Merry CHRISTmas! (but Bah Humbug to the photos...)

The cards are in the mail, so most of you will have it in your hands soon. I'm getting better at Photoshop, but I have a long ways to go. It's better than last year's Photoshop card. Now to work on photographing two boys together...perhaps if my Nikon was still functional, I'd have hope of capturing that perfect shot. I miss that camera!

Blurry, but cute...

I could NOT get a smiling picture of both boys for the Christmas card. What an adventure that was! I gave up when Alex (accidentally) whacked Max in the face and his cheek turned all red.

These three were the best...and they are not all that great. I finally gave in & settled for a non-blurry, semi-nice picture of the two boys together.

Don'tcha just love the cheesy grin for a Christmas card? ;)

Next year, I'm doing what my friend Kathy did. She has 3 small photo boxes on her card, with a picture of each smiling child in his/her own individual box. Much cuter, and I'm sure it's much less stressful, too! Oh well, live and learn!

The chosen picture - with flailing baby hands and an "I'm tired of this" face.

At least Alex is smiling nicely...

Oh, and I changed the blog header to a blurry image just for now...because I love their little heads snuggled together. I'll change it to something better in January ;)

Everyday Stuff

Another random photo post...sometimes, pictures just don't warrant a post of their own...but here are some little bits of our life in late November/early December.

We got a Wii! Techically, it's our Christmas present to each other. We opened it when Keith was off for a few days at Thanksgiving...and we had fun! Alex had been sick on and off, and this day was an "on" day...so we didn't want to go out. Instead, we invited Grandma & Papa to come over and bowl with us.
I was trying to take a "thank you" picture of Max with his new handmade tag blankie and bib from my Aunt Shari. Alex just couldn't let me take a picture of Max in the big chair...he had to be included!

Oatmeal Scotchies with a few chocolate chips thrown in. Alex loves to "tir, tir, tir" with Mama, every chance he gets!

I think he's a little big for this...

I really hate this picture. I need a haircut desperately. But it's a picture of me with my boys...and those are few & far between.

It's probably pretty obvious that this tower has some symmetry...Alex didn't build it alone. He did insist that his sippy cup be included in the tower, though. Alex got hold of my camera when I was busy with Max one afternoon. I didn't even know he did it until I was loading pictures onto the computer, but we have close to 50 pictures of this snowman.

Here's why we gave up on a smiling portrait of Max.

Don't you usually empty the dishwasher while wearing a winter hat?

Alex is very into "fixing" baby's swing with his toy screwdriver.

Hey, who's that cute baby in the mirror? (By the way, this cute baby started rolling back-to-belly last week Monday, November 30th. He's growing too quickly!)

Max gets in on the holiday fun...

Daddy put up the front tree with the pretty colored lights and fun ornaments. Mama has a pretty snowman tree with white lights in the living room. Alex loves both, but he's most fascinated with Daddy's tree.

Mama constantly encourages him to keep his fingers off the ornaments. When you tell a little one not to touch the tree, but to "use his eyes" instead...watch out. He might take you literally & actually touch the ornaments with his eyes! :)

Happy Thanksgiving! (The S family is a big bunch, and we even had a few extra guests this year.)

Uncle Dave & Aunt Jan's foster puppies (Alex is sitting with me right now, and he says, "Puppa! Puppa! Woof woof!")

Alex's First Haircut

Alex got his first haircut today. Before Max was born, Daddy & I trimmed the back. This time, though, it was time to get a nice cut. Erica cuts my hair, so we decided to ask her to cut Alex's hair too. We love her, and she's good with kids!

Unfortunately, my camera screen stopped working, so I couldn't see how the pictures were turning out. I uess it's not any different from film cameras, come to think of it. I'm just so used to seeing the pictures as I take them.

Before...

During...

Alex was very nervous about sitting in the chair, and his eyes filled with tears. He sat still, but he wasn't happy. We tried to talk to him and keep him calm, but it took a sucker from Erica to make it all better.

