Merry Christmas

From the moment he woke up on Christmas morning, he could tell, it was not a normal day. Everyone was very excited.

-Exploring his new art station-

-We played a lot of basketball-

-He has already decided that his new Elmo chair is for snacking-
On Christmas day Aunt Susie & Uncle Dick came from Philadelphia. They had fun playing with all of Kevin's toys too!

White Christmas Eve

We have decided that it's really only nostalgic & charming for it to snow after 10PM on Christmas Eve, not during daylight hours, please! In our attempt to beat the series of snow storms that were blanketing the midwest, we left for Chicago on Tuesday afternoon. Maybe that was not the best decision. It was a long, slow, road traveled but we made it there safely. Grandmom & Grandpop had even more snow than we did in Iowa. We spent Christmas Eve day playing in the snow. It was Kevin's first time sledding, he loved it. We built a snowman too.

2 days later ALL this snow was melted, including our snowman :(

New toys are coming his way!

We celebrated Christmas a few days early this Saturday with the Stone's. Kevin quickly learned how fun it is to unwrap presents!!! He loves his new tractor books and Horton elephant!

His 2 loves, his 2 toy elephants

It is VERY cold here. Dressing Kevin this morning was no easy task. Nate had to resort to his hs wrestling moves! Still, the mittens only stayed on for 30 seconds.

We also celebrated Christmas today at brunch with our friend Nellie. She gave Kevin a fun toy phone. He loves it!
...But, even with all the new toys, he favors the classics. This is the box from his new car seat. This week we colored it to make it look like an airplane, he loves to crawl inside.
We wish you all a Merry Christmas and safe travels!!

Merry, merry... almost ready

We have been really busy!

I started a new job several weeks ago. Kevin LOVES his new school! In fact, it's difficult for me to get him to leave at night. We are so happy he has adjusted so well, again.

Christmas is almost here, we are gearing up for a busy weekend of celebrating with family and friends, then we are headed to Chicago next week. Let's hope the weather cooperates. It's going to be ugly tomorrow morning!

Careful, the Christmas tree is HOT

Some of you already know this, but lucky for us, Kevin is extra cautious when we tell him something is hot. He knows not to touch the oven, it's hot. A few other things around our house are also "hot" such as Nate's fancy TV, the china cabinet, etc. This "hot" trick also works well when we are at other people's homes.


During Kevin's nap today we setup the Christmas tree. We don't have it blocked off or anything, we are just hoping he learns not to touch it. I brought Kevin downstairs after nap time, we were very excited to show him the lighted tree. With no prompting from us, he walked upto the tree, stuck out his hand and said "hot"! Yes, Kevin, that tree is hot, no touching. We'll see how long this works....

The big sleepover

Last night we babysat for Brenda's kids. We had such a fun night. I love that her kids make Kevin so tired! We transformed our sofa into a boat & jumped "overboard" into a sea of pillows. Garrison entertained Kevin for most of the night - horray!

Once Kevin was in bed the rest of us had a movie marathon. Such fun, we hope to do it again sometime.

"Wheels on the Bus" is driving us nuts

You remember back in junior high or high school when you fell in love with a song and played it over. and. over. and over. again? (Think NKOTB... catch my drift?)...

Well, Kevin LOVES "The Wheels on the Bus". We play it all the time. So much so, that sometimes he won't eat his dinner unless the song is playing.

This photo was taken just before dinner last week:

Thanksgiving roadtrip

We celebrated a wonderful Thanksgiving in Chicago with much to be thankful for this year. It was our first trip back since our move in September. Kevin was great in the car:

Kevin LOVES his new Elmo pajamas:

Grandmom & Grandpop took Kevin for a Breakfast with Santa. We had no idea how he would react to Santa. He loved Santa from afar. Upclose, Santa is kind of scary. Kevin, I have to agree with you.

There was some nasty weather for our drive home today, but we were so glad not to be stuck in an airport.

Help us pick a paint color, please.

We're making progress with the new house, but have not picked a color yet. You can see some samples in the background. We hope to get the painting done this winter.

Sound effects

Someday he won't speak with such an adorable lisp. There are his favorite sayings:

"Heesey" = horsey
(*** side note*** Kevin's stuffed blue "heesey" is a total part of our family. He goes EVERYWHERE with us. We have BL&D with horsey, he comes to the store. Everywhere Kevin goes, horsey is there. About a month ago horsey escaped in the frozen foods aisle of the grocery store, I had to call the store manager when we got home and go back for him! Thankgoodness he was safe! Kevin gets very upset when horsey is missing for a few hours while he takes a spin in the washer & dryer. I told him the horsey needs a bath too. Kevin found horsey in the dryer and was very, very upset!)

"Wa Wa" = water
"fock" = fork
"fock" = sock
"shuz" = shoes
"baf" = bath
"mote" = remote
"babies" = photos of himself on the computer screen
"melmo" = Elmo
"teef" = teeth
"carttt" = truck
"towa" = leggo tower he builds each night with Nate
"mic" = milk
"tukie" = cookie

If you would have asked us a year ago to decode baby language, there would have been no way we could do it. This proves, on the job training is the best kind.

Sunday at home

Kevin loves to play with his footballs. He has one in just about every color. Today he took some passes with his dad. Check him out:

Too much excitement, he has to stop for a milk break. We let him know the clock was still running, better get back to it!

We put up the Christmas lights today, we'll be busy the next few weekends and wanted to get out there before it's too cold. Before dinner we took Kevin out to see the lights. He was very confused and kept asking me for his "pupkin" (that would be pumpkin).

No more "pupkins" at our houseHe sports the puffycoat look better than I ever could!

We are coloring all.the.time.

Kevin loves to color! He gets super excited when I get the basket of crayons & his coloring book from the closet. For the most part, he has passed the "eat the crayon" phase and doodles in his notebook. Sometimes he prefers his Elmo Aquadoodle book instead.

Yeah for us... he is also at the age where he can color for a few minutes in his highchair if we are out for dinner. No surprise, most of the restaurants we go to nowadays have kiddie menus and a tiny pack of crayons :) I never thought that would be such a big deal (nearly as important as snagging the race car shopping cart at the grocery store)!

Friday Night is pizza night

You might wonder, why do I have so many recent photos of Kevin while he is eating... well it's usually the only time he is still. Plus, he always happy when it's time to eat. This pic was taken tonight during our Friday Night Pizza Night ritual. I said "Keep your hands where I can see them" because they were very saucy & dirty.

Happy weekend!

Happy Halloween, one day early

Happy Halloween, or as they say in Iowa, Happy Beggar's Night. They trick-or-treat the night before Halloween here and call it Beggar's Night. Tonight we took Kevin trick-or-treating. At first he was very shy, but quickly got the hang of reaching his hand into the big bowls of candy. It was a perfect night, nearly 70 degrees. What a lucky duck, Nate & I remember many Halloween's where we went trick-or-treating in our winter coats & gloves!

Grandmom & Grandpop come for a visit tomorrow. We are excited!!!

18 month check-up

I took Kevin for his 18 month check-up today. Here are his stats:

28 pounds
34 inches

A big surprise to us; he has only gained 1 pound since his 15 month checkup, but has grown 3 inches! The doctor was impressed with all the animal noises he knows as well as many of his body parts.

Beautiful fall day

By request from Chris... they don't have beautiful fall leaves like this in San Jose! We tried to stay outside as much as possible yesterday, the weather is supposed to get cold soon, boo!

Kevin has fun picking up the leaves, very, very helpful.

Gap Kid at the park yesterdayOur backyard

He is inspecting his pumpkin. We (a.k.a. mommy) are going to carve them this week.

"The Kevin Show"

Kevin entertained everyone on Sunday with his animal noises. Keep in mind, Tanya & Dave had not seen Kevin since he was 6 months old, so they were extra impressed with all his new tricks.

Enjoy!

Hawkeye reunion

I spent the weekend in Iowa City with my college rommates. There was just so much to celebrate...

Karen rocks! She ran the Chicago Marathon last weekend and I think that gives her the right to a some extra attention.

Tanya's baby brother is home from Iraq!

Tailgating at the truck is always awesome

Dave was treated like a VIP. He watched the game with the team on the sidelines!

Pumpkins and more!

Just a cute photo from this week:

Choosing the perfect pumpkin is no easy task!

- More pumpkins, please? -

What have we been up to lately?

In our attempt to make friends with families with babies (as opposed to the geriatric ward that is our cul de sac) we joined the local YMCA. There are tons of kids activities there and I enrolled Kevin in a tumbling class for toddlers. It is a riot! They have baby-sized everything; balance beam, trampoline, floor mats and even a bar. On the second week of class Kevin was really feeling adventurous with his climbing & jumping skills. He missed the mat and took quite a tumble. After a really good cry and lots of hugs, what made him feel much better was the giant rainbow parachute the teacher brings out at the end of class. I think he loves the parachute even more than bubbles. Is that even possible?

*Nate is in charge this weekend. I am headed to Iowa City to meet my college roommates for the weekend!!! I know they will have a great time together.

"Choo Choo"... well sort of, Kevin.

I thought this was funny....

As we were driving to the car dealership last night to pickup Nate's car Kevin was looking out the window and pointing at the trucks. He loves trucks. He also loves trains and gets really excited every time we see one (there were many in Ames this summer). A giant Hummer SUV pulls up next to us and Kevin was so excited and started yelling "choo-choo, choo-choo". I tried to explain that was a truck, not a train. He didn't catch why I was laughing.

My helper

Kevin has definitely reached the age where he likes to "help" us with projects. He thinks it's fun to clean, fold laundry and even rake leaves. Boy, I am I lucky to have such an energetic helper! Earlier in the day he got to take a manly trip to HomeDepot with his dad.

These hydrangeas are from my yard and make me so happy. Dan, Lana, Jimmie & Thelma came for dinner yesterday and these flowers looked great on the table.

Come on Kev, the Cubs need your help!

Yesterday was not a good day for the Cubs, but we were cheering them anyway. I was so happy that the jacket Kevin got for his birthday last spring still fits, so he was wearing it all afternoon. Let's hope tonight goes better, if I can stay awake....