Advent and Christmas

By the time Christmas came this year, we were very ready for it.  On the night that James's first (of three) final paper was due, Charlie got quite wheezy and needed to be taken in to the ER.  That turned into a 3-night hospital stay.  Normally, that would be a bit stressful, but when it's during the week that James needs to be writing 2 papers that add up to about 25 pages each.. it's quite a challenge.  James's professors were very understanding, but he still had the deadline of needing to go back to work since he had taken off so much time.  After the papers got turned in, Charlie's breathing took a turn for the worse again.  We managed to stay out of the hospital that time, but three doctor's visits in four days left us tired too.  

Here is Lucy on St. Lucy's Day (Dec 13).  We baked a special bread together that took all day to make.  The anticipation added up to this: 

Charlie's new favorite thing: hooray!

This year's Advent wreath (apparently, it's also traditional to have all red candles instead of 3 purples and a pink).

Which brings us to Christmas Eve.  Lucy was so excited.... so so SO excited.  We skyped with both sides of the family in the afternoon which pushed back nap time quite a bit.  By the time we woke her up for dinner, she was having a hard time getting back into the Christmas spirit.

She perked right up once we mentioned presents.  Before opening presents, we put our last ornament on the Jesse tree (the Nativity) and sang a Christmas carol.

Here is a link to a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoiesA_1RjM&feature=youtu.be.  The first part is Lucy counting all of the ornaments on the Jesse Tree.  After that, you can hear her say, "That is the whole WORLD of presents!"

 Trying to get a decent picture before opening presents... difficult.

Slightly better.

 Charlie surprised me by appearing very knowledgeable about how this whole unwrapping gifts thing goes.

Lucy of course, is an old pro.  Here she is recognizing one of her favorite library books.

She held it up for all to see and then very ceremoniously carried it over to her bookshelf.

James, excited about a new book.

Me, excited about a new book.

Please excuse the copious gift opening pictures.  We promised the grandparents we'd get plenty of pictures of it all!

A special gift from Grandma Stanley-- this is an apron she got from Germany when she was a little girl.

A "jammie dress" made just for Lucy.  She refused to take it off for two days.

 Here she is modeling a purse that James and I made her.  It was a collaborative effort, made with no pattern.  It still needs some decorations, but we are very proud of ourselves.

Here is Charlie opening his walker wagon, which I still need to get a picture of him on.  It is so sweet.

A cash register so that Lucy can play "Ma'am," as she calls it.  (As in, excuse me, ma'am, could I buy these pears please?)

 After opening presents, eating too many Christmas cookies, drinking egg nog (or soy nog for me), we went to midnight Mass.  Everyone always thinks we're crazy for taking the kids to midnight Mass and they are probably right.  But here is proof for you.  These pictures were taken AFTER mass.  Around 2am.  They still look pretty good to me!  Charlie slept through it, but Lucy stayed awake the whole time.  After mass, she danced around the manger scene for about 15 minutes.

We spent the next day sleeping in, feasting on crepes for brunch, staying in our pajamas, listening to Christmas music, playing with new toys, and feasting again at dinner.  A very happy and relatively quiet Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all of you!  Lucy reminds us every morning, "Merry Christmas!  It's still Christmas for TWELVE DAYS!"  

Oh, the last month or so

We were sick, one after another with a seriously nasty cold virus that lasted each of us at least a month.  James still has it.  Charlie developed RSV (an infection of the lungs from a cold-- it's not uncommon for babies), and had to use the nebulizer for a while again.  So, November is a bit of a blur, but here we are in December and things are starting to happen again.

James had a nice birthday (in November), even though the rest of us already had the cold by then.  Lucy and I made him an angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream.

As James loves doing all things "from scratch," or "how they used to make them," one of his presents was a cheesemaking kit.  So, you can now add "cheesemaker" to both of our resumes as we turned out a successful batch of mozzarella (no picture, sorry).

Lucy, enjoying the fruits of her labor.

Charlie is getting stronger all the time and learning all kinds of new things, though still not gaining weight.  Here's a little funny face squinty eye smile he gives me.

He has also begun to fall asleep randomly.  One minute he is wide awake, the next he is passed out.  He was enjoying a snack of cheerios on the (clean) floor when exhaustion hit.  Notice that his hand had just brought a bite to his mouth.

Charlie can now pull himself up to standing and is SO PROUD of himself.  He gets on his knees and grunts in self-approval, then pulls himself slowly on to his feet and sighs with deep satisfaction.  He learned how to "hooray" for himself or to ask us to hooray for him by stretching his arms up (no picture of that yet).

We took a little adventure with our playschool group this past Tuesday.  The Botanical Gardens downtown has an annual holiday exhibit which includes model trains and landscapes made entirely of natural materials.  So, we rode the train (metro) downtown and then watched the trains.  

Behind them is a replica of the Capitol Building, made of natural materials.  I couldn't figure out what those natural materials were (signs would have been helpful).  

It was almost 70 degrees, so we got to enjoy a nice lunch on the lawn.  I caught Lucy laying down in the middle of a big grassy spot, singing to a flower she had picked.

 I think now she was singing about the water.

 Which bring us to today, St. Nicholas Day.  Last night I told Lucy we should leave our shoes out for St. Nicholas to see if he would bring us anything, but I left it vague.  When it came time to do so, she cried for about a half hour and insisted that she was going to keep her shoes in or at least near her bed while she slept.  Later, James and Lucy were chatting and telling stories before bed and St. Nicholas kept coming up and Lucy would whimper every time.  She finally admitted she was scared of St. Nicholas because he was going to "take my shoes and make them dirty."  James set her straight by telling her the full story of St. Nicholas.  When he got to the part about how he was a bishop who gave good gifts to people, she exclaimed, "Oh, I'm getting excited now!"

St. Nicholas was exonerated of all false claims against him (funny, because he is the patron saint of the falsely accused) when Lucy discovered M&Ms and chocolate coins in her shoes this morning.  She is more excited than she looks.  It takes her about an hour to fully wake up.