He was fine from that point on, although I don't think he really enjoyed it. Erica used the razor around his ears. Alex handled that better than I thought he would, but he always admires Daddy's razor, so maybe that's why?

After...

Erica asked him to smile, and Alex gave us a nice (but quick) grin!

We left with a "first haircut" certificate that has a cut-out for that first clip of hair. Erica did SUCH a good job with a nervous little boy, and she (very sweetly) only charged us half price.

Grandma came along with us to see the first haircut, and she watched Max for us so Mama could have her hands free for Alex. Thanks, Grandma, for your help! We appreciate you! (Oh, and thanks for the McDonalds, too!)

Now I'm off to give some M&Ms to the little boy who is just waking up from his nap. After his haircut, we offered him M&Ms as a treat for being such a good boy, but he fell asleep in the car on the way home!

I plan to take Christmas card pictures tomorrow, so hopefully we'll show off some REAL "after" pictures soon!

Sorry, Santa...

Call me Scrooge, but I had no intentions of taking Alex to see Santa. I figure, if he's big enough to ASK to see Santa and sit on his lap, we'll go. I don't feel the need to drag him to sit on Santa's lap if he doesn't care, though. I did have intentions of taking him to the Christmas open house at the local John Deere store, though. I knew he'd just love it! Somehow, despite reading the ads in the newspaper, I missed the fact that Santa would be at the open house. But there he was, sitting in his sleigh, being pulled by eight tractors. (Did you expect reindeer?!)

Alex only recognizes Santa because there's a Santa statue about the same size as Alex by the pharmacy counter at CVS. He loves to look at that statue, just staring at it while we wait for our prescriptions. (With the sickies in our house, we've definitely visited that pharmacy enough recently to get Alex very well acquainted with the statue!)

Well, going to the tractor store was a HUGE hit! Alex loved checking out all the tractors - big and small - toy tractors, real tractors, tractor puzzles, tractor shirts. I think it was kind of like DisneyWorld for a tractor-lovin' boy.

Alex had explored the store, sat on real tractors, driven toy tractors, and stared at Santa from afar. We decided we'd offer him a chance to sit with Santa. I picked him up, plopped him down next to Santa, and Alex just truly didn't care. He turned away from Santa (not out of fear) and held out his arms to me, climbed down, and tried to climb onto one of Santa's sleigh-pulling tractors.

So, that was this year's visit with Santa.

After that, we thought maybe Alex would like to go to the cookie-decorating table. Our child never turns down a good cookie. Nope. He saw the cookies, didn't care, and went straight back to the tractors. He played a little more, and then (since Max was fussing) we headed to the car. Poor Alex. He didn't pitch a fit about leaving, but he cried all the way home. Just sobbed. He was sooooo sad to leave his beloved tractors. I guess it's a good thing he's having a tractor birthday party, huh?

I'm thinking maybe we need a tractor sweatshirt for the occasion...Alex sure wouldn't mind a return trip to the John Deere store!

Build A "Puppa" Workshop

A while back, Grandma S gave us a coupon for $5 off a Build A Bear. Since it would expire soon, Alex took his first trip to Build A Bear Workshop while we finished up our Christmas shopping yesterday.

He's still a little young to understand the process and the fun (and we need more stuffed animals in our house about as much as I need another hole in my head...) but Alex had been SUCH a good little boy during our morning of shopping! I just couldn't help but reward him.

I narrowed it down to a few animals, and Alex sort-of picked an adorable dog. I think he decided on this one. We can't be sure, as he kept tossing it back in the bins. I think he was just trying to put it back where it came from.

Watching the stuffing go 'round and 'roundAlex stepped on the pedal to help stuff his dog.

Almost finished

Putting in the heart after giving it a kiss

The bath part was a little scary. I don't think Alex expected the noisy blower.

Mama sat with him to help complete the birth certificate, but first, Alex had to try it by himself. The trick is naming a doggy when you don't quite understand the concept of names, so I quickly chose "Patch" since it fit the look of the dog. If I'd been thinking, I would have chosen "Puppa", which is Alex's word for dog.

