Merry Christmas Again

Hear is my post for our Christmas Day with Wally!  I wanted to make sure I got this one in since it has been a wonderful experience.  So fun to watch Wally as he experiences his first Christmas!   I have to thank Drew, Brian's cousin, for letting me use his photos on this blog.  I walked out the door that morning with a car full of stuff, but not my camera!  Luckily there were lots of other cameras in full action that day :)

 We spent our Christmas Day with the John family, and it was a relaxed and fun day together.  We arrived around 10:00am (a little late from our 9:30 goal) and started with family present opening. I will have to post a few of the videos that were taken as we all took turns with Wally in our lap opening gifts.  So fun!  I think he was a little unsure at first if he liked the sound of the ripping paper. But he definately liked playing with the toys that came out of that paper.  More than toys, Wally recieved lots of really great books.  It was a diverse spread - christmas books, some books about space and New York, some really cute texture books, a bible book, animal books, and even a book about Bo the white house dog complete with a stuffed Bo puppy (Jeff has been working for the Economic Advisors staff this year at the White House so that is a pretty special one)!  Wally also got 2 xylophones, a cute toy car, and a few other things.  If this kid turns out with a tin ear, it wasn't for lack of trying!

Brian and I also got him a big tunnel structure that he can crawl around in to put downstairs, and a ton of Megablocks for building fun things.  We technically haven't given them to him yet - they might turn into birthday presents.  Yep, it's Wally's first birthday and we are already smashing Christmas and birthday together.  'Cause we're proactive parents.

 Anyway, the day continued with brunch with David, Natalie, Drew, Mackenzie, and Asami.  The food was excellent with egg bake, sausage, fruit, and tons of other really great food Kath cooked.  Natalie brought these designer cookies she made that looked like she had put a ton of work into!  Almost too pretty to eat, but somehow I managed :)  After lunch we opened gifts from our gift exchange.  Amazon gift cards seemed to be the gift of choice this year.  Jeff and I had this great discussion about how we've almost all hit the point where the things we'd really like to get are way too expensive for any one person to gift, so the gift cards seems like a very logical choice.  Of course on my gift list was a new camera lens (which I'm saving up for.....hopefully soon!)  Mariel and Kath bought me an awesome gift of a class at Mpls Photo Center which I can't wait to take!  I'm thinking about maybe even using it for a one-on-one tutoring which I think would be awesome.

 After a fun day, we drove over to Oakdale and had a lovely dinner with Fred's family.  I was so impressed with how well Wally handeled the day.  No major breakdowns, still took naps, was generally happy to see everyone.  We were greeted at the door by Lucky, Marilyn and Dave's black lab mix.  He was a pretty big and energetic dog, and when Wally first saw him he smiled and grabbed his cheeks and pulled his head.  This kid has never met a stranger.  We didn't stay long since we were really stretching bedtime but were able to get the annual family photo with Dot holding Wally!  We are now special ordering a hand-knit Christmas stocking for Wally and I to match all the ones Dot had given Brian and the other grandchildren!  I can't wait to put them up next year!

Hazel systematically cleaned the floors all day.

I love pulling on the Christmas Tree!

Merry Christmas

Our House during Sunrise on Christmas

It's 7:20am on Christmas morning.  Wally has been up since 4:45 - I'd like to say he is excited for Christmas morning (and this will probably be true in a few years) but unfortunately this is just his regular wake up time.  Which makes me wonder if he is just doing this as a part of his being so young or if he's really wired for a lifetime of being an early riser.  As parents we like to do that don't we?  Slap a label on every behavior as in "oh, Wally's an early riser.  Early to bed, early to awake" when in truth I have no idea what he'll do next week, it's always different!  That's been the fun part of watching him grow up this year to me, all these new discoveries.  It's so exciting to watch him learn how to turn pages in his books, or learn his few signs he's started doing (all done, more, nurse so far!), or start taking a few steps.

Yesterday we hosted Christmas with the Rock family at our place and Wally was taking lots of steps.  I think he was up to 7 in a row at one point.  Everyone was gathered in the living room and he was in the center just walking away!  We had a full house - pretty much everyone was there including Brian's family.  It was really fun to see everyone and I think people had a good time.  All the boys were together - Colin and Ryder were wearing cute Christmas outfits and so active.  Colin took over the toys in the basement.  Ryder loved Hazel - every time she came over to sniff him he would crack this huge smile and giggle.  Grandma and Grandpa Rock made it out too, both wearing thier Micky and Minnie Mouse sweaters.  Lots of great food too!  I totally had this wonderful idea to set up our old church-basement-style table against the back sliding door and put all the food over there.  It worked out really well and kept the kitchen clear for drinks and feeding babies.  I'll have to do that again for other gatherings!

