Happy Christmas to All

Christmas was very fun for us this year. On Christmas Eve we got up and had homemade waffles and sausage. I ate about 5 sausages. The day flew by and I didn't even have time to finish making cookies for Santa! I also never took a nap (for the second day in a row) despite everyone's efforts and the many threats of coal in my stocking!

That night we went to church at 4:30 and everyone was well-behaved all things considered. Thankfully, Grandma, Poppy and GG went early and got us seats so we were able to show up right at 4:30 with no extra waiting. I liked the singing and knew some of the songs. When the choir was singing I kept asking Mom to sing along (not something that happens to her often!) We came home and had a nice dinner. I got the carrots ready for the reindeer and put them outside on the patio because I was afraid they might eat my table if I left them there. I decided to make toast and jam for Santa. Then we all read The Night Before Christmas. I fell asleep quite easily and Mom and Dad even woke up before me in the morning and had to wake me up around 7:45! We got everyone up and once I was allowed to come down the stairs I saw my new dollhouse that Santa brought for me and I was excited (so was GG, who also wanted to play with it). I was a little upset that Santa hadn't taken his plate to the kitchen, but glad he liked the toast.

I helped everyone open their stockings and Caroline needed help with most of her gifts. I kept saying things like "See Caroline, it's a toy. Isn't it nice?!?!?" while I held it right in her face. Aside from the dollhouse, I got ice skates, the Dora cash register, a teaset, two baby dolls and the whole family got DVD players for the car!

After a while I got a little burned out on presents and the breakfast casserole was about to get burned, too, so we took a break for breakfast. And decided to reconvene with gift opening once Jen, Billy and Hannah arrived. We spent the rest of the morning playing with the new toys and talking to our Canadian family on the phone. We found out that Aunt SuSu (Dad's sister) and Shane got engaged on Christmas Eve-- Congratulations, guys!

We snacked all afternoon--GG made some appetizers, something that a lady at the grocery store referred to as "Hanky Pankys" so that prompted a lot of jokes. Once the Indy crew arrived, we opened gifts again. I received a fabulous dress-up set that included not one, but two feather boas! They don't shed that much and the pink feathers look great on the carpet! Jen and Buddy continue their thoughtful gift giving . . . we're still enjoying the drum and musical instrument set from last year! And they are looking forward to our retaliation.

We had a delicious Christmas dinner. Dad made a great prime rib roast. He was so enamored with it, we weren't sure whether he would actually let us eat it, but he did! And we drank some champagne to celebrate the year and our two new babies. I drank apple juice from one of my toy goblets.
Now the mountain of toys at our house has grown even bigger. Mom is busy plotting her organizational strategy for the playroom. And we are still putting everything away

Hope everyone else had a great holiday!

Real Food!

Caroline started eating real food this week-- well baby cereal, which is kind of like real food. She looks so little in her high chair! She did pretty well with it and I got a turn at feeding her, too. The next morning I woke up and set out her cereal bowl so it was all ready for me to feed her that night, too.

Thursday was my official third birthday. I woke up and wanted to go to "Old McDonald's" for breakfast with Daddy so he quickly showered and was able to accomodate the request. That night I had the dinner of my choice (spaghetti and meatballs and breadsticks and salad) and I got to open a few more presents (you can see part of my cute new backpack from Aunt SuSu in one photo) and we measured how much I had grown in the last year.
On Friday Grandma and Poppy came back to our house with Great Grandma (GG) from Cleveland. We haven't seen her since the spring and she got to meet Miss Caroline. She liked her big cheeks!

On Saturday I helped Dad finish his shopping and then in the afternoon we went to see Santa. Caroline got dressed up in her own Santa suit and I was very excited about her outfit. Once we got to see Santa I wasn't sure I wanted to see him up close, but I agreed to a picture. You can see how happy I was . . . After that we got some cookies and Mom and Grandma picked out a new Night Before Christmas book. Then we all went out to dinner.

Birthday Party

Guess who turns three this week? We celebrated my big milestone with a birthday party on Sunday. I chose to have a purple-themed event with Dora accents. I liked helping Mom finish decorating my cake! You might be able to see in the later photo that Mom had painstakingly written my name on it (part of the K and E are still visible!) but I think it looked much better with a whole pile of purple "sparkles" in the middle. I also helped decorate Caroline for the party with some streamers on her head! As always, she just kept smiling.

