Friends, Santa

Visiting in Rochester is always a lot of fun. This week we were able to spend a little time with our friends, the Gaedkes. The kids played together and the moms visited. It was perfect. Or as close as it is going to get for a few years.

Cana (WOW! Hasn't she grown?), William (who insists on holding his sister like this even though she can sit up on her own) and Amelia (who would like nothing better than to crawl away)

It is HARD to get three kids to look at the camera at the same time!

Thanks for hosting our fun playdate, Cana!
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From this morning at breakfast:

William: [crying]
William: I hurt my dimple (points to the general cheek area)
William: I hurt my dimple when I fell down.

Rudolph was a bust. We saw the previews on TV for Rudolph and Grandma asked if William could stay up past his bedtime to watch it with her. I agreed with the stipulation being when it gets scary with the abominable snowman, it needed to be turned off.

Rudolph starting

Look! Rudolph!

William lasted about half an hour until the scary abominable snowman made an appearance and then it was time to be done. Maybe next year we'll get a little more in.

We also caught up with our old pal, Santa. William was NOT interested in going anywhere near him. He wouldn't stand anywhere next to him, so this is the best we could do. Luckily Amelia wasn't phased one bit about being plopped onto a stranger's lap. She took a few minutes to check him over before deciding it was a good idea to play peek a boo with the photographer.


The last important person we got to see was Cindy Rapp. Cindy used to do daycare for me and my siblings. On top of that, she and my mom were friends. I spent a lot of hours at the Rapp house growing up. There really isn't a good way to explain how special it was for me to introduce MY own kids to Cindy, a wonderful woman who cared for me when I was small. So, I won't try to explain it. Just know it was a special moment that I will treasure.

8 Months Old

Wow, these photos were hard to come by. As Amelia gets older and more...able to act upon her desires, the more difficult it is for me to get her to stay in one place long enough for me to get a picture. But, here are my best attempts with her in one of her many Christmas outfits in front of my parents' Christmas tree.

Clapping

Some things haven't changed:
-curious about everything
-fearless - will follow your brother anywhere
- love your brother, even if he isn't gentle. He can knock you down ten times in a row and you'd still follow him to the ends of the earth.


Other things have:
-You are eating like crazy! You eat all kinds of baby food and the only thing you aren't excited about is meat. We've even added yogurt into the mix without any trouble. You are figuring out it is fun to feed yourself. You have mastered the Cheerios and puffs. We've also had success with bananas, sweet potato chunks, pears and peaches.
- Finally! A cup! You don't love it, but you'll do it. Which is all that really matters when it cuts off the half of an hour it takes to feed you while we are driving to Minnesota.
-Clapping! I love it! It is adorable. I confess spending waaaaayyyy too much time during the day clapping and trying to get you to mimic me. There is a lot of cheering going on at our house right now.
-So big. Who taught you this game? I think you picked it up overnight. Again, totally adorable. You raise you hands over your head, look around to make sure everyone has observed your talent before giving yourself a round of applause.
- Waving - Anytime anyone says "hi" Amelia will start waving her hands too. There isn't anything better than coming into her room to get her up in the morning and have a small hand waving hello. Wonderful.

8 Months Old!

Amelia was 8 Months old today! And I forgot to take her picture! I was holding her before I put her down and she fell asleep in my arms. This is the only picture I think I took of her on her 8 month birthday. But, it is a sweet one:

Sleeping beauty

I'm going to attempt a photo shoot with her myself tomorrow.

In other news, William rode the bike we keep at Grandma's house all the way around the block by himself! (Okay, I did help with some pushing from behind...) He was so proud - and pretty cold! I'm not sure why we don't have gloves for him?

Tooth

Number 5
lower left side (incisor?)
11/29/09

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

{Wow! I'm so behind! I am determined to try and get caught up before we get to Christmas! So keep checking back!}

Saturday (after thanksgiving) was Grandpa Kevin's birthday!

Tangent: Through preschool, William has developed an awareness that birthdays are Big Fun Deals. Since Halloween he has been asking "Is it my birthday yet?" Apparently at preschool there were a few birthdays celebrated with cake and singing - and William can't wait. So our response has been "No, it isn't your birthday yet. First it is Halloween, then it is Uncle Mike's Birthday. Then it will be Thanksgiving and after that is Grandpa Kevin's birthday. Then it will be Great Grandpa Tom's birthday and after that it is Christmas! Yay Christmas! Then, after Christmas it will be YOUR BIRTHDAY!"

