Living in Sound: 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.