Vacation Fun

Some pictures from our time at home with the kids:

Sammy's eyes are still SO blue. I'm hoping they stay that way, but in case they don't, I'm trying to preserve them on film. Double-recessive genes in action!
I finally had 2 minutes to read Sam some books. He loved it, though Annie talked the ENTIRE time I was trying to read. Be quiet for 5 seconds!!! So Sam ended up with his book propped up, and he was enjoying the picture of a duck very much. I thought he might roll over since he was twisted so far, but no luck.

Annie helping me make brownies. Delicious and adorable.

Lickin' the spoon. Spare me the lecture about salmonella. What is childhood without the occasional spoon lick?

Lookin' hot in my baby-barf shirt and 2-minute "hairstyle" Oh well, my kids think I look just fine.

Christmas Day

Here are the kiddos after finding their gifts from Santa. A few notes about Santa Claus: he does not wrap gifts and he does not bring much. Anne and Sam each got a rocking chair, one outfit, and one toy. Anne received a Mr. Potato Head and likes it a lot (Tato Head! she calls it)

Sam's thinking "Get me out of here."
Another surprise under the tree was this beautiful Christmas dress. Sam's grandma (aka "Bubbe") sent it from Florida. We decided to save her gifts for Christmas morning, and Anne had a new outfit to wear to visit family. So pretty!
Here's the back as she ran away from me.
And it was Sammy's first Christmas and I didn't even take his picture once he was dressed and everything. Sad 2nd child. He was extremely well-behaved at our family celebration and was very thrilled when my grandma let him suck fudge off her finger. Seriously, he was going at it! A whole new world of chocolate has been opened up for him.

Merry Christmas!

Here's the photo deemed "good enough" to be our Christmas card. Friends and coworkers have been kind enough to compliment me on our "cute kids!" but I insist they are much more adorable in person.

Today is Christmas Eve, and I must say that since having my own kids, this day makes me very emotional. Part of it is crazy hormones, part of it is just how much I love my kiddos, but I think much more often now of Mary being pregnant and giving birth to the baby Jesus in a barn.

First of all, it seems to me that Mary gave up a lot of her life to do this miraculous thing--after her visit from the angel she goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Seems to me that this was more of a "shipping her off to relatives" done by ashamed parents. It isn't like Elizabeth lived around the corner; she lived in an entirely different town. So she visits Elizabeth, then Mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem, then to Egypt, and they never return to their original home. Did Mary ever see her parents again? Did they ever meet her son? Or did she leave them in shock and disgrace and never speak to them again? I doubt they lived another 33 years to see the prophecy fulfilled...

And to cap off this entire scary/confusing experience, she gave birth in a barn. For those of you out there who have personally experienced giving birth or watched it happen, you know it isn't pretty. It is messy and scary. Now imagine doing it lying in a pile of hay. Hay that was "clean" by first-century standards. Good thing this was a divine miracle or they probably would've both died from infection. And poor Joseph--I'm not sure men of that time were trained in the delivery of babies. Did he just stand by and watch? What else could he really do? I'm sure Mary imagined she'd someday have a child, but it would happen at home, with her mom there to help, not all alone with a cow drooling and pooping nearby.

Take the time today to really think about what a miracle His birth was. Be thankful for its occurrence and pray that we might be the kind of faithful, trusting servants that Mary and Joseph were. Pray that we can teach our children the importance of Jesus and his life.

Here's a little music for you to think about.

Four months!

So Sammy is 4 months old today. He's not sleeping through the night, not rolling over, and not doing anything particularly remarkable. I'm not trying to be cruel, it's just the truth! He still spits up a lot, smiles, and laughs if you tickle his neck or armpits. He loves his reflection in the mirror! He is starting to kick a lot to show he is happy, and he likes to lie under the baby gym and bat at the toys. Pretty standard 4-month stuff. He's also still chomping down the cereal when I give it to him. I know I shouldn't be wishing his babyhood away, but I keep feeling that if we can just get to the 6-month mark, things will get easier. Seems like once baby can sit up and eat more foods they get a little happier (and a little more interesting).

