Christmas Eve 2009

Christmas Eve was a whirlwind around here:

• Lucy and I went to see the water-skiing Santa and his reindeer at National Harbor. Her favorite was the Grinch on a jet ski. She giggled and laughed the whole time. On the way back to the car she decided she was cold. Very cold. This abruptly developed into a tantrum that lasted a good 25 minutes. We were only about 30 seconds from the car. Had she decided not to throw the tantrum she could have been warm and snug about 25 minutes earlier. I was hoping for a happier rest of the day.
• We ate dinner and dashed to evening church. We walk in and actually recieved compliments as to how well Harper was sitting waiting for the service to start. Needless to say, that was over the second the minister began to speak. She spent the remainder of the time trying to find a way out of the pew. She tried under, over, through people, weaving in and out of legs and feet. She was removed by Ian for a little while. During that time Graham charmed the pants off of the little old ladies sitting near us. Lucy surprised us both by promptly getting up and heading to the front of church all by herself for the children's sermon- a first since she is usually too shy to go by herself. She was pretty proud that she had done it by herself and that Santa was there to witness. The service ended with a candlelit sing along to "Silent Night". The girls loved seeing all the candles and the flickering light. Once the song was over Harper requested "Baa Baa Black Sheep" from the congregation, same as she does at night before bed.
• After church we had a frenzy of Santa preparations- tracking him via NORAD, sprinkling reindeer food outside, leaving cookies for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph, reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and singing "Silent Night".
• One more check on the Santa tracker and Lucy was convinced that he would be nearing our home soon, she went to sleep asap and convinced Harper to do the same. Graham obliged as well and we didn't see him until Lucy woke everybody up sometime after 7am Christmas morning.

Besides the one tantrum, all were good and Santa rewarded them lavishly in the morning.

Snowy visit

We ended up having about 17 inches at our house this weekend. With Pops, Grandma and Uncle D in town, we took the time to have an early Christmas with them. Lucy loved the snow and went out quite a bit. The snow was nearly as tall as Harper and she was therefore not as impressed. It is still lingering, although melting quickly. These snowy photos were taken when we had about 8 inches. Lucy is still going out a couple times a day. She's looking for reindeer or sleigh tracks. And she sees them everytime.

The girls enjoyed grandparent time: playing dress up, Lucy learning how to operate her new little laptop and walkie talkies, Harper playing with her new hairdryer and make up bag, playing in the snow, playing store and restaurant and reading books. Graham enjoyed new faces and having somebody to always hold him. Pops is still the best at putting babies to sleep. If only he were here more often... And Uncle D will always play, I could use that, too- he could be my "manny"... and Grandma to play with Graham or watch movies with Lucy or read books to Harper...and boy, oh boy, she can shovel snow!

"A walk"

Harper asks for one thing these days to spend her time: "A walk". What this means to Harper is that we throw on coats, grab some random baby doll or stuffed animal (usually the stuffed animal wears pants) and take the baby doll strollers outside to run wild in the court. Even better if Graham is inside, on the baby monitor, and she doesn't have to hear me saying that we have to go inside because of Graham. Lucy joins in the fun sometimes, but it really doesn't matter. Harper loves it. She strolls, she runs, she examines all the neighbors yards looking for birds nests, flowers, colorful leaves, holiday decorations, etc. We still have a lot of snow on the ground so her requests for "a walk" have been unfulfilled the past few days. I'm sure that as soon as we can, we will be hitting the pavement again. Graham will have to nap inside while Harper's baby gets some fresh air and Harper gets some quality time to do just what Harper wants to do.

Photos from St. Nick

I've already reported on the St. Nick fun we had, but I had not included photos until now. Please note the utter glee, yes, GLEE, that Lucy has on her face as she runs across the room to the fireplace to see what St. Nick brought. Only a couple of days until Santa comes, and we can't wait for that same sweet glee all over again, times a thousand.