So, any time there is an event to tick off the list and put us closer to William's birthday it is a good thing in his world. Plus, the kid loves cake and singing.

We had a long spell between Uncle Mike's birthday and Thanksgiving in which we discussed Grandpa Kevin's birthday frequently. At some point, William decided that Grandma was going to bake Grandpa a birthday cake "and she will need my help!"

Luckily, Grandma was supportive of this idea and let him help her.

He likes to be right in on the action - he doesn't want to miss a thing. We bake together a little at home, but I don't have pictures because...well you can see how I might need all hands on deck to manage the baking.

William the helper

And bonus points to Grandma because she didn't make a simple box mix. Nope, she made a fancy swirled cake (from a box) that required extra steps.

Swirling it all together

It turns out the cake was so delicious, we didn't take any pictures of it. But we did sing. Twice. And William got over his disappointment with the lack of birthday hats. He likes to go all out.

Warning: He likes to help open presents too. Those of you celebrating Christmas with us should take appropriate precautions. And he might even do it with his back turned so you can't see what you're getting.

Amelia is happy with a bow

Really, any bow will do

I love this picture of both kids getting in on the action!

Sweet baby girl - we are loving this age!

The lesson here is that if you are going to be buying anything for Ms Amelia for Christmas coming up here, you'd be safe with a curly ribbon. It would entertain her for hours.

Family Time

* You would not believe the things I have been busy with. Christmas prep, being sick x2, chasing kids, doing laundry, packing, unpacking, crafting, picture editing, Christmas card producing, and thinking about catching up. I'm working on it.

On Friday (after Thanksgiving) we were able to spend more time with both of our families. We are so fortunate that both our families live in the same town a short distance away from each other. It makes it very easy to see everyone on holidays and spend time together. However, there are times when I start to feel like a ping pong ball bouncing back and forth between the houses. Especially when I feel like our time is already stretched thin or we are expected both places at one time. So, it was nice to have Friday together after such an incredibly busy Thursday.

It is a tradition that I pull out my parents' Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving and put it up. This job is much more fun now that William is ready to share in the excitement of the season with me.

"Helping" Megan with the beads. Or, making things more difficult for Megan. Luckily my siblings are exceptionally patient with our kids.

The tree goes up....

And how could we not decorate it? William was SO VERY SUPER DUPER excited about this. I had to really watch and make sure he didn't handle any of the breakable ornaments in his hurry to get them all on the "beautiful Christmas tree". The rule at our house is everyone is supposed to be there in order to decorate the tree. If one person is missing, we usually wait until we can all be together.

Uncle Mike decorates

William was one big shiny ball of happy to have everyone together AND decorating the tree. I'll admit I was right there with him.

The only picture I have of both the kids with the tree.

And you can see William was not the only one fascinated. She took a little longer to get to the tree, but she was MUCH more destructive!
Admiring the ornaments. For the rest of the week, any time I couldn't find William I knew to check the tree. He would stand and admire the ornaments and take down a few of his favorites to carry around with him. This year his favorite ornaments were 1)anything with wheels 2) musical instruments which he would pretend to play.
Trying again
And here she is playing chase with her brother around the piano bench. I love the look of trouble on her face. Trouble is what this girl is.

In between all the family togetherness, my sister and I made lots of centerpieces for the tables at our cousin's wedding next weekend. Aren't they tropical looking?

Friday evening, we joined John's family for dinner and some play time for the kids. The big kids decided to play a game of poker. William was interested for a few minutes.
And then decided to find the toys with the smaller kids. Here is cousin Mikey, William and Amelia working on repairing this table.
This stool also needed some work.
Here is Amelia trying to fix a leak with her toolAmelia and her godmother, Cathy. Amelia was fascinated with Cathy's hair. Every opportunity, she would grab and try to work her fingers through poor Cathy's hair.

Amelia and Elena

Amelia, Alex, Elena - I think this younger set has the potential to be trouble in the near future...four grandchildren under the age of three could lead to some excitement!