Seasons Greetings

Well it's been a little while since I've posted anything, as the weather gets colder and colder I seem to get lazier and lazier. We did have a nice extended holiday with both Grandma and Nani coming to visit, so the amount of wine and good food was considerable. Up until Christmas it was still pretty warm here, and one day we took the boys for a walk at the Botanical Gardens that are right down the road from our house. We go there fairly often since it is a 3 minute drive, you can feed the fish and turtles, and best of all, it's free!

Here is Bay looking out at the lake...
                                            

 

                                                              

 

 

 

In preparation for Kindergarten, Beck's teachers have been giving the class handwriting homework that is due every Monday morning. Even though he has several days to do it, Beck generally rushes through it every Monday morning quickly before we leave. Hmm, reminds me of my own homework habits as a child. Although he doesn't care much for handwriting practice, he does enjoy coloring and drawing.

Here is a picture of a dragon, can you tell?

Grandma came to visit for a few days over Christmas and the boys had a great time with her. This was the first Christmas where I really felt like Beck understood exactly what was going on, i.e., the meaning of Christmas, the story of Santa Claus, giving gifts to others, etc...  Of course all of that went out the window once he got a look at his Christmas stash!

As is the tradition in most families we let the boys each open one small gift on Christmas Eve. Beck got a new dinosaur puzzle and Baylor got the stuffed Spot dog that he always tries to snuggle with whenever we go to Barnes and Noble.

 

 

 

Baylor's alter-ego "Sock Hands"

 

Christmas Morning

Reading Wild Things w/ Grandma

 

                                                                    And a quick snuggle

 

 

 

 

 

Baylor had almost no interest in opening presents, he preferred to run wildly around the house, giggling, and stopping occasionally in someone's lap for a snuggle. 

 

                                                                                    

 

 

Their big present from Santa was this dragon castle, which is kind of an updated version of those Fisher Price castles we all used to play with as children. The boys have not stopped playing with it.

 

They have done a pretty good job playing with it together, Beck is generally very good at sharing and being kind to his little brother. Sometimes Baylor will do one of his crazy little Baylor dances or just come over and start snuggling and Beck will look up at me and say "Isn't he so cute?"  It's very sweet to watch these two at this age. 

 

 

 

                                                                  
                                   Nani came for New Years, and we did the whole thing all over again.

                               

 

 

 

Thanks so much to everyone for all the wonderful gifts and especially to Grandma and Nani for babysitting!

My next big project for the house is to paint the Living/Dining Room, so after Christmas I took everything out of the room in preparation. I was walking down the stairs to go the kitchen and saw this.

A lonely Brontosaurus was sitting peacefully in the middle of the room, I'm not sure who put him there.

Here are a couple of more "before" pictures.

 

I picked out a light green color for this room and hope to get it finished by the end of the month. After that we are (eventually) going to replace the carpet in here with wood flooring.  For now it will remain the boy's soccer-ball-kicking/running around room.