Tucker's First Christmas

Christmas morning arrived and Hayden slept in longer than we did! Unfortunately there aren't many pictures from Christmas morning to share. There was a lot to do that morning before we could leave for Alta Vista which meant a lot of multitasking. So while Hayden and Jason opened their gifts, I put Tucker in the bouncy seat and fed him his bottle.

Last year, Hayden was only mildly interested in opening presents. We had to force him to keep opening because he would stop after the first gift and have to play with that toy and only that toy right that minute! This year every thing that was wrapped under the tree was his no matter who's name was on the tag! Hayden loved opening presents (including Tucker's) but after the last one was opened he just stood there and looked around at the floor like something was missing. Jason asked him if he got everything he wanted and Hayden just silently nodded. I suggested that Hayden check if there was anything in his stocking to open. "Santa" had left one last big gift in the living room by the fire place along with the gifts in the stocking. Jason brought it back to the front room where Hayden ripped into it and then shouted in excitement at the sight of the spaceship he'd found the week before! Jason asked him again if he'd gotten everything he wanted and this time he said yes!

The mess after:

We went to Alta Vista to Grandma and Grandpa Cooper's for Christmas lunch. This was the first year Hayden was really old enough to play with his four older cousins - at least to play with the same kind of toys they play with. But instead of playing with Nash and Kolton, we found Hayden playing in the t.v. room with Justyn and Kenzie and their American Girl dolls! We asked Hayden what he was doing and his response was that he was the "doctor" - a doctor to the dolls and the pets. That night we sat down to eat supper (leftovers from lunch) and I asked Hayden what he wanted. He says "chicken and pickles". In Hayden's sweet little three year old mind, the ham we had had for lunch was in fact chicken and there was no arguing!

We didn't stay too long at Grandmas after supper was over and went back to mom and dads to open our gifts with them and Matt. Again, every present was his no matter how big or how small and whether he could pick it up by himself or not. And for the third time in three days, he was like a kid in a candy store! He had to have us put up the indoor tent he got from Matt right then while he ran around the house fighting everyone with his new light saber!

I was a little nervous that Hayden was so excited I'd never get him to fall asleep but at about 10:30 he finally laid down in my lap and fell asleep while Matt and dad were watching the K-State basketball game. I'd say the boys had a pretty good Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Because I procrastinated and put wrapping gifts of until the last minute, I took a half day off of work on Friday so I could get everything wrapped. Of course, with two kids now, all of my best laid plans usually backfire. And Christmas was no exception.

Because I spent all evening wrapping and listening to the kids cry (as soon as one would stop, the other would start; this went back and forth like this all evening!!!), I had to put off the last few gifts until Christmas Eve morning. Two of those gifts were necklaces I had planned on making for two of my cousins. I had seen on Pinterest how to make necklaces out of washers and metal stamps. I thought it would be really cool to make necklaces for Justyn and Kenzie like that and add a few small embellishments. So at 8:30 am I'm down in the basement hammering away on these stamps trying to put the girls' name on the washers. 10 washers and 45 minutes of loud banging and all I have is trash. The stamp would either move and the letter would streak down the washer or I'd only get part of the letter to etch in or I'd have the stamp completely backwards or sideways. I finally just got so frustrated that I gave up altogether and went to plan "B". I went back to the store and found an easier solution and one that turned out just as cute anyway! But if anyone needs metal stamps for a project I have some you can borrow! ;)

That evening we went to the Christmas Eve service with Jason's parents and siblings and nieces. The service was a little different than in the past - there were only 2 traditional Christmas songs, a baptism to begin the service and some more modern songs sung by individuals in the congregation thrown into the mix. During one of the songs, Jason's dad picked Hayden up to put him on his lap and Hayden's pants fell down around his ankles. Leave it to Hayden to expose himself during church!

Tucker, on the other hand, fell asleep as church was starting and slept not only through church but through dinner as well! And I was glad that he did because it was delicious!

After dinner and dishes it was time to open presents - something the kids had been waiting for all night long! One of the gifts Hayden and Delaney each got was a copy of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" along with a stuffed animal from the book - the Grinch and his dog Max! You'd have thought they were the best gifts ever! Hayden and Delaney were throwing the animals up in the air and hugging on them and giggling like crazy!

Another fun gift was Erika's - Just Dance for Kinect! Everyone got into it and took a turn (except for me but I was doing everyone a favor by not having to see the disaster that is me dancing!) - even Hayden and Delaney (even though Hayden was totally by accident)!

