Christmas: Act III

And the 3rd, final big Christmas to-do... from Papaw Taylor & Grandma. (PS--we also spent a full day with Nana (my mom), Colin, Aunt Rachel and Uncle Nathan, opening gifts, eating great food, watching Christmas movies, etc, for which we have NOT ONE picture. You'll just have to imagine that it was a great time.)

One sock off

Every day for the past two months, at least, Evan wakes up from his nap with one sock on and one sock off. And it's on the same foot -- the right. When I first started asking him why he takes one sock off, Evan didn't have much of an [intelligible] response. Now, he says, "Because this one (the left foot) is cold, and this one (the right) is not."

Ask a stupid question...

Sweet surrender

For the last month or so, Evan has been giving me his last bite. I don't mean his last bite of broccoli or mac-n-cheese. He gives me the last bite of a highly coveted sweet snack-- Teddy Grahams, M&Ms and the like. And he won't accept me giving it back to him; he insists that I eat it. It's such a sweet little token of affection. And since I'm doomed to forget most details of my kids' life (hereditary trait, what can you do?), I had to record it on the blog.

Christmas: Act II

Here are a few of the pictures from our Christmas adventure in Virginia. Unfortunately I failed to take even one picture while we were there, so I'm at the mercy of other family members' photos. Thankfully we have lots of skilled photogs in the family!

Sister-in-Law Heather's parents had special pjs made for all of the cousins.

 

If we all look a little sleepy here, it's because we were!

Grandma Soon & baby Connor (doesn't she take great photos?).

Baby Sebastian getting his thumb and mommy fix.

Don't believe this innocent look.

Special time with Papa.

I just love, love this photo of Evan. If it weren't for my ever-guiding hand that snuck its way into the frame, it would be just perfect. A reminder that sometimes I need to just relax.

The Terreri family cousins, in order by age -- Evan, Grant, Sebastian and Connor. Can you spot which one does NOT look like a Terreri?

Christmas, a play in 3 acts: Act I

Scene: Home; Santa came to our house last night for an early Christmas since we will be traveling to Virginia for the real Christmas holiday. The Santa gifts weren't exactly portable (drums and a play kitchen), so we had to do our Santa traditions at home. We also had to adjust the advent calendar (a really big hit this year) by quite a few days for "Christmas" to show up on time! Thankfully, Evan didn't notice that it went from December 17 to 23 overnight.

Evan looking for Santa's elves, who left our special Christmas Eve pjs.

New pjs, cheesy grin (I took 4 of the same shot and this crazy smile appears in all of them).

Reading The Night Before Christmas.

The Santa scene.

The gift of all gifts. For those of you who haven't heard (a million times) about Evan's love of percussion -- the obsession has been going on since he was 1. He was 100% positive that Santa was going to bring him a drum set. The drums spent a whole day in our living room before being relocated to a room far, far away.

Grant playing with Evan's new truck (hurry quick, while Evan's not looking!).

The other gift of all gifts -- a homemade play kitchen. Santa's elves poured their hearts out (along with a little blood, sweat and tears) to put this together.

Evan calling Santa on his vintage retro rotary phone.

Opening gifts. Once again this year, we had to convince the boys to open the rest of their gifts. They were happy with just the unwrapped Santa gifts! Let's see how long we can keep that up.

The post-Christmas scene.

Stay tuned for Acts II and III.

Feliz Navidad like you've never heard it before

Sorry for the raw filming quality (we forgot our regular video camera), but this will give you a taste of the production we were treated to earlier this week at Evan's Christmas program. He's been singing this song around the house now for weeks.

Sorta fun Santa

Well, at least one child had fun. Although, Evan too was very distraught when we left Santa without receiving any drums. If you think about it, we had been telling Evan all day that he was going to see Santa to tell him what he wanted, so it would only seem natural in a child's mind that Santa was going to give it to him right then and there. "But I wanted my drums!" Further explanation was needed to explain that you don't get gifts from Santa until Christmas.

Cold day, wet yard = fun in driveway

Pop go the weasels

Some pictures deserve special attention

A visit and a trip

Last weekend, Grandma Soon & Papa visited and while here, we took a trip to the Georgia Aquarium, something we had been trying to plan for a whole year! The boys also enjoyed some early Christmas gifts involving cars, trucks and airplanes--a few of their "favorite things."

