Blog Hog

Most of my posts lately have been about me, me, me. That's going to change right now!

First, let me start with the happy news that both kids are now healthy. Hurray! I did end up taking Bryce to the doctor because he wasn't getting better and his fever kept returning. Turns out in addition to the the regular cold that Aubree had, Bryce had a secondary bacterial infection in his throat. The doctor said that's fairly common in little ones and prescribed Amoxicillin. The medicine worked so quickly and so amazingly well that I dubbed it, "my new best friend." Within just hours of taking his first dose, Bryce was smiling, eating, and jabbering again. What a relief. By the way, Bryce now weighs more than 19 pounds.
Now on to more exciting things...The last couple weeks have been jam-packed with fun activities, most of them Christmas related. I've lost count of how many times we've seen Santa. I think the most in just one day is three; maybe he's stalking Aubree? Aubree certainly doesn't mind getting to see Santa so often, but she has begun to classify them as "pretend Santa's" (like the scary, needs-to-stop-smoking Santa at "Breakfast with Santa" [see picture on the right]) and "real Santa's" (like the amazing Sea World Santa and the surprisingly realistic Mall Santa). She tells him she wants a bike and a Little People castle for Christmas. The bike Santa will probably bring her. The castle? Probably not.
We finally did manage to get our tree decorated. Aubree "hepped" Mark set it up a little while after Thanksgiving and it stayed in it's undecorated state for quite a while. One evening, with tears in her eyes, Aubree lamented, "our tree will never be decorated!" Oh, the power of guilt! I decorated it that night after the kid's were asleep and Aubree was appropriately thrilled the next morning. "It's beautiful!" she cooed, "I love it so much!" She's a pretty easy kid to please and I certainly appreciate her enthusiasm. I'm feeling somewhat grateful that Bryce has yet to master crawling so I don't have to worry about him pulling ornaments off the tree. Aubree's always been great about leaving the tree alone, although she does like to stand and stare at the lights and the ornaments.
Immediately following my 5K race last weekend they had a "fun run" for kids. At the last minute Aubree decided she wanted to participate with her friends, so we signed her up. It was 1/4 mile and Mark went with her, but she didn't quite understand the "run" part. She did seem to enjoy it and it warmed her up a little on a cold (for Florida) morning. If you look carefully in the picture below you can see her special mittens (okay, they're socks, but she was adamant that she had to wear them because it was "so cold.")

Cheyenne, Megan, Aubree, Caden, & Ella

After the morning race we went to the annual kid's Christmas party for Mark's work. This is our third year going and definitely the most fun just because Aubree is now old enough to really participate and enjoy the activities. She played in the bounce houses, got her face painted, did a number of crafts, and played carnival games. Bryce was cold and tired, so he didn't have that great of a time. Maybe next year.
That evening was the Titusville Christmas parade. I think it's really strange to have a parade at night, but one of my friends commented that she thought daytime Christmas parades were weird because, "you can't see all the Christmas lights." I suppose that's a valid point. The main thing I noticed at this parade is that almost every entrant throws candy to the crowd. It's crazy. I don't think the kids even looked at the floats, cars, or other participants because they were too busy chasing down candy and filling up their bags. Aubree came home with more candy than she got from Halloween! Anyone want loads of sugar? We'd be happy to donate. Seriously, what are we going to do with all of that?!? Aubree and I agree that the best part of the parade was the drums from the marching bands.
Earlier in the month we also attended the "Ward Christmas Party that wasn't." We had a feeling that it would be bad so we intentionally showed up a little late. It was scheduled to begin at 6 pm and when we pulled into the parking lot at 6:20 there were about 7 families standing outside the doors. "The doors are unlocked," they indicated, "but no one is here and nothing is set up. We're just waiting for Bishop to decide what to do." Ward members had been asked to bring a dessert to share, so those of us who were there went into the cultural hall, pulled out a table and a couple chairs, and ate our treats. No Santa, no music, no decorations, nada. Excellent.
No worries - we've had no shortage of parties this month. On Tuesday we invited some friends over for our traditional gingerbread house decorating party. I'm lazy and the kids are little, so they're really graham cracker houses. The older kids actually spent time and effort decorating their houses, but Aubree and her same-age friends were way more interested in eating the decorations. Precious few of the candies provided ended up on the house. On the right is a picture of Aubree's house. It did have a traditional peaked roof initially, but it collapsed and we decided to give up the fight have a flat roof instead. After the party Aubree informed me, "it's not a gingerbread house, it's an old lady's house (think "Hansel and Gretel")."
In summary, we're having lots of fun. I love this time of year and I hope my kids do too. I know most of this post has been focused on Aubree because she's big enough to be involved in all these activities, so a quick note about Bryce - he needs a haircut! For such a young kid, he has an amazing amount of hair. We've buzzed it six or seven times but now I think I'd like to try a different kind of haircut. Any suggestions or advice on cutting boy's hair? (His hair is NOT baby hair, it's thick and full).