In addition to Grandma and Poppy and Jen, Buddy and Hannah we had a few other friends and their kids over. Ricia and Scott brought 16-month-old Griffin and Arundi and Kevin brought their 22-month-old twin girls, Jaya and Arya. You can see it was a pretty interesting time eating lunch. Griffin was a very social eater, sampling items from everyone else's plate, while I was busy protecting my domain, which included Caroline. The twins were very calm and took it in stride when someone else's fork reached onto their plates! The menu was chosen by Katie: cheese, sandwiches and ranch "dippy." Mom said this actually wasn't a bad starting point so we just added a few items to round these things out. It was very hectic getting ready for things with three little schedules to manage and it helped a lot that our friends arrived a little late so we had enough time to get the food out.
I enjoyed opening the presents, but wanted to stop and play with each item and I hated letting anything out of my sight for fear that one of the other kids might play with it. With all of the necessary assembling we were lucky to have some helpers available to get everything unpackaged, batteried up and ready to play with!

I loved my "strawbirdy" cake and ice cream, and I tried to stick my face right into the icing after I blew out the candle, but unfotunately Mom stopped me! By the end of the party, I was quite tired and as is tradition in our family, I packed up my toys and tried to carry them all up to my room while I napped!

In other news this week, Caroline got to use her exersaucer toy for the first time now that she can hold her head up so well. She enjoyed the change of scenary and all the little entertainments that come with it and I loved helping her play with it.

I had my 3-year doctor's appointment yesterday and I am doing very well. I weigh 32 pounds and am 38 1/4 inches tall, which are 75th and 80th percentiles, respectively.

Oh Chrsitmas Tree!

It's beginning to feel like Christmas around here! We had a smidge of snow this week and on Saturday morning we went and got our first real Christmas tree. I helped pick it out and did a thorough check to make sure there weren't any bunnies in it. Then we strapped it to our minivan and off we went. Thankfully, Daddy is strong and could carry it into the house by himself.

While Mommy and Daddy were getting the tree in its stand, I was safely tucked into my seat at the table enjoying some hot cocoa. And when Mom and Dad were finished they found me shirtless ("I just spilled a little") and with a new chocolate goatee.

We finished the tree decorating on Sunday morning and I was a good helper! I only broke one ornament, but I got frustrated with Mom's constant reminders to be careful. "I am!" I would adamantly say as I would clank two glass ornaments together or drop them or . . . I also have a slightly different design aesthetic than Mom, preferring to place all of the ornaments on the same branch as opposed to spreading them out! When we finished though, the tree looked really good. And Lily spent some time enjoying her favorite ornament (see photo!)

Sunday night was luminaria night in our neighborhood. It was really pretty! After our own candlelit dinner, we went for a ride to see the lights. After a weekend of poor naps (Katie: "I did nap!" Mom: "When?" Katie: "On Friday.") I fell asleep in the car with my sippy cup of cocoa clutched in one hand and a cookie in the other. Dad carried me right up to bed and Mom and Dad enjoyed a rare evening of having me asleep early without the contiuous stalling tactics. However, I came to around midnight and proceeded to loudly request company from Mom or Dad. We're working on resolving this problem. And yes, the Santa card has been played.

I also want to update you on Caroline. She is now four months old and had her check-up with the pediatrician on Friday. "The tank" (as we call her) is doing great. She weighed 15 pounds 8 ounces (90th percentile) was 25 3/4 inches long (95th percentile) and her head size is 75th percentile. Her neck strength is very good and her belly button is almost completely normal now. The doctor got the last little nubby part off. Her hemangioma (birth mark) by her eye has not gotten any bigger (we have been watching to make sure it didn't grow toward her eye and interfere with her vision) and it may start to fade soon.

Aside from all of this, Mom and Dad have been busy with Christmas parties-- they had one on both Friday and Saturday nights this weekend and have two more this coming week. Lots of babysitters for us! Next Sunday is my birthday party, which I am very excited about. Despite the fact that I am not even three yet, Dad found out that I was telling people at his hockey game that I was four! Perhaps I am working on a fake ID to get into Chuck E Cheese?

Countdown to Christmas

After a slow start, we are starting to get ready for Christmas. We planned to do a lot on Saturday morning, but underestimated the challenges of decorating with me involved! I was a good helper with several things, but don't do a great job with understanding the word "fragile." We put up our tree and got the lights on. Then we realized that some of the lights weren't working. Then we decided we wanted to get a big, real tree for the family room and put our faux tree in the front window. We're about 1/3 of the way to executing that plan . . . But we did successfully get up and eat pancakes and listen to Christmas music and put up a few decorations.


Saturday was also the day that Caroline and I had our first non-family babysitter. We picked a girl from our school who works in both my room and Caroline's room. All went well and Mom and Dad plan to put her to work some more!

The rest of the weekend flew by. Mom had a volunteer commitment and a work issue to deal with on Sunday morning and then Dad had a hockey game in Columbus that afternoon, so we had to divide and conquer. Unfortunately, I continue to be an ornery bug at bedtime . . . and an early riser. Last night I went to sleep after 10 p.m. (my bedtime is 8, so that is two full hours of stalling) and I woke up at 5 a.m. to start the day. Perhaps this explains why the blog update is a day late?!?!?