And to All a Good Night

Miraculously they are sitting next to our two new ornaments for this season... the Snoopy ornament and the pine cone Tomten.

Presents

Will wanted me to knit him a hat. He picked out the rainbow yarn!

I'll put up some more as time allows but for now...

Christmas Traditions

As a teacher I think it is in my professional genes to go a little crazy with holiday details, rituals, and traditions. But as a mom of two my life has slowed down to a crawl. I've been feeling like I can't juggle many things at once like I used to and some things need to be let go of. For one, Jasper and Will did not sit on Santa's lap this year. We tried and failed to have it happen mainly for lack of time but also because there were few Santa's around town who would allow for personal photography without purchasing the expensive portrait package (Nordstrom Santa does allow for personal photography but getting downtown was just a logistical dilemma for me this time around). In the end, I opted to avoid the lines, avoid the cost, and avoid the whole thing altogether.

We did, however, maintain some of our usual holiday classics:

We love to light up the season with candles and holiday lightss

Will really loves snowglobes. This is one of many in his collection.

Santa's abound!

Satsumas!

A Playmobil Woodland Advent Calendar where you build the scene with parts found in each box. This is the part with all the boxes but I don't have a picture of the little pieces that make the scene. Santa sits in a toboggan and there are lots of sweet woodland animals.

Will always goes ice skating this month and warms up with hot cocoa in his snowman mug.

We LOVE advent calendars around here... there is an advent tree with tiny ornaments, an advent chimney to countdown to when Santa is coming, an advent pocket calendar with treats, and an advent action calendar with things that we DO each day to prepare for Christmas.

Forced Bulbs that are clearly not going to bloom in time for Christmas but will give us a beautiful January table!

Window snowflakes!

Solstice Moon

A Message From Santa

Will's Letter to Santa: For Santa, Please give me an Air Hog, balloons and air pump, remote control airplane, and remote control boat.
From Will Seegert, Age 6, Phone Number 633.3341

Will has many wonderful traditions for the holidays and one of which is to write a letter to Santa with a few toy suggestions. This year was quite a treat because we went to a fancy stationery store where he sat at an old antique writing desk and wrote his letter using his very own candy cane pen. He then sent the letter off to Santa in the mailbox outside the store. A few days later, this arrived-- an electronic message from Santa!

http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/HECAb3G2RKqMVAIV41WD8w

Crawling

Jasper is really quite fast these days. We can hardly keep up with him!


For whatever reason, he loves to do a version of the bearcrawl and it is very funny.

Getting into Trouble

I wish I could relocate the fat from other parts of my body to my knees so I could more comfortably chase after this fast little fellow....

Happy Holidays!

And He's Off

This is what it looks like when you are trying to take a Christmas photo with a crawling baby...

Trimming the Tree

I may be sleep deprived but I'm still capable of making some darn good suggestions--one of which was to put the tree downstairs. Sure it lessens the enjoyment of having it in our main living space with twinkly lights and all but I am so glad to not be in constant battles with baby about tree exploration!

Face Project

Will drew himself to look like an ostrich. Now he tells me that he did not draw this but it is cute nonetheless.

Teacher Holiday Gifts

I've been rushing around the past few days trying to pull together these teacher gifts. Seriously, I didn't realize how soon it was holiday break! I thought there were a couple of weeks left but it all snuck up so fast!

So I knit them each a hat and then we made personal fabric bags. The front side has their names embroidered on by Will and the backside is the vintage peppermint pattern. We also made some Iced Meyer Lemon Cookies this afternoon too. They are buttery and lemony but next year I think I'll stick with something chocolatey like fudge or peppermint bark.

This afternoon I asked Will if he wanted to help me make the cookies for his teachers and he said, "Mom, I've been working hard all day. I need to unwind and make a giant fort out of blankets." Guess it was up to me to do the cookies then!

