Family: The Best Gift of All

We had a fun-filled holiday week with the entire family. I now understand why my Mom and Dad always ask for "the family to be together" as their gift. It was so much fun seeing our kids interact with their cousins. Spending time with everyone reinforced that my sisters and I are doing the right things with our families to carry on the tradition of a close-knit, low-drama, very functional family.



We spent Christmas Eve with extended family. Bean was in awe of her third cousins. They welcomed her at their table.



Squeaker got some up close time with her 2-month-older cousin, Sam. They wrestled on Christmas Day, and then power napped in nature at the River on the 26th.







Nana helped Bean learn about the tradition of decorating the tree.

Christmas Gifts

We woke up up Christmas morning at 8 o'clock (thank you, Santa, for granting my Christmas wish to sleep late), and enjoyed watching Bean and Squeaker cuddle on T & T's sofa before heading to OpaNana's.

The kids had so much fun opening their stocking and Santa gifts that we pretty much stopped after that. Kate loved her keyboard, headlamp, airplane, books, apron, dress from Grandma, Taki bear, and ballerina stuff.

The Famous Film Director, Pepe Le Snack

My brilliant husband has been directing, filming, and editing our Holiday Video Card. You heard it right, folks. You'll be getting a link to a video from us this year instead of a traditional snail mail card. Now you can't put the video on your wall or mantle with all those other cards, but I guarantee you that the video will be the coolest holiday greeting you've ever received.

Director Husband's been wearing a new driving cap, and he looks tre frenchy. I've been calling him Pepe Le [insert funny word here] for a few days now. The name that's stuck is Pepe Le Snack. Can you hear it? The Oscar for best Holiday Video Card goes to... Pepe Le Snack!

Waking Up on the Right Side of the Crib

About half the time, Bean wakes up in a grumpy mood. Squeaker, on the other hand, is all smiles after sleep. Especially when she's greeted by Mom AND Bean like today. Check out the pure happiness.

How was your day?

On the days that Bean goes to daycare, we always ask her "How was your day?"

Yesterday, she answered "Connie." Connie is one of her babysitters, so we clearly knew that she understood the question.

She followed up with the statement "Popcorn." Translation: "we had popcorn at daycare today."

And she finished up her answer with the word "Laura." Laura is her other babysitter.

Comprehension and memory! SATs here she comes...

Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, Love All

Husband turned me on to this inspirational video. We're not practicing a religion right now, but the ideas in this video really hit home for us. Our extended families have adopted "Spend Less" holiday policies, but we need to work on adding the "Give More" component. Watch it--you'll like it!

Even Smart Girls Like Pretty Shoes

Squeaker got some very pretty new shoes this weekend (thanks, Nordstrom). Keeping socks on an infant is IMPOSSIBLE, and I thought booties might help. They do!

Magnificent Birthdays

Our weekend got off to a fun (kidless dinner out with our favorite neighbors at our favorite Mexican restaurant) then not-so-fun (post Mexican food 12-hour stomach bug) start on Friday night.

But then on Saturday, NanaOpa arrived for a quick visit. By the way, Bean calls her grandma & grandpa by one word: "NanaOpa." Their visit was magnificent! Highlights:

1. NanaOpa drive 14 hours to bring us a beautiful hutch/buffet handmade from the wood of the tree that Husband and I were married under.
2. Bean dances in circles with excitement at NanaOpa's arrival.
3. Husband's birthday breakfast of eggs, sausage, and cinnamon rolls.
4. Husband's and Opa's birthday dinner of buffalo tenderloin with morel cream sauce, mashed potatoes, spinach salad with mushrooms and warm lemon dressing, and skillet apple pie with cinnamon ice cream.
5. Singing the Happy Birthday song 4 times because Bean liked it so much.
6. Sharing Bean and Squeaker with NanaOpa.

We caught a few highlights on film, including Bean making the Hook 'Em sign.

And Bean helping Husband and Opa open gifts.

Still a Peanut

Squeaker had her 4-month checkup today, and she's still small. Hard to believe with the genes she's got, but she's in the 17th percentile for height (23"), 25th for weight (12 lbs 2 oz), and 30th for head circumference (40"). She's on track developmentally, and was healthy overall today.

100 Words

We don't spend much time around other kids, so our perspective on toddler development is pretty skewed. I do get a monthly email from BabyCenter that includes some average developmental milestones. Friday's BabyCenter email said that the average vocab for a 22-month-old is 20 words.

"20 words? You've got to be kidding!" husband said. "Bean knows WAY MORE than 20."

So we decided to count. Not that we're competitive or anything ;), but we decided to write down all the words we heard Bean say this weekend. Our rules were that we would only count words we heard (not words we have heard in the past), and we wouldn't count mimicking (because she does a TON of that). Basically, she had to use the word independently and in the proper context. We weren't super diligent about capturing every word, but we easily made it past 100.

"She's BRILLIANT!" husband concluded. I'm more conservative in my judgment: a little gifted.

I think the most telling thing about this experiment is that we had nothing better to do than track our child's speech for a whole weekend.

Bean Do

Bean's sense of herself is growing daily. She has preferences now about what she eats, what she wears, her hairstyle, what she watches on TV... the list goes on an on. Her love of the digital camera is especially telling. When we bring it out these days, she immediately insists "Bean, Bean" meaning that she wants to see herself in the viewfinder. She wants us to take her picture and show it to her. We took this video today just after Nana had called. Bean watched the video about 10 times on the computer and would have watched more if we had let her.



Squeaker, too, is becoming more aware of herself. She's found her voice and likes to have conversations. She and Bean had this one today in the crib.