post office to get our package off to PA. The trip is 5 minutes from my house, but because of an accident in the snow it took us over an hour. Plus I was waiting for something to be delivered that they had called me on, so I was just praying that they hadn't come while I was gone (they didn't luckily).

And after I started writing this post, I got a call from Ryan's school saying he was throwing up and to come get him. Of course, this is right after I got Emma down for a nap. So she's had a 10 minute nap in the car and a 15 minute nap in her bed - she's going to be tired. Ryan feel 'not good' from what he says. He is up in my bed watching a Curious George dvd. And I'm going to try to have him nap when its over (hopefully I'll get Emma down at the same time and get some packing done.

Emma is standing on everything. That is all she wants to do, which is making naps very hard. So I'm basically back to nursing her to sleep. Its the only way she seems to nap at all. Ok. I better go check on Ryan.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Well around here, we're almost ready for Christmas. I love the build up. I am probably one of the only people who loves shopping at the mall in the week before Christmas. Not that I have much to buy by then, but I love the atmosphere. The decorations, the music, the fullness of the space. At this moment, I have only a handful of gifts left to get and am looking forward to shopping this weekend. I am currently working on my christmas cards, which came in the mail yesterday. I wrapped all the gifts I had today while watching the Muppets Christmas Carol. In my choice of movies, this was the one I thought would least hold Ryan's attention. My other two, Christmas Eve on Sesame Street and Elmo Saves Christmas, should entertain him. I also have Rudolf and one about Belle from Beauty and the Beast, but I was going to just watch Rudolf on tv (if I can figure out when it's on!).

In the other news.... We bought our minivan right before Thanksgiving. Kris outfitted it with car seats last weekend and we plan to drive it for our Christmas trip to MI. Emma loves being in the convertable seat instead of the infant carrier, she really was getting too big for it, especially with a coat on.

Last weekend, we had a bunch of our friends over to celebrate St. Nicholas Day. We had a great dinner and lots of desserts including homemade ice cream by Kris. The kids got candy in their shoes as per St. Nick tradition. And everyone got to ice and decorate the cookies that Ryan and I had made earlier in the week. We had a great time.

Ryan is still loving school. Today was pajama day in accordance with the Christmas buildup there. He really didn't want to wear them, but finally let me put them on. He is talking so much, although I wish 'Mama play' wasn't still his favorite phrase. He had an evaluation for occupational therapy this week that was referred by his speech therapist. The therapist at OT said he was on the border line due to poor muscle tone. So he could use help, but we could just do exercises at home, which is what we chose to do. I really didn't need to have another appointment to go to (which just jogged my memory of the ob/gyn appt I missed this morning, whoops). Ryan has finally decided to start dressing himself. This week, after I had already dressed him, he added a zip up sweater and another sweater on top. Since our house is so cold, I'm sure it was nice to be so toasty!

Emma is standing up on everything she can. She thinks this is one of the greates things. She still isn't fully crawling, just a fast army crawl. The butt rocking on her knees is so cute. She cut her top two teeth in the last week. The second is pretty inflammed and was bleeding yesterday. But as opposed to Ryan, who relied on Orajel every night, she does better without it. I guess her pain tolerance is higher (which might explain why I'm constantly kissing boo boos of his). Yet, as you can see in the picture she is just such a happy baby.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We spent the weekend travelling to PA and visiting with Kris's family. We had a great time with everyone, with one exception. Evidently we are passing around some sort of stomach bug. Ryan had it the Friday before Thanksgiving, then I came down with it on Wednesday (thinking I had food poisoning). Kris then got it on Saturday. I'm actually thinking it was some sort of rotovirus and that Emma hasn't come down with it because she had the vaccine for it. Luckily it was only a 12 hour bug, but it wasn't pretty.

We were able to enjoy ourselves at Kris's mom's house on Friday, after Kelli and I went shopping. Saturday we had our Thanksgiving meal at Aunt Sharon's house (Kris skipped it), and then another at Kris's dad's house on Sunday after church. A lot of family time. Ryan had a ball, it didn't matter where he was, he wanted to play there. He did great with the travelling and sleeping away from home. Emma did ok with all the people. She was getting up once a night and a few times was up at 6:30 am for the day. That made her extremely tired by the end of the night. We left early Thursday morning for our drive, hoping she would sleep for a while, but she stared at Ryan for 2 hours, before falling asleep just as we were about to stop for breakfast. So our early morning adventures are no longer very helpful. We debated on coming home Sunday or Monday due to the storm coming through and ended up returning on Monday. It usually takes us 8 hours exactly to get there, but on the way home it was more like 9 1/2, not that the stop at Costco and the weather didn't help!

On a side note, if you're keeping track. I've given up on potty training yet again. After 3 months, Ryan was still fighting every single time of having to go to the bathroom. It gets tiring after a while. I kept it up for as long as I can and have decided now that I will not be embarrassed by a kid who doesn't want to do it. It will only embarrass him when he's 8 and he's the only one in a diaper. This is not a fight I can win and I've tried for so long hoping he'll just get used the fact of going. But I haven't won and am too tired. I figure at the end of school, when he is no longer on a bus for a 1.5 hour bus ride, I can put him in underwear and he'll get it, but until then he will have to be the one who initiates it. I'm tired!