Merry Christmas!

Another year and another Christmas has passed by way to quickly.  Ben had a blast with his cousins and now is really adamant about wanting to play hockey or anything else his cousin Danny does.  Santa was really good to him and of course Ashley as well.  We started the festivities by making cookies with Deebo.  Let's just say the cookies were made with a lot of love despite the outcome.

Then we went to Momo's house for Christmas eve and he got to play with all his cousins and my cousins kids as well.  He loved playing with Hadleigh (my cousin's little girl) and they chased each other in their own little game for way too long.  Ashley enjoyed seeing everyone as well and wasn't scared to go to others when they wanted to hold her although she does crawl around until she finds me.  She is definitely a mommy's girl.

 

Christmas day was fun and although there weren't a ton of presents it was hard to get Ben to open more than just a couple.  He did like all he got, but most of all enjoyed his new truck that holds his hot wheels, a jumpy house for inside and a play garage for all his cars.  Ashley got some good gifts as well although she always tries to play with anything Ben is playing with.  She has a new purse with fake lipstick!  A little young, but she likes it nonetheless.

Then today we went over to Brian's parents house to celebrate and both kids loved hanging out there.  Ashley crawls everywhere to find Grandma just about as much as she crawls to find me.  It's nice to have a replacement around so I'm not the focus sometimes.  Ben had fun playing with their cars and watching their speedy choo-choo go around their tree.

Mr. and Mrs. Claus

It's that time of year for another great photo op of our kids with santa.  It's Ashley's first year to meet Santa and the Mrs. and in good sibling fashion, she was not a fan.  Not quite the scream fest Ben had from last year (see pic), but she was working up to it.

I was not able to make it with the kids to see santa this year since I was sick, but Brian was feeling better from whatever bug we both caught and took them.  The story is that Ben wanted nothing to do with Santa and was running off until Ashley sat down on Santa's lap at which time Ben ran over to sit down as well since Ash was doing it.  Once Ash realized she was not with one of us she started to cry though so no good pic of the kiddos this year.  Hopefully one day we will get two smiling kids with the Mr. and Mrs.

We definitely play this tactic to our advantage at home with Ben and it seems to have worked for Santa this time, although I'm pretty sure he will catch on soon and not give into the 'peer pressure' we use to persuade him.  For example, after he is done playing with a toy here is our dialogue:

Me: Please pick up your toys so we can play with something else.
Ben: NO!
Me: Ok, I'll just pick them all up by myself then.
Ben: No, I want to do it.

And then he does it all himself with allowing me to help.  Don't ask me how this works, but so far it does.  It also works with meals.  Ashley is going to get applesauce cause she ate all her food.  He typically then proceeds to eat his food to get applesauce as well.  I'm sure the peer pressure I'm enforcing now to get him to eat and clean up toys will later on come back to haunt me in the teenage years, but for now I'm ok with that.

Ash is fully mobile and pulling herself up onto things now.  She loves to stand and in fact that's all she ever wants to do.  We've tried to get her to use the walker and not much luck yet, however she has much better balance than Ben ever did and can manage to stand with the walker without falling over or making it move.  Quite impressive actually.  She's even able to safely fall on her bottom when she wants to get down and crawl somewhere else.  Although she does tumble at times and her cries lead you to believe someone is poking her with a needle and not that she barely bumped her arm on the way down.  Brian calls her his little tomato cause he says she bruises like one when she falls.  I don't think it's quite that bad, but I'm sure he'd disagree.

Pics from Ash's 9 month and stats from her checkup coming soon.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Brian's side of the family.  Ben had a blast running around and playing with his cousins, but Ash wasn't too sure about the large group.  Here's a lot of pics to show the festivities.

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Ash turned 8 months old a few weeks back and is fully crawling now.  It took her a few weeks of tumbling to get it down and still falls over when she gets too excited or distracted, but can get to her destination pretty good at this point.  She is definitely a mommy's girl and lights up when I walk in the room which is a good change from Ben since he was all about daddy.

Ben is hitting the terrible two's which I'm hoping is a little late and won't last long.  He's starting to test all limits, but within these tantrums are the cute moments that he throws in to keep us from locking him in his room.  He's doing really well with all his colors and can count to 10 although sometimes he starts with 2 and misses a number or two in the mix.  He's a great big brother to "Ashey," but he's starting tp get possessive about all the toys in the house claiming they are his.  I'm sure this is just the beginning of some struggles and tantrums, but at the end of the day he always hugs and kisses her goodnight.