I remember these sweaters from when I was a kid at Christmas!

Playing in the Living Room

The boys escaping the crowds inside

Of course we had to get a few shots of all the boys together.  The room was a riot when Wally kept trying to take Ryders pacifier (which was firmly attached to his shirt by a ribbon) and tried to put it in his mouth.  He couldn't figure out how to get it unattached and in his mouth, but he kept trying anyway.  We had all three sitting by the Xmas tree for pics at one point. It was near impossible to have them all sitting down at the same time, so I have about 25 pictures of them picking on eachother or just a blur of activity....  like this:

Boys together

Girls together

Hey there blue eyes

Mmmmm, I'm always teething. Just look at my row of chompers!

We had just a few minutes for presents.  Grandma and Grandpa got Wally and Colin each a sled, which came with big red bows and a nametag on the front.  Like the Lexus commercials.  We had to strap Colin in because he kept trying to escape.  Wally, on the other hand, reached over, grabbed Colin's bow with one hand and his in the other, and waved them around like a cheerleader. 

Speaking of food, five stars to Dad for making cookies this year!  Very impressive.  Here he is in all his glory:

I doctored this one up, and love the way it turned out!

Dad's cookie spread

The cookie balls in the middle were my favorite

Wreaths with skittles on top

Santa Baby

On Saturday we had a really fun, albeit short, visit to the landscape arboretum for some holiday fun with "the troup" - Wally, Colin, and Ryder.  When we walked in, there was a handbell choir playing christmas tunes to a full audience in the hallway, and Wally kept giving his "more" sign every time the song ended!  I think he really liked listening to the handbells!  The boys all got thier pictures taken with Santa.  This was a good lookin' Santa complete with real beard, which Wally was entranced by.  He was giggling and smiling the whole time he was on Santa's lap.  Colin, not so much.  Ryder, rather indifferent.  It was so fun to see the boys together too!  I really can't wait for them to get a little older and be able to play togehter.  Maybe some day I will regret saying that, but for now I can hang on to my dreams of sweet little play dates.  I was bummed to have to cut the day short so that we could get home for Brian to do some emergency work that popped up late Friday afternoon.

Wally Loves the Beard!  Ohhh, and glasses too!

 Ryder is looking good with his new booties!

 Colin is planning his escape rout

 Here's lookin' at you

 That gingerbread house looks just unstable enough to fall 

over when I pull on the candy cane.  Let's try it!

Family photo in front of the fire place

First Field Trip: Children's Museum

This year has been filled with so many "firsts" that I feel like I haven't stopped to celebrate as many of them as I should.  First teeth were huge for me because they took sooooooo long in coming.  Now they are Wally's defining feature in my mind.  I'm not going to recognize him when that bottom row fills in.

Anyhoo - on Thursday we had a really fun first field trip.  We joined the Mound ECC on a trip to the Children's Museum in downtown St. Paul.  Complete with bus ride!  I was a little nervous about that, but I ended up with some awesome cuddle time.  On both the bus ride out and back, Wally snuggled in and put his head on my shoulder and just slept.  In 6 months when he drops that morning nap, I will remember that bus ride!

I think we are going to have to be regular visitors at the children's museum.  What a fun place!  They have some of the most creative things to do.  They even had a whole room just for younger children like Wally.  There was a little frog pond, a meadow to "pick" flowers, tunnels and slides, and lots of stuffed animal puppets.  He had a blast crawling around and watching the older kids climb and play!  Our friends T and P joined us, and it made for an exciting morning!

Wally loved the slide in this little rock cave area

 Wally and P playing with gears on a large magnet board

 Hmmm, what could these cryptic symbols mean!  They are everywhere!

 Hiding in the radishes

 Mesmerized by a world under the glass.  If only I could touch it...

Mid December Update

Hey, it's already December 12th!  Just wanted to put a quick little update on the blog here and some cute pics I've taken this month.   These first few are from a visit on the first weekend of Dec by our good friends R and J, and thier daughter V (not sure if they want me to post names :)  Wally is about 8 weeks younger than V but stands a good 2 inches taller than her!

Wally and V playing together inside his little pop-up house.

 Wally tries on V's birthday present - a hair bow!

