Thanksgiving was wonderful at our house. It was just the four of us. We aren't traveling for holidays this year as we have anticipated that they are going to be bittersweet. Last year at this time we were getting to those final weeks of my pregnancy and looking forward and dreaming about what this year would look like. This fall we were supposed to have two major open heart surgeries behind us and two baby boys who would be keeping us incredibly busy. We were supposed to be juggling life we three kids three and under. So needless to say, there's a huge hole in our family. It's hard as we celebrate the heavy holiday season not to wonder what precious Ben would look like. Would he be big as his brother? At the time of his passing he was larger than sweet baby W even though at his birth he was the smaller brother. At birth they looked nothing alike, but there are times when I look at sweet baby W and I see his brother's face. I wonder how they would have changed and what their similarities and differences would be.
I think that as a mom who has lost a child my greatest fear is that he'll be forgotten. I know that only a handful of people got to meet him, but I just worry that people will forget that he was here. I worry that people will forget that he was a real person and that he was here and that he mattered. So we are taking some time alone through this entire holiday season to sort of figure out what our traditions are going to be and what we want to do to remember him and keep his memory alive for our family.
Anyway... back to Thanksgiving! It really was wonderful. We decided to just take it easy and head to a nice local restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner. We got all dolled up and took the camera to try to catch a nice photo for the Christmas card (since we were all dolled up anyhow...).
Look at how lovely my husband is looking. :o)
We all ate a ton and afterwards we tried to take some photos with the giant Christmas tree set up in the open area in front of the restaurant. We forgot the tripod so we had to do a little bit of creative photography, but that's no matter to us!
We got everyone set up.
First we tried a few of the kids.
Then a couple of us.
...and finally we tried out the self timer option and got a couple of photos of the entire family. It's hard to explain the self timer to little kids, so we only made a couple of attempts, but it turns out that was all we needed. The second one turned out great!
After our little photo session we changed our clothes and then headed to ice rink for a little skating. Miss L had been talking about going skating for a long time and she was very very excited to try it.
Sweet baby W was happy that he didn't have to wear those funny skates. :o)
Miss L's "double wide" ice skates (or as she says, "ice skating shoes.")
Miss L watched the skaters go around while she got ready to go. I love this face. It is just very miss L.
Then it was time to skate!
There were some spills.
...and sweet baby W did eventually get bored.
By the time the Zamboni came around miss L was done. She'd gone around a few times and felt like she'd skated and I think she was really tired. All in all a great skating experience!
Friday (as in the day after Thanksgiving) we decided to put up our Christmas tree. Every year we talk about getting a real tree and every year we decide against it and put up our old one. Someday we'll try it but this wasn't the year!
We got out the play-yard that we put around the tree to prevent our children from fondling the ornaments and set it up so sweet baby W wouldn't be in the middle of things as we tried to set up the tree.
Miss L "helped" set the tree up and then Brad put the lights on.
Then it was time to trim the tree. Growing up this was a big deal. We'd take turns hanging ornaments and certain kids had certain ornaments that were theirs or that they hung each year. In Brad's family he sort of took over the tree setting up and decorating himself. In our family, Brad pretty much sets everything up then we each hang a few ornaments and then Brad pretty much does the rest. :o) I just think it's fun to see how these things evolve and how we sort of are getting our own little things.
We have lots of trumpet ornaments. Many were given to us by a former teacher (and dear friend) and they are special to me. This year miss L tried them out. I thought it was cute!
Sweet baby W was fairly happy to sit in his plastic prison and play.
Eventually the tree was all finished and we got out the singing snowman. Miss L introduced them to her brother. First he said, what is this?
Then he was interested.
Then he was a little shocked.
...and then he loved him and started dancing!
Miss L loves them too.
After that our lives got crazy for a bit. My mom flew up from our hometown and the four of us (her, me and the kids) made the long drive back. We made good time and the trip was filled with snow and good conversation and we really enjoyed it.
A few days into our visit we trimmed the tree at my parents house with lots of cousins. I come from a large family and even though only two of my siblings were there, there were still plenty of cousins around. Everyone helped decorate the tree.
Sweet baby W was happy to watch from his aunt's arms.
We got to see the brand newest cousin, baby C.
I was really impressed with miss L the entire trip. She had her moments, but it's amazing to see the difference in her between visits. She would get a bit overwhelmed and overstimulated with all the activity with her cousins and just go play by herself for a bit instead of getting grumpy or crazy. What a big girl!
We also did sort of a series of outdoor photos while we were there. Having an extra set of hands during the day was a huge help and so while sweet baby W was taking his nap miss L and I would go outside and play together. I'd grab the camera and take photos while she played and then eventually she'd take photos of me.
Here she is trying out her cousin K's bike. She caught the slight slope of the driveway after this and promptly fell off the bike as soon as she hit the street. She then decided that she was done. I think she's sticking with her trike for now.
What does this sound like? (I'm pretty sure she didn't succeed)
We checked the mail.
We discovered that she's a bit too big for the swing.
We checked out the birds in the neighbor's bushes.
...and ran away when the birds started moving.
We sauntered around Grandma's yard.
...and miss L thoroughly enjoyed taking photos of me. I think her favorite part was telling me where to stand and what to do.
She took pictures of me taking pictures of her.
...and pictures of me emailing her daddy photos of her taking photos of me.
She took photos of the trees.
She told me, "talk on the phone."
She took a photo of the sun.
...and a photo of the stars.
