Once you get past a year and a half old, it's time to stop counting everything in months. It's time to add a year into the picture rather than saying he is 19 months. It's the same thing, just a different unit of measure.
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| cheese |
This month has been a busy one with the holiday season in full swing, so here we go.
Nathaniel's looks are slowing down, which is nice. Babies change so much every month at first, but at this age, the change is more gradual. Nathaniel is still teething. He has pushed through all of his 1 year molars and all of his canines have now popped through. We are hoping the number of times he wakes up in the night will start to decrease significantly. We also started giving him some Orajel naturals on his gums where his canines are before bed to help him fall asleep. It has only been a few days, but it seems to be helping.
This past month, went to Indiana to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Grashorn side. We were there for 8 days total, much longer than usual due to Eric's aunt Janey passing away unexpectedly. It was the first funeral for the boys, although they only went to the visitation due to coming down with a bout of pink eye. We are all sad and Thanksgiving wasn't quite the same without her there.
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| aunt janey showing edmund how to use the computer |
We still had a nice meal with dad (Eric) way outdoing himself with all of the food he made. (Yep, he does almost all of the cooking for Thanksgiving, although mom also made the squash, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pies.) Being there longer meant we finally got to hang out with our friends the Styles family. We had been trying to get together with them for what seems like forever, but our kids have been sick every time we visit or the visits have been too short. We ended the trip with a round of stomach flu that slowly picked off almost everyone in the family. This was Nathaniel's first time with it. He was mostly grumpy because he was hungry and we wouldn't let him eat because he immediately threw up whatever we gave him. By some miracle, both dad and Edmund came through unscathed. Mom was down for the count for a few days.
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| enjoying a little pumpkin pie |
One of the Thanksgiving traditions is to cut down the Grashorn Christmas tree. We decided not to cut one down as well because it is a hassle to have to cart it all the way back to Ohio. The boys did enjoy the snow and looking at all of the trees. Nathaniel had to be in the Ergo since he was still suffering from the stomach flu.
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| sick little boy, but still loving the snow |
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| at the christmas tree farm |
After returning home from Indiana, Edmund was begging us to get a Christmas tree. So, on Monday since mom was no longer throwing up, we went out and got a tree. The boys have been having a blast rearranging ornaments daily and admiring it. They have broken about 4 ornaments so far, but luckily only ones that we didn't care too much about.
The boys were visited by St. Nicholas on December 6th and he brought them some art supplies as he does every year. This year they got daubers, which have been great, except for it says that they are washable and they aren't. At least it doesn't come off of hands very well.
Nathaniel has loved joining with us in creating lots of Christmas traditions. Mom has 25 days of Christmas traditions that she put together last year. There is something fun for the boys to do every day to celebrate the season. Some of the boys' favorite activities have been making Christmas ornaments, baking and decorating Christmas cookies, Christmas crafts that include glue, drinking apple cider by the fire, and singing Christmas carols together in the evenings. We are also going through an Advent devotional with the boys, Unwrapping the Greatest Gift by Ann Voskamp. The content is a little above their heads at this age, but they love putting the paper ornaments that go along with the book on the Christmas tree.
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| christmas cookies are the best |
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| cutting snowflakes |
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| making christmas cookies with mom |
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| enjoying hot apple cider and a ginger boy (as edmund calls them) |
The boys made their annual visit to see Santa Claus. Nathaniel told Santa he wanted presents.
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| trip to see santa |
We took the boys to see Zoo Lights at the Columbus Zoo. The boys thought it was awesome and thought it was cool to see the animals at night time. Edmund, especially, has a great love of Christmas lights. We have been driving through our neighborhood the long way home so that we can look at all of the lights that are up. We also went to the state park near our house and they have a wonderful Christmas lights display that you drive through with your car. The boys also insist that the lights on the Christmas tree are always on as long as they are awake.
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| christmas lights at the zoo |
It has been a thrilling holiday season and we have loved seeing the joyful glee in which the boys have been enjoying it. This is the first year that they both have been big enough to enjoy it and it has been really cool to see.
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| the christmas brothers |
Looking forward to Christmas and more family time celebrating Christ's birth.
-eric & anna