Sammy IS going to his first Wild game tomorrow night! I also have cute pictures and video of him on the camera at home. I'll try to add them tonight--I've got a great one of his big grin. :)

Update: Here we go!

A mouth full of cereal. Mmm...mmm...good


Blue eyes (and the Bethel shirt)Getting the giggles from Dad

They DO like each other!

Two quick bits:

Annie pretended to feed her baby doll after I gave Sammy his cereal last night. She was so cute with the little spoon and dish, holding her baby on her lap!

We put Annie to bed last night and I was holding Sammy. She looked at him and said "Yuv you, Sambo" and patted his head. Sam and I were all melty inside :)

Baby Milestone

Apparently we are less "by-the-books" parents the 2nd time around. When Anne was 4 months old we gave her baby cereal, as is the custom in America. However we waited until she had been to her 4 month check-up and gotten permission from the doc to try it. We mixed it diligently, measuring the cereal and the formula to make a "thin, watery mix" as the books tell you to do. If you recall, she didn't like it at all and we never tried it again.

Fast forward to baby Sam. Last night I said "Hey, let's give him some cereal" He's almost 4 months old, and I had read that it might help him 1. sleep and 2. spit-up less. So I dumped some powder in a bowl (a Wild hockey helmet bowl) and held it under the faucet to add some water (all while holding the baby). It was pretty thick--probably the consistency of canned frosting. "Meh," I thought to myself "It will be less messy this way." I plopped the baby down on Sam's lap and proceeded to spoon Sammy the cereal. He loved it! He gobbled it up quite well. We were very proud of our boy (and he probably appreciated having the undivided attention of BOTH parents for 10 minutes!) We did take pictures and a video, because that's what we did for Annie. I'll post them soon (I know you're dying to watch it!)

As for the sleeping and spitting up, I'm not sure if it helped. He slept from 9:00 pm to 4:00 am, which is pretty good for him. However, he did spit up approximately 5 times after eating the cereal before he went to bed. We'll try again tonight and see how it goes.

**In the Constantly Comparing Children category, today we reach an important milestone. Sammy has now been nursing longer than Anne. By this point she was done with all that and we made the move to formula. I'm not one of those Nazi-type moms who are crazy about breastfeeding (and look down on those who aren't), but if Sammy and I can hang in there for a few more months, I'll be pretty proud.**

Flashback: December 2008

All the networks are airing "decade" types of shows/specials right now. You know, "Top 10 Stories of the Decade" kinds of things. Since my synopsis of the past decade would get quite long, I thought we could at least look back at last December and see how things have changed.

(Seriously, in the year 2000 I was 16, a sophomore in high school, and Sam and I wouldn't meet until February of that year. Age 16 to 26 can be an eventful decade!)

Last Christmas with the siblings. Annie was 14 months old and I thought she'd never grow any hair (careful what you wish for!)
Anne's epic failure at trying to eat with a spoon. Now she can eat a whole cup of yogurt by herself with a spoon, and even eat a waffle with a fork!

With Opa and her new hockey jersey. So cute :)

Honestly, who is that?!? I barely remember Anne at this stage. I do know that she was just figuring out how to walk after her lack of crawling. (I also know that I love those terry-cloth pajamas. They're my fave. So snuggly.)

Here we are on Christmas Eve. Sam and I have known of Sammy's existence for about 36 hours in this photo, though we didn't share it with anyone for at least another week...Christmas is exciting enough all by itself.

2009: The Year in Review

January: Anne is 15 months old. She was working on lots of new foods and perfecting her walking.
February: Collage! Anne was 16 months old, learning to use her spoon, and we still thought she had straight hair :)

March: Anne is 17 months old, and we see Sammy for the first time!

April: Annie is 18 months old and continues to astound us with her verbal skills. We celebrate Easter on a very chilly Sunday. The hair shows signs of curls!