Alex loves his Puppa! Puppa slept with him last night, all snuggled under his arm. Puppa took a nap with Alex today, too. He may soon be replaced by a different animal, but for now - Puppa is a hit.

Thanks, Aunt Deb, for being our photographer...and Grandma, for being our "Max Holder"!

Home Portraits (Max - 3 months)

We did these at home this morning, and Max did NOT want to give any big grins. He was content, at least. The blanket is all bunched up, too, but what else could happen with a toddler "helping" me? I may try another day. We'll see.

I have a question, though: If you are a member of our family who will be hanging Max's picture in your home, would you want this on your wall, or should I get professional 3 month pictures taken? And which one would you want? (I can print different things for different people.)

If you're a friend, I still value your opinion...although you're probably not getting a 5x7 of Max ;)

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23 months

Last night at Bunco, someone asked me how old Alex is. I answered, "He'll be two in December." Then I realized something. It *IS* December. Whoa. How did that happen? I'm going to have to start singing Fiddler On The Roof songs about children growing up too quickly!

I think I'll skip the paragraphs & just list some of what Alex is up to these days. I'm sure some of these are repeats from last month.

• Alex brings diapers to the diaper pail & throws away trash when asked.
  


• He informs me when his diaper needs to be changed.
  


• Likes to ride horses. It's a good thing we don't go to the mall very often, as this horse is pricy! Grandpa S introduced him to the Meijer 1 cent horse, and he likes it just as well. He rode it again the other day, putting in the penny and pressing the green button all by himself just like Grandpa showed him.
  




• LOVES his little brother like crazy!





• He speaks in funny little "sentences" of 3 or 4 words. He definitely is not a real talker yet, but he gets his point across.
  


• "No" has become a major part of his vocabulary. Sigh.
Attitude. Yeah, he can really have attitude when he feels like it.





• He adds new words to his vocabulary every day, and I just can't keep up. I've kept a word list all along, not knowing when it would be the right time to stop recording his words. When you can't keep up with him, it's time to stop.



• He is still 100% in love with tractors and trucks of all kinds.
  


• He loves to help me "tir, tir, tir" in the kitchen. Tir = stir, but it means that Alex wants to help me cook, bake, etc...even if I'm not stirring. On this day, we made chicken soup. He was all excited to taste a spoonful, but he spit it out & made a funny face when he realized it wasn't a dessert.



• He calls ladybugs and elephants "Whassis, Whassat" even though he knows what they are.
  


• He clearly says, "woof woof" when asked what a doggy says.
  


• He tells EVERYONE "hi!" when we're out shopping. (Unless they say hi first, and then Alex won't say anything.)
  


• The Egg Story - some of you have heard this, but I want to remember it ...We quickly ran into the local grocery store for just a few items the other day. Somehow, Alex knocked over our carton of eggs, and some of them cracked. I figured I'd better pay for them since my kiddo did it. So, we get to the checkout, and Marilyn (who many people think is a pretty cranky lady, and she usually isn't too friendly to people with young children...) is our cashier. I said, "There are broken eggs in there, so could you please bag them separetely? Alex broke them, so we're buying them". Marilyn looks at Alex, and he raises his hand (school-style) and says, "ME!" Now, I've always kind of liked grumpy Miss Marilyn, and I've often purposely chosen her as our cashier, but I've *never* seen her laugh like she did that day. Leave it to Alex...
  


• He is in love with Special K crackers. He'll pull each cracker box out of the pantry one at a time, stare at the pictures, replace the boxes, and ALWAYS choose the Special K crackers. Ritz? No. Graham? No. Triscuit? No. Special K? "Yeah, Mama, Yeah. Crack-uh! Yeah!" Oh, and you must put them in an old margarine tub and sit at the kitchen table while you eat them. Otherwise, they're just not as good.
  


• He will feign sleepiness to get out of eating. He may truly be sleepy, but as soon as I wash him & put away his tray of food, he'll see a cookie and get all excited.



