My Baby is 18 Months!

Our Christmas Morning

Here is our Christmas tree, the night before we went to bed. Notice how nice the presents look under the tree.

Aidan came into our bedroom early this morning...asking for permission to play the Wii. Brian and I were a little confused...because wouldn't Santa's visit be a little more exciting than the Wii? With a little prodding, we discovered that Aidan and Alex were already busy downstairs opening presents! And we hadn't heard a thing!

As we walked downstairs, Aidan was explaining to us how he sorted all the gifts by name. This is what we saw...

We put off opening the remaining gifts until Caitlyn was awake. When it was time, Alex was in the basement playing with his cars (he's had them forever), and did not want to be interrupted to open presents. "Alex, it's time to open presents. Alex, do you want to open your presents?" We were answered by a stubborn "No! I don't want to open presents!"

So, needless to say, I was a little disappointed to miss their original reaction to Santa's visit. And a little disappointed that Alex didn't want to open anything. But they made up for it with all these great expressions...

She's walking!

At least a little bit. She took her first step on Monday, and today she took ten. She's the first one of our children that didn't need the encouragement of us stretching our arms out to say 'come here, you can do it'. Instead, she just stood up and starting walking away! 2010 is going to be full of adventure for this family.

Can you call it toast if it hasn't been toasted?

Aidan woke up early this morning, and to my surprise, had made breakfast for us all. We enjoyed cinnamon-sugar toast (not toasted), strawberries (not washed), water and our vitamins. He was so proud of himself. At the end of the meal, he told me (with tears in his eyes) that Alex hurt his feelings because he didn't eat his entire breakfast. (This was a teaching moment for me! I got to explain to Aidan how I feel when he doesn't even try some of the things I make for dinner.)

First Snow

Our first "real" snow came Tuesday, December 8th. That's actually 8 days later than last year.
Santa was going to bring kid-sized shovels for Christmas, but I couldn't wait and the boys got to open an early Chrismas gift! They had a lot of fun at first, but quickly became cold and gave up, so I ended up finishing the driveway and sidewalks by myself! They joined Caitlyn in the van, parked in the garage, watching a movie (I later found out that you should not do this for a long period of time, because your car won't start the next day!).

I am reminded every day when I read all the other blogs, how important it is to write about even the little things.

We have a tradition each December of making a countdown chain to Christmas. On the inside of each link, we write the date, and something we are supposed to do that day. Sometimes it's something like donating a toy, or food for those in need. Sometimes it's something fun like watching a holiday movie, or making a gingerbread house from scratch. Other days, we read and learn about Hanukkah or Kwanza.

A few days ago, we were to learn a new Christmas carol. Aidan had different plans though, and decided to write his own Christmas carol. One that has never been sung before. So here is what he came up with, and I love it. It also shows how much he is developing with his reading and writing skills. They are taught in kindergarten to sound out the words and spell them as they think they are to be written. He does just so with the words "selubrates" and "brth". My favorite is how he shortened the word "because", just like he does in regular coversation.