We've been waiting patiently......

Finally! Now that Will is almost 6 months old, we've finally finalized this collage of belly/newborn pictures. It'll be ready for us to pick up from the photographer (www.paulwendl.com) any day!

(you can click on the photo and see a larger version)

Nikki

Winter Luau!

Allie's school had a Winter Luau yesterday....what fun! Allie had so much fun and even came home showing us a dance that she learned at school (we assume it was some kind of Hula). She looked just precious in her Hawaiian dress :-)




Nikki

What's happenin'?

Whew....it's busy with two babies! So, here's the run down on what's been happenin' at our house....

Allie....

• got some new boots, which she LOVES!

• ADORES her baby brother! (in fact, she loves to share with him....thus the reason I had to pull two Cheerios from his mouth yesterday!)
  

• had her first playdate with her friend from school, Emma (22 months)
  

• has perfected counting to 10 (well, actually I've heard her count to 11), mastered her shapes, and is currently practicing singing her ABCs and learning her colors.

• has received her first report card (and I've had my first parent-teacher conference), and it appears as though she is a well-behaved, brilliant child! Yeah!
• loves playing with stickers (see the picture of Will below as evidence of this)
• loves to color and play "Rosy" (that's Ring-Around-the-Rosy for those of you without small children)
  
• has become a Lion King fanatic (thank goodness for the break from Barney and Elmo!)
• is still unzipping and taking her PJs and socks off every night in her crib before she falls asleep, necessitating me going in every night and re-dressing her before we go to bed
  
• is still a Daddy's girl.

Will.....

• has learned to roll over from his back to his belly (he's been rolling from belly to back since Christmas day).

(The first time Will ever rolled to his belly)

(The first time he rolled to his belly and got his arm all the way out from under himself)

• had his first playdate (with Emma's little brother, Neil, who is 2 1/2 months old....see Allie's entry for info on Emma)

• LOVES being adorned with Little Mermaid stickers by his Big Sis (take note of his bib)!...and yes, Allie did this all by herself without any prompting or suggestions from anyone....just like she gave him Cherrios without prompting by anyone!
  

• has his first tooth (bottom left) just starting to peak through the gum (no pictures yet, it's too tiny!)
• goes to bed at 5:30pm and takes NO BOTTLES until he gets up at 6-6:30am!
• eats oatmeal for breakfast each morning, veggies (squash and peas, so far) for dinner each night
• only has eyes for Mommy :-)

There's so much more to tell, but I have a giant playroom that's begging to be cleaned :-) More fun stories to follow....

Nikki

The Playroom is Complete!!!!

Finally! FINALLY! The playroom is complete!

Most of you know that we have been living through a basement renovation for the past 15 months. I'll spare you the boring details of how difficult it was at times living through a renovation with one, and then two, babies. I am happy to report that the majority of the renovation is complete....complete enough for us to occupy the space and begin enjoying our GIANT YELLOW PLAYROOM!!!!

The kids, particularly Allie, really enjoy the space. Mommy loves it too! Having a specific space for all the toys and gadgets, and having a small TV dedicated to Barney and Elmo has revolutionized our life....take a look!










I'm sure I'll have tons of photos of the babies having fun in this new space to share with you soon....

Nikki

He's eating!

It's official....the boy is eating! Last week Will seemed to be the hungriest little guy alive. It seemed like he was in need of a bottle every 1 1/2 hours. Our pediatrician warned us that this would happen sometime in the next month or two, and she said when it did we should start giving him cereal once a day. So that's just what we did. Last Friday, on January 1, will had his first bowl of rice cereal....YUMMY!


He's had a bowl of cereal every day since, and he's still trying to get the hang of eating off a spoon and swallowing the cereal. It's pretty messy....at least half of it ends up all down the front of his clothes.



I'm sure it won't be long until he gets the hang of it and is eating us out of house and home....

Nikki

Christmas, 2009

Yes, I realize I'm a bit late with this post, but we have been really busy for the past two weeks! It's been so much fun having two little ones at Christmas this year. Here's a brief recap of our fun times....

The night before Christmas Eve, after putting Will to bed, Allie and I baked cookies for Santa. Ok, so we didn't make them from scratch, but for me, this counts as baking...




The next day, Christmas Eve, we packed up and headed to Granny's house for lunch and an afternoon of presents. The babies got so many fun things. This was Allie's first experience opening presents since her first birthday back in May. We realized she would get the hang of it this year, and she was able to help Will out too. In fact, she was convinced that all of his presents were hers and she played with each one of his toys as much as she played with her own.








When we got home Christmas Eve evening, Pops was at our house. Allie was so excited to see him. Grandma and PawPaw came over too and we had a great dinner. After putting Baby Will to bed, Allie and I put out our cookies and milk for Santa, and a banana for Rudolph (no carrots or apples in the house, unfortunately).


We tucked Allie into bed and Santa and his helpers got busy delivering toys and presents to our house!


Santa and Rudolph clearly enjoyed their snacks...


Christmas morning was magical. Pops was with us, and Grandma and PawPaw came over before Allie woke. We had a wonderful day playing, playing, playing!









There's a fun video of Allie putting out cookies for Santa and getting up to see her presents on Christmas morning, but for some reason, I can't get the video to load here. So, you have to go to our YouTube page at www.YouTube.com/AllieLed and watch the "Santa! 2009" video there.

We also got a pleasant surprise on Christmas Day from Will. Will is a belly sleeper....he ALWAYS sleeps on his belly. I put him down for a morning nap on Christmas Day, and when I went upstairs to get him after his nap, this is what I found:


Yep...he rolled over! This was the first time that Will rolled, but it wasn't his last! He has rolled from his belly to his back many times since Christmas Day, and he's almost able to roll from his back to his belly too!

After our busy Christmas Day, we loaded up the next day to head down to Auburn for yet another Christmas meal and fun time of opening presents. The kids got so many great toys! We're still opening toys every day and playing with new stuff!




As you can see, we truly had a wonderful Christmas this year! Hope you all had great holidays too...

Nikki