Kyler's 1st Christmas

We started the celebration at home the Sunday before Christmas. Since we were planning on leaving town as soon as I got off work on Wednesday, we thought Sunday evening was the best time to open gifts. Ky couldn't wait to get started.

Kyler had plenty of gifts to open before we even left the house. He got some "Engrish" shirts from Uncle Ryan and Aunt Jessica in Japan. They have English writing that doesn't always make sense so they are pretty funny. They also sent over some boxing shorts from Thailand.

From Santa and Mom and Dad, Kyler got a baby basketball hoop, a stuffed dog called My Pal Scout that knows his name, a toy cell phone, a Yo Gabba Gabba book, and his favorite book from the library: "And the Cow Said Moo." He was starting to get the hang of unwrapping gifts by the time we were done.

A couple days later while Mommy was making Christmas goodies, he made a big mess with his cookie. But at least it was yummy and he enjoyed it.

Kyler was at Grandma and Grandpa Brack's from Wednesday night through Christmas day. He got a box full of books - one of his favorite things. He also got a bunch of things to play with in the bathtub. We can't wait to get home and try them out. He also received another stuffed doggie that plays music from Great Grandma and Grandpa Weber.

On Christmas day we headed to Seneca to Great Grandma and Grandpa Haverkamp's house. Kyler had a lot of fun playing with all the younger kids there and he got a little toy train. Then on Sunday we opened more gifts at Grandpa Tig and Grandma Debbie's house. By this time Kyler had it down. We are getting a bike to ride this spring and Kyler also got some pop up toys, a bike helmet, and a recordable book with Grandma and Grandpa reading to him. It was pretty funny when he listened to it the first time - he kept looking at them as he heard their voices.

We have one more Christmas to go on New Years Day. Our car is already packed as full as it can go so hopefully we don't end up with too much more!

Merry Christmas!

We are off to visit the grandparents. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

7 Months

Kyler turned 7 months old yesterday. Grandma and Grandpa were in town doing some last-minute Christmas shopping and Grandpa Tig could not believe how big Ky had gotten. We have been noticing the same thing each time we get Kyler dressed. He is growing out of more and more clothes on a daily basis. Can you say growth spurt?

Here is a day in the life of Kyler at 7 months:

MORNING

• Kyler wakes up around 8:30 each morning. He eats some baby cereal or Cream of Wheat with a couple tablespoons full of pureed apples or pears mixed in. He also has some toast or graham cracker or some other finger food to go along with it. Lately he also has to take his medicine (an antibiotic for his cold and nearly an ear infection). 
• Kyler constantly has his tongue out. We think he is feeling his two new bottom teeth and hope he keeps that tongue in his mouth when the top two get here. 
• Ky usually makes 2-3 dirty diapers in the morning, one right after the other. He loves playing with his feet and socks so we are constantly fighting over them when he is getting his diaper changed. 
• Kyler takes a bottle either before or after breakfast - around 6 ounces. And then he plays with his toys until he goes down for a nap around 10:30. He rubs his eyes and gets fussy when he is tired and he will fall asleep with his paci, blanket, and his mobile on in his crib.

AFTERNOON

• Around noon I hear him making noises in his bed. He is usually playing with his feet or the ties on his crib bumper. 
• He gets up, has a diaper change, and it is time for lunch. This is usually some finger food like canned pears or a banana and close to 1/2 cup of some mixture of squash, sweet potatoes, and fruit. 
• Then it is playtime again for a couple of hours. His favorite toy right now is his Little People nativity scene. We even opened gifts last night and he was still wanting the nativity scene over all the noisy and bright toys we bought. I guess we should have gotten more Little People toys instead! 
• Kyler loves sitting up and playing and is trying hard to move around more. He plays like a boy, always banging and throwing toys. He gets upset when he is reaching and rolling and bangs into a hard toy. His arms are always up in the air when he is excited and instead of wagging a tail like a dog would do when they are happy, Kyler moves his feet in circles. 
• He takes another bottle while he is awake and at around 2:30 he goes back to bed for an hour or so. Then it is playtime again for a couple of hours and he will have another bottle during that time.

