December 26

We did all kinds of cold things today, and had lots of fun doing them! This morning, we took Caleb ice skating for the first time. (I use the term "we" loosely - Chris took Caleb out on the ice, while Daisy and I sat in the bleachers, took pictures, and shivered.)

We only attempted the endeavor because:

1. I found a great Groupon deal for it.

2. Chris is an experienced ice skater.

3. Caleb had expressed some interest in it.

4. The kid slept in super-late this morning, meaning we could push naptime back a bit.

Still, I was a little bit leery; Caleb's a pretty cautious kid, and I was worried the whole experience would be too much for him.

He was a little bit nervous at first, but he wanted so badly to skate that he overcame his fears. What a big boy he's becoming!

Daisy was not at all entertained by the whole "waiting in the cold" thing.

Caleb started out slowly, and asked Chris to hold him (while skating!) several times, but eventually he got the hang of it. He progressed from being pushed along to walking on the ice to almost skating on his own. A few times, he even skated without holding on to Chris' hand!

This was near the end. I wish I had captured  better how proud Caleb was of himself. It was the highlight of the whole experience for me. 

Skating with just a little bit of support! Yay, Caleb!

(However, I am a bit concerned: Caleb likes to ice skate, he's pretty good at handling a hockey stick and shooting the puck... There is no way I'm letting this boy be a hockey player! His sweet little face! His teeth! His injury-free brain! His meager college fund!)

After naps, we met up with Grandmother, Grace, and Sally and headed out to the zoo for their Christmas light display. It was cold (around 30 degrees), but we were all bundled and had a lot of fun!

We even splurged and rode the carousel. Grace was so excited to ride her zebra!

Daisy was initially excited about the carousel, but lost interest quickly. She held onto that pole the whole time! Her glowing necklace was a timely gift from our neighbor - she brought it over right before we left for the zoo.

Caleb, posing with his Grandmother and aunties on some sort of beetle sculpture. 

Even the sea lions were frozen!

A happy little elf (literally; a girl in an elf costume!) took this picture for us. This was right before we left, when we were all nearly frozen solid.

Daisy with her aunties!

Before we left, Caleb stopped to give the sea lion a pat on the head. Funny boy!

December 25

Merry Christmas!

We celebrated with my family on Christmas Eve, and I failed miserably by forgetting my camera at home. At one point, it was in my diaper bag, and then I moved it so that I wouldn't forget it, and... yeah. But we had a great time!

I did remember my camera on Christmas morning, though.

Chris and I stayed up until 1:30 assembling Christmas gifts, and Caleb woke up promptly at 5:30 am, not because he was excited, but because that's just what he does. Luckily, we lured him into our bed and were able to steal another two hours of sleep while he snuggled/played/talked in between us. When Daisy woke up at 7:30 (a Christmas miracle!), we groggily stumbled in to open presents.

The first thing Caleb saw was this amazing train table (a hand-me-down from Chris' super-generous cousin and his family!). Caleb's response? "Wow! Fabulous!" It was pretty sweet.

Before we opened gifts, we snagged one family photo. Chris and I are getting a lot of mileage out of our family Christmas jammies! I love that Caleb's old ones fit Daisy this year;  I just wish I'd thought to buy them in bigger sizes so that the whole family could match every year. 

(FYI: we completely realize how nerdy this is, but isn't that half the fun?)

Then we got to work opening presents. In case you're wondering, that green smudge on Caleb's cheek is from the dry erase markers that came with the easel that I stayed up late assembling for him. They broke that   bad boy in right away!

Daisy loved her new cape, and  took off flying in it right away.

(I swear I fixed the lighting in these pictures on Photoshop, but it doesn't seem to have saved. I'm too lazy to go back and re-do it. Sorry.)

Both kids got rain boots with matching umbrellas - a big hit.

I was surprised that Daisy really loved this little Change-a-Tune piano that was a MOPS hand-me-down. She started singing and playing right away!

I made a yummy egg casserole for breakfast, but Caleb spied these cupcakes left over from our Christmas Eve celebration and asked if he and Daisy could have them for breakfast. Since Christmas comes but once a year, and it is the most important birthday of the year (and the cupcakes were made with beans and honey, rather than flour and sugar), I said yes. 

We stuck a candle in one and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.

Someone certainly enjoyed her cupcake (and the stickers that were in her stocking!)

After breakfast, more playing. I think it will take a while before Daisy learns to play with the train set and not destroy it.

Meanwhile, Caleb regaled us with his versions of "Jingle Bells" and "Frosty the Snowman" on his new, *real* microphone.

And my husband was charmingly geeky in his jammies. Love him, especially because he's doing cooking of some sort. What a good man.

After some really fantastic naps for the whole family, we headed over to Chris' family's house for Christmas, take 3.

I'm including this photo so that you can see:

Daisy and her apple, which she refused to let go.

Her sweet little leggings.

How cute Sally and Grace are.

Two of Grace's three Chihuahuas (Coco is next to Daisy, and you can just see Izzy's little ears on the right of the frame).