"Iyeh"

Grant's word for Evan sounds like "I-yeh." Iyeh is the first thing that Grant asks for every time he wakes up from a nap or in the morning and Iyeh is the first thing Grant says when I pick him up from school. And surprisingly, I've been hearing a lot more of "Gra-ant" from Evan these days too. But instead of yelling at Grant because he's touching Evan's toys, he's calling for Grant to come and play. Over and over, the boys play a game of chase/race around the house: Evan pushes a dump truck and is the "tractor driver" and Grant pushes a train and is the "train driver," so says Evan. Although it can get loud and crazy at times, this is a lot more of what I had hoped for with two little kids close in age. It's very sweet.

Sorry, no pictures to share of Evan this time around... he doesn't slow down much for the camera.

From my turkeys to yours: Happy Thanksgiving

At the big table

A short while back, we ditched Grant's high chair for a seat at the big table. It's been frustrating at times (pulling off the table cloth, throwing food down, cups down, insisting on a fork or spoon--even though he's eating a banana, etc), but it's nice because we're all together at the table. And the special wooden high chair/booster (which converts to a rocking horse and child desk) from Aunt Nellie way back before Evan was born fits just perfectly at the table.

Holiday prep

Two projects in one: rainy day painting activity & making our own festive wrapping paper for Christmas! I think we'll make this a yearly tradition -- I just love how it turned out.

(PS: The outfit on Evan, ie, the hat, was a result of Jason's creative humor after making a paint smock. And why we only made Evan wear a paint smock, I have no idea. Not smart.)

Independence Day

I'm not lying one bit when I tell you that the photo below was not in any way, shape or form staged. Apparenly, not only can Grant find and retrieve the cereal box, but he can also climb up on the couch, open the box and help himself to a snack. Boy, are we in for it with this kid.

New uses for a vacant flower box

Grandparents bring fun toys

Added to the wild list of a scooter, a tambourine, maracas, a doll house, a Home Depot tool bench and a keyboard are: roller skates.

Thanks Grandma Bonnie & Grandpa Donnie!

What-a-face

If you can look past the bubbling ooze*, isn't this just the sweetest face?

*I promised a certain father-in-law that I wouldn't publish the word "snot" for fear of conjuring up any grotesque images that may induce nausea.

Croup, emergency room, Grant: Take 2

Yep, that's right. Croup has made its second appearance in our house. Starting with Evan who had a mild case and then ending with Grant who had a rough time, resulting in a 4am trip to the ER. He's doing much better today now that he's medicated for croup and an ear infection. Yay! I love winter! I love school!

Rainy day fun

The white stuff is shaving cream, of all things. The house smelled "mountain fresh" for a few hours after this project.

Dad of the Year award...

Goes to: Jason. For sacrificing his night of sleep, on a work night even, to watch over Evan (who had a croupy cough throughout the night) so that I could have a much-needed restful night's sleep.

What am I to make of this?

For the last half hour, Evan has been playing with his blocks, building creative structures and what-not. However, he keeps saying that he's building a spirit for his "exersinement/exercise." Does he mean exorcism? Maybe I'm reading too far into this, but nevertheless -- weird. Mental note: make sure we keep better tabs on Evan's TV viewing habits.

What exactly do you mean by "Evan likes music?"

This:

And this -- note the indentations on the drum pads.

And this -- note the indentations on the WOODEN xylophone.

This kids is serious about his music.

We must be doing something right

Grant had his 18 month appointment today. Even though he's just in the 16th percentile for weight (a whopping 5 point jump since his 15 month check up), he's, incredibly, 97% percentile in height! It's a funny combination between the two brothers -- the string bean next to the gentle giant.

Halloween 2009

This year, we all got into the spirit. Jason and I went to a costume party (thanks Yuki!) as Velma and Shaggy from Scooby Doo. It's too bad you can't see the bottom of Jason's pants -- I made a rockin' set of bell bottoms using leftover fabric from our recliner.

Evan, as you already know, was a king. The "friend" he's holding onto is his class project, Eeyore. Each kid gets to take Eeyore home for a week and then record the adventures into a journal for the kids to read the following week. We were lucky to have Eeyore during Halloween, and as you can see, Eeyore was not without costume.

Grant wore Evan's doggy costume from last year (sorry kid, hand-me-downs are just a fact of life).

Since the weather on Halloween was awful, we only went to a handful of houses (but for a 3-year-old, it doesn't take much to please) -- and traveled by golf cart, of course. I'm convinced it's the best way to trick-or-treat. We're spoiled here in PTC...

Had to include this shot, even though it's really blurry. Can you tell how much Grant liked his costume? He finally succumbed to parental pressure and wore it without a fuss, but the beginning was kind of rocky.