Merry Christmas!

We've had a very busy Christmas week. We've had more than a couple Christmas celebrations and all of them were wonderful. We did a great deal of driving. Some of our time spent in the car was fine, most was awful. But we survived and in the end it was worth it.

Of all my Christmas memories from this year, I think I will cherish the moments with the boys around our Christmas tree. They had a really good Christmas. Here are some pictures of them on Christmas morning (well, it was actually Christmas Eve, but they were none the wiser about that fact). Santa was good to the boys and they had a blast.

Welcome Liam Carroll!

Owen and Colin are SO happy that for Christmas they got ANOTHER new little cousin, Liam Carroll. Congrats to the happy parents Brig and Ev and of course big puppy sister Tuli.

Colin is very busy counting the boys on his fingers "Colin, Bobby, Owen, Baby Sean and Baby Liam...FIVE BOYS!!!"

We officially have a basketball team. Although with those names, they will most likely be a Gaelic Football team.

Old McDonald

A video of Colin singing. You will notice he gets distracted by the elephant on his pajamas which reminds him "elephant noise", which reminds him of his "animal game" which he remembers is downstairs. Enjoy!

Forward Momentum

A video of Owen scooting across the floor to get the phone (Note: I did not let him eat the phone once he got it). Oh boy.

Christmas Blog Tag

My friend Amy so nicely blog tagged me :) Since my answers would probably be boring, I asked Colin all the questions. These are all his answers word for word:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Gift Bags

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial

3. When do you put up the tree? Get our Christmas tree!

4. When do you take the tree down? in the closet!

5. Do you like eggnog? Yeah!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Santa!

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Animals!!!

8. Hardest person to buy for? Santa!

9. Easiest person to buy for? Mommy!

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? email them

11.Worst Christmas gift you ever received? candy cane

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? movie!!!!!

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? watch Curious George.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Christmas present!

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? candy cane!

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? a blue lights on the tree!

17. Favorite Christmas song? wanna blue Christmas song. It's blue! Wanna watch Curious George.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? stay home

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Warthog, nooooooo...elephant, noooooo, hippo.....noooooo, giraffe...noooo, hippo.....no, lion..nooooooo, a hippopatamus!

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Wanna watch Curious George!

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? color...blue!

24. What do you want for Christmas this year? elephant and a hippo. Wanna a hippo! Wanna a elephant! Wanna an elephant and a hippo! Good morning Mr. Hippo!

I tag LIS!

Happy Birthday Sean Patrick!

Colin and Owen are so pleased to welcome their new little cousin into the family. We are so excited to meet him. Colin has already declared that Owen and Sean will be friends, just like Colin and Bobby. I know he's right.

Happy Birthday little guy, welcome to the world.

Deep Thoughts on Christmas

What he answered when Santa asked him what he wants for Christmas:

“Wanna elephant!!! And a hippo!!!

What he thinks of Santa:

“Santa bring presents on Christmas!”

What Colin said this morning after sitting in thought for a few minutes:

“Gonna ride on a firetruck for Christmas and wear a birthday hat”.

Milestones

Here are a few pictures of Owen's new tricks...











He's very proud of himself.

Aquarium

On Saturday we took Colin and Owen back to the Aquarium. I can't even describe the joy that Colin gets from being there. He is beside himself. Since it's hard to put it into my words, I'll use quotes from himself and pictures:

"Hippos are swimming in the water!!!"

















"Watch out! Shark's gonna eat you!!!"

















"Sharks!"
















No quote, the dancing tree had Colin stunned into silence. Chris and I were a little scared of the tree too.

















"Hi pengiuns"

















"This is MY hippo."

















"Goodbye hippo, see you soon."

Say Who's There!

Chris and Colin have a very exciting and fun game they play together. The name of it is “Pooh Sandwich”. I don’t know how or when this started, but it was quite a while ago. I have a feeling Chris tossed Colin into a pile of Pooh stuffed animals, told him it was a “pooh sandwich” and it grew from there. For quite a while it involved piling all the stuffed animals into a big mound and dive bombing into it. Colin never asks me for a pooh sandwich (probably because I compulsively clean up the Poohs before he can jump into them), but as soon as Chris walks in the door he shouts “make a Pooh sandwich!!!!”