The embarrassing amount of gifts. Dear family: this was so much fun, but maybe we should scale back next year?

Caleb was excited to open gifts with Grandmother, at one point even offering to help her open her gifts (in the politest way possible).

After all of the hubbub was over, Sally opened up two of her gifts: Halloween wigs. The kids were entranced, and immediately wanted turns.

Daisy rocked the blue wig - doesn't she look like a supermodel in the making?

Caleb wore the hot pink wig, which set off the raw redness underneath his poor little nose. I hope he gets over his cold quickly!

This is what I love about this family. I've yet to meet another family that embraces fun and silliness the way they do. Love you guys!

December 22

We celebrated my sister's birthday today, but sadly, I forgot my camera. 

After naps, the kids and I made these cookies. They were delicious! They had to bake for a long time, though, so while they baked Chris took Caleb and Daisy outside to pick up sticks. We're still figuring out how to coexist with all of the trees in our yard, and one of the things we're discovering is that when it's windy out, we end up with lots of random sticks in the yard that should probably be picked up. Despite the cold, Caleb and Daisy had a lot of fun helping Daddy!

That red bucket is a remnant from some warm-weather project. As it has sat, neglected, it has filled with water. On warmer days, we love watching the birds drink and bathe in the water. Today it was frozen solid, and it looks like Daisy was pretty interested. (Note: Girl doesn't look bundled, but she was wearing a shirt, two sweaters, a hoodie, a hat, leggings, pants, and boots. It just takes all of that layering to make her look like a normal, chubby 19-month-old.)

I think Chris was making that funny face because he was snapping branches. With all of our trees, the man may need to invest in a chain saw in the near future.

Daisy quickly grew bored with helping pick up sticks and wandered forlornly over to her swing. Sadly, she couldn't find anyone to help her up, so she toddled off somewhere else.

Exciting adventures today, huh? That's just how we roll.

December 20

Oh, Daisy. My mind is already trying to wrap itself around the fact that in seven months she will be a big sister - a middle child - and not the baby anymore. It's got me feeling all nostalgic for this moment, even though it hasn't passed us yet. 

Every day I think of something new I want to remember about Daisy right now.

This girl is all about pretend. She opens her little picnic basket, pulls out her cup (proudly declaring, "Purple cup!"), walks over to her toy fridge, pretends to fill up the cup in the filtered water dispenser (waiting an appropriate amount of time for the cup to fill), and then feeds her baby doll some water. 

Caleb took forever to start playing pretend, but Daisy is so there. I was making dinner tonight when I saw that she had spread out this whole picnic for herself. (That's a sticker from a tomato we had for dinner on her knee.)

When I put Daisy to bed, she always reaches up for my hair. It's a new thing, this hair-stroking, and I love it. She doesn't pull; she tenderly, gently strokes my hair. Sometimes she grabs a handful of it and tickles her face.

Another new thing is Christmas carols. "Frosty the Snowman" is her favorite, and she tries to sing it over and over. She only knows two parts: "Frosty the snowman..." and "Thumpety-thump-thump, thumpety-thump-thump, look at Frosty go..." But she sings them over and over, and giggles with joy when I sing it to her.

She's a snuggle bug, just like her mommy. My mom has said that when I was little, she knew exactly how many hugs I needed each day. Daisy's favorite thing is to stand, arms raised, and shout, "Holdu!"

If I'm holding her and she doesn't want to be put down, she clings to me with all of her bony little might. She wraps those arms around my neck, squeezes her legs around my ribs, and presses her whole body into me. She won't let go.

And though she be but little, she is fierce. 

-Wm. Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

December 18

I was feeling frisky this afternoon, so the kids and I made gingerbread men!

Any other Christmas, making cookies would be no big deal. But since we're on GAPS this Christmas and our diet doesn't allow any kind of flour or sugar, a simple gingerbread man becomes an expensive exercise in creativity. I found this recipe online, and when it was also suggested by Amber's mom during her Christmas-cookie making event, I figured it was a safe bet and worthy of my (obscenely expensive) almond flour.

Even if the cookies hadn't turned out well, Caleb and Daisy enjoyed the process so much that it would have almost been worth it. The dough was more delicate than I'm used to, so I had to help Caleb transfer the cookies to our cookie sheet. But he was all about cutting them out, and he and Daisy both loved the decorating part.

Since normal icing or sprinkles weren't an option for the cookies, we used raisins and soy-free, dairy-free, gluten-free chocolate chips. I'm pretty sure Daisy ate more raisins than ended up on the cookies, but at least I was smart enough to keep the chocolate chips out of her reach. 

See, in this picture it looks like Daisy is helping decorate a cookie. WRONG! She's snatching raisins off a cookie that Caleb already decorated.

That mischievous smile always gives her away.

Here she's actually helping, though. 

While Caleb decorated, he made up a whole story about how one of the stars (we made ginger stars, too) was the star above the stable where Jesus was born, and this raisin was Mary and this one was Joseph and these were the angels and these raisins over here were the door to Bethlehem and this raisin was the old, tumble-down stable... 

