Merry Christmas!

Its been an interesting but blessed one. It makes you realize what is most important:)

Aliyah ended up with an ear infection this week (it really infected her eye but when I took her in he found it in her ear). She had a cough but wasn't too bad except for the eye but glad I decided to take her in to get it checked. The antibiotics cleared her up pretty quickly. We were all geared up for the big day when yesterday Max started coming down with a cold. We went to my mom's for Christmas Eve dinner but decided to drive around a look at Christmas lights instead of going to church and spreading our germs. Max woke up ok this morning, a little off but had a blast opening his presents! He did his normal, want to play with everything right away instead of opening more gifts thing for a while but then really just wanted to play with the big stuff (new train set and hot wheels race track) and didn't bother with the little stuff at the end. By lunch he didn't eat much and was feeling worse. He slept for over 3 hours and woke up with a fever of 101. Nothing like having to call the Dr on Christmas Day but I just wanted to see if they thought I should be giving him some of Ali's antibiotics. She said it could just be a cold and do to the Tylenol/saline spray/vaporizer which we'd been doing. He did a lot of laying on the couch watching his "Cars Movie". Even opened some of his gifts there. I think he enjoyed the day even feel lousy. Poor guy, no fun to be sick on Christmas! Of course besides little colds, this is only his 3rd notable illness in 2 years so I guess we can't complain!

This was Christmas Eve, Nate was going for the angel look, from the devil face of course!

Please Santa, we've been good! (No, they don't really sleep in the same crib, Max just thinks its funny when Ali gets in his bed)

Love the expression!

He could wait to open the beeeg one!

The annual Hess truck, it has a space shuttle that sits on top, one if his favorite things since we went to that Air and Space Museum and saw one!

Ali's big gift.

Aliyah's new tradition gift. Since Max gets the Hess truck I wanted something for her and there wasn't really any toy I could think of but I decided to get her an angel every year. The was the "Love" one.

You can see Max's big gifts, the car race and the choo choo.

After not eating lunch we realized he was getting pretty sick. This is the usual position when he's tired or not feeling well.

Aliyah's favorite thing to do! Eat the paper!!

Its a shame she's so miserable all the time!
He had gotten to a point where he felt so lousy he didn't want to open but after the tylenol kicked in he was feeling up to it again since Mom-Mom came and brought more gifts from her and Kris and Wendy.


Then after a long nap, Grandma and Grandpa Jeff came for dinner.

Pre-Christmas

A trip to Bass Pro to see Santa....pretty exciting huh! I was thinking I just didn't want them to cry but that may have been a little funny at least. It doesn't get more boring than this, lol!

I do love my Thursdays and Fridays with the kids. We find all sorts of things to do...

This is the story of our life now. Half the time he's sweet, half the time he's bugging her!

Mom, help!!!

Cookie baking Saturday morning. Sweet pea stole the high chair! She looks so tiny in there but happy as can be!

This was the only part of my cookie making I thought Max might be able to help with. I guess I'm not too brave! So for everyone eating my smashed peanut butter cookies, this is why! He loved it of course.

Then Santa came down our street with a police car and firetruck!

He was more excited to play on the porch waiting for him than to see him I think (we do miss playing outside!) but he did think the whole thing was pretty cool when they got here.

6 months

Aliyah is half a year old!!!

This is what has started to happen this month....

So for better or for worse my kids now interact! 50% of the time its adorable. They make each other laugh and he takes good care of her. The other 50% of the time he's jealous or mad or just too rough so its an interesting time for us. And I fear it may only get worse once she's able to move around and grab his things but we're laying down the law now so hopefully he'll learn.

I'm disappointed in myself. She had an adorable blue dress and tights on for church and I meant to take the pictures before I changed her but I forgot of course and this is our usual attire so she's in her jammies again!

She's doing great. She now plays in her walker (Max loves to push her around) but she can move herself in it. She's sitting up pretty well, we don't leave her but she's getting there quickly. She had been rolling a few weeks ago but pretty much stopped that. The Dr told me she may just skip it now that she's sitting and will just start to crawl to get to stuff instead of roll. I'm not ready for her to be that mobile yet but we'll see. She is still pretty much on the same schedule. She still eats 5 times and I'm still nursing her when I can. She still has to get a little formula because I don't have enough anymore but she takes it ok. She still spits up ALLLL the time but we're just kinda used to it. I was hoping once she got into more solids it may stop but she just spits that up too, which is lovely colors! We've made it through sweet peas, pears and squash and of course the prunes in her oatmeal. She likes all of it. The Dr did tell me I can start doing a lunch meal now so we'll start her on 3 meals a day soon.

The naps are still up in the air. She tends to sleep in a lot (after nursing at 6:30 she goes back to sleep), sometimes until after 9am so if she sleeps in she doesn't take a morning nap till 10:30 or 11 but if she wakes up before 8:30am she often needs a cat nap too (usually just on a lap while Max is taking his morning rest). She still takes a long afternoon nap and depending on when she wakes from that she may take another lap evening cat nap. We prefer the 2 naps of course but deal with 4 if we have to. She does take her 2 regular naps in her crib because she won't let herself relax in her swing anymore, she just sits up and it won't rock.

Stats

Weight: 15,5lbs 34% Length: 26 3/8 70% Head: 16 1/4 17%

So....I asked the Dr if she was too thin since her percentiles are kinda off and the Dr says she's perfect. Kids are too chunky these days and she says once they start moving they thin out. Of course to look at her she's not long and skinny so its comforting to hear the Dr say she's ok and doesn't need to be all chubby like the other babies!

She still just loves attention and smiles at everyone and is just such a joy. We do love our little family very much!

Trains and baths

The newspaper had an insert with local holiday events and I found this church that sets up all kinds of trains. It was really cool. I'm not sure which of the boys liked it better but Max was still refusing to take his coat off after we got home because he wanted to go back and look at them again!The Christmas peanut spreading her holiday cheer even stared at them for a while!Trains, coloring and cookies! Doesn't get much better than that!

We decided it was kinda a waste to fill her little tub up when we have to fill the big one every night anyway for Max so we started doing Ally's bath in the big tub. Sometimes we throw Max in before she gets out. They both love it of course! Tonight it lasted until he put this little sponges (that start at capsules) into her mouth....(Its fun that they interact now but there was a slightly easier time when he didn't pay much attention to her and I didn't have to worry about what he's doing to her all the time!)Max, being the water boy that he is, has started taking shower baths. Since the tub isn't filled up too much for Aliyah's bath first, Nate turns the shower on and Max plays in there forever. He loves when daddy makes it "rain".

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving #1

We had my family's Thanksgiving at my grandmother's assisted living center. They have a great rec room and everyone had a good time with lots of good food!

Aliyah with cousin Katie!
My kiddos

Sweet Pea in her Thanksgiving dress from Grandma Diana

The little man missed his nap Thanksgiving, sorta....:) Daddy took him back to mom-mom mom-mom's room for a little rest. It took about 30 seconds for this to happen!

Thanksgiving #2

We went down to the Brown's in VA. Melody and Jeff came down and we had a whole second yummy Thanksgiving meal all over again Saturday. We headed down Friday afternoon so we had lots of fun cousin time.

Saturday morning we got up and went to the Air and Space Museum out by Dulles. It was really cool. I think Nate took about 100 pictures but here are a few of the best...

This is an observation tower so you can watch the planes coming in and out of the airport.

There weren't a lot that day, I think Emma and Luke were pointing out things in the parking lot... almost as interesting to a 2 year old anyway!

We did catch 2 coming in though...

And of course lots of quality play time!