30 Months - Milk and Cuddles

I can't believe you are 2 and a half.

I also can't believe I have never written about Milk and Cuddles. I don't know how long it has been going on exactly, at least as long as Tess has been with us, but that is how you tell us when you are ready for bed. Depending on whether you crash hard or are just trying to sneak a sippy full of milk out of us you let either your dad or me know that you are ready for milk and cuddles - which means we are supposed to get you a sippy of milk and then your dad or I (usually dad) will take you in on our bed and read to you until you fall asleep. It is a pretty fun routine most of the time. Sometimes though you will tell us you are ready and your dad will take you in and about 20 minutes later the door opens and instead of your dad walking out with an empty sippy you walk out instead. Not cool, kid, not cool. We don't like being fooled. You did this to me last night and I ended up taking you for a pajama ride around midnight and you STILL didn't fall asleep but instead jabbered in the backseat the whole time we were gone. We finally had to just turn everything off and put you in bed with us so we could get some sleep. You're a stinker sometimes but I think "milk and cuddles" is almost as cute as when you called your bottle your "bopple."

I am so excited for Christmas this year because you are starting to figure things out a little bit more. You love to put on your Santa hat and say "Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas!" and then you will come sit on my lap or your dad's lap and say "Hi Santa, what do you want for Christmas?" It's pretty funny. Hopefully you don't have a great memory yet though because I didn't hide your presents very well and a week or so ago I looked down the stairs to the basement and saw you toting up your bowling set that Santa is going to bring you. I took it from you and explained that it wasn't ours but you bawled anyway. Sorry buddy, I'll do better in the future. We also got you a basketball hoop and so when we ask you what you want Santa to bring we kind of coax you into saying that you want a basketball hoop. This is especially fun because for some reason you say hoop, hup. I want a basketball hup. I think we asked you about 10 times tonight just to get you to say it so we could laugh. I seriously can't wait for Christmas so I can see how excited you will hopefully get to see what Santa has to bring you.

You went to see Santa the other day with your Grandma Veater at the mall and while I was kinda bummed I didn't get to go with you the first time you met him, we got a picture from Grandpa Veater and you didn't look like you were all that excited to sit on his lap. Maybe next year...

You are getting so tall lately. The other day at church we actually made it there early enough to get a bench and I was amazed at how much taller than it you were. I can't imagine how I am going to feel when I wake up one day and you are taller than me. At the rate you are going it won't take too long into your teen years I'm guessing.

You still have your tough moments and we still have plenty of what your dad calls brother/sister catfights but there is nothing I love more than hearing you say that I am your best friend. And I know there is nothing better to your dad than hearing you call him your best pal. Tessa may be cute and get a lot of attention right now but you are definitely fun to have conversations with. Your imagination is coming out and I can only imagine the helicopters, temples and tunnels for your car Danger that we can build with all the blocks Santa is going to bring.


Love you bud,
Mom

You were so tired at Thanksgiving and asked Quade if you could lay on his lap. Quade wasn't quite sure he wanted to let you...

You and Tess with your tails.

You and dad shoveling the snow we got in Kanab.

Sugar Cookies and Snow

So on Monday we got quite a bit of snow in Kanab (I was so excited - that's one of the things I think we all miss about Enoch), but the bad thing was it knocked out our satelitte tv basically all day. In a way that was a good thing too though because we had decided to have family home evening and make sugar cookies and it only helped that there was basically nothing better to do...

Logan rolling out his piece of dough. Every time I make something where the dough needs to be rolled out I have to make sure and give him a piece and his little rolling pin so he can get in on the action.

Tess helped from her high chair.

So I put the first batch in the oven and checked on them after 8 minutes and they looked really gross - kind of greasy and not at all cooked so I left them in for a few more minutes and when I came back they looked the same. Yeah, turns out I am a genius and had set the temperature on the oven but hadn't turned it to Bake.

So... about 20 minutes later the cookies were baked and I threw them all in the fridge to hurry and cool. Luckily Logan and Dave are used to my forgetfulness and were pretty patient. Logan didn't mind too much because he ate the frosting the whole time they were cooking.

Logan and dad getting the cookies frosted.

Logan's masterpiece. He worked so hard on getting this cookie done that it was the only one he did.