The Pooh sandwich was taken to a new level recently when Chris decided to bring out the Thomas the Train fort that Aunt Brig so nicely bought for Colin. He suggested to Colin that they make a Pooh sandwich INSIDE the Thomas Fort. Stuffed animals INSIDE a fort shaped like a train? Toddler heaven. So now Colin shouts “make a pooh sandwich in the Thomas fort!!!!”

As part of the “Pooh sandwich in the Thomas fort” game, each animal in Colin’s playroom knocks on the door and here’s the dialogue:

Chris: Knock knock knock!!!
Colin: Say who’s there!......Blue and White Pooh!!!!!
Chris: Knock knock knock!!!
Colin: Say who’s there!......BIG POOH!!!!!
Chris: Knock knock knock!!!
Colin: Say who’s there!.......FROGGIE!!!

Try to get Colin to say “who’s there” instead of “say who’s there” and you will promptly feel your brain begin to leak out your eyeballs. It’s just that impossible and mind numbing. Here’s that dialogue:

Katie: Say who’s there.
Colin: Say who’s there?!?
Katie: No, just say who’s there, not say who’s there.
Colin: Say who’s there?!?
Katie: Just who’s there.
Colin: Just who’s there.
Katie: No, watch mommy, who’s there?!?
Colin: POOH!!!!

Owen's Top Ten Least Favorite Things

Since this isn’t just the “Adventures of Colin” we have to give equal time to little brother.

1. When Colin steals his toys
2. Strangers! No matter how kind the stranger, it still completely freaks the poor boy out to have an unknown face making strange noises at him.
3. Rolling into strange places (for example, today he rolled under both the train table and the crib…he was confused)
4. Being put into a contraption (swing, exersaucer, jumparoo) when he is in the mood to be held
5. Being woken up from his nap to pick up Colin at school
6. Being tired (he really really really really hates being tired)
7. Not being able to crawl forward (he is really quick at going in circles, but hasn’t figured out forward momentum)
8. Zantac (seriously, you have no idea the lengths I’ve gone to help him swallow his medicine, he spits it out no matter what I do)
9. Acid Reflux (no explanation needed, the poor dude hates when he’s refluxing. Of course if he would just swallow the darn medicine he would feel better.)
10. Did I mention strangers? Owen’s fear of strangers gets two mentions because of its intensity. Like his big brother (and ahem! dad) he seems to lack in the art of subtlety.

















Stay tuned for Owen's favorite things!

Colin's Top Ten Least Favorite Things

Here is a list of the things Colin likes LEAST at the moment

1. Blowing his nose
2. A broken Elephant animal cracker
3. When...GASP!...there are no more elephant animal crackers
4. Real Live un-tivo’ed television programs (meaning the commercials can’t be fast forwarded through)
5. Sharing, no matter how awful and NOT fun the toy is, it’s totally awesome when someone else has it
6. Being forced to wear white socks (BLUE SOCKS!!!!!!!!)
7. When requested pajamas are in the wash (which rarely happens since I’m psycho about laundry, but if it does, watch out)
8. Being forced to wear a diaper without Elmo, sometimes Cookie Monster is okay, but God forbid you come at him with a Zoe diaper
9. Any meal that does not contain blueberries
10. Leaving the lobster display at the supermarket

But he's so darn cute even when he's an Elmo-diaper wearing, runny nosed, blue socked boy in Elephant pajamas constantly looking at lobsters while eating animal crackers and blueberries and hogging toys.

















Stay tuned for the list of his favorite things...

The Santa Thing Works

Yesterday Colin had an evaluation. A woman came, I actually don't remember her name, but Colin called her "teacher". She was very nice and brought with her some VERY exciting toys. The most exciting of all her toys was a set of nesting cups. There was an array of colors and each cup had an animal on the bottom of it. Colin was very excited to "play with ANIMALS!!!!"



Colin's favorite color is blue. I guess I should go further and say Colin despises all colors but blue. He really really really loves blue. His eyes are his "blue eyes", his shoes are his "blue puma shoes". He loves it. And of course he loves elephants. So much to his shock and amazement, the blue stacking cup had a...you can guess it...ELEPHANT on it! A blue elephant! A blue elephant cup!!! It was like all the things he loves materialized in a cup. It was pure toddler joy.

Fast forward two hours. It's 6:30 pm which is WAY past Colin's dinner. Owen is fussy and hungry and the evaluation has lasted way longer than Colin would like. So he's hungry and tired of the teacher "goodbye teacher". She is packing up her things to leave. And Colin still has the cups. She asked for them back and he very nicely answered "keep these cups". I said "no, Colin, we have to say goodbye to the cups".