But the dancing didn't last for long. It was about 10:30 and Hayden was starting to get whiny - a sure sign he was getting tired and needed to go to bed. So we headed back to McPherson and of course both boys slept the whole way. Hayden was so tired that he was half asleep when Jason walked him to his bedroom and ended up zig-zagging his way down the hall, walking into the wall a couple times. But even after all that he slept all night. In his own bed.

Mr. Diva

The past couple of days Tucker has been very, very fussy. Not sure if he's going through a growth spurt or what. He's eating fine and he sleeps all night but there just are some moments when all he does is cry! He only wants to be held and will wake up (no matter how long he's been asleep) as soon as you lay him down on his back. We tried giving him the binky again and this time he did keep it in his mouth but you can tell he's not liking it! He makes this funny little grunting sounds and his face gets all squished up like he's trying to figure out how to get the bink out! Eventually it does fall out and he starts crying again until someone picks his up or gets right in his face and talks to him.

He's been such a good baby that this new found fussiness is making me sad! Hopefully it's just a stage that will be ending soon!

Some pics of 14 weeks:

My fruit tree

He took a nap like this!

Santa Who?

I'm afraid I may have scared Hayden for life. And if not I hope that he doesn't remember this Christmas!

I had finally gotten the time to go purchase the Millenium Falcon toy from "Santa" over my lunch. Because of the holidays and all the craziness at work, we hadn't been playing downstairs as much as we used to. So when I brought the toy (and other items for Christmas) home, I just sat the bag down on the floor next to the table in the basement (the table that used to be in our kitchen but since we purchased a new dining room table we moved the old one to it's present location with the intentions of being more crafty in the future) and promptly forgot what was in the bag.

With Christmas rapidly approaching I was trying to finish up Jason's gift while multitasking and venting/gossiping with Megan on the phone. I'm painting away, trying to cover up the pencil lines I had drawn on the foam board I was using for Jason's gift (pictures to come later) and not paying attention to Hayden when the next thing I know I hear this loud gasp and "my spaceship!"  The first words out of my mouth were "Oh crap". While still on the phone, I try and quickly lie to the poor kid, telling him there was no spaceship in the bag and that all of the items in the bag were for other people. Hayden starts crying because he wanted to play with it. The cries turned into sobs when I placed the entire bag on one of the higher shelves in the unfinished portion of the basement. Of course, Hayden's loud enough he could have scared someone clear across town and I have to explain the whole thing to Megan who is cracking up.

Hayden eventually calmed down but the kid has a memory like a steel trap. Later that evening, after his bath and getting his pajamas on, I was trying to get him to settle down in our bed so he could go to sleep. I'm in the middle of changing Tucker into his pajamas when the back door opens and Jason comes in, home from work for a few minutes to make coffee and say good night to the boys. Hayden hears the door, screams "DADDY!" and goes streaking down the hallway to the living room. From the bedroom I could hear him telling Jason that he "got a spaceship" and he really wanted to play with it. So now Jason and I are both lying, telling him that there was no spaceship in the house and that if he wanted one for Christmas he needed to be good and not naughty. This seemed to appease him and so while Jason was still home, I went back downstairs and moved the bag from the unfinished portion of the basement to the closet underneath the stairs and shut the door. It's a good thing he can't use round door knobs yet!

A few days later I went back downstairs to change out some laundry and Hayden came too. He likes to help put clothes from the washer to the dryer and is a pretty good helper! Of course, the first thing he does when we get to the basement is run right to the spot I had first placed the toy after he had found it. When he saw that it wasn't there anymore, Hayden turned around slowly, this horribly confused look on his face. "Where my spaceship at?" he asked, his hands open and palm up at his sides. I felt kind of bad that time, he was so darn cute and innocent! But I kept the lie going and told him that we didn't have any spaceships at the house and that if he was a good boy Santa would bring him a present on Christmas day and he might get a spaceship then. He was still pretty disappointed but told me "ok" and we went back to doing the laundry.

I hope that Christmas gets here soon so I can quit lying to the poor kid!

13 weeks

Tucker is now 13 weeks old and growing like a weed! (And I'm really far behind on my blog - it's been a busy few weeks!)

With Christmas coming up, the kids in Hayden's preschool class have been practicing Christmas songs for their upcoming Christmas program. I know they have to be singing more than just "Jingle Bells" but that's the one that has stuck with Hayden! At the most random moments he will start shouting "Jingle Bells! Jingle Bells! Jingle all the way!" The next few lines are a little hard to understand and sounds like a bunch of mumbling but then comes a very emphatic "Hey!" and he starts over from the beginning.  It was cute the first 3 or 4 times. I have a feeling it's going to be a long Christmas...

