Christmas

The kids were so excited about Christmas this year. Gyven and Kyra are at an age where the idea of Santa and presents is just about the coolest thing ever. Gyven keeps asking when we're going to do Christmas again, and gets really upset when I tell him it will be another whole year. Today has been rather quiet, just the kids playing with their new toys and hanging out.

Mostly Pictures

The kids are very excited for Christmas this year. Last night we went to Zoolights at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, and they loved it. Gyven keeps asking if we're going to the North Pole to see Santa. He also keeps asking if we can drive to Iraq to pick daddy up. I'm not sure how to explain the concept of thousands of miles to a five year old.

Elementary my dear Watson!

Who doesn't love a good nap?

One of the tiers on my fake tree would not light up and being as I am too lazy to pack it back up and return it, I've had a sad looking unlit spot on my tree. I fiddled for 20 or 30 minutes when I first noticed it and gave up, because I couldn't find any missing, broken or otherwise dysfunctional bulbs or wires.

Today Sidney walks up to the tree, jiggles a branch, and the tier of lights flickers! He pokes a couple of the bulbs on that branch, and one of the ones on the bottom produces the same response! So I go over there and that bulb's housing is cracked, causing a break in the circuit. I fiddled with it and managed to get the circuit to connect, so that bulb is still out, but the rest of the lights on the tier light up.

Genius baby. Genius.

It's been busy...

This picture was taken as we waited for Gyven's first ride on the school bus. Nothing exciting going on besides Gyven being in school and loving it. Today is the last day before winter break, and he's going to be impatient for it to restart in January.

Sidney was re-diagnosed. He did not have chicken pox, it was a non-specific viral rash. It's resolved and he's fine, but now we're sharing a cold. Poor kid can't catch a break.

Look at that happy pox-covered boy

With the right combo of meds, you don't know he's all that sick. Until, of course, you see the rash.

Because we're not sick enough around here

Sidney got the chicken pox from his vaccine, and Kyra apparently did not get total immunity from her vaccine back in the summer and has caught it as well. So, we're going to hermit it up this week. Poor Kyra and Gyven will be so disappointed to miss school and speech therapy on Monday, but I don't want to risk them giving it out to their classmates (Gyven's been cleared for school on Tuesday so long as he remains symptom free, we just don't want to risk his medically fragile classmates contracting this one). Kyra and Sidney have been prescribed an anti-viral medication and tylennol or motrin as needed, as well as oatmeal baths. So tomorrow we'll sneak out just long enough to pick up some oatmeal bath supplies, and then we'll curl up with some good movies and lots of liquids and hopefully neither of them develop any complications!

Check this out...

He is growing up way too fast all of a sudden.

I keep forgetting to post.

I would post a picture of Gyven, since this post is going to be mostly about him, but I don't have one that's in focus. You'll just have to settle for the cute toddler up there.

Today was not only Gyven's first day of school, but his glasses also came in today! He was in school from 11:45 until 2:20, and that's the plan 4 days a school week (they don't have preschool on Wednesdays). Today he worked on writing his name, drawing, they sang some songs and he ate his lunch (yes, this is the condensed version of exactly what he told me they did). Then after school we went to pick his glasses up. He's struggling to actually leave them alone and look through them, tho hopefully he'll get used to them and use them as intended soon.

I've done the Christmas shopping for the most part. If anything I might add some books to the pile, but they're getting plenty of toys and the like already, seeing as they have tons of toys as it is. I bought a tree topper and it promptly fell off my tree. I'm going to set up the kids tomorrow with some construction paper and we'll make one, since Gyven is insistent that our tree is seriously lacking without a topper.

Poor sick baby

Sidney has a double ear infection. :(

At the doctor's office he was just over 30 inches tall and a few ounces shy of 28 pounds (I was sure he was 30 pounds already, but I was wrong). He's down to 60-70th percentiles for height, and still in the 90s for weight, both following his curve and doing just fine. He needs to go back in January for a vaccine and at 15 months old for his next well check. His cardiologist says his heart is still looking fabulous, and we'll see him again in April or May.

Kyra decorated the living room with a stick of deodorant today. I'm a little cranky about that.

A little comparison

I've been updating this with a new picture from each month and today I added the last one. (Psst, dad, the one in the center is a sneak preview of your birthday present...). The blog wants to crop it, so right-click and select view image to see the whole thing. Silly blog.