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| The boys on Christmas morning in the new wagon that Santa brought them! |
Our celebration really started with Blake's birth, but our holiday-ish fun began with Brian and me going out on our first date since becoming parents of two on Christmas Eve Eve (December 23rd), the 5th anniversary of Brian and me becoming engaged. To celebrate the occasion this year, he and I went out for a nice dinner together while my sister Stephanie babysat the boys. It was so nice to get out alone together, have a dinner without having to juggle feeding 2 kids, and just enjoy our dinner. However, I have to admit I missed our boys though. It's funny to think how much our lives have changed since that night that Brian proposed to me and how far we've come since then. Who knows what will be happening in our lives 5 years from now!
On Christmas Eve, the 4 of us continued our tradition of celebrating with Brian's side of the family at his parents' house. Brian's sister Christina and her fiance came into town from Washington, DC, so it was great getting to see them. Dominic had a cold the day before but once again appeared to have fought it off by Christmas Eve. This kid's immune system has becoming extremely strong since all of last year's illnesses and his daily dose of Culture. As usual, Dominic was all over the place, and Blake slept the entire time. The family was extremely generous, giving Dominic the Polar Express electric train (a movie we've been watching quite a bit of recently), a train table for the train set that Santa was bringing Dominic, and many other wonderful gifts. Dominic (obviously) is really into trains and cars right now, so the electric train and train table were especially exciting. Brian's parents were also very generous to me, registering me for a digital photography class at the Dunwoody Library in January and February since I love taking pictures - especially of my boys - but still need some help in learning how to take good pictures. I'm excited and nervous for the class!
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| The Polar Express |
Brian and I finished the evening after putting Dominic to bed by assembling Dominic's gifts from Santa so they would be ready for him upon waking up Christmas morning. Well, let's be honest, I watched as Brian assembled the gifts...but I kept him company at least, and I set up the gifts in front of the tree. At bedtime, we put Blake in the crib in his nursery (as opposed to the bassinet) for his first full night in his room. The last 2 nights he had spent portions of the night in his crib but not the whole night. We are hoping that moving him out of our room will be the first step in getting Blake to sleep through the night...something that we're eager for him to start doing...soon!
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| The scene Christmas morning for the boys! |
Christmas morning we got up and took the boys downstairs to the family room for all of the Christmas morning family festivities. The first toy that Dominic showed interest in was his new train set (not the electric train but the wooden train set that Santa brought). He immediately took the trains over to the coffee table and drove them around (like he does with his cars) and then promptly "pulled a Godzilla" on the train tracks, which Brian had taken the time to set up in an intricate fashion. Dominic was obviously much more interested in the trains than the tracks but whatever makes him happy. Dominic is going through a vehicle stage at the moment. He loves planes, trains, and automobiles.
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| Dominic new train set! |
Dominic also seemed to like his Cozy Coupe. This vehicle is the red and yellow Fred Flinstone kids' car, which all of his friends have and he has gotten in several brawls over at his friends' houses over the last several months. He already has some other vehicles, specifically his buggy, but Dominic loves the Cozy Coupe's door, and we figured he can use his feet to move himself around in the Cozy Coupe as opposed to his buggy, which we have to push him around in, something that gets very old after a while.
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| Car trouble? |
Along with these other vehicles, Santa also brought a Radio Flyer wagon for both Dominic and Blake to share. Brian was hoping for an old-fashioned, metal one, but the plastic ones are much more logical (I know ours growing up was very rusty after leaving it outside too much). Plus this one has 2 seats for the boys. We're hoping the boys will get a lot of use out of this joint Christmas gift especially once Blake can sit up. I'm thinking it can transport us to the pool in the summer, around the zoo in the spring or fall, and definitely trick-or-treating next October. So much fun ahead of us!
Santa also brought Dominic and Blake lots of books. They're educational, so Mrs. Claus loves buying them. He also brought Dominic a big Mr. Potato Head, which has a couple of regular sized Mr. Potato Heads inside of it (for the boys to later share), but Dominic hasn't given this gift a second glance, and he also gave Dominic a puzzle rack that includes some other puzzles. So far, Dominic isn't much of a puzzle person, but hopefully we can change that by using his new gifts. A "Curious George" DVD was among his stocking stuffers too.
Blake got a few presents too although he can't use any of the toys yet. These included a Rattle Race Car (a giant car that is controlled by a giant rattle), which Blake follow around when he starts crawling, and a Munchkin Mozart Cube, which exposes kids to classical music and is highly rate among children's toys.
