Bah! Humbug! and Merry Christmas!

Eli and Ezra both caught colds the weekend before Christmas and Eli's developed into a nasty ear infection. He had a fever from Thursday through Monday and was miserable. We were all miserable truth be told. I think this was as sick as he's ever been with the possible exception of the time he had the croup. Not a nice Christmas present.

Ezra got over the cold pretty quickly, but Santa brought him his two front teeth for Christmas. These are not really very good as presents despite what the song says because teething hurts.

So there's our Bah! Humbug! list, we'll move along to happier things.....

Ezra has learned to pull up and is exploring all over the place now. He's eating puffs and Happy Melts like they are going out of style - he's basically been eating us out of house and home for the past several days. He had a very good Christmas as paper is one of his true loves.

Although he felt terrible, Eli still enjoyed his Christmas too. He got his fire truck, plus a fire fighter's outfit and lots of other fun things. Plus, we had family here Sunday and Monday and you know how Eli loves a party.

Fire Truck!
Grandma and her Helpers

Ooo! Presents and Paper!
Eli and Vicki enjoying a story

Merry Christmas!

Annie

We lost our sweet Annie-cakes on Tuesday. She had had kidney failure since early April and the vet had warned us that the treatment (semi-nightly injections of fluids) would likely not be effective for more than a year. Her last months were good ones, however, so we were glad that we were able to do that for her.
She was only 8 and a half years old, but we believe that her kitten-hood aged her beyond her years. We named her Annie because she was a little orphan we found under our neighbor's deck. She weighed only 1.5 pounds though she was already about 8 weeks at that time. She was so tiny and so scared when I finally caught her (by throwing a jacket over her). We bathed her and discovered that she was not, in fact, solid gray. Afterwards she was so tired she crawled into a little pail I was using as the bathroom trash can and fell asleep.
She grew into a sleek, ultra soft, slightly chubby cat in no time. She loved to play fetch with paper balls (putting them in her water dish was the best part). She loved to lay on us, but in classic cat fashion, only on her terms - preferably in the middle of the night after vigorous patting. She loved to eat the ribbon off of presents and the leaves off of house plants. She especially loved to beat up on our other cat, Seamus. Even as a tiny kitten she would jump on him and pound him with delight. Being the weirdo he is, he loved it, and would invite her to rough-house. We will all miss her, but Seamus may miss her most of all.

50 Years!

No, neither Chris nor I turned 50, though we both feel well past that plenty of the time (the cycle of snotty noses and a baby who likes to just make sure we're still there in the middle of the night is killer).

Actually, it was Grandpa and Grandma's 50th Wedding Anniversary! I'm pretty sure that Eli still has no idea what an anniversary is, but he figured out it involved a party and cake so it was all good.

Eli took this photo - we know what his priorities are. . .

-December 17, 1961-
-December 17, 2011-
Then. . .

And Now. . . (we think they are the first couple to celebrate their wedding and their 50th Anniversary inside our church.
Happy Anniversary!

P.S. Chris and I are celebrating our anniversary today, but we've got a ways to go before we hit 50 years. . . hope Eli and Ezra get us some cake.

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

So Ezra is crawling, at least that's what we're calling it - really it is more of a rocking/scooting kind of thing. You'd be amazed at how far and how fast he can go on his behind (those cloth diapers apparently give lots of good padding and just the right amount of traction).

He's really funny right now, copying all sort of things we do. Clapping is his favorite. All you have to do is say "Yay!" and he'll start clapping. He's also saying "da, da, da," which is ultra cute of course.

His 9-month check-up stats are: 30" and 20lbs. That's right, thirty (30) inches! Totally off the doctor's charts, while the 20lbs just middle of the road. Chris brought home a sheet of high-calorie foods to feed him. I can honestly say that I never thought skinny kids would be the problem we'd have, but we have two of them. Go figure.

Anyway, here's a video of Ezzy doing his scootin' thing. Do you think Eli still has a bit of jealousy?


And here are some photos of Eli helping me decorate the Christmas tree. He is sooooo excited about Christmas. He told me the other day that Santa is going to bring him a fire truck. Santa will be up in the air and toss the fire truck down and Eli will catch it. Okey-dokey. Maybe we better read the Night Before Christmas again.

Hmmm. How can I get a piece of this action?

That's what I'm talking about!

Getting Ready

Part of our busy schedule this Thanksgiving included a few things to start getting ready for Christmas.

Grandma and I took Eli to the Christmas Parade (Ezra went too, but was unimpressed).
Then we cut our Christmas Tree....
How do I get this thing on the car?
We still have some shopping to do, the tree has to actually make its way into the house, gifts have to be wrapped. But, as far as he is concerned, Eli is ready. He is sure Santa is bringing him a fire truck and that is all that really all that matters.

