Day 243

Yesterday we did indeed get a Christmas tree. Tom got it set up and put on the lights and garland while Soren was napping. We waited for the lad to wake up before we put the ornaments on, so he could help. (Found some nice shatter-resistant ornaments at Home Depot...pretty and toddler-friendly!) He was rather impressed with the whole endeavor.

I tried to get some pictures and video of everything, but it was already starting to get dark by the time we got to decorating. The photo above is the first one I took, serendipitously capturing a look of wonder on the boy's face. Naturally, I had neglected to turn on the camera's flash, resulting in severe underexposure. Trying to fix it led to extreme graininess, so I just went ahead and processed the heck out of the image, ending up with (I think) something that looks sort of like an illustration. I actually like it quite a bit, but that's why the colors are muted and the details not so crisp.

Hmm, what else? Sunday was still very chilly. We didn't get any new snow, but a fair bit of what we got on Saturday stuck around. Nice and wintry out, setting the perfect mood for our Christmas-y activities. :)

Day 242

This photo would perhaps have better accompanied the post in which I talked about Soren's new books. Here are he and Tom reading I'm a Big Brother before bed (which I'd already read to him at least once or twice earlier in the day).

We had our first snow of the season today! See?

It was very pretty. The snowflakes were so light and fluffy, so when the wind swirled them up and around, it felt like being in a snow globe. From the weather reports in the past few days, I fully expected we'd get some slushy snow at best, but that none of it would stick. It wasn't supposed to be cold enough today for that. Surprise! I'd say we probably accumulated about an inch when all was said and done. Soren got to wear his thermal undersuit when the guys went out erranding in the late morning.

In other news, here's an updated belly photo. I'm at about 34 and a half(ish) weeks.

Tomorrow we'll hopefully be getting our Christmas tree! Exciting!

Day 241

Friday I got the last of the birth supplies ordered online, so we should be just about good to go with all that. Weirdly, there is actually a website called Home Birth Supplies Dot Com, from which you can procure all your baby-catching needs, and relatively inexpensively, to boot. (There are plenty of other sites, as well, but I'm always amused when the URL is both specific and obvious, as in this case.)

Here's a photo of tooth-brushing time before bed. I think the father-son resemblance is particularly strong in this shot. What do you think?

Day 240

Thursday! Morning playgroup, epic nap in the afternoon (for both of us), evening appointment with the midwives. Everything's humming along with the wee lass, who continues to be growing right on schedule. Just six more weeks until she's due! Holy cow.

They put up the Christmas tree in the lobby of our building on Thursday. Sir is, of course, a big fan.

Day 239

Wednesday we had some errands to run. I tried to get some video of the boy being cute and saying some of his new words and phrases, but he was just too distracted by the camera. And I neglected to actually get any photographs in addition to my video attempts, so here's a low-quality freeze frame of one of the videos. We were sitting in the Target parking lot having some lunch (quesadilla and dried apricot fruit bar for the lad, nasty-yet-delicious Taco Bell burrito for me).

At two of our erranding stops, we wandered by the Christmas displays to check out the pre-lit fake trees. The lad was, not surprisingly, very impressed. We haven't had a tree of our own for several years now (didn't really have the room in our CA apartments, plus the cats are just so hazardous), but we decided we're going to go for it this year. So this weekend we're getting a tree! I'm very excited, and I think Soren is going to be over-the-moon thrilled himself.

Day 238

Tuesday we had playgroup in the morning, after which he refused to fall asleep until way late in the afternoon. That was pretty frustrating. But then he fell asleep with his seahorse on his belly, which was quite cute.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I bought Soren a couple of books in preparation for his impending big brotherhood. He seems to pick up a lot of concepts during his evening storytime, so this seemed like the best way to introduce the idea that there would be a new member of the family soon. I picked out Hello, Baby and I'm a Big Brother. He loves these books. Given the option, he would have us read them four or five times in a sitting. Hello, Baby is particularly good, I think. It's very matter of fact without being too dry. It focuses on the latter part of pregnancy up until the baby comes home from the hospital. Soren recognizes certain aspects (going in for checkups and getting to hear the baby's heartbeat with the doppler scanner), and he's even started to cuddle my belly while he's on my lap, saying "Baby?" So good job, books!

