Christmas 2010

Well, Christmas and New Year's were certainly eventful.  First, I must thank my friend, Amiebeth for the loan of her decorations.  Our stuff didn't get here in time, so having her's made it much more festive around here.

Jamie was just starting to get the concept of Santa, so this video was actually a little scary for him.  Of course, it got even scarier when his father told him that Santa was going to come into his room and check that he was sleeping.  I wasn't sure we were going to be able to get him to go to bed that night.  He was so freaked out that this guy was going to come into his room!

Of course, when Christmas morning arrived and he discovered THE dumptruck on the hearth, Santa wasn't such a bad guy after all.  In fact, he was so in love with the dumptruck that it took us another 30 minutes to get him interested in opening any other presents.

Once he started though, we couldn't stop him.  :)  I think he's going to be very disappointed next year when Braden and Gavin want to open their own presents.  Jamie got to open almost everything under the tree.

Braden loved the paper and Gavin was content to just sit and take it all in.

That afternoon we invited a few friends over to share Christmas dinner with us.  We enjoyed a wonderful turkey with all the trimmings.  It was quite an accomplishment for me.  It was the first time I made the entire meal by myself from scratch.  Stuffing from scratch...apple and pumpkin pie from scratch (including the crust, but not from fresh pumpkin).  It was wonderful, but it was a lot of work!

6 Months Old

Wow, time is really flying by!  We are just a few days shy of Christmas and the weather here is gorgeous!  It doesn't really feel like the holiday, but we are trying to get into the spirit nonetheless.  Today, however, was the babies 6 month check up.

Braden

Braden weighed in at 16 lbs even and 27 inches tall.  He's still a bit small by full-term standards, but quite big by pre-term standards.  More importantly, though, he is developmentally right on track for a 6 month old.  Unlike his brothers, though, he has ZERO interest in solid foods.  Any time we try to feed him, he literally gags.  Needless to say, we aren't trying that often.  ;)

Gavin

Gavin was only slightly smaller at 15lbs and 26.77 inches tall.  He is also developmentally right where he is supposed to be.  Although, he is smaller, you'd never know it by the way he eats.  He LOVES food.  He's getting quite good at his pears and oatmeal and we'll be introducing sweet potatoes and pumpkin over the holidays.

Jamie

Jamie is not really "aware" of Christmas, but loves that there is a piece of chocolate in the calendar every night, a pretty tree in the living room and presents underneath it.  He knows he isn't supposed to open them, yet, but he loves to carry them around.

Jamie did get an early Christmas present last weekend.  We weren't able to wrap it or hide it, so he's gotten great use out of it already...

14ft Trampoline

He is also a great fan of the work holiday parties here - they all take place poolside.  Everyone commented on how big Jamie's smile was as soon as he saw the pool.

Holiday Greetings

I have to say that I am delighted that so many people think that I am so talented to have manufactured (faked) the picture on our cards this year.  However, I'm here to tell you that while I am a very amatuer photographer, I am not that talented with PhotoShop.  To illustrate the point, here are the "proofs" of the card... followed by a number of the pictures I rejected when selecting the one to use for the card. 

The kangaroo in this picture is named Kelly.  She is one of two orphaned kangaroo joeys that were being fostered by my friend, Amiebeth.  There is a wonderful program here in Alice Springs that asks people to foster orphaned and/or injured animals to get them healthy enough to go back into the "wild" on preserves.

The setup and rejects...

Kelly in the background with Braden

Trying to hold Mark (the other kangaroo)

Kelly investigating



Jamie is D O N E with this nonsense



Lesson Learned

So, while I was still pregnant, I took Jamie for his 2 year check up at the pediatrician.  The pediatrician gave me one piece of advice:  don't leave your two year old alone with the babies for even a minute.  Ian and I have worked pretty hard at following this advice, but Jamie has always been really good around the babies and shows very few (if any) signs of jealousy or sibling rivalry. 

Today, we took Ian to the airport which left me at home with all three kids by myself.  Which means, realistically, that it is impossible to have all 3 (or even just the big one) in my sights at all times.  I stepped into the kitchen with Braden to make a bottle leaving Gavin strapped into the bouncing seat and Jamie playing with his trains.

Less than one minute later, Jamie comes into the kitchen to tell me that Gavin was on the floor.  Now, mind you there was no loud noise, no crying, just Jamie telling me that Gavin was on the floor.  I was sure he was mistaken, so I asked him how Gavin ended up on the floor.  He told me that he tipped him over.  Seriously????

Fortunately, Gavin wasn't hurt and was actually laughing when I came in the room.  So, of course, my first thought was to grab the camera.  :)

Jamie and I had a conversation about the right way to play with his brothers.  I chose not to punish him because he came right in to tell me what happened, but if it happened again...

Trying to get into the spirit...

This will be our first Christmas in the desert, so its a little hard to get in the holiday spirit when its 90+ degrees every day.  So, we've been taking lots of opportunities to try and make it happen.  We've bought a Christmas tree - my first artificial one!  And it will be staying here when we leave.  I've borrowed some decorations, because ours haven't arrived from the States, yet.  And, we've introduced an advent calendar to count down the days until Christmas.  I've even invoked Santa (better be good!) to gain cooperation and we went to meet Santa at a pancake breakfast.  We got a few cute pictures:

There were also some pretty funny ones:

Love both expressions!

I just wanted a candy cane!  I did NOT want to get close to the crazy man.