Friday, December 31, 2010

Baby's First Snowman

On Tuesday the weather warmed up enough to venture out. Topher donned his new snowsuit, his winter coat, his hat, his mittens, and his snow boots. Then we were off to play in the snow.
First we walked around the neighborhood, and TJ showed Topher how to make snowballs. I then showed Topher how to throw the snowballs at daddy.
Then, since the snow was packing together so well, we decided to build a snowman. It turned out to be just about Topher's size.
TJ has had this entire week off, and it has been amazing to just lounge around together as a family. After our fun in the snow, we headed indoors for hot cocoa. We were glad we decided to play outside because the next day it was unseasonably warm and our snowman disappeared completely with the rest of the snow. We hope he had a fun life while it lasted...his smile seemed to say he did.
--KC

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Numbers & Letters

Yes, he can count to ten and yes, he can say the entire alphabet all by himself (as of last week!) However, getting him to do it on camera all at once is a bit tricky:

We're so proud of you, Topher.

--KC

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

The Most Noble Breed

We once heard St. Bernards described as "the most noble of all the breeds." We remind Sassy of it often, and you can practically see her sit up taller whenever we do. We just got a new camera this week so I thought I would put it to the ultimate test and see if it could capture so noble a subject:
In addition to being the most noble of all the breeds, we consider Sassy our clown, our panda bear, and our little (well, maybe not so little) girl.
--KC

Friday, December 17, 2010

The Many Uses of a Stick

A stick is not just a stick when you hand it to a 2-year old.
A stick is a wand when you are playing Harry Potter. I'm not even sure what kind of spells Topher was casting here, but judging from his enthusiasm it probably had something to do with conjuring up chocolate chip cookies of magical proportions:
A stick can be a tool for when you just wish you had longer arms:
Lastly, a stick is a good kitty-poking device, but being an animal-friendly household we cannot condone using it in this manner:
We love how creative you are, Topher. We can't wait to see what you will do with a cardboard box someday.
--KC

Like this, Daddy?

Crunches are tricky when you're two.

--KC

Echo Excitement

Topher is hilarious with our keyboard. He loves to hit one note at a time and then listen for it to echo off the vaulted ceiling. And every single time, he shows the same amount of enthusiasm. I love it. I love his little gasp and then his little finger pointing up at the ceiling where he hears the sound.

And when he gets so excited about something, I can't help but echo it.

--KC

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Christmas Postcard

We had this genius idea to send out a Christmas postcard this year, but it didn't work quite right. The company cut off our paragraph after one and a half sentences and it makes no sense now. We are sorry but hope that you enjoy the picture of us nonetheless. Here is what the card was supposed to say: Front: Back: Merry Christmas, everyone. Sorry again! --KC Quick Update: I emailed Simply Postcard's customer service and a real person emailed me back less than 10 minutes later. He is working to fix the postcards and will be resending the corrected ones out in the morning. Even though I was upset about all of it, I have to admit I am impressed by their speedy response and desire to make things right! After being on hold way too many times this month with different companies (ordering gifts, etc.), this is the best customer service I have encountered and it went a long way towards making me feel better. Hopefully your correct postcards will be arriving soon!!!!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Usurped on Black Friday

TJ was awesome and went out at 3:30am on Black Friday to visit 3 stores and trudge through my gift list for me. At his last stop, he picked up a new dog bed for Sassy. Well immediately upon bringing it in the house, it was claimed: And guess who was extremely confused and unhappy about that:
We feel for you, Sassy, we really do. Now please stop giving us those pathetically sad eyes.
--KC

The Reinvention of Sleeping

It's no secret that there's not a lot of sleeping going on in our house. We had to get the child that requires alarmingly little rest without compromising his energy level in the slightest. (And okay, it doesn't help at all that Topher has a friend his same age that will literally sleep for 16 straight hours.) Well, there have been some big changes around here recently. 1) First of all, we moved Topher from his crib to a twin bed a few weeks ago and noticed that he seemed happier and even slept a little longer in it. (I sold his crib last week on Craigslist and expected to feel a TINY bit sad about it, but the sadness never came. I TOLD you I'm not a baby person!) 2) Next we decided to attack his bedtime routine. We started being even more strict about lighting, times, and doing the exact same things every night. Lights were dimmed at 7:30, we would read scriptures at 8, then we would read Topher his books and turned the lights off completely at 8:30. Unfortunately, this still meant holding him on the couch for at least another hour until he finally gave up and fell asleep. 3) This last Friday I decided that we were all too miserable to continue on this way. I feel very strongly about not letting a child "cry it out" alone in a room, however. So when it was time for Topher to take a nap, I explained to him what was happening and I carried him up to his room for a nap and laid him down in his bed. He was NOT happy about this at all. For over an hour I stood right by his bed and made sure that he stayed in it, remained laying down, and avoided hitting his head against the walls (something he is prone to do when he is really very angry.) It was awful to see him so mad and frustrated (and okay, there was a point where I wondered if he was even possessed), but I felt better knowing that I was not abandoning him. I was literally RIGHT there the whole time. Finally, with my ears ringing and resolve weakening, I curled up at the end of his bed. He was snoring within 5 minutes. 4) Since that first incident he has only cried one more time whenever I have laid him down for a nap or for bed. Usually I will just curl up at the end of his bed for a little while until he doses off. Last night I even was able to leave him alone in his dark room for about 20 minutes while he was still awake and he didn't cry or get out of bed once. And now when he wakes up in the middle of the night, I can just go in there, change his diaper, lay at the foot of his bed, and he generally falls back asleep within 5 minutes. (This is a VAST improvement over carrying him downstairs and holding him on the couch where he could be up for an hour or much much longer.) Maybe it has taken us over 25 months. Maybe we have complained more than any other parents in history. Maybe we made it so much harder than it had to be. Maybe I've prayed and pleaded for help with this problem for two years. Maybe we're just awful at this. However, I believe we ARE moving in the right direction. And once we finally master this sleeping thing, no one will EVER appreciate sleep more than we will. --KC P.S. I do realize it has been nearly a month. Our camera broke and our computer is being less than cooperative lately. And unfortunately, cameras and computers are the two main ingredients of blogging. :) I will try to do some catching up soon. Thank goodness our phones take useable pictures!