Christmas Eve

As per tradition, we spent the day of Christmas Eve with my family. The kids got some amazing gifts (as did the adults with our stealing game!), but the highlight of the day: Matthew wore a sweater. No, really, he did. Here's proof:

But then he took it off. Apparently it was too hot. Oh well; we have that one picture of him in a sweater. We'll treasure the memory.

Sebastian was really excited about his gift from Grandma and Grandpa: a dump truck that he gets to ride, and dump his body weight full of megablocks! Oh yeah, and honk the horn. Incessantly.

Matthew got Transformers. Here we're not trying to figure out what it turns into, but how to get it out of the damn box!

Matthew was a great Christmas elf. Here he's giving a gift to Grandma.

Here Grandpa is helping Sebastian play with some of his new toys.

And props have to be given to the photographer for the day: Way to go, Aunt Julie! Without her, no pictures would have been taken. Or at the very least, none with the same sort of panache. Also, we maybe would not have gotten this gem: The Serious Face:She did take a break at the end of the evening to read stories to Matthew. Luckily the camera was not far, and I got this one. A true treasure. A wonderful day was had by all, with more food than we care to think about (but the scales won't let me forget about!) and laughs heard a mile away (mostly Aunt Julie's antics). Our kids were pretty much asleep before we had them in the car for the ride home...a sure sign that they had a wonderful time. As did the rest of us.

We did not pose Matthew; this is really how he sleeps in the car.

Christmas Day

This was Matthew's first Christmas of understanding the concept of Santa Clause. It was great for us, because he got the concept, but not so much that he lost sleep over it! That being said, he did get up at his regular time of 6:00am, so we're in BIG trouble next year!

The best part of Christmas was, without a doubt, Matthew's sense of wonderment and absolute awe and amazement that Santa had come. To say it was magical sounds so cliche, but it's the only way to describe it. Totally wonderful is another.

Here he is finding the stockings that were empty when he left them.

Next, we went to see what Santa had left by the tree. The only thing Matthew asked for from Santa was a Hotwheels set that "dropped the car into a bowl." We're not sure where this idea came from, but it stuck with him. When it was left at the tree, his belief in the big red man was a sealed deal. As you can see, Rob is as excited as Matthew was. (Truth be told, he's just excited it worked after all the hard work the elves put into getting it together. After a bottle of Merlot).
Of course, Santa did not leave Sebastian gift-less. He's had his moments, but a lump of coal was not in the cards. He got a Wonderpets flyboat. Santa must have had some great elves to blow that one up. By herself. Without an airpump. Hot air jokes are not appreciated.
Since the kids are constantly fighting for our laptops, we thought they could get ones for each other.

Sebastian's from Matthew
And Matthew's from Sebastian
Now they fight over each others'.

The afternoon was spent with the Rob's family. Again, so much fun was had I neglected to take pictures. As always, we were all spoiled totally rotten and ate way too much. All in all, a fantastic Christmas!

Here's a picture showcasing that Matthew's "Tongue of Concentration" is, apparently, a hereditary trait.

Thank you for such a wonderful Christmas, family!

Sebastian's First Birthday

Already I need to be posting for 13 months (which is not going to happen, by the way).
Poor Sebastian; with a December birthday, things tend to get behind because there is SO much going on. As a result, he gets a whole post all to himself.

Our 1 year check-up proved what we've been saying all along: our baby is a big 'un. He's 25.5 lbs and 73cm (I'll have to double check that stat) long. Back on the charts for weight, off for length. He's walking, but not talking. His best form of communication is pointing. We think he's said yogurt, but he was pointing at Indy. Oh well, language will come (and you know what they say: we spend the first couple of years getting them to walk and talk, and the rest of their lives getting them to sit down and shut up).

For Sebastian's first birthday, we celebrated as his older brother did: with an ear infection and the eruption of 4 molars. Needless to say, it's better he won't remember this one! As a result of the cranky/snotty/not-sleeping boy, the planned birthday party had to be rescheduled at least twice. When we finally did have it, our little man was in fine spirits and celebrated like only we can: with too much food and laughter (giggles galore, in his case). It was a fantastic party!

Rob, Matthew and James (our friends' one year old) helped Sebastian open his gifts.

James was not too happy about giving up the present he gave Sebastian, but he eventually got over it. Rob, on the other hand is still wondering why our friends were so cruel as to buy us a drum set, inside of which are even more LOUD instruments. Payback's a "B", Luke and Allison!
The Cake (a Monkey for our Monkey)
Our Monkey eating his Monkey (cake).
"Uh, Lisa? What was that noise, and why does he look so happy?" (I like to play the game of "Last one holding the baby changes the diaper;" especially with Uncle Jason).
The Obligatory Group Shots. You can see how much our children enjoy them.

