Papa-tainment

Currently, the best entertainment at our house stars **Papa**! Whether he is doing the mundane task of scooping the snow --

Or, engaging in silly activities, he's tops on our list.

Crib Saga Continues

And continues.... A few months ago I posted about how our beautiful crib was recalled. We went through the ridiculous process of removing the hardware from the crib, sending it to the company, waiting for a voucher, and finally receiving the voucher in the mail. Thanks to Joe & Ashley, we were able to borrow their crib in the interim (so Gabriel was not rolling and crawling around on the floor instead of sleeping at night).

The voucher we received can only be redeemed at Babies R Us for a crib purchase, oh and we can't redeem it online. The first trip to Omaha and Babies R Us, the ONLY convertible crib (like we had before) that was priced under the voucher amount was out of stock and could not be ordered. So we waited another month and then took another trip to Omaha and Babies R Us, a new convertible crib was there that would work (it was white instead of cherry color, but good enough compromise). Of course, it wasn't in stock, but they could order it this time and let me know it would be there in 7-14days.

We waited two weeks and did not hear anything, so we called them. Oh yes, it's in and ready to be picked up. So another trip to Omaha and the crib is picked up. We wait another day for Grandma & Grandpa to bring it back to Lincoln in their truck. We then disassemble the borrowed crib, haul in the giant crib box and open it. Oops, wrong crib! It's not the same color, style OR brand. This is really starting to be fun. So, back to Omaha the wrong crib goes. We reassemble the borrowed crib and now we get to wait another two weeks for them to order the crib we wanted again. We'll then have to coordinate another trip to pick the crib up again and get Grandma & Grandpa's hauling capabilities to Lincoln.

Really?! I estimated some of the frustration involved, but apparently not to the fullest extent. So, thank you, Jardine, for your inferior crib quality and thank you, Babies R Us, for the extra trouble.

Max & Ruby

Max and Ruby... Ruby and Max... This is one of Krista's favorite Noggin shows. Some of you don't get this gem of a station targeted to preschoolers, while the rest of us are "blessed" with it and get to watch it - a LOT. Krista's 3rd birthday is coming up and she requested a Max & Ruby themed birthday. The following printable coloring picture is of the adorable twosome.

She loves all the Max & Ruby books by Rosemary Wells as well. We have checked them out from our local library on many occasions. And she has been singing a song she heard on the show all week:

Brown Sugar, Applesauce. Apple Pie is Fun to Make!

Of course, her two year old mind can remember more of the lyrics than I can even remember to post while she is asleep... oh well, just have her sing it to you when you see her. She may pull the shy act and you'll get nothing, but you may have a chance.

Waiting...

Our entire household is done with the cold weather. We are anxiously awaiting warmer weather. The following pictures embody our only experience with the sun (through the window) when it is so bitterly cold outside.

Subtle Change

I don't know what it is, but at a certain age a discernible, yet subtle, change takes place. Today I saw this change in Gabriel's face. It seems like it happens over night, which also amazes me. I think it has a lot to do with eye contact. Infants don't make eye contact at first because they simply see a blur and as they grow they see things in their own little world. At the point of the change, they look directly into your eyes with such a "click click click" of understanding. Gabriel just looked at me with his big eyes and truly looked engaged.

He teased me with a toy, by holding it in front of his face and pulling it away. He maintained eye contact to see MY reaction to his comedic act, instead of the other way around. He's pushing cars on the floor instead of just flipping them over to spin each wheel. He listens to commands and understands them. He's starting to babble quick, loud sentiments. He mimics actions and loves to dance and bounce. He's so close to walking, it will be any day/hour/minute now that I won't be able to stop him. The changes will keep coming and I can't believe I will no longer refer to him as the baby.

Inauguration

Celebrations are being formed as we speak. The inauguration day is approaching. Soon you will cheer with us as we inaugurate Gabriel to toddlerhood. Our little chubby-man made two, ever so slight, steps today. He was then tired of that game and on to other things.

Gabriel, Toddler-Elect

(Goofy hair & all)

Midnight Rocker

Gabriel rocks the night away in his crib - such a vastly, polar opposite of Krista, in yet another way. Krista would wake up in the same spot, same position where she fell asleep. Gabriel is in a different spot every time you peek in to their room. And you'll hear him in the middle of the night, "Aaaaaaaahhhhh...." Thuh-thunk, Thuh-thunk, Thuh-thunk (over and over again). He gets on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth to soothe himself back to sleep. And what's Krista doing? She's got the blanket over her face, laying still as stone in her bed, pressed against the wall.

On another side note, Krista has had no more nightmares to report, but she is still scared of the moon.

Nightmare Imagination

Another reason why toddlers are not good parents:

Krista's imagination somehow thought baby needed a chip clip pinched on his head. I'm not sure how that works into her play family's story. All she kept saying was, "What happened to baby?" Well, that's an easy one... YOU!

And as her imagination grows, we encounter new problems to deal with... for instance, last night Krista had her first "real" nightmare (not just a book or toy poking her in the night). As she clung on to me with her thin, monkey arms, she just kept saying, "The moon is coming to get me!" The sheer terror in her voice made me want to weep. After some consoling, a potty trip, a Papa talk, re-tucking in, a song, and leaving the door ajar, she was able to go back to sleep. Not wanting to set hard to break habits, it took all my willpower not to invite her to our bed and it apparently took all Josh's willpower not to lay in there with her last night. But she did go back to sleep and she seems fine this morning after sleeping in a bit longer than normal.

I'm sure with such an active imagination, we'll have our fair share of nightmare nights with Krista. It may be time for a night light, I'll keep you posted.

The Old Man and the Brow

I'm living with a classic, old man. What I mean to say is my husband already has some classic, old man characteristics. OK, well... he had one, at least, that was pestering me. It bothered me so much that I had to take care of it last night.

He had two, very long, scraggly, old-man eye brow hairs. Josh loved these brows and professed them to be "distinguished." They were all I could focus on anymore, not even his clear blue eyes could capture my interest with those brows staring at me. The future picture of us as grandparents was a vision of me standing next to my old husband, whose white, scraggly eye brows covered his eyelids.

I convinced him that it would be better if they were gone. He protested as if I were Delilah cutting his strength off. But, I persisted and am now content to look into his eyes and not worry that the creatures in his eye brows were going to attack.

Biblical Mother Goose

Krista and I were talking the other day and I was asking her a series of questions to find out which biblical stories she remembered from her books:

T: Do you remember who walked on the water?
K: Jesus!
T: That's right, and do you know who walked on the water with Jesus?
K: I don't know.
T: Peter did. Peter walked on the water, but he got scared and Jesus saved him.
K: Peter?
T: Yep, Peter.
K: Peter... the pumpkin eater!

Wedding Time

Yesterday was James and Angie's wedding day and Josh and I captured some good photos at the wedding - here are some from my digital camera that were our favorites: