Painting Time

Colin received lots of fun arts and crafts supplies for Christmas this year. The other day I decided to bust out some of his paints from Nana and Papa. He wanted to start with the brushes but after awhile I convinced him to try out the finger paints. He usually doesn't like messes, but I think he might be moving toward the dark side. ;) He had lots of fun and I'm looking forward to doing more crafty projects with him this winter when we're stuck inside.

Eli's on the Move!

A couple weeks ago, I commented on how Eli went from barely rolling over to pushing up on all four's, rocking back and forth, and crawling all in a week after his last surgery. Well, since Christmas he has now learned how to pull himself up on *everything*, has started cruising along *everything*, and has also started letting go to try to get to other things (this he always fails at because he just falls down). Now, I know I don't remember everything about Colin 100% accurately, but I know he was never this daring. Good thing being nervous about my non dare-devil child has me already prepared with lots of ice packs and the knowledge that it's normal for head wounds to bleed profusely.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Due to the entire family getting sick in addition to all the holiday revelry, I have fallen woefully behind on my blog updates. I was planning on doing a separate entry for each of the holiday events we attended, but as it is already January 3rd, I am going to condense them all into one fairly lengthy entry and just feel glad that I got Christmas blogged at all. It was definitely a fun-filled holiday season with lots of traveling and lots of family visiting. Sadly, I didn't get many pictures of the boys with all their cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, but they certainly enjoyed playing with everyone and getting the extra attention.

This year, Colin helped me with some of my Christmas baking. He "helped" me with all the different cookies I made, but he actually saved me some time when he helped decorate the sugar cookies. It just so happened to also be his favorite task.

Next came Christmas at Nana and Papa's. Colin loved playing with all his cousins and seemed to particularly enjoy pilfering everyone else's toys. Eli was doted on by the girls and I just thought it was so adorable when they all gathered around to help him open his gifts. (Unfortunately, the picture I have of this keeps rotating when I try to insert it and I have now given up trying to fix it. Everyone will just have to take my word for it when I say it was *very* cute.)

Next we celebrated at Grammy and Poppy's. Once again, Colin thouroughly enjoyed playing with his cousins and Eli enjoyed all the extra attention. It was nice to have all the siblings together again and I know my parents had a great time hosting this year.

On Christmas Eve, the whole family drove around to look at Christmas lights and the boys got to open their Christmas jammies. Colin was very excited about his. Eli, I think, just wanted to go to bed. Colin then wrote a letter to Santa and left cookies, milk, and carrot sticks (he wanted to make sure Rudolph had a snack too).

The next morning, we celebrated Christmas at home. Colin woke up first, as per usual, but did a great job staying patient and waiting for Eli to wake up before we all headed downstairs. One of the first things Colin checked was the plate of cookies to see if Santa had eaten them. He was thrilled when he found out the big man had left one for him to enjoy that morning.

After opening gifts, we all got dressed and headed to Erie, PA to celebrate Christmas with Chris' extended family. We celebrated with the Donor-side of the family on Christmas day and celebrated with the Ring-side of the family the following day. In our rush to leave on time, I completely forgot to take pictures of the boys together in their new Christmas jammies, so I attempted a photo shoot that night in the hotel.

After we came home, we got to spend a little extra time with my sisters. First Kasey swung back into town to visit for an extra day before heading back to North Carolina. Then Angie stayed with us for New Year's before heading back to California. It was nice to be able to spend a couple extra days with them since we only get to see them a couple times each year.

In addition, to talking about Christmas, I'd like to briefly reflect on the past year. It was definitely filled with a roller-coaster of emotions and provided us with some unforeseen challenges, but I wouldn't change a thing about it. I learned a lot about myself and feel that my relationships with my husband and children have grown stronger. I also learned that I have a wonderful network of family and friends that are more than willing to help when the going gets tough. However, I am hoping that 2010 proves to be a less eventful year in which we all get a little more sleep. :)

Happy New Year!

A Christmas Craft

All of my creative mama-friends inspired me to do a Christmas craft with Colin. I thought about possibly doing something with construction paper like a Santa head with cotton balls or a hand cut-out reindeer head or a paper chain. I went to Michaels looking for more ideas and found something even better - a wreath and a Christmas tree that came with stickers that Colin could decorate. Although we may still try to do one or more of the other crafts, I thought this would be super fun for him because he could actually do the craft all by himself (something he's starting to enjoy more lately) and he loves stickers. I bought two so one could go on each of the boys' bedroom doors. Colin got to choose who got which - Colin chose the tree for himself and the wreath for Eli. He is so proud that his artwork is part of our holiday decorations.

Eli is 8 Months Old

What an exciting month this has been! Eli had his last surgery and did awesome, and in the couple weeks since then, has pushed up to his hands and knees, started crawling, started pulling himself up on the fireplace, popped his first and second tooth, gave his first hugs and kisses, started finger foods (which he hates so far), said his first word (Dada), did his first sign (clapping hands for "all done"), started riding in his convertible carseat, and has officially started terroizing his brother. Now that he's on the go, he loves to explore. He especially likes to tip over his basket of toys and swim around in the mess. One of his other favorite past times is chasing after Colin and trying to play with whatever he's playing with. Below, you'll see a picture of Colin handing Eli a small car because Colin didn't want him playing with the big dump truck. In the next picture, you'll see that Eli (although normally would be perfectly content with that car) mows over the car to get to the truck. He also seems to automatically hone in on things he can destroy such as lego towers or tinker toy buildings. His weight is unofficially up to 18.6 pounds and his height is 28 inches. He's so much fun - now he just needs to start sleeping through the night.

A Letter and a Visit to Santa

Today we took the boys to visit Santa at the Sylvania Heritage Museum. They had so much fun...just kidding! As you can see by the pictures, Eli was absolutely horrified (but at least we got the classic picture) and Colin refused to look at Santa let alone talk to him or sit on his lap. We've been talking about visiting Santa for at least a month and the whole time, Colin has been adamant that he would not sit on Santa's lap but that he would stand next to him. So I can't say I'm surprised at how today went. I'm happy that I was able to at least get both boys and Santa in the same picture. This morning, to try and hype up the visit, I suggested that Colin write a letter to Santa, telling him what he wanted for Christmas. It was very cute because he didn't want me to help him at all and had so much fun writing the first letter, he insisted on writing a second letter on the back of the paper. That's supposed to be a motorcycle - not sure when he became interested in those. I guess I should have asked for his list sooner. Ha! :) Needless to say, the hype didn't help allay his fears of the man in the red suit. Maybe next year?

Edible Art

Tonight Chris, Colin, and I decorated our annual gingerbread house. Well, technically, we started it last night, but both pieces of the roof were broken in half so we let the repairs harden overnight before putting it all together. We started the gingerbread house tradition last year, when Colin mostly just watched and played with the candy. This year he was actually able to help and really enjoyed putting the candy on the house. Although, I think what he enjoyed even more was "accidentally" getting frosting on his fingers so he could lick it off. I have to say that overall I think it turned out pretty good.