The hair

We wet it down. We comb it. And while it does not come close to the craziness that was Harper's baby hair, it does have a mind of its own. It swirls. It twirls. It stands straight up. It feels like velvet. All of this funny hair begs to be touched. And he loves it. We have found that Graham absolutely loves to have his head rubbed. It calms him when he is crying. It makes him energized when he is playing. He smiles and he coos when you touch it. Did I mention that it feels like velvet. Gotta love it. "Da hair pa, da hair!" Tony Manero would be proud.

Graham on her heels

Harper went in for a weigh- in today. She has been our Christmas goose this past month since the doctor said that we needed to fatten her up a bit. Many avocados, cashews, hummus snacks and peanut butter sandwiches later, she has gained a pound. That still keeps her off the charts, but it is an improvement. She now weighs 19 pounds, 4 ounces.
Since we were there I had them weigh Graham as well. He gained 2 pounds in the past month and is now 14 pounds.
Little girls and a big man, Graham is gaining ground. Our Christmas goose better watch out, Graham is hungry and looking for something to eat.

Lucy's Christmas Program

Lucy's Pre-K class presented the Christmas story last week for their parents and the younger kids in the school. Lucy was asked to sing in a quartet that was responsible for singing everybody's favorite Christmas carol, "Little Donkey". Never heard of it? Well, that's a shame. Even more a shame that you didn't get to listen to it and all of its 1 1/2 minutes of glory nearly a million times each day for 3 weeks while she practiced in the living room, often adding a microphone to her rehearsal. Harper became so accustomed to the practice time that she knew the song's name "Little Honkey" and knew all the motions and dances not only to that song, but all of the others in the program as well, hence the photo of her performing the dance moves in the pew at the program, while her big sister had stage fright and did not in this particular instance.

Actually, Lucy did great, even though singing in front of a large crowd isn't really her thing, she mustered the courage and did it, even adding a smile here or there or shouting out some of the lyrics particularly loud. The toughest part for her was wearing the skirt and sweater that I required for such an event. No worries, she quickly kicked off the dress shoes moments after the performance and strapped on her sneakers for the rest of the school day and her skirt hit the floor before I had even gotten the little guys into the house when we got home. She was off to put on her "gymnastics pants and a UK tshirt". Little donkey, yes. An ass in a skirt, that she could not be a part of any longer.

Lil' St. Nick

This has become nearly an annual tradition in our house- have baby, have baby dress up in big fuzzy Santa hat for photo session. Since Graham and Lucy have similar birthdates, they are the same age in their first Christmas photos, add that to the fact that both have big blubbery cheeks at 4 months old and you have two babies that look a whole lot alike in a Santa hat. The one difference is that Lucy had super thick eyelashes at this age. Graham is FAR more manly in his Santa gear.

A Christmas Miracle

I'm going to jinx myself, just wait and see. I have bootcamp in the morning and just writing this means that I am likely to be up a zillion times tonight. But the miracle? Graham has slept through the night 4 of the past 5 nights. He eats like a furocious beast from about 5pm until 9pm and then around 9:30 he nods off and we don't see him until around 8am. I actually had to wake him this morning at 8:20 so we could make it to Harper's doc appointment. Fingers, toes and eyes crossed that this is a new phase for him. Ian and I just might get our room back by the new year- 10 years together, three kids and a whole lot of sleepless nights, I think we have earned it.

I need a photo

Photos of the snow are coming, I promise. In the meantime I didn't want to forget Lucy's latest adventure. In her preparation for going out into the snow she said, "I have on my power pants!" Then she declared that she was "Joseph" and that she and "Mary need to climb the snowy mountain to get to Bethlehem to save Baby Jesus from the bad guys who were going to go to Heaven". When looking out the window at her antics, you could see her scaling the mountains of snow calling out and talking to her imaginary friends. Thank goodness she's there to save Baby Jesus!

Tree trimming

Matching monkey pjs, Charlie Brown Christmas special on tv, advent calendar chocolates and putting up the Christmas tree. It was a good night.