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| Blake with his stocking. Yes, the stocking is bigger than he is! |
Brian and I also exchanged gifts. I gave Brian a video game rental membership at GameFly for his Xbox along with a game, Bluetooth earphones, and a Capresso Maker (caffeinated beverages are becoming more and more appealing to we non-coffee drinkers as we continue to not get a lot of sleep thanks with a new baby in the house). Brian gave me one big gift in a very small box - diamond earrings! He had given me some small ones a few years ago, but I had been hoping for some bigger ones and he was sweet enough to get them for me. It was a combo Christmas-Push gift after I pushed a huge baby out afterall. I love my new diamond earrings and don't take them off! Of course, my favorite Christmas gift - other than spending time with my family - had to be my precious baby boy as an early Christmas gift.
After opening our Christmas gifts, the four of us met my parents and Stephanie at church for Christmas mass. We've found that the 10:30 mass is surprisingly empty compared to the other masses, which made it perfect considering we're took our newborn baby to church for his first time that day. We've been very hesitant since church seems to be a very germy place. Considering we have to sit in the cry room with the boys, the enclosed space doesn't help in preventing getting sick there.
In the evening, we headed over to my parents' house for Christmas dinner with my family. Dominic was less-than-interested in opening his gifts (as usual) and more interested in running around my parents' house especially with his cousin Caroline. The boys got lots more toys including more cars and Mega Blocks. The next day, with all these new toys, Brian and I reorganized the current toys to make room for the new toys. It's hard because we don't want to get rid of any of Dominic's old toys since Blake will be using them in upcoming months. A basement would come in handy!
Blake gave us a couple of Christmas gifts too. He started smiling at us!! Blake's first smile was at his daddy as we sat in the family room (on December 22nd), and then he smiled at me (on December 28th) as I fed him at our kitchen table. I just love his little cheek dimple! I can't wait to see more smiles from him!
Brian returned to work on Tuesday, and then poor Blake came down with a cold, and he wasn't even a month old. I'm assuming he caught it from Dominic. Apparently, Dominic's immune system has really become strong because he managed to fight off this cold virus in about a day, while Blake took days to fight it off. During that time, my poor baby could hardly breathe through his nose, making feedings especially difficult. Blake's mattress was already elevated at an incline for his reflux, plus we used a humidifier and sprayed saline, but that was really all we could do.
With Blake not feeling well, we spent most of the week inside except for a trip to Target where I tried "wearing" Blake for the first time in the baby carrier. It was a little crazy wearing it and Dominic threw a major tantrum while I tried to juggle both boys, but I'm going to give it another try on our first grocery store run - whenever that may be. I'm still trying to figure out this juggling 2 kids thing. Some days I feel like I'm doing pretty well, but then other days, it's a bit overwhelming. Hopefully, I just get better at it, and it gets easier, with practice.
After such a busy Christmas, a week later we were a little more low key with our New Years. Brian, Dominic, and I took Blake on his first trip to the park on New Year's Eve afternoon. Brian and I wanted to get Dominic out of the house (and away from the TV) especially with the weather being so nice that day. I "wore" Blake in the baby carrier as we chased Dominic around the park. It was a lot of fun getting outside and spending some family time together.
The night of our New Year's Eve fun continued that evening but definitely not the wild night that Brian and I had been used to in years' past. We had planned to go to a friend's get together up in Roswell, but to be honest, the thought of staying out late (passed midnight) only to wake up a couple of hours later to feed Blake and then wake up early the next morning with Dominic made me want to cringe - or just sleep actually. Brian ended up agreeing. So the most we did was walk across the street for the neighborhood fireworks, which was actually a lot of fun. We tried putting Dominic to bed at his usual bedtime in an effort to get him back on track with his sleep, but the fireworks were keeping him up. As a result, we ended up letting him come watch the show outside with us, while we kept an eye on Blake sleeping in his crib on the video monitor (coolest invention ever). Dominic was very startled by the loud fireworks at first but then ended up loving them. He ended up going to bed around 10:00 - way past his bedtime.
2012 started off well with Blake sleeping from about 1:30 till 8:00 in the morning, and it was Brian's turn to wake up with him for his feeding so I ended up getting to sleep late until 9:00. In the afternoon, the four of us headed over to my parents' house for their annual New Year's Day Dinner. Lots of family in such a short time!
2011 was a big year for us. We spent most of it preparing for Baby Blake to get here and become part of our family, and when he did, he helped to make the last month the best one of 2011 by far. Not to mention the fact that during 2011, Dominic grew and developed into the sweet, hilarious, smart person Brian and I know and love. Dominic also learned how to become the best big brother I could ever imagine for Blake. I know that the two of them will be best friends, and that Dominic will do an excellent job teaching Blake about the world. I'm just so lucky to have these boys in my life! Each year that I spend watching them grow and learn undoubtedly will keep getting better and better. Spending 2012 with my boys sounds pretty good to me. :)
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