Saturday, December 26, 2009

Scenes from our holiday

There was excitement.Too many tractors.

Overstimulation and sleep.
Homemade (balls in this case)
Food in this case (again, not as cool as that fruit Sarah and Eric gave him that he can "cut")

Reusable Wrapping - I made close to 75 little Christmas bags (a lot were bigger than this...) because Raph and I had a long conversation about how wasteful Xmas is with the wrapping paper alone. And I had just mastered the drawstring bag with a gift not pictured (resuable produce bags), so I hunkered down in the 3 or 4 days leading up to Xmas and stayed up way too late to finish off a huge pile of little bags. We needed a few more (we're talking stockings here) but I figure we can add more each year. THey worked out great though and were really beautiful...

Vintage (thanks mom for the cool lego cars)
Big bellies (rumor has it that a baby entered this world last night - we're waiting for word!)
AND lots of HOCKEY







That would be me lying down on the ice. It was that much fun!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Two and a Half!

As of today, Makili is officially two and a half! Already! He is a joy. A sweetheart. A love. I can't believe how the time flies.

He is such a little man these days (until you tell him he can't have the tractor or something and he melts into a pile of hysterical sobbing on the floor - then not so manly.) He communicates everything, and uses phrases daily that I didn't even know he knew. He'll say "I'm excited about this excavator." or "You're making me crazy." (no idea where he got that?) He is getting really good at, "May I please have a _____?" If asking normally doesn't work he rephrases it that way and tries again.He is still completely. and totally. TRACTOR OBSESSED! Here you see him modeling the tractor towel I made him for Xmas which we opened a bit early. I have learned so much more about tractor than I ever hoped to. I'm really tired of reading tractor non-fiction books too. When will he move on?
Makili's favorite thing to do in the snow is to have me draw tractors. He likes to go outside, but really only if I go with him. He has gotten quite needy all of a sudden this week. We went to a Xmas eve party tonight and he practically had to hold my hand the whole time. He freaked out (and cried) when "Santa" showed up. He has been hesitant about a lot of things lately - ice skating for example. He talks a lot about doing it, but when the time comes, he is not so confident. He is funny though because he knows when we want him to do something and will tell us, "I'll do it tomorrow." For example, "I'll poop on the potty tomorrow." or "I'll blow my own nose tomorrow." (These would be conversations with Raph, fyi.)
I can't believe in all my recent pictures of him I don't have a single one of his radiant smile. I'm going to have to work on that. In any case, he seems to be growing a lot recently too. He has just about lost his toddler belly and is growing into a kid body. Boo hoo. (Thankfully, Remick has a whole lot of belly left.)
Makili continues to love puzzles and be awesome at them. I can tell him (sometimes) to go do a puzzle and he'll get out one of his 24 piece puzzles and do it himself (too fast) and say, "I did it!" He also continues to be super-coordinated. He is awesome at soccer (confirmed by several sources not related to us!) and loves to try to hit a ball (we have a whiffle ball tied to a tree that he hits frequently.) It is a daily battle to get him to not throw things in the house.

I could write a book about my big guy, but alas it is Xmas Eve and there is work to do! Here is our little Xmas corner in our tiny house. It looks a bit different now, with stockings overflowing and all...

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Stealing Some Thunder.

We had a lovely visit last weekend with Raph's cousin Sarah, her husband Eric, and her parents George and Bunny. They gave Makili the coolest gift, which to be honest sort of stole my thunder for his hand-made gift (you'll see soon enough) , but how can you compete with cool fruit that you can cut.We had a great little visit as most of the East Coast got hammered with snow. Ann and Larry didn't get any. We probably got 4 inches, thus ending our snow-free period.




Anyway, it was great to see them. (Sarah and Eric, we're keeping our fingers crossed for you.)

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Ice Time, Part 3

Raph was on a mission this weekend. He wanted to take me skating on a lake or a pond before they were covered in snow. And he was right. Being able to skate anywhere on a lake is pretty cool. Plus we got a great sunset with some great company.






Thursday, December 17, 2009

Some brotherly loving...Mickey (with the ears)?
a pile of my favorite kids...

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Ice Time, Part 2

After a few cold nights, the ice on the nearby pond was frozen enough to skate on (even though it cracked a few times and I, not being from New England, am completely terrified of breaking through the ice!). We went down there with the Mastersons so that we could "teach the kids." Ha! What a joke! The kids ate donuts on the sidelines, while Raph and George got some good ice time. I pushed Remick around the ice in the stroller for a while too.



Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Six Months Young











I did a little photo shoot of my little guy today since he is SIX MONTHS OLD!!! These are a few of my favorites. I can't believe how fast time has flown with this mini-man in my life. Just yesterday I was big as a house driving stakes into the garden. I can't believe it's December already.

This guy is growing and changing so fast! Yesterday I put him to bed in our bed and was playing trucks with Makili in the other room. I thought I heard him a few times, but he wasn't crying so I figured he was okay. Then I hear a big thud! He crawled/rolled/scooted off the bed! Thankfully we have a low bed now, but seriously I had no idea he could do that! Which of course brings sweeping changes into our little house soon! Makili has to move into a BIG bed so that Remick can have a crib, which means that Raph and I can't sleep on the futon in Makili's room any more because it won't be there, which means we might actually get to sleep in a bed together again without a baby! Here's to hoping anyway!

Remick has been sleeping better recently. We've actually started letting him sleep on his belly which seems to have made a tremendous difference. I mean, we're still up a few times a night, but not every 45 minutes!!! I'm thankful! I can actually stay up past eight getting things done because I can count on a little more sleep!

Remick continues to be a pretty mellow guy. He is so quick to smile and laugh, loves activity, music, and charms people so easily. He puts things in his mouth sometimes, but certainly not like some other babies, though that might be because he hasn't been given any solid food yet. He goes to the doctor next week, but I'm pretty sure he will weigh in on the heavy side again (see thighs above.)

I feel like part of a real family unit lately and feel very blessed to be surrounded by such great guys.