V profile

I think Dec and May are always our most busy months.  I love having more opportunities to see people we don't get to see very often, but by Mondays I'm ready for a vacation! So, in true fashion, we were running around a lot this past weekend.  Wally got to spend lots of quality time at Grandparents John's on Saturday and Sunday which was really nice.  I had a rehearsal all morning Saturday for our annual choir cantata Sunday at St. Luke.  We performed the Pinkham Christmas Cantata, which is a pretty advanced piece of music for the choir.  The performance on Sunday went really well.  Our director was able to hire a brass quartet (2 trumpets, 2 trombones) out of the U of M's doctorol students.  They were just amazing, and really made the piece pop!  My student S also played with me - she took the "pedal" notes on our keyboard since we don't have an organ

On Saturday night was the annual "Mystery Beer Night" with Brian's Maplewood group.  This year was much more tame than I remember past years being....We must be getting old!  We were out by 10pm.

Wally has been doing so much lately.  He loves to walk while holding on to your pinkies, so I'm sure he'll be taking a few steps by Xmas.  He is really active and curious about everything.  Sometimes he has me pick him up and just starts pointing to things that he wants to touch and feel.  Of course most of them are things I wouldn't give him (scissors, toilet bowl cleaner, Hazel's tail) but he's really starting to figure out how things work.  Very Fun!

 Wally and BFF Colton

  Xmas tree at Grandarents John's house

Rock Strand Family Thanksgiving

We had a very nice Thanksgiving this year.  What was so great about it was that we didn't have any one day where we traveled between two families. The John Family had Thanksgiving on the Saturday before, the Rock family on Thanksgiving day, and the Hall family the Saturday after. In the past we used to do up to three family events in one day.  It's amazing how much more carefully you evaluate your travel plans when you have a kid!  Even two events in a day is pushing it with driving, nap schedules, bedtime, and stimulation levels.

I've been trying to get lots of photos of Wally with his family.  This was my attempt at staging a pic with Wally, Dad and Mary.  I was trying to get him to smile but the best I could get was this "angelic contemplation." Also got a whole series of cute shots of him with my dad, here's a sample.

Anyway, it was really nice to see everyone and be able to spend some time with our family.  This year it's been tough to get everyone together with all these babies, work schedules, and such. Wally got lots of kisses from Callie - Drew and Carolyn's golden retriever who is a pretty and sweet dog. For a golden puppy she's also very well behaved, and it was fun to play with her.  Since it was a beautiful afternoon, I tried to get a few "woodsy outdoor" shots of Callie but for some reason she wasn't following my directions to "sit still" and "now take two steps forward."  So I got what I got.  Good practice for when Wally's running.

It was a really good turn-out, with Grandpa Rock making the trip from Anoka to Lake Elmo.  Since his heart surgery this past summer, it's been hit or miss for him to travel.  Got a great shot here of him with Granny and Jesse during our prayer.  Also, a classic Jesse pose with a cracker sticking out of his mouth.  Sexy.

The food, as usual, was excellent.  Drew made a wonderful dressing with cranberries and sausage - note to self to ask for the recipe.  I brought sweet potatoes.  Wonderful cheese spread for appetizers, and a new salad with dinner.  Granny's pecan pies were exceptionally tasty this year, but I only got one piece in before we had to hit the road. Lot's of other stuff too.

Cute pic of Callie and Drew in the Background here.

And a nice family shot of Andy, Kacy, and Colin.  I had this really great shot where Colin was looking at the camera too, but it was completely out of focus.  grrr.... any tips on how to prevent that with my nifty fifty lens is greatly appreciated!

Playing Catch-up

Well faithful blog follower (s), my early new-years resolution is to play catch-up and post some really fun pics I've gathered over the past month. And then to actually post regular updates.  Keep tuned for massive activity on this site! (A tall order for someone who by nature is a procrastonator and hates consistency.  But - After importing all 851 pictures off my camera this morning, I think I have more than enough material!)

So, here are a few shots I took of Wally last week while he was playing with a new set of blocks I bought him with my "Once Upon a Child" coupon.  That store, by the way, is like Walmart. You hate going in there, but the deals are just too good.  We've been having a blast with these blocks.  We bang them together, Mom builds towers and Wally knocks them down, we pick them up off the windowseat and throw them onto the floor.  Dad spells inapropriate words with them. Who knew you could do so much with a cube?

 This one is my favorite.  The face is such a classic. "Mom, come give me attention"

 What's that in my left hand?  Oh, your lens cap.  Well, we'll just have to find a good hiding place for that.

 Wally, you can spell!

This one is so sweet.  Papa and Wally!