EVENING

• We usually feed Kyler dinner (and recently his medicine) around 6:30 after Brett gets home from work. Dinner is similar to lunch and we sometimes give him crackers or some kind of snack so that we can eat or do things while he is in the high chair. 
• A few nights each week I give Kyler a bath after dinner. This is one of his favorite activities. He now has a bath seat and can sit up in the tub. I dump water right over his head and he has no problem with that. He splashes quite a bit and is fascinated with the drain when I pull the plug.
• Then it is playtime with Dad for a little while. Brett has been really trying hard to get Kyler to crawl and Ky is way more patient on his tummy than when I try. 
• Kyler has been pretty vocal lately. He sometimes yells pretty loudly and does a lot of babbling... bababa or dadada are his most common phrases. 
• Around 8:30 it is time to start calming down. Kyler takes a bottle; we try for 8-9 ounces at this time so he will sleep longer. Then he usually wants to sit or lie with one of us and read a book or play with a quiet toy with his paci until he is tired enough to go to bed.

NIGHT

• Once in bed, Kyler has been waking up every 20 minutes for the first hour or two. We think it is because he is working on his top two teeth. He loses his pacifier and immediately wakes up (normally he would sleep right through that). 
• Once he is finally down, he will sleep until around 4:00 when he needs a bottle and a diaper change. Then he is back down until morning.

We are really looking forward to Christmas with Kyler. We did our own family Christmas last night and he did pretty good opening gifts. He started realizing that he pulls the paper and then something fun appears. I sure I'll be eating my words when it happens but we can't wait for Kyler to start crawling. I know he will be into everything and will probably be pretty fast - the kid does not stop moving!

Santa!

We took Kyler to the mall this morning to sit on Santa's lap. I highly suggest doing this on a weekday morning. There was absolutely no line! Brett and I thought for sure that Kyler would scream when he sat on the big guy's lap - he is afraid of strangers sometimes. So we set him on Santa's lap without turning him around and he was so happy. Even when we turned him around to get a look at Santa he was just fine. Santa's comment: "Wait til next year." Haha!

The Reason for the Season

Nativity scenes are one of the only pieces of Christmas decor that have a direct correlation with the birth of Christ (the reason we started celebrating Christmas in the first place, in case all the commercialism has distracted you). This is the one my mom bought me as a little girl and I display it each year.

I remember always wanting to play with the figures which are breakable. One of the wise men has a glued-on head which I assume occurred when I was playing with him as a child. Kyler is too little this year to have much interest (unless I bring him to the figures and then he tries to grab them and put them in his mouth) but I know by next year this will be something he really wants to get into. So I decided for his first Christmas season, I would get him a toy nativity scene.

I gave it to him as sort of an Advent gift rather than waiting until Christmas (since I will be packing all the Christmas stuff away by the time we get back home in January from our visits to family and friends). He was way more interested in the nativity set than I thought he would be. I thought he would want to play with the packaging more than this toy but I was wrong. Kyler was very excited about his new toy.

 

I got it down for him to play with and right away the pieces started going right to his mouth. I think the sheep is his favorite because of the texture. He also liked the angel's wings and is fascinated by the stable for some reason.

As he picks up the different people and animals I tell him what each of them is. It means nothing to him now but hopefully this will be a way to teach him what Christmas is really about. When he puts Baby Jesus in his mouth, I tell him that he is giving the baby kisses (seems more appropriate than eating or chewing on Jesus). The only one I struggle with is what to call Joseph. He isn't really the Daddy but Brett thinks we should just tell him that for now since Joseph helped raise Jesus. We can explain to him later that God is really the Father of baby Jesus. I agree since the other option is to say he is married to the Baby's mama. ;)

And here is a picture where you can see the stockings hung from the chimney with care. Yes, the dogs have stockings and Brett and I do not. The important thing is that Kyler does have a stocking and it will be STUFFED this year. Oops... it is just too hard not to buy things for this little guy. And he has been a very very good baby so Santa should be good to him too.