Swing, Baby, Swing!

Weeee!

Ezra at Eight Months

Sweet, adorable, good-natured, quick to smile, loves to giggle, bright blue eyes, affectionate, fine blonde hair, loves to play with his toys, pulls hair, . . .

. . . has two new bottom teeth - finally, thinks paper is the best thing ever, finds us all so funny, wants the cats sooooo badly, won't sleep all night, can't quite crawl so he scoots all over on his behind, has big feet. That's Ezra and we love him.

Trick or Treat!

Eli was pretty excited about Halloween this year, especially once he understood the whole candy concept. He was also pretty excited about his costume. He loves Bob the Builder and this costume is an altered version of that, but in Eli's mind he is the little boy in the book "Digger Man." Next to "Busytown," this is his favorite book (thanks Jed, Sarah, Eric, and Macon). It is about a little boy who is going to buy a big digger (backhoe) and teach his baby brother how to be a digger man too.

Here is our Digger Man: have boots, overalls, hard hat, and tools - will travel.

And here's Ezra, our little pun'kin.

Eli was really good about ringing the doorbells and saying "Trick or Treat" and "Pank-u" (thank you). He did get overly excited once and just yelled "Candy!" at our neighbor. Ah well.
Happy Halloween!

This Little Piggy

This Little Piggy had peas for lunch and they were oink-oink - I mean - really yummy!

On the Huckleberry Trail

We walked part of the Huckleberry Trail this morning. It is built on an old rail line that was called the "Huckleberry" because it moved so slow you could pick berries from the train. I'm pretty sure we had it beat for slowness. Eli has to stop and explore something about every third step. Poor Ezra, his stroller ride isn't very exciting. He amused himself by playing with Eli's hat when Eli was sitting in Bertha's front seat. (Bertha is the enormous, but very useful, double stroller on loan to us from my cousin - thanks!)
Here's another Eli masterpiece...

Sun and Smiles

It was one of those great fall days Saturday when it is warm, yet crisp all at once. We spent most of our day outside enjoying warm weather's last hurrah.

Eli took this last photo, but I don't think that he is a budding Ansel Adams - he also took one of his own feet.

Bedtime

Chris complained that I always got the camera going when he was in unflattering postures, but how could I not capture this sweet bedtime scene. Ezra loves to hang out with the big boys.

Happy to be Me

Ezra turned 7 months on Monday. He is still a very happy baby with a few important exceptions: he was very unhappy to have strep throat all weekend, he does not like to be sleepy yet hungry, and he hates to have his face washed.
On more positive developments, Ezra is sitting up great although we still keep a pillow behind him just in case - knocking his noggin is also on the unhappy list. He plays with his toys for long periods of time all by himself and now that we've learned to only feed him high-fiber foods he's eating solid food like it is going out of style. Ezra's pretty much never met a stranger, but Eli is the most interesting person in his world (oh, what adventures will they have??).
Ezra continues to develop his sweet, cuddly, patient personality. Chris says he'll grow into a gentle giant and he's well on his way already - 18lb 12oz when he was at the doctor's office Sunday. By the way, Eli took this photo of Ezra - not bad! Happy Boy!

Hey, I've got a lower lip and look what it does!

Riding the Rails

We went to Spencer, N.C. yesterday to ride Thomas the Tank Engine. Eli was so excited, he jumped up and down yelling "yay!" when we told him. He was double excited when he found out our friends Jed, Macon, and Ellie were going to be there too! He had a blast, but was overwhelmed by all the activity and people. He was so exhausted he slept for more than 12 hours last night.

Photos were hard to take while keeping up with the kids at the same time, but fortunately by combining our efforts Sarah, Delana and I have several good shots from the day.

That's A Train!

Photo-op with Thomas

Whoa! we're moving!

Hey, Jed, do you know where we're going?

Whew! What a Day!

Eli to the Rescue!

Our fire department celebrated their 100th anniversary over the weekend. Eli loved the open house and drove every single truck in the department's very large fleet. The best part, this truck and the town's oldest fire truck both live next door to us since they belong to our neighbor!
And now with sound effects...

Three!

Eli turned 3 today. I'm not sure how, but it has been both the blink of an eye and a really long haul. It was a wonderful day. The weather was gorgeous, we had friends and family here for the party, Eli had a great time. It was one of those days where all was right with the world.

Cake!

Diggers!

Trains!

Frog Tent! (Thanks for the great yard sale, Mary)

and Family!

Don't worry, Ezra may not have been the birthday boy, but he got plenty of grandparent and Aunt Melissa time too.


And finally, the annual photo shoot...

the day we brought Eli home....
and today....