Catching up on photos again

 

Mommy and Johnny sitting in Holiday's chair.  It's quite comfortable.

 

Daddy's giving Johnny a bath.

 

Holly's 'helping'.  Johnny got really splashy so his baths all take place in the bathroom now.

 

This is Holiday's Halloween costume this year.

 

What a great bunch of smiles.

 

Close up!

 

Princess Holiday.

 

Mommy and Johnny playing Le Havre.

 

I wonder if these made it on Board Game Geek yet.

 

The many faces of Johnny.

 

More smiling.

 

Some tongue action.

 

And back to smiling.

 

We had a great Thanksgiving and a great time visiting with family and friends over the weekend.  David's turkey was a success as was all his other dishes as well.  I think the kids' schedule got a little out of sync because there were a couple of melt downs due to fatigue.  We got our Christmas decorations up Sunday night and Holiday helped with that.  She's pretty excited about that.  The ornaments she put on were placed about a dozen to every twig.  I spread them out a bit after she went to bed so she hasn't noticed.  Every morning when she gets up she's surprised and excited to see the Christmas tree.  Johnny just likes the Christmas kitty that sings "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" in meow-ese.

Thanksgiving preparations

Pretty usual happenings in the Anderson house.  Johnny's doing better with teething, Holly's still dancing through the house and David's getting over his cold.  We had family pictures done this last Saturday, Johnny did really well and Holly did okay.  It's probably a toddler thing, but I still liked the pictures we got.  We did finish the bulk of our Thanksgiving shopping.  It's a good thing David already cleaned out the refridgerator so we had room.  We have the turkey in the thawing process right now.  I made a shopping list and forgot it at home, remarkably I was able to remember everything on the list.  We didn't do any yard work this weekend because the weather has been so wet and windy.  David and I have been do our best to keep up with it, so the bushes and lawn look great, with some leaves down but not bad, and there's always weeding to do but I consider the flower beds to be in decent shape.  I still think that's better than most people.  There's simply a lot of die-off in autumn anyways so I just clean it up as I go.  My mom is hosting Thanksgiving this year.  My sister Kelly will make the haul from Spokane and will get to meet Johnny for the first time so that's exciting.  We'll just bring the playpen and the saucer so we can function with Johnny.

The balloon song and other kids' stuff

The other night Holly sang us the 'Balloon Song' (which is pronounced 'bawoon').  It's a song that Holly made up so it's absolutely fantastic.  It went on for several minutes and David even joined in.  Sometimes it required Holly running into the kitchen where I was at the time to incorporate mommy in the kitchen doing dishes, into her song.  We have our Christmas coo-coo clock up now so she's excited about that.  In one of Grandma Linda's recent packages she sent Johnny a giraffe teething toy that squeaks.  I pulled it out of the box and started squeaking it and Johnny turned around to see what the squeaking was and just had to have it.  He immediately bit it's face.  That was an instant hit if there ever was one.  We've been upping the tummy time because Johnny's been trying so hard to be able to crawl.  He either gets his front end up or the back end, has been unsuccessful to do both at the same time, but he's trying.  We can't just leave him in his cradle anymore because he can flip over in it now.  He doesn't move if he's asleep in there, otherwise we have to stick him in the saucer if we have to leave the room.  We're still practicing sitting up unassisted too.  Johnny's teeth have made a lot of progress coming down so I hope the actual cutting part is done.  He had a fever on Tuesday so I stayed home with him.  It was a long day of crying and napping with a few moments of happy baby time.  Thank Goodness we had Tylenol on hand.  His fever broke that night and for the last two nights he's slept through the night until I wake him up.  Woo-hoo!

Johnny's 6 month check up

Johnny had a check up today:
19lbs 6.6 oz (80th percentile)
27 inches (77th percentile)
8 teeth total (yup another tooth)
All the 6 month shots plus the flu shot

I've decided to continue breastfeeding since it's still working out.  If Johnny and I can make it till he's a year old we won't need to do formula at all.  So as long as Johnny and I are still happy with the breastfeeding situation, we'll carry on.  We might have to get a new car seat for him sooner than later though.  It's rated for 22 lbs but the straps are as big as they get.  Other than that we just need to get his vitamins in him.  He'll need a flu shot booster next month. 