Gingerbread Village

We are obsessed with gingerbread houses around here. They seem to have these kits out for just about every holiday so far and Will is full of ideas regarding certain kinds of structures and candies that he wants to use. This trip Gingerbread Village only just gave him more elaborate ideas...

Kitty

I still chuckle to myself that our midwives called our cat "Puffkin" with such certainty during Jasper's birth. Clearly we use his nickname a bit too often! But our little Puffkin these days is not very puffy. He is old and a little scrawny. Mostly he gets his joy out of a soft warm place to snooze all curled up in a ball. He always meets us at the door though when we come home and this is probably the most excitement he has all day!

Frosty the Snowman

Uh, Oh!

Fit for a King

If Jasper isn't sleeping in his bed then this guy is...

Winken, Blinken and Nod

Dare I jinx it but I do think that Jasper is working out his dreamtime. I loved the recent book I read that said, "Write this across your heart: Babies have no sleep schedule when they are born. The fact that you do does not occur to them." And so we had a glorious first three months while this baby slept on his own schedule but still gave us long nights--often up to ten hours!

Then he hit four months and everything disentegrated into teething and developmental leaps. It took a solid two months to pull out of that and land knee deep into something that I'm calling the "disco month" where Jasper was fighting sleep so much and didn't want to miss out on a thing. We had midnight parties and 2am parties no matter how boring and exhausted we thought we looked.

Now at seven months old new patterns are emerging and we are noticing that the thumb is his primary soother (Will liked to rub his hair!. Whenever we hear the characteristic "mantra cry" accompanied by thumb sucking we know that sleep is imminent.


Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod

Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod, one night sailed off in a wooden shoe;
Sailed off on a river of crystal light into a sea of dew.
"Where are you going and what do you wish?" the old moon asked the three.
"We've come to fish for the herring fish that live in this beautiful sea.
Nets of silver and gold have we," said Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod.

The old moon laughed and sang a song as they rocked in the wooden shoe.
And the wind that sped them all night long ruffled the waves of dew.
Now the little stars are the herring fish that live in that beautiful sea;
"Cast your nets wherever you wish never afraid are we!"
So cried the stars to the fishermen three - Winkin', and Blinkin', and Nod.

So all night long their nets they threw to the stars in the twinkling foam.
'Til down from the skies came the wooden shoe bringing the fisherman home.
'Twas all so pretty a sail it seemed as if it could not be.
Some folks say 'twas a dream they dreamed of sailing that misty sea.
But I shall name you the fisherman three - Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod.

Now Winkin' and Blinkin' are two little eyes and Nod is a little head.
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies is a wee one's trundle bed.
So close your eyes while mother sings of the wonderful sights that be.
And you shall see those beautiful things as you sail on the misty sea,
Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three - Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod.

Um, Excuse Me...

I thought he was just playing with his music box on the floor...


And then I heard the rocking chair moving...

There's More Than One Way to Get from Point A to Point B

He just turned seven months old this weekend and he celebrated this new month by crawling-- backwards. I remember this with Will too where he would literally back himself into a corner or underneath something. Yesterday we found Jasper underneath the rocking chair and today he has been found under tables, sandwiched between furniture and wall or stuck under the "wood" stove. He can move himself quite far in his backwards crawl but at times gets himself frustrated since he moves away from the things that he seems intent to get to. Here he is trapped under the table:



The other interesting milestone for me this time around is purchasing 12-24 month ONESIE's. Seriously, I used to think these were a joke. Especially when stores would sell onesies that are size 2T or 18 months I would chuckle and wonder why on earth anyone would put their 18 month old or 2 year old in a onesie? But oh, now I see. These onesie's are for chunkamunk babies like mine who are the size of one year olds when they are only 7 months old!

Join Us at the Table

Mr. Baby has finally started joining us at the table with his new little chair. He and his brother sit side by side now and he is able to work on some finger foods (vegetable spears or rice rusks).

Guitar Recital