And there I was, facing the perfect storm of toddler tantrums. It was brewing under the surface and only I knew the wrath that could be released momentarily. And suddenly, a spark of brilliance arose! "Colin, maybe Santa Claus will bring you your own cups". Blink. Blink. Blink.

It worked! He looked at me calmly and watched me put the cups in her bag. But he did not protest and did not cry. He calmly walked with us to the door and said goodbye to her and even said "thank you for coming to see Colin and Owen".

If I ever had a doubt about encouraging the belief in Santa, it was gone that instant. Because, holy cow, it actually works.

Feast of St. Nicholas

Today is the Feast Day of Saint Nicholas. Every year when I was growing up we would place one shoe outside the door and wait for St. Nicholas to fill it with presents during the night. It was one of the most mystical and mysterious nights of the year. We weren't quite sure if St. Nicholas flew like an angel or walked like Santa Claus. But, regardless it was so exciting waking up to a present filled shoe.

Of course, I decided to continue the tradition with the boys. Colin, very relectantly, put his "red whooo-aaaahhhh shoe" (translation: red "the sound an alligator makes" shoe) outside his door. First, he was a little miffed that his shoe wasn't in the closet (the boy likes his world in order). Second, he was confused about the timeline of the present. He said "don't wanna crib, want present". But, this morning he was extremely excited to see the presents in his shoe. He screamed "animal crackers!!!!" and immediately went to work on his new "giraffe puzzle". St. Nicholas Day was a success.








PS - Owen is kind of like "Where's Waldo" in these pictures...see if you can spot him observing from a distance.

You Spin Me Right Round

Owen is officially spinning in circles. Unfortunately despite all the work of his spinning, he ends up at the exact place he started. But he doesn't seem to mind. I don't know if he thinks he's going somewhere or if he just enjoys the journey, but he seems to be having fun.

Here is a video of an Owen circle.

Big Horsey Puzzle

Colin absolutely loves puzzles. Besides playing with his animals, his favorite activity is to do his puzzles. He'll finish a puzzle and then say "do it again!" and will start all over again. I decided to take a few clips of him doing his "big horsey puzzle".

PS - The noise in the background is Owen, not Colin making infant noises.

Owen's New Crib

This weekend I decided it was time to get Owen out of the port-a-crib and into a real crib. I was hoping to keep Owen in his port-a-crib until Colin relinquished his crib, but it wasn't to be. Owen started waking up in the night stuck in the corner of his crib. It wasn't dangerous, but he couldn't move himself out of the corner and would get upset by it.

So we decided to bite the bullet and buy Owen a new crib. This involved some rearranging of the playroom furniture (Owen will be sleeping in the playroom until he's consistently sleeping through the night). It actually looks really cute and the crib bedding is SO cozy. Here are some pictures of Owen's new pad. Although it seems impossible for a baby to be excited by a new crib, I really do think he was happy about the change. And he slept wonderfully last night, so I consider that a success!

Adventures in Spelling

For many many many months, Colin has had a fascination with letters and words. He learned his letters early and learned them from toys, his leapfrog fridge letter magnets and from his foam letter bath toys. Recently my mom gave him a book called "Animal Stackers". Each letter corresponds with an animal. So he's been reading it avidly and will spell out the animals, for example, "E-L-E-P-H-A-N-T, that spells elephant!" He also excited likes to point out what letter things start with "E is for Elephant...F is for Frog", etc. This is a pretty unscientific system though because many times the word he finds on the page does not match what he thinks is most interesting. And he hasn't figured out that tags do not contain labels. Some of the best "Colin spelling" from this week...

1. "C-A-U-T-I-O-N!...that spells Froggie!" (while reading Froggie's warning tag)

2. "I-R-I-S-H-S-E-T-T-E-R!...that spells doggie!

3. "N-E-W-T...that spells DRAGON!"

4. "T-H-A-N-K-G-O-O-D-N-E-S-S...that spells Blankie!" (blankie has "thank goodness for little boys" embroidered on him)

But, in this instance, he got in right. He had his elephant animal cracker and searched through his word cards until he found the E. It's of course luck that the E says Elephant, but he was pretty proud of this one:

Christmas Cards

One of the hardest things in the universe is trying to get a good picture of a toddler. It's pretty much impossible. Trying to get a good picture of a toddler AND an infant? Well, that's something that shouldn't even be attempted. Seriously, that's why they invented photoshop.