By the time we were through Tess had gotten bored and was trying to take off.

All in all we had fun even if it did end up being a lot longer than we had planned. We spent the whole time trying to teach Logan that Christmas is Jesus' birthday and that Santa brings us presents because he is so happy about Jesus being born. Hopefully he'll remember that part of the night!

Christmas Cards!

Because of a killer promotion at seehere.com I was forced to order my Christmas cards WAY earlier than I normally would. This is good because I thought I would get them out earlier than normal but nope, I've had my Christmas cards in my hands for over a week now and haven't looked at them again since they got here. But now that I have procrastinated long enough to put myself back on my schedule it is time to start getting them in the mail where they belong.

Last year I thought I was going to be less obnoxious from now on and I put everyone's address in an Access database when I had the program at work last and guess what? I don't have Access at home so...

If you want a Christmas card with our beautiful mugs on it I ask one thing in return - your address. You can leave a comment, message me on Facebook or just email me at specialk217@gmail.com. Don't be shy either - I ordered 50 of them because I got them for free so even if you only kind of like our family I will still send you one.

6 Months - Sitting Pretty

So that last month went by pretty quick and just like I expected you have learned something new again. On Veteran's Day your dad was off work and we were sitting around the house and I was trying to teach you to sit up by yourself. You were struggling a bit and were pretty tipsy but I told your dad that I bet in 2 weeks it would seem weird that you couldn't sit by yourself. Sure enough, about a week later you were sitting like a pro. I think this is one of my favorite stages because you are so happy to be able to be up off the ground on your own that you don't care if I run in the next room or sit you on the floor and throw toys in your lap while I cook dinner. You also love to sit in the saucer and play with the toys and it is even better when I give you a biter biscuit to slobber on. You are a bit behind Logan on getting the teeth so you definitely aren't biting on the biscuit, but you don't seem to mind.



I must not have given you a biscuit to slobber on when this picture was taken because if I had your face would be covered with it.

I started you on solid foods a little sooner than I did with Logan and you seem to enjoy them a lot more than he did. You LOVE applesauce, pears, peaches, and even prunes but the look you gave me when I put green beans in your mouth was not unlike the look Logan gave me when I fed him avocado. I think the chill and gagging afterwards almost knocked you right over. I guess we'll have to work on the vegetables...

You don't sleep through the night anymore and in fact, have become quite a bad sleeper. Your dad tells you this all the time but it doesn't stop you from getting up at least twice during the night. I knew the sleeping through the night thing wouldn't last very long so I'm not too surprised but I wouldn't mind if you started sleeping better.

This last week was your first Thanksgiving and we went to Grandma and Grandpa Veater's for dinner. We took Veater family pictures the next day and I was so worried about you because we had them scheduled right during your morning nap time but it turns out you did fabulous. In fact, you were a really good baby the whole weekend and we had a good time.

You also did pretty good when we took our family pictures earlier this month but we didn't manage to get too many smiles out of you - you still looked cute though. I made a hat to go with your dress because you don't have a whole lot of hair yet but in just the last couple weeks it has started to fill in so maybe you won't end up with the thin hair curse that I have.


We go to the doctor tomorrow so hopefully I will remember to enter your stats here when we get home. You are nowhere near as big as your brother was at this age and now I am just hoping you fit into all the cute summer clothes I bought for next year! Whew! I remembered to add them. As of December 2nd you are 14 pounds, 13 ounces and in the 27% percentile for weight (I freaked but the doc says it's all good), 25.5 inches long (42%) and your head is 17.25 inches (85%). Basically you are the opposite of Logan at this age. He was 20 pounds (90%), 28 inches (90%) and his head measured in the 20%. Looks like we have big babies with small noggins or small babies with big noggins. Either way you both are growing fast!

You are such a sweet baby and I am enjoying seeing you develop more of a personality. I can't believe you are already halfway to a year old but I am so glad I get to stay home and see all the things you are learning. I won't be surprised at all if you are crawling or at least pretty dang close by the time I write your next letter, but really I am in no hurry for you to be more mobile.

Love you stink,
Mom

This better be the only naked picture of you to ever surface on the internet.


Cool baby.

Sitting pretty.