Holiday had her flu shot today as well:
31 lbs
37 inches tall

We bought her some 4T panties and a pair of pajamas.

Growth Spurting

Remember two days ago when I wrote that Holiday was still 3T...?  Well, now she's 4T.  Suddenly her dresses seem too small, especially since we're putting leggings and long sleeved shirts underneath now.  We don't presently have much in the way of 4T yet so the clothing 'field' is completely open.  She still has clothes that fit, so she'll wear those until she can't, but they're definitely on their way out.  I probably need to go through both Johnny and Holiday's clothes and get rid of some stuff.  On another note, remember two days ago when I wrote that Johnny has two new teeth...?  Let's make that count 5 making a grand total of 7 teeth with 1 on the way.  Five teeth is a lot to break through all at once.  Johnny also was officially 6 months old yesterday, we have a check up for him scheduled on Monday morning.  Holiday will get her flu shot too.  David and I still need to get ours, we'll do that some Saturday when we have time.  Johnny is grabbing at toys (and remotes and phones) much more now.  So we're cracking out more of Holiday's old toys for him to play with.  He really likes rattle toys, they way he shakes them (which is really wide) is the most deliberate rattling I've ever seen.  Have him standing up in his saucer and give him a rattle and Johnny is the happiest baby in the world and thus he chirps away.

More teeth...

Johnny has some more teeth, one came in on the bottom last week and this week one of his front top teeth came in.  The grand total is 4 teeth and we can see 4 more teeth that will bust through any second.  That's a lot of teeth to have all at once.  Johnny was kind of fussy this weekend...which is understandable.  He hasn't quite gotten up to a fever though which is good.  But it's much more difficult to feed him because he just doesn't want it, and that's majorly frustrating for me.  There's been requests on sizing on him and his current sizing is still current.  The next size will be the 12 month sized stuff, but I have no idea when that shift will come.  I did go through what I have for him in the 12 month sizes and it seems to be mostly jeans and coats with a smattering of other stuff.  So he'll need oneses and pajamas and regular cotton pants too.  He's got a lot of socks so they'll probably a while (depending on growth spurts of course).  It does seem like my children are a little bobble-head-like so their hat sizes are a size ahead of everything else.  Johnny's got only one hat that fits him right now, so he'll need something for the future.  Holiday's sizing is still all the same at 3T but getting taller.  We watched her dance class this last weekend and she's learned quite a lot.  She's also been enjoying our trips to the library, checking out books. 

Happy Birthday Daddy!

We'll celebrate by having Sunday brunch this Sunday at the Ivar's Salmon House, but Daddy can have his presents tonight. ;) 

The Halloween report is that all went well.  The rain gave us enough of a break that we were able to do door to door trick-or-treating.  Holiday loved it... "Twick-o-tweat!" "Happy Halloween!" "Thank you!"  "You're wearing bunny ears!"  It just didn't get old.  Her jack-o-lantern basket got so heavy that she either had to carry it with two hands or pass it off to someone else to carry.  It was quite a haul for a 3 year old.  I've looked over every piece and not only do I think they're all save to eat, I think Toni and Drew neighbors give out pretty good candy.  There was only one tootsie roll in the bunch (man I hate those...they're like 'almost' candy).  Johnny was getting fussy towards the end but he's usually in bed for the night by then.  We were only out for an hour.  Johnny went to bed pretty well, Holly took a little convincing but it wasn't the worst.  She probably fell asleep within the hour.  In spite of David and I going to bed about the usual time, we overslept by a half hour this morning.  We're still pretty tired I guess, but we managed to kick it in gear and get out the door on time after having that initial wake up freak out moment.  We just have to move like crazy.  I don't think I could handle doing that very often.  Marie, our daycare lady, even had time this morning to sing David a Happy Birthday song.