25 months!

I'm 25 months today!

I know, I know, it's kind of hard to beat 2 years old as far as milestones go, but in an attempt to keep a record of my life, I decided to keep up my monthly posts... for now.

The picture I posted is one of my new "tricks". I'll say "eyes close!" and close my eyes like in the picture. Then I'll say "eyes op-EN!" and open my eyes. Mommy always laughs when I close my eyes, so I like to do it a lot.

I'm stringing words together into longer and longer sentences. My longest sentence thus far is, "Read Aunt Nea book 'GAIN!" I know that the word is A-gain, not, just "gain" but that extra syllable requires more time than I'm willing to devote to talking.

I'm still in love with books and my current favorites are Pajama Time from my Aunt Nea (Mommy's best friend) and Ten Tiny Babies from Uncle Glen and Aunt Margie. I have both of these books pretty well memorized since I have Mommy and Daddy read them over and over and over.

The bath has also become part of my bedtime routine again after having a bout of terror over the drain. It required Mommy to get some foam letters and numbers for the bath in order for me to agree to get in there again. Now I'm mostly content to sit in the bath for twenty minutes at a time playing with the numbers and letters and washing them while I get washed. I'm obsessed with numbers and now know my numbers from 0 to 29. I can recognize them, but I'm still not into counting. I also know the ABC song, though I add an extra little "shoop-shoo-waa" which I learned from watching Sesame Street. Yep, I impress pretty much everyone I meet with my knowledge of the alphabet and numbers, because, let's face it, I'm rather impressive.

Early in the morning/Risin' to the street

Days around here? They're long. Really long. Hank has been getting up at 4am and Johnny has been refusing to go to bed until 9pm. Plus I've been up all night with Hank ever since our trip to NM... but he's also teething AND sick, so all that together = an uncomfortable and therefore, pissed, baby. Both boys are sleep deprived and way touchier than normal, plus my patience is about the length of an eyelash at this point.

To be completely honest, it's been pretty miserable around here with everyone sick and refusing to sleep. However, in an attempt to look at the bright side through my weary bloodshot eyes, we do get an awful lot of family time now. What used to be the ungodly hour of 5am has now turned into a kind of nice family get-together.

Photo evidence:

This sharing-of-the-cereal happened for the first time this morning and may not happen again considering the amount of milk that ended up on John's pants... but at least I got some pictures of it.

Airport - pants = Johnny

On our trip to Albuquerque, I was terrified of being THAT parent with two screaming babies. I think most parents don't want to be that parent, right? I knew Hank would be easy since I could just nurse him on take off and landing and he'd be set.

Johnny though... how was I going to keep his little ears from hurting?

The answer? Juice. Lots and lots of juice.

However, lots and lots of juice leads to lots and lots of pee. So much pee that one diaper can't handle it all. Which is how we ended up with a two-year-old soaked in pee when we landed in Albuquerque. We decided that John would take the diaper bag and Johnny off the plane to get him changed while Dylan and I handled the other bags, Hank and the car seat. Did I mention that Dylan is the only reason the airplane trips went so smoothly? My brother saved us quite a bit of stress, that's for sure.

Anyway. Dylan, Hank and I lug all of our stuff of the plane after everyone else has left and go to wait in front of the nearest bathroom where we assumed John and Johnny would be.

Two minutes later a half-naked Johnny runs out the door, takes one look at me, and takes off in the other direction laughing hysterically. This is were you could spot the non-parents from the parents. The parents in the traveling crowd just laughed as Johnny ran by, while the non-parents were shocked and horrified. I guess when you're not used to seeing a little boy's genitals, it could be shocking.

John runs out eventually and then goes after Johnny to try and coax him into a diaper and pants. He was only successful in wrangling Johnny into a diaper.

Pantsless in the ABQ airport

2011 Christmas Celebration

2011's Christmas was spent in Albuquerque, NM, with my dad and stepmom... coincidentally named John and Gayle, just like my in-laws... John and Gail. Random, right? I was really excited to go because it had been four years since I visited my dad's house and they had done so many new things to it, plus it was going to be cold!!! A cold Christmas! And maybe even a white one!

I wasn't disappointed. It actually snowed the morning we arrived. Or so the weather app on my iPhone said, because when we arrived it was sunny and crisp outside. Desert weather is weird for sure.

The whole four-day, five-night stay was filled with delicious food, even better wine, phenomenal fudge (I know it classifies as food, but I though it deserved it's own shout out considering I consumed about a pound of it) and delightful Christmas ambiance. Since I took so many pictures, I figured I'd just let them do the talking instead of boring you with text.

Thanks again for your hospitality, Dad and Gayle!

Johnny running around the airport without any pants. It's a good story. I'll tell it later.

Johnny and Uncle Dylan

Grandpa and Hank

Dinner on Christmas Eve

Johnny exploring the Christmas tree

Hank entranced by his new toy.

Johnny entranced by Hank's new toy

Dad carving the bird

Boy pile!!

Playing at a local park

Johnny's 2nd year

December is OVER!!!! Part of me is sad to see the Christmas decorations go and all of our family time put behind us, but another part of me is relieved to have such a busy month finished with (most) of my sanity intact.

Anyway. There are lots of pictures from Christmas and our trip, and they will be posted eventually. Promise. For now, however, my mother-in-law mentioned that my father-in-law hadn't seen the slideshow of Johnny's 2nd year that I made for his birthday party. I had meant to post it here and then completely forgot. So here it is. :)


Click here to watch on YouTube.

P.S. The song is the theme to the Cars movie.