December so far

We’ve kept pretty busy but not that crazy busy that, well, drives me crazy. We’ve been careful not to over do it. I hate to say no to activities that come up but I think leaving some open time leaves us all a little happier. We started off the month with our annual family pictures. We usually have our photos done around the end of October but the photographer was back East visiting her new baby granddaughter. We tried in November but Zaeda was really sick and with her staying up most of the night, three out of four of us looked really bad the day we were scheduled to shoot. So we rescheduled. We finally made it in to see the photographer when we were all feeling better. Here are a few pictures from our session. Sorry, grandparents, you’ll have to wait to see your photos; they are not shown here.

We went to Zoo Lights at the Oregon Zoo with Karri and Michael on one of the coldest evenings that we’ve had in Portland. It was 24 degrees but you wouldn’t have known it by watching Oliver. He was so excited. Both kiddies were bundled up and so cozy that Zaeda fell asleep.

Oliver’s new quips:

“No way, Jose!”
“Fantastic”

He continues to be very sweet with Zaeda. He recently asked me to put her on the floor but have her standing so that he could dance with her. If my hands hadn’t been so full I would have taken a picture.

We were getting ready for work and Zaeda was on the bed just hanging out. Oliver climbed up and grabbed a pacifier to give to her. Zaeda hasn’t really taken to a pacifier so I was interested to see what was going to happen. Instead I heard Oliver saying, “Here comes the train, Zaeda. Time to open the tunnel.” I suspect he heard this from his Nana. It was so cute!

Zaeda still continues to surprise us with how much and how often she can eat. She can put away a 2.5 oz container of baby food and then want to nurse minutes later. She's a solid little girl. So far we haven’t found a food she doesn’t like. So far she's had bananas, squash, green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, peaches, pears and applesauce. Next on the menu will be prunes.

At the beginning of the month I picked Oliver up from daycare and he handed me this picture. He drew it all with the exception of the Christmas tree. I’ve had it at my desk for the last couple of weeks but decided I should share.

The picture is of me decorating our tree. The little things that look like they are leaping off the tree are the lights and he said the marks on the tree were seeds. He pointed out that he drew my curly hair. The long lines to the left of the picture are our stockings. I think he captured our tree trimming moment perfectly.

Oliver attended his first friend’s birthday party this month. It was held at a gymnastics and dance studio in Tigard. We all had a great time. Here are the kids in the foam block pit. Oliver is the one in the orange and navy shirt (right in the center at the start of the video).

Zaeda met up with the birthday girl’s little brother. They are all in the same classes. As you can see, he is really smitten with her.

We also made the customary visit to Santa. Oliver could barely keep his pants on he was so excited. But as soon as he got to Santa he clammed up. Zaeda wanted nothing to do with the big guy.