• He pulls the plug when he decides his bathtime is finished. Sometimes he pulls it after 2 minutes; sometimes after 10 minutes.



• He's added Franklin (the turtle) books to his list of favorites.



• He makes monkey sounds when he wants to watch Curious George on TV. If it was up to Alex, Curious George would be on all day, every day. We've had tantrums when I've told him no more George. (I'm allowing him no more than 2 Georges per day, although we broke the rules when he had a fever and croup last week...and I'm paying for it now!)
  


• He's loving Fruit Roll-Ups Simply Fruit (no sugar, just fruit juice to sweeten it) but he doesn't like me to take off the plastic backing...therefore, he sometimes forgets & chews the plastic.



• Other favorite snacks are: homemade cookies, Costco's animal crackers, raisins, fruit of all kinds, crackers & cheese



• He loves to drink juice of all kinds, and he still only drinks milk mixed with kefir/drinkable yogurt (or chocolate milk on occasion). He doesn't like white milk, and he spits it out every time I try.
  


• He thinks that lemonade is an amazing treat, and he's still wishing to try Mama's Coke sometime. Keep wishing, Buddy! ;)



• He's waking between 6:30 and 7 AM, napping for about 45 min to 1 hour, and going to bed at around 8:15 PM. He's excited to go to bed at naptime, and I think he should be napping a little longer, but he canNOT fall back to sleep after he wakes up. Drives me nuts. After almost 2 years, I've learned, though, that I can't force him to sleep. I've tried. I've been so consistent that I drive the family batty. Even so, I've failed. Alex is just not a sleeper...and Mama just has to deal with it.



• He *hates* getting his teeth brushed. He grudgingly lets us brush the bottom teeth, but he'll do everything in his power (which is a LOT!) to keep us from brushing the top teeth. We wonder if it has something to do with the small chip on his front tooth. (That happened when he was about 17 months old.) We've tried every trick, including a fun light-up toothbrush, but nothing works. So, for now, we just hold him down while he screams, and we brush those teeth every night before bed. Poor kid. I feel like an abusive parent, but what else can we do? Hopefully the dentist will have some advice...once he turns two & we choose a dentist.



• He's discovered how to open doorknobs from both sides. (Before, he could open a door that swings away from him, but not one that swings towards him...if that makes any sense.)



• This door-opening skill means that he can now escape from his bedroom. Several mornings in a row, we've woke up to Alex out of his room when he gets up for the day. We don't think that's very safe, and we continue with what we've always done - make him sit on his bed and call, "UP!" I'm trying to decide whether we should get a doorknob cover to keep him from leaving his bedroom.
  


• Yesterday, I was in our bedroom when Alex woke from his nap. I heard him over the monitor. He went from dead-silent to yelling "Tractor!!!!" He dashed out of bed, opened his door, ran down the hallway, and was halfway up to the bonus room before I stopped him. With a guilty look on his face, he returned to his bed and quietly said, "Up?"



• Speaking of the bonus room, Alex can also now open the door to the bonus room, which is his playroom. Since he's very capable on the stairs now, we allow him to play upstairs more often. He'll sometimes let himself upstairs & play independently. Right now, he mostly loves the slide and the little toy trains. He also loves to stand by the window & 'spy on the neighborhood'.
  


• He loves "toos" - the toy tools in his bedroom or the real tools in the garage or at the store. I love to watch him hammering the plastic nails into his workbench. He still uses the wrong end of the hammer, and it's pretty cute!
  


• He likes to play with plastic containers & lids - screw-on lids, pop-off lids, etc. I moved some of our plastic pitchers & containers to cabinets that he can reach.




• He likes to take big rubber balls and hit them with the metal holder for my pizza stone. I don't know why, but this is his newest "sport". Strange child. Creative, though...

I could write more...a lot more! I could add more pictures, too. Naptime just isn't long enough for putting together posts with so much text and pictures. (Moving the photos around is a major pain!) It already takes me several naptimes to put together a post, and I'd like to post this one before he turns 2...and it's approaching all too quickly! :)