Taller in the New Year

Daniel was being a big helper on Thursday when we went to the mall to return a few things and play on the climbing boats. We made one last stop at the makeup counter at Macy's and learned that Daniel is now tall enough to reach the top of the counter. He managed to get his fingers on one of the displays and it came crashing to the ground. Only the plastic display case broke - fortunately none of the product and more importantly, Daniel was out of the way. The sales lady was very nice about it all. Everyday I learn more about how carefully I need to watch him now! He's in a stage where he feels he needs to touch everything. He is truly adorable and uses words and sentences so well. He picked up a flashlight today and said to himself, "Where's the button?" as he looked for the on/off switch. I am amazed (and exhausted) by him!

We are counting down the days until our second little one arrives -- there aren't too many more days left and she could always arrive early and surprise us! We bought diapers for her and pulled out our 'generic' clothes from Daniel along with bottles, pacifiers, hats, etc. Just getting everything set up!

Tomorrow we're having an Open House to see friends throughout the day. It'll be a casual day... although preparations are always more than you expect when you plan these things!

Happy New Year to you all!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone! It's been a very nice Christmas for us. Daniel slept 12 hours last night and woke up to find that Santa had indeed visited, eaten his cookies and milk, and left presents! He loves his new tricycle and also got a basketball hoop, shopping cart and red wagon from Santa. We opened our presents in a leisurely fashion and called friends and family afar. We'll be having Christmas dinner later this afternoon with a fabulously brined turkey by Matt! No photo of the turkey available at this time.

Daniel and the Christmas Tree

It's getting close to Christmas and Daniel knows (and can say) that "Santa is coming to town," but I'm not sure he knows what that means. As for the presents under the tree, one of Mommy's has no paper on it anymore and many are bowless and tagless -- we figure when we open them, we'll know who they belong to!

New Bunk Beds!

Daniel got his new bunk beds last week. The bedspread from Grandma works perfectly! He loves to say "New Bunk Beds" and is sleeping well in it now that he's recovered from his cold (knock on wood). In other news, he is getting many, many teeth all at the same time which isn't too pleasant. He went for months without getting any and now all are arriving at once. ARGH! He also knows where Kyra is (in mommy's belly) but not sure he understands the Big Brother concept. I was just thinking we're in trouble if it turns out to be a boy as we have no boys names picked out. We probably should do that -- just in case! Less than one month until Baby Bomberger arrives!

I also wanted to mention that he can say his entire alphabet including the "Now I know my ABC's..." It's adorable. He's learning colors so at least not everything is "pink" now which was his response previously to "What color is this?" Not sure why "pink" but now we get more variety in the color choices! It's funny!

Santa Train

Today we visited Santa. We took a train from North Bend to Snoqualmie (about 5 miles) and then got to meet Santa at the Train Museum in Snoqualmie. Unfortunately, Daniel is afraid of Santa this year and didn't want to have anything to do with him. I wasn't really surprised because we have a 2 foot tall Santa in the house that Daniel doesn't like to walk by either -- of course, it's at the front door so that might keep him out of trouble! But Daniel isn't afraid of too many things but I can see how the real Santa might be a bit intimidating. Anyway, Daniel did enjoy climbing on the train engines at the museum as well as the cookies and hot chocolate that was served. We're doing a couple more Santa-related events this season, so maybe one of the Santas will be acceptable. We'll see.

More cookie decorating

You'd think I would have learned the first time but... we had a Christmas cookie decorating party with some of Daniel's friends -- We didn't have black icing this time but red, green and blue have essentially the same effect. It was really fun, though, and the cookies were great!

A bit of chaos

The week after Thanksgiving we had our hardwood floors refinished which required we take everything out of the kitchen (again) and dining room. At the same time, of course, I was trying to get Christmas decorations put up so we had piles of boxes, furniture and kitchen gear in the carpeted rooms while trying to stay off the hardwoods. The floors look great and the Christmas decor, too. Daniel likes the Christmas tree and the lights outside. And I'm feeling back in control with everything in its proper place.