...and we were finished for the day. I love seeing her perspective on things. It's interesting to me to see the things that she finds interesting enough to photograph. What fun!
I love this next series of photos. It was just an average day. We decided to play outside, but miss L wanted to wear her wings. That was fine with me, she's been wearing them a lot and had just gotten them from her Mawmaw while we were there. They made for some GREAT photos!
Miss L is getting ready to head outside!
I love this face.
We don't have much room to run at our house so miss L was taking full advantage of the space.
You can almost see her flying.
There's an air force base near my parent's house. This particular day they were flying in formations with two planes and she was really intrigued. The girl is used to seeing airplanes, but big airline planes, not super fast jets. She loved it everytime they went over (which was every few minutes) she'd stop and point and say, "LOOK! TWO PLANES!"
Sweet baby W had a good time too. He was all over the place enjoying the "new" toys.
We gave up cable some time ago and don't miss it, so it was a treat to sit and watch nick jr. at Mawmaw's house.
Miss L loved playing with her cousins while we visited. One afternoon miss L's cousin H, who is only a few months old than miss L came to play. They had a blast playing babies in the front yard and even took them to see Grandma's reindeer and let them have a ride.
They ran around and took turns chasing each other.
Cousin K came over and got in on the action too.
It was getting kind of dark by then, so we headed into the house where Mawmaw had some fun snowman foamies.
Cousin R loved playing with sweet baby W, but at this point was sticking close to Mawmaw.
The rest of the week passed pretty much in the same way. We picked up Brad from the airport on Thursday and then on Saturday we headed home through a lot more snow. What a great trip!
Since then we've just been doing the daily stuff. Sweet baby W is becoming a great eater and he now simply cannot miss a meal at any point in the day. He's been doing a great job of self feeding since we came back. I love it, because it sort of frees me up to eat while the kids are eating and also enables me to make one meal for all of us. Since I feel like I spend most of my day in the kitchen, that's a big help!
Here he is having some cottage cheese, grapes and cheerios.
I got this chair around the time that the twins were born. Miss L was still (and is still) using her high chair as a booster and though sweet baby W fits well in that chair he has a tendency to clear his food off with his arms. This chair has turned out to be WONDERFUL as an alternative until miss L is ready to move on. I wish the tray weren't plastic, but the lip keeps the food where it needs to be. Woohooo!
You can see the little stubs of his teeth in this one. They both popped through on the drive back!
How big is sweet baby W?! SOOOOO BIG!
I love that he starts out using the spoon, but eventually just gives it up in favor of using his hands.
What's this?
I'll eat it!
Yum!
I messed up the focus on this one, but I love the grin!
It seems that all the time this kid is only wearing one sock.
Cousin K gave us his trains. He'd grown out of them and he gave them to us since he knew that we'd love playing with them. I think this photo is funny of my three kids playing with the trains. :o)
We've been baking around here trying to get ready for Christmas. Miss L has discovered the advantages of being the designated spatula licker.
Miss L had her last day of preschool for the year which was a birthday party for Jesus.
I think it's really fun to see her in her school environment. She's getting so big!
Once again, Brad played in the Christmas concert presented by a local community group that we both used to play in. This is miss L's fourth Christmas and she's been each year (except last year when I was on bedrest!) to see this Santa.
Here is her first Christmas.
Here's her second.
... and here's this year.
She wasn't crazy about having to actually touch Santa. She started next to him and he did convince her to sit on his knee, but she would not look over at him. Miss L is pretty shy when it comes to strangers and Santa is no exception. I love the look on sweet baby W's face of, "Who the heck are you?!?!" He did talk to her after the photo and she told him she wanted an airplane for Christmas. We hadn't really decided what we were going to do about Santa. We hadn't done Santa in years past and we're trying hard to keep our focus on Christ and the spirit of the season rather than on consuming things, but after that it was hard to resist a little girl talking incessantly about Santa. It's too cute! So... I think Santa's bringing an airplane for her on Saturday!
It's funny. She has been talking about how Santa is bringing her an airplane or an airport (it changes) ever since she met him. She hadn't even mentioned wanting an airplane before that, but she hasn't forgotten. We were driving to meet Brad for lunch the other day and she told me again that Santa was bringing her an airplane and I asked her what kind and she told me, "a real one." I said, "you mean like one that flies in the air?" and she replied, "YES!" I explained that Santa couldn't bring a real airplane because it wouldn't fit in the sleigh. She seems to have been satisfied with that, but no wonder the kid was so excited! :o)
Of course, I have more photos of sweet baby W eating. He's at that age where it's just easier to get photos of him strapped into a chair.
This day it was oatmeal and yogurt and pears. I love this little spoon thing he's using. We got them for miss L, who never used them much. Sweet baby W, however, uses them with great ease though they only work on gloppy things like oatmeal and yogurt. The shield keeps him from shoving it too far in and the fat handle helps him grip. Woohoo!
See what I mean about the socks?
Even with the awesome spoon thing, he still loses it after awhile and gets messy.
Miss L loves to use her broom as a microphone and play her guitar. It's really cute!!
Sweet baby W loves to pull the trains out of the box.
One day, miss L and I worked on making a Christmas tree and sweet baby W played with some different sensory toys on his tray. This is really less than exciting, but it's what our days are filled with! :o)
Miss L loved making that tree. She LOVES using scissor and glue sticks, so it was sort of right up her alley.
Miss L took this photo of her brother. I just love her photos!
Merry Christmas! See you next week!
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