Growing Kids...and colds

We have, since declaring Holly size 4T, added size 4T clothes in her clothing cue, but it seems more obvious now than ever that she's growing up.  Her nightgowns are more like nightshirts and her dresses like long shirts, but we usually put leggings or pants underneath during this colder weather.  So we really need to phase out the 3T stuff and bring in more 4T.  Even her dance teacher remarked how grown up she is now compared to two months ago.  And now we are declaring Johnny size 12 months.  He can still fit the 9 months stuff, the sleeves and pant legs are too short.  But I'm going to wait to do any clothing shopping till after Christmas since they might get some clothes for Christmas and we're just way too busy right now to squeeze that in.  And yes...cold season has returned.  The daycare called yesterday and had David pick up Johnny since he felt hot and wouldn't take a bottle.  We think he was fine and just needed his nose cleared of yuckiness so he could breathe and thus receive milk.  David was able to get 14 ounces in him before I got home and didn't feel hot at all.  Maybe after efforts to get him to take a bottle he got frustrated and that set him crying and that usually gets him a little hot.  Regardless, he cooled down and was fine.  I fed him solid food and he nursed last night and this morning like he usually does.  Johnny is sneezing now so that helps get the yuckiness out.  It's more pleasant to wipe his face than to use the snot sucker on him.  Holly has a cold too, but is old enough now to cope just fine.

The Christmas Red Zone

We've finished our Christmas shopping on Friday so basically all we have left is wrapping and shipping.  David and I have a big start on the wrapping and the shipping should be done by tomorrow.  I'll probably do some baking but I haven't thought on that much yet.  I could probably get some sugar cookies done this week since that uses pretty basic ingredients.  It would also make for a fun family activity to decorate sugar cookies.  Holiday really enjoyed it last year.  I'll figure out the rest later.  Saturday we went to my co-worker, Kathy's, Christmas music program at her church. She sings 1st soprano in the choir.  Amongst the Christmas songs were a couple pieces from Handel's Messiah which I sang back in my high school choir.  Holiday and Johnny did pretty well.  They weren't exactly quiet but they were happy and happy children's sounds aren't exactly hard to listen to, are they?  When the last hymn that the choir and audience sang was over, Holiday said at full voice level, "That's a good song!"  She really enjoyed the Hallelujah Chorus too, she couldn't understand why her daddy didn't want to dance with her in the aisles right then and there.  This morning David got up and I thought he was checking on Holly since her monitor was indicating that her monitor device was shut off.  When it didn't come back on I got up and shut off ours and went to see what was going on.  David said the power went out.  Oh yeah...I hadn't realized yet our night lights, fan, heater and everything else was off and I was just wandering around the house in the pitch black.  There was a pretty bad storm overnight and it was still marching on.  So we got ready today by light of flashlights which took a little longer so that's not too bad.  Holiday was fine, she's likes carrying flashlights around.  Johnny's okay as long as he can see everyone.  Disembodied voices aren't enough for him.  The Seattle City Light outage map shows our area was hit pretty hard...for Seattle, and that our power should be back on by 2pm today.  I hope so, or we'll need to find somewhere else to hunker down for the night.

Christmas stuff

Last Friday we went looking at Christmas lights in the area of Crown Hill.  It's not a gated community but there seems to be some kind of understanding that they're supposed to all put up lights for Christmas.  A couple houses were predominately blue and white so they're probably Jewish.  Most people really decorated nicely while a couple others put up a string or two and called it good.  Candy canes seemed to be popular this year.  Holly really enjoyed the lights and was calling them out left and right..."Santa!" "Snowman!" "Candy Canes!"  I could see Johnny back there looking at everything too.  Then on Saturday we went downtown to check out the festivities there.  First we went to Macy's to go see Santa.  There was no line at all, we just had to wait for the family that was on Santa's lap to finish their turn.  Holiday still has no wish to see Santa because she's still really scared of him, but Johnny was able to do the Santa picture.  Poor Holly.  We then took a ride on the carousel which is always a favorite activity for Holly.  After checking out the giant Christmas tree we ate some dinner.  Then we went to Pacific Place mall to check out the live music.  It was a gospel choir singing Christmas songs with piano and full percussion accompaniment and they were pretty good.  For us it just needs to be danceable and you know that Dancing Dave was out there cutting it up.  Holiday has learned enough from her dance class to follow David's lead, that made for a great video.  After that we browsed Barnes and Noble until it was time to go home.  I kind of miss downtown so that was fun for me. 

More fun photos!

 

Johnny was so excited about his new teething toy...

 

...that he couldn't wait to bite it's face.

 

Bath time!

 

Johnny with Grandpa on Thanksgiving Day.

 

Holly had successfully tucked in Molly, one of my mom's dogs.  Rocky is their beagle, you can see his tail in the forefront.

 

Hanging out with Grandpa.

 

Sweet potato time.

 

Mmmmmm....sweet potatoes.

 

Christmas jams from Grandma.

 

The hat already too small.

 

Johnny modeling our Christmas tree.

 

Those Christmas jammies are like knickers on him...they only need to last till Christmas, right?

More Pictures and kids stuff

 

Johnny playing in his saucer.  I love that shirt on him, it's just hard to get him in and out.  Especially if he's been drooling.

 

Petting the horsey.

 

There's great smile.

 

Horseys are simply fun.

 

Here's Daddy Jack-o-lantern which Holiday designed.

 

Here's Mommy Jack-o-lantern, also designed by Holiday.  Remember when I said 'asymmetry' was the theme?

 

Holiday and Anna ready for trick-or-treating.

 

Johnny and Ellie all dressed up.

 

Mommy all cozy on the couch with kids.  Looks like Johnny already zonked out.

 

Playtime with Daddy.

 

Smile!

 

Looks like a typical Sunday morning.

 

And that looks like a typical Sunday night.  Man Johnny's gotten so big.

 

I've been really busy at work so I only just had a break in my time to put more pictures up.  I don't mind too much though, busy is always a good thing in my opinion.  David's work is pretty busy too, especially this time of year with the boat show less than two months away.  It's a good thing we got our Christmas decorations up right away because we've been busy with Christmas shopping and wrapping.  It's amazing how much of our time that takes up, even when we take advantage of free shipping sales and shop online.  Maybe I'll have time to work on Christmas cards tonight.  Last week was a little rough with Johnny.  Maybe it's teething or growing or my milk production or a combination thereof, but Johnny had a really hard time going to sleep.  I have since started taking an herbal supplement at the advice of my doctor and it does seem to help.  Johnny's still gaining weight so I know he's getting enough.  I think our living space was partly to blame, that it was simply too stimulating for him to calm down.  So one night I was desperate and found a Fatboy Slim concert on cable.  It worked...nothing like a lot of repetitive dj music and flashy lights to put a baby down.  We just have to tone the house down so Johnny can wind down for the night.  He does seem to like music to put him to sleep.  He's doing much better now.  His teeth have grown in enough that he's figured out how to grind them together.  Holiday did that!  I had forgotten that awful sound.  He's also figured out how to shake his head "no".  I don't think he's actually saying "no", he can just do the head shake motion.  I've been getting more of Holly's old toys out and Johnny's really taken with the blocks.  That's something that Holly's been enjoying playing with Johnny, she stacks them and he knocks them over.  It's a great game.  Johnny's also enjoying the experience of solid food.  He really chows down.  He leans forward with every spoonful so he can get it a fraction of a second quicker.