May: Anne is 19 months old, and we have a big month. Anne and I travel to Chicago for Erin's graduation and to buy Bitty Baby (below). We missed Sam's 25th birthday to be there! Anne also gets her first haircut in preparation for Erin's wedding and her all-important role as flower girl.

June: 20 months old. We begin our summer of constant playtime and no school.
July: It gets hotter, I get more pregnant, and Anne gets cuter.
August: Sammy arrives!

and Anne gets pigtails

September: Anne is 23 months old, and Sammy turns 1 month old



October: Anne turns 2! We have a nice party, Sammy doesn't cry the whole time, and Sam and I marvel at what our life has very rapidly become.


November: We start to get the hang of having two kids. We learn that you just can't go anywhere or do anything! Either one adult goes or all 4 of us go. Going to Target for milk and diapers becomes an adventure.


December: I turn 26 (!) and Sammy will soon be 4 months old. It has been quite a year in the Westphall house!

(Sound of me smacking my forehead against the wall)

Note to those of you who only have one child:

Isn't it fun to take pictures of your little one? They are so cute and happy. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but once that child turns 2 and/or you have another baby, the cute pictures are gone. It is freakin' impossible to get a decent picture of these two together!



Seriously LOOK at my son in this picture. What the heck!?!?!


Happy note: I think I did (maybe) get a picture good enough to go on the Christmas card. But I'm not going to show it to you here! Wait and see it in your mailbox!

Sled!

A pretty weak little run down the driveway:

Annie's First Blizzard (no, not the DQ kind)

That's the kind of blizzard a woman can appreciate!

No, we got about a foot of snow last night, so Sam and I bundled Annie up and took her outside. We never put her out in the snow last year (and why would we?) so this was her first chance to play in it a bit.

Starting out with trepidation:Venturing down the driveway:
Hey, I kinda like this!
Measuring up against the snow pile Sam made while shoveling the driveway. It isn't a very good picture, but it is a tall pile.

So I got a birthday snow day, which is the 2nd time that has happened in the 4 years I've been teaching. Most people would be excited about this, but I had already taken the day off and had plans to visit Erin in Mankato. We were going to shop and eat and have real coffee and see her apartment, all without a certain pair of adorable but occasionally bothersome children. Now instead I got to stay inside all day with said children, who seem to have a case of the Whineys.

Adventures in Potty Training

We are getting Annie psyched up to use the potty. This involves reading potty books and watching a DVD titled "Go Potty Go" in which a pair of animated pandas learn to use the toilet. It's a winner, trust me (insert sarcastic eye-roll here) Anne asks often to "watch the potty chair"

Anyway, we have a nice Baby Bjorn potty chair that I picked up at a garage sale for $5. Trouble is, our tall girl is a little too tall for it! She hated sitting on it because her legs were all catty-whompus. Last night we upgraded to a potty seat to put on the big toilet. Anne happily sat there for the better part of 45 minutes, reading books and drinking juice-laced water. (Sidenote: it is hard to sit there, silently willing your child to go, without feeling like you're going to wet your pants! My internal monologue was "Go! Don't go!")

After sitting there with no action, Anne got down and I'm not kidding you, walked into the hall and peed all over the floor. If she had just sat there for 10 more seconds!!! I guess we will try again tonight, hopefully with better results.

**Oh, and also, we bought some big-girl underwear at Target and Annie proceeded to walk around shouting "UnderWEAR! UnderWEAR!" until we told her to stop. What have we gotten ourselves in to?

Anne's Art

Annie has been making many beautiful projects at Oma's house each day. When we get home and bring everything in from the car she says "Oh, my picture!" and wants to show it off. We had a nice display going on the fridge, but that is prime real estate and we needed to clean up. So I took a few pictures of the girl with her creations.

Here's a painting:
Some pretty apple prints when they were learning the letter "A" (or "A Nannie" as it is known in our house, along with "S Sambo!"

My personal favorite: the paper-plate pumpkin pie. It was sprinkled with sand that had cinnamon and cloves mixed in. Smelled just like pie! I might hang it from my rearview mirror.

Anne showing off her paper-plate turkey.

Sammy in the tub