The Men (everyone's looking at a different camera. I love the chaos that is 5 digital cameras at once).

The Women and Boys

A fun day was had by all, especially Sebastian. He told us later that he's excited to do it again next year. Twice as excited if it's the week before Christmas again!

No, I haven't forgotten about the blog....

I have too many pictures and not enough time! Hopefully 2009 allows me to get my ass in gear and keep this up to date. I'll post soon with Sebastian's birthday pics/stats, and our holiday shenanigans. I promise.

Early Winter Late Fall Fun

It's been busy. I'm back at work, Sebastian has been at daycare for a week...well, not the whole week due to the dreaded daycare virus that is perpetual from November to April. Oh well; what's another snotty nose for 5 months? But his first days were good: they tell me it's like he's been there forever. He's even got a girlfriend. Of course he does; those eyelashes and smile could charm anyone!

First day of "school." Wow. Time flies at an alarming rate! Wasn't it just yesterday I posted Matthew's first day picture?

His eleventh month brought us steps. He's a walking machine now! A little tentative, but not for long, I'm sure. Much to Matthew's chagrin, he's everywhere now! He loves nothing more than anything Matthew is holding. Sibling rivalry is interesting so far!

He walks!

We also took in the Santa Claus Parade. Luckily the weather cooperated and it was just cold enough to enjoy hot chocolate, but not cold enough to make the kids miserable. Nothing says Christmas cheer like whiny, cold kids! The highlights of this parade were the fire trucks, and of course, the candy. Oh yeah. Santa was good, too.

"Is that him, Daddy?"

I think the Candy Canes were more popular than Santa this year.
The Big Man himself.

Keep on looking. Sebastian's first birthday is right around the corner. No novels, I promise. But hopefully at least one post!

Great Wolf Lodge

We took the kids on a one-night family vacation to Great Wolf Lodge. It was amazing! I can't wait to go again when the kids are a little bit bigger and can go on all the really fun water slides. That being said, there was still so much for us to do, and we packed it all in to a little over 24 hours.

Our room: Kid Kamp. Matthew loved it so much that when he got home, all he could say was "I want my camp back."

This is the "doorway" to the bunk bed room that had its own TV. We wouldn't let Matthew sleep on the top bunk, but he did get to watch Treehouse up there. He loved it (who wouldn't?)!
A fraction of the water park.
In the hotel lobby, they had animatronics that were truly amazing. At bedtime (8:30) to hotel had storytime, where the kids were encouraged to come down in their pajamas so the characters could tell a bedtime story. I didn't get a picture, sadly, but it was so cute! Matthew loved the characters.
Sebastian? Not so much.
To kill time between water slides and splash park, we took in a game of mini-golf. Matthew's pretty good, but a bit of a cheater. I wonder whose genes are responsible for that?
Bye Bye Great Wolf Lodge! See you next year!
(I notice that Sebastian is not well-represented in these pictures. He had a great time! We took him to the pool where he DID NOT want to get out ever, and also splashed around the splash park loving every second. His favourite part? You guessed it: watching Matthew! He also enjoyed the mini golf, but was really leary of the animatronics. He hates fake moose, I guess!)

Halloween

For Halloween Matthew was Pablo from the Backyardigans (if you don't have kids, that's meaningless to you. Sorry about your luck). Sebastian was a monkey (fittingly). We got together with the neighbours to go to the houses around us since all our kids are the same age. What a fantastic evening!

Pablo the Penguin

Our little Monkey

Before the candy even started, Matthew was a crazy man. Note the bag on his head! You know that episode of the Simpson's where Homer is spinning around on the floor in the kitchen? Picture that as Matthew on our front lawn. It was hilarious!

I couldn't resist the picture of their cute little Halloween bums! Matthew was so excited his costume had a tail.

Matthew was in 7th heaven with all the candy, but didn't quite understand why he couldn't go right in to people's houses! Our babysitter (a WONDERFUL 16 year-old) made special loot bags for all the kids, so Matthew thought he would thank her by walking in and talking about it on her couch (practically).

Sebastian just rode along in the stroller with Garret. Those two may be trouble-makers one day, but on Halloween, they were angels!

Finally, I had to get a picture of our house all lit up. I put the decorations up a week earlier when Matthew and Rob were out. When they came home (in the dark), I got a call from Rob, who was in our driveway, telling me I needed to turn the outside lights on because Matthew wouldn't come in! Yep, another nomination for Mother of the Year!