Christmas 2012

We had another wonderful Christmas this year. We started it off over the weekend by baking some yummy Christmas cookies. Kyler helped decorate a few at the end and he was pretty proud of his work.

He even frosted the one on the bottom right all by himself.

Sunday night we went to Great Grandma Rita's and had Christmas with my mom's side of the family. We had lots of different soups and tons of desserts. Kyler was pretty excited to open his first gift of the season and he enjoyed spending time with his second cousins.

Santa had come when we woke up Christmas morning. Nothing too extravagant but the elves did make a homemade play kitchen for Kyler and Myelle. Santa also left all kinds of fire engine decor for Kyler's bedroom and a couple of books for the kids.

Our stockings were full of candy canes and other candy. Kyler's had some letter and number flashcards too.

On Christmas afternoon we went over to Grandma and Papa's house to open gifts. Grandma found a transportation themed stamp set for Kyler and he loves it. We had a yummy prime rib dinner that night.

The day after Christmas, we went over to Great Grandma and Grandpa Haverkamp's. After eating some turkey and ham, he finally warmed up to all the people and had a blast playing with his third cousins. Someone thought they saw Santa outside and Kyler was really looking for him.

He couldn't stop starting after Santa came in. We made the mistake of having "A Christmas Story" on at home that day which probably didn't help his fear of Santa. Oops!

I wanted to get a picture of both kids on Santa's lap. I think this pretty much captured the moment. It was nuts.

Santa had a gift for Kyler - a little toy four wheeler. And Ky gave him a five before Santa left. Hopefully next year he will be a little more receptive to Santa's lap.

Next weekend Kyler's other grandparents will be coming to visit since we didn't make it there this year. We had a great Christmas with all of our family. It will be even more fun next year when Myelle is old enough to join in the fun.

Snow!

Last year I think we got a real snow only once and I missed my opportunity to take Kyler out to play in it. I don't think he even remembered ever seeing snow before. But yesterday morning we woke up to a few inches of snow so I had to be sure to get him outside while Myelle was napping.

Getting ready to head outside. He had a lot of layers on - I was having flashbacks from "A Christmas Story."

Hiding behind a drift and kicking his way out.

His mittens didn't fit quite right but he was warm and having a blast!

Running through the snow.

Oops - stuck in a drift.

We attempted to make a snowman yesterday but the snow was too dry from being blown around so much. Today it was a little warmer and the snow was starting to get more wet so we quickly went out to make a little snowman. It was Kyler's first snowman. He was SO excited to make Frosty. He kept saying, "he might talk and he might walk" as we were making the snowman.

Checking out our creation.

Our finished product - Kyler couldn't open his eyes for the picture though because it was so bright.

Brett said it looked like Baby Frosty. We did borrow Myelle's hat for our tiny snowman.

Shaking his hand.

Update: Uncle Ment (Brent) came over the next day to make a real snowman. It was bigger than Brent and will be around for most of the winter unless we get some high temps.

The Reason for the Season

Last week, Myelle received a first year calendar that Kyler was very interested in. So I got his 2012 tractor calendar out and we talked about the different birthdays and holidays. I wrote and drew on the calendar so he could identify whose birthday it was. I put a Christmas tree on December 25th and explained that this was Christmas and showed him what the current day was so he could see how many days were left until Christmas. He flipped through the pages and came back to December. He studied that Christmas tree, pointed at the date, and looked up at me saying "that's Baby Jesus's birthday." I was surprised because I had not brought up Jesus while we were looking at the calendar. He knows the Christmas story because we have a children's book about the first Christmas and we play out the story with his Little People nativity set. I was so proud that he had been absorbing what we have been talking about, that a two-year-old can remember better than many adults what Christmas really is. I hope he always remembers what this holiday is truly about!

Imagination

Kyler's imagination keeps getting bigger and bigger as he grows. He seems to have an imaginary friend around most of the day. It's not always the same friend but there are a consistent cast of characters - Willie, Papa, Uncle Brent, Santa, Rudolph the reindeer, and Rudolph's mama and dada are the current ones. He plays football and jumps around the living room with Willie, Papa, and Uncle Brent. Papa also goes on a boat with him in Myelle's room and swims in the water. I found out that Rudolph is smaller than Baxter, he is little like Myelle. Rudolph and his parents walk around the house with Kyler and do all kinds of things. And he does have a red nose.

Kyler also pretends to talk on the phone a lot. Lately he has been talking to the Grinch mostly. He also calls Grandma, Papa, Uncle Brent, and Dad. Randomly he tells us that there is a bug or snake or spider in the house, and he will pretend to eat them to get a reaction out of us. Last night he found his dad's belt in the living room and was walking around acting like it was a snake. Kyler also pretends that he is wearing a mask. He says he is a ghost or something else and then when we get scared, he acts like he's pulling the mask off the top of his head.

It's a lot of fun watching Kyler play these days. The conversations his Little People and vehicles have often crack us up. He takes his baby Jesus to football games and the wise men ride on trains (our remotes). You just never know what he will come up with next.

Big Brother

Kyler was very excited when he found out from Grandma that he now has a little sister. He came to the hospital with Grandma and Papa to visit on the day Myelle was born. They had stopped to pick up a couple things for Myelle and Kyler was very involved in picking things out and was sure to carry them. At the hospital, Kyler would ask to hold his sister and then would announce "I'm done" within about ten seconds of holding her.

Wanting Myelle to put on her new socks that Ky picked out

Happy to see Mama and meet baby sister

Grandma helped Kyler make a welcome home banner for us. We were all impressed by his art skills when Grandma showed us the Powercat he made. She said he made the initial large shape first and she commented that it looked like a Powercat so then he added the smaller circles and other lines. Unless it was a complete coincidence, I think it's pretty good for a 2 year old.

The banner

Kyler's work of art - a Powercat

Kyler currently has mixed feelings about being a big brother. He loves her and is interested and wants to hold her and help take care of her but at the same time he is not enjoying having everyone's attention divided between himself and Myelle. He has been incredibly whiny and crying a lot more than normal since we have gotten home.

Welcoming baby Myelle home

I wasn't sure what to tell Kyler about me nursing Myelle. So I would just tell her that I had to feed her and she drinks mommy's milk. He was fine with that and apparently didn't pay too close of attention.  He says that the baby is drinking milk from my tummy. The other day I was in Myelle's room feeding her and Kyler was holding his monkey stuffed animal. He told me that monkey needed to eat so I told him to go get his bottle. He replied by telling me that monkey was going to drink milk out of his tummy, lifted his shirt, and put monkey's face right on his belly button.

Gift from Myelle at the hospital

Goofy boy giving us a cheesy smile

Kyler is also having a difficult time remembering that the baby's name is Myelle. He calls her Baby Pat about half of the time but it seems to be getting less and less frequent.