But, I decided to think positive and try to get a nice picture of the boys together. Chris picked up some cute matching Christmas PJs. I did it at an appropriate time (both boys had recently napped, Owen was fed). So I got them in their PJs and plopped them in front of the fireplace to take pictures. 75 pictures later, nothing...nada. I have a collection of weird looking photos. But some of them are pretty funny so I'll put them here.













And this one? 75 pictures later...this pretty much sums up how both of them felt about me...



So when you get your Christmas card in the mail and you think "not the best picture of the boys", just realize that yes, that's the BEST picture any human could possibly get.

The Best Words I Ever Heard

Colin said the most wondeful thing yesterday. I asked him to give me a hug, a "real hug with arms". When you ask for a "real hug with arms", Colin gives a you a huge bear hug. So he was giving me a huge hug and said quietly "I love you mommy, I love you very very much".

Mice

Colin has some new friends. They are "mice". Not real mice, imaginary mice. They appeared yesterday morning when Colin woke up. When I went in to get him, he told me the "mice are in the corner, hello mice!". At first I worried about an infestation, but quickly realized he was pretending. He told the mice to get in his crib. Then he gave them a pillow "this is your pillow, mice".

The mice hung around all day yesterday and Colin would chat with them on occasion. At bedtime last night, the mice were back in the corner. He asked them to get in his crib with him and then told them to go to sleep. He promply started fake snoring and said "the mice are sleeping".

So I closed the door saying "Goodnight Colin, Goodnight mice".

Time Out!

When I picked Colin up from school today he very proudly told me that “Colin and Ethan got time out!”. I asked what Colin and Ethan were doing to get that time out and he said “running and screaming”. I can only imagine what the two of them were doing. Ethan likes to greet Colin with a growl when he sees him and Colin growls back at him. I guess it’s the boy toddler version of “what’s up”.

The funny thing is that time-outs really don’t work for Colin. I only realized this because he will do something he knows is wrong and then put himself in a time out. It can’t be THAT bad if he punishes himself. So in order to get some behaviors in check, I started a new form of consequence. Namely, one of his puzzles goes into the closet for a time out. Which puzzle goes in the closet depends on the offense. For something silly like running or screaming it’s usually the cow puzzle or Thomas puzzle. For a serious issue, like bonking Owen on the head, the “horsey puzzle” goes in the closet.

This was working really well. He would listen to the warning of losing the puzzle and would immediately apologize and modify his behavior. But today I was sort of paying attention to him and he did his high pitched screaming. He then said “no screaming”. Then he picked up his puzzle, walked to the closet, put it in and shut the door. “Bye bye horsey puzzle…sorry for screaming”.

Seriously…what child punishes himself? He’s making my job way too easy.

Colin mid scream:

Elephant Envy

Colin and Owen had their first disagreement over a toy. On Owen’s exersaucer is a blue elephant. As I’ve said before elephants are in the top three of Colin’s favorite animals. And it’s blue, which makes it extra special. It’s also Owen’s favorite toy because it’s easily grab-able and squishy. It is the perfect teething toy.

For a few weeks Colin has been turning Owen away from the blue elephant saying “you can play over here!” Owen happily starts chewing on whatever toy Colin has placed in front of him. Yesterday this all changed. Colin rotated Owen to have him play with the lion saying “Owen play with the lion!”. Owen quickly moved himself back to the blue elephant. Colin moved him again, “Owen, you play over there!”. Owen moved himself back again. Colin has figured out how to remove the toys from the exersaucer, so he quickly grabbed the elephant off of the exersaucer and ran away with it. Owen promptly started crying.

So I went to Colin to retrieve the elephant and to encourage him to share with Owen. As soon as Owen had the elephant back he was fine. Now it was Colin’s turn to cry. He then calmly told me. “Owen has a tiger! Owen has a monkey! Owen has a lion! Owen has a chimp! Owen has a hippo! Owen has a giraffe! Colin has the elephant!”

And really, how can you argue with that?

First Tooth!

Today is a big day in the life of Owen. He got his first tooth. The poor thing is miserable with it, but atleast it's not phantom teething. I can feel the tooth poking through and can see it. I'm absolutely shocked he already has a tooth. I was expecting a late teether like Colin.

I tried to get a picture of the new pearly white. It was pretty much impossible. But I'll post a few pictures of my effort.







And one of Colin for good measure: