A Dino-mite Time!

So we had Japheth's friend party this last Saturday. We were sad that not everyone could come, but had a fun time anyway. We played "pin the tail" on the dinosaur, chopped the head off of the dinosaur pinata, and ate dinosaurs that were dipped in "mud." It was nice to make a chocolate frosting that Japheth could have since he won't have chocolate much in his life. We're pretty sure that he's lactose intolerant. Japheth was so excited about turning 3 and having a dinosaur party. He told as many strangers about it as possible. He loves all his presents, thanks everybody.

3 Years and 9 Months

So it's getting to be birthday season at our house. Japheth will turn 3 on the 12th and Douglas will be 29 on the 18th. Since Xander's 9 month appointment was somewhat close to March we decided to only go into the Dr. once for both check-ups. A week or so late for Xander and a week or so early for Japheth.

Japheth is a very cute ball of high energy. He loves letters and numbers as much as ever. Since he's been able to count pretty high, can recognize numbers into the 20's and beyond, recognizes ABC's in capitol and lower case; we've moved on to spelling and math. He loves to spell with Word World, and types many words on the computer. At the store we were looking at movies and Japheth passed all familiar characters to promptly say "I want this one!" to LeapFrog's Math Circus. He's not very familiar with anything Leap Frog, but as soon as it was over the first time he immediately said "Again!" He is such a handful of a wonderfully good boy. But yes it finally happened... Japheth tried to change his own diaper. At naps and bedtime he's not in underwear yet and after a nap he got out the wipes and attempted to use them all! Luckily I wasn't home, and Douglas had to deal with it. He is 36 1/2inches tall and weighs 28lbs. He's actually in the 25% now, so he's a lot taller since he used to be around 10-15%.

Xander is also doing great! He army-crawls and bunny-hops all over the place, getting into as many of Japheth's toys as possible. Yep that's right, having big brother's toys was the motivation to get Xander moving. He still has only the four teeth thankfully. He loves to cuddle and play and is full of smiles. He rocks back and forth playfully and expects you to do it back. He's growing like a weed, and sometimes with how much food he wants I think he'll surpass Japheth any day, but know it'll be a long while before that happens. He is 27inches tall and weighs 16lbs 14oz, which means he lost a few ounces from his last appointment.

Teeth!

So Xander has been teething for a little while. Then it happened - 4 teeth in 3 weeks! Yep, so much fun. His first tooth popped out on New Years day, and his latest just popped out today (21st). Mostly he's been pretty happy, but the night before his teeth pop out he's super fussy and doesn't sleep well. I'd like to blame it on our friends Marshall & Liz, I think hanging out with them bring the teeth out. They were there for the first and third teeth, with the second and fourth coming only a few days after.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Well another year come and gone. This last year has been a struggle at times, but it's also been a great year! We lost the Saturn in the spring/summer time (right after buying new tires!), Douglas worked a crazy amount of hours and only got paid for half, and the Honda tried to die on us- but we fixed it (for what seems like a lot) since it's our only car. BUT Xander was born in May, both boys are happy and healthy- not to mention sleeping 7-7, Douglas graduated in December and has a job in cardiac (many of the other students in his program don't have jobs yet), we have a beautiful home (that after a year and a half we finally put pictures up), Japheth has been doing well at potty training, both boys are growing and learning well, and we are all just happy and healthy.

Christmas was great! Japheth had a fun time opening presents and he's starting to get Santa a little more. He even got to hear Santa's bells on Christmas Eve after going to bed. Xander got some books, Japheth got books and a kid camera that he loves along with some other fun toys, Douglas got more Ninja Turtles DVD's, Ghost Busters for Xbox360, and some other movies and things, I got some movies, a yoga mat and blocks to help with P90X, money for shelving and some other great things.

This year we are looking forward to Japheth turning 3 and Xander turning 1, and just spending more time together as a family. We are excited for Douglas' sister Rachel to get married, and my cousin Kevin. We hope to have no car troubles this year, and also to be able to afford a new (to us) car. We hope to have Japheth going potty at other places besides our house and wearing underwear all the time soon. And, as every year, we hope to be able to enjoy this year better than the last.

We are very greatful for our many blessings! And we hope that all of you are able to have a great and blessed year for 2010.