Day 237

So there I was, giving MC^2 a hard time for giving me a hard time for only being a day behind with the updates. Then I went and let almost the whole week go by without getting anything posted. D'oh! I blame technical difficulties with the card reader, but, y'know, behind is behind.

Anyway.

Monday! Soren has started to string more than one word together in a meaningful way. Well, okay, he's had a couple of phrases under his belt for a while now ("Bye-bye Dad-dad!" and "More food," specifically). But on Monday he added a few more to his arsenal. He saw his eczema ointment sitting on the bathroom counter, snagged it, and then started chanting "on legs! on legs!" while pulling his pant legs up. He would not be satisfied until I ointed his legs, even though they weren't particularly rashy. Then later, I was sitting on the couch, and he came in from the other room carrying a book. He scrambled up on the couch with me and then said, "Sit, lap?" So stinkin' cute. He has also started adding other objects to his "bye-byes." For example, "Bye-bye leaf!" (when I wouldn't let him bring a dried leaf in the car with us), "Bye-bye Loki!" (pretty much anytime Loki runs away from him, which is frequently), "Bye-bye shoes!" (when we put them away). You get the picture.

He remains irritatingly obsessed with the camera, making all but clandestine photographs hard to get. I thought this one was pretty cute though.

Grr

Much though I would love to accommodate the request for an update, our computer is foiling my attempts. First our USB ports started randomly not working, and now the card reader is on the fritz. No card reader, no photos.

I'll work to get this issue resolved as quickly as possible.

Day 236

Sunday was Tom's birthday. Happy birthday, Tom!

We had a quiet family day. Bacon & biscuits for breakfast, then a nice walk outside before naptime. We (finally) wandered over to check out the little playground here at our apartment complex (seriously, we've only been living here, what, 8 months now?). There were a few other kids already playing there, and Soren tried a few times to help himself to their shovels and sand toys. When I take him to playgroup, the policy there is just kind of "share and share alike" (or, more accurately, steal and steal alike). The kids are largely left to work things out amongst themselves, with some gentle reminders about the virtues of sharing and waiting one's turn. So he's a little bit of a savage about taking things that don't belong to him. He'll learn.

I'm not exactly sure why, but the lad was a wild man when it was time for bed. Just was. Not. Sleepy. At. All. Not particularly fussy or anything, just chattering happily away until about a quarter past eleven, at which point his exhaustion finally caught up with him and he bawled for ten or fifteen minutes before passing out. It was pretty crazy. And he'd been up every hour or two the night before. Pity, since we were making such progress with the sleep, but I'm sure this is just a temporary setback. I'm pretty sure he's not getting his 2 y.o. molars yet, since I can't feel any lumps or bumps on his gums back there, but I suppose they could be a'brewing. We'll see. Once he finally fell asleep last night he slept pretty solidly til morning, so that's good at least.

Day 235

Nice mellow Saturday. The boys went to the park, while I got some more work done on the stocking. Soren continues to mimic random words of ours, which we find hilarious. Saturday's word of note: hydration. Tom was changing a (very wet) diaper and said something to the effect of, "Well, at least we can be sure you're getting plenty of hydration," to which the lad immediately replied, "Dih-shun!" (His enunciation later improved somewhat with repetition.) Other words he's picked up recently include freaky, tasty, and delicious.

It's been a while now since I last gave the boy a haircut. I figured I'd let his hair grow out some in preparation for the winter, so he'll have a little more up top to keep his head warm. It's starting to get curly and unruly in the back again, and he's been having some terribly amusing bedhead after his naps lately. Tee hee.