It was really sweet, and I was so happy to hear him re-telling the story of the Nativity with such accuracy.

Because we had several batches of cookies to bake, the kiddos were rewarded pretty quickly for their efforts. 

Can you tell he was excited?

Daisy, planning her attack. Do you see the little gouges in her cookie? Her strategy was to pick out the raisins and chocolate chips first, then eat the cookie.

Caleb ate his gingerbread man's legs first, then made him do a little dance.

Daisy officially likes cookie making.

Her favorite part, though was when I stood up and clapped/dusted the cookie crumbs off my hands. For some reason, she thought that was hilarious and kept saying, "Again! Again!" Love that girl.

December 16

Really, this is a continuation of my December 15 post, but I'm neurotic enough that I don't want to title a post "December 15, part 2", so I'm calling it December 16. Fair?

We visited Chris' grandmother in the morning; though seeing her was the main purpose of our trip, we only spent about two hours with her. Grandmother has Alzheimer's, and her condition has progressed to the point that she has no idea who we are and gets confused very easily. She does best with just a few people, for a short amount of time, and even then a "visit" isn't really a visit. It was really hard for Chris to see that though Grandmother still looks like herself, and is healthy and active, she is no longer the woman he once knew. But we are so thankful for Chris' Aunt Mary, who cares for Grandmother with a loving, servant's heart. What a blessing she is to the whole family!

We brought Grandmother some chocolates, and she eagerly shared them with Caleb. Though Grandmother doesn't remember much anymore, her love of children and chocolate has remained intact!

Sadly,t his was the best picture I could get of the two of them. I wanted desperately to get a picture of Grandmother and Daisy (whose middle name - Kathleen - is in honor of Grandmother), but Daisy's cold and lack of sleep the night before meant she wanted nothing to do with anyone but me. That was a disappointment.

But Caleb played eagerly with Aunt Mary's box of fun toys, and often stopped his play to show his treasures to his Great-Grandmother.

After our visit, we headed back to Rob and Jodi's house just in time to celebrate this boy's 6th birthday.

That's right. Rob and Jodi invited us to stay with them, even though we were crashing their son Trey's birthday party. I'm still baffled by their graciousness.

And Caleb? He had a ridiculous amount of fun. 

Trey's party was monster truck-themed, and that plus lots of fun big boys to play with meant that Caleb was in heaven. I think this was the first birthday party that Caleb has actively participated in, and he loved it!

Do you see the pure joy on his face as he waves that checkered flag back and forth?

This was despite the fact that we were well past lunch and nap time.

We made lots of exceptions at the party - Caleb got to eat a bun with his (regular) hot dog, he had birthday cake, and we even let him handle a knife. Caleb thought the knife was the best part, especially because it was clear. Funny boy. 

Here are the partied-out cousins, minus Daisy: MacKenzie, Carson, Trey, and Caleb

(It appears that this is a Daisy-free post, though I assure you that she was there.) 

Caleb woke up this morning asking if we could go back to Kansas City, and my thoroughly exhausted children slept so well last night (Daisy slept for 12 hours straight - a new record in our house!) that it was almost worth the lack of sleep while we were in KC.

But, all of that quality time meant that Caleb and I caught Daisy's cold. Lucky Chris gets to go to work, so his odds of catching it are drastically lower. I'm praying for a speedy recovery - I don't want sick babies on Christmas!

December 15

We headed to Kansas City this weekend to visit Chris' grandmother, and Chris' cousin and his wife graciously invited us to stay with them in their new home. Even better, they have children the same age as ours, so Caleb and Daisy had a great time playing with their (second) cousins.

Unfortunately, Daisy also came down with a cold the day we left, and she was miserable all weekend. Sick baby + unfamiliar environment = mama didn't get much sleep. Add in the fact that Baby #3 only wants me to sleep, and I'm fighting a nasty cough myself, and...

Well, this is all you get for now.

Daisy and MacKenzie Mae were fast friends. Daisy was also fascinated by the pond in Rob and Jodi's back yard.

Jodi and I were captivated by our darling girls in their jammies with matching bedheads.

I love it!

There are tons more pictures: our visit with Grandmother, even a birthday party! But more than anything, I need sleep. Maybe tomorrow.

December 13

*sigh*

I haven't just been a lazy blogger lately, I've been a lazy photographer, too. Something about the short, gray, dreary days of December and January make it so hard to pick up the camera. Actually, I can tell you exactly what it is that makes it hard to pick up the camera: the short, gray, dreary days. If I know the yucky lighting is going to make for yucky photographs, I have a hard time even taking a picture.

But I did today.

It was warm enough to play on the swing set with no jackets!

Then I lit a fire in the fireplace, and Caleb and Daisy sat in front of the fire and colored.

Those are their little trees in the background. The trouble with Caleb-sized and Daisy-sized trees is that their trunks are too skinny for normal Christmas tree stands, so they're set somewhat precariously in rock-filled coffee cans. So far, they've tilted but not tipped.

My sweet darlings.