So about a month or so ago Jason had taken Hayden to Target to get a small toy for going poop in the potty (at Lowe's of all places) and Hayden had got his first glimpse of the Millenium Falcon toy. He was soon infatuated. We had decided that the Falcon would be a good toy for Hayden to get from Santa and so Jason and I only spoke of it if Hayden brought it up first. With the new video game "Star Wars - The Old Republic" coming out, Haydens been talking about Star Wars again and how he wants a "big spaceship" for Christmas. Tonight when the commercial came on he told me he wanted two spaceships:
A little Star Wars

And a big Star Wars

And he is very serious about this!

cereal take 2

After a couple days intermission, we tried cereal for the second time!

There was still a little left in the bowl from the other night but it was pretty runny so I added another tablespoon of cereal to the mix. Well I tried to add only 1 tablespoon. It came out of the box so fast I ended up with two spoons worth instead of one. I went ahead and mixed it up to the right consistency and started feeding it to Tucker.

I really didn't think he'd eat the whole bowel.  But the next thing I knew it was all gone! Tucker sat in his bouncy seat, his face covered in rice cereal, trying to get his hands in his mouth but only managing to get the bib up there. He acted happy and perfectly content! So I let him sit there for a few minutes, babbling away, while I cleaned up a few dishes. A looked over at him a few minutes later and the boy had spit up all down the front of his bib and was smearing it across his face.

Good thing he was getting a bath after that!

2 month appt

Tucker finally had his two month appointment when he was about three months old (full schedules and working around our work schedules). Jason's schedule makes it convenient for him to bring Tucker and/or Hayden to Hutch on his days off and for me to not have to lose out on too much work for appointments!

I was anxiously awaiting getting called back to find out how much the little guy weighed. Finally it was our turn and boy had he grown! 12 pounds 14 ounces (50%) and 24 inches long (50%)! Everything was fine until Dr. Miller laid him on his back and undid his diaper. Tucker was just chilling and the next thing we knew he spits up all over his face and down his neck to his back. Then the next second he coughs and spits in Dr. Miller's face! It would have been funny if it wasn't so embarrassing at the time! But Tucker went on smiling and cooing like nothing had happened!

The only thing left was shots. Fortunately for my sake I had to get back to work so I didn't get to be traumatized by the look on Tucker's face by his first experience of shots. Hayden's first experience was enough for me! His eyes got extremely large and round, his mouth turned about as upside down as it could possibly could and he wailed at the top of his lungs! Apparently Tucker didn't fare any better because when Jason brought him by to say hi to Kristen and Sydney, he cried and fussed when Jason sat him on the counter.

So other than getting stabbed 4 times, it was a good check up for Mr. Tucker!

Cereal!

Gave Tucker cereal tonight. It technically wasn't the first time. I tried giving it to him on Saturday but he was so hungry that I couldn't keep the spoon filled fast enough! I finally had to put the rest of what I'd mixed up into the bottle and he finished it that way.

Tonight I mixed up the cereal so it was just a little thicker than it had been on Saturday. Holding his hands down so they wouldn't accidentally knock the spoon out of his mouth, I kept putting small bites into Tucker's mouth. At first he acted like it was too much for him to eat this new food but then he started getting the hang of it and even started smiling and cooing between bites!

He did pretty good at first, letting me put the runny stuff into his mouth but about halfway through he gave up. As soon as the spoon went in, it all came running back out the side. He's starting to get the hang of it at least!

Santa Claus is coming to Town!

With Christmas just around the corner, there are lights everywhere and lots of places are having Santa stop by for kids to get their pictures taken with him. Hayden has never once willing sat on Santa's lap by himself. Two years ago we took him to Hospira where he flipped out and had to sit on my lap. Last year we went to The Well (a coffee shop and christian book store in McPherson) and he screamed just looking at Santa. I'm not sure why I had such high hopes for this year.

Sunday was Hospira's annual Christmas party for employee children and grandchildren. Before we even left to go to the Christmas party, we tried to tell Hayden about Santa and how if you were good he would come to your house and leave you presents. We tried to convince him to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what he wanted for Christmas. He acted like he was excited! He kept talking about how he was going to tell Santa he wanted a robot!

We get to Hospira and he instantly clams up. Got in line to sit on Santa's lap and it was all Jason could do to tear Hayden off of his leg! So all four of us got to sit with Santa and Mrs. Claus. Tucker was wide awake and didn't care a bit; Hayden wouldn't look up for nothing! I'm pretty sure when we get the picture back, Jason's hand is going to be in the picture holding Hayden's head the right direction!

After Santa, we headed for the cookie decorating station. Kids got to frost a cookie and put all the sprinkles on it they wanted. Hayden wouldn't even do that. He just leeched onto Jason's leg and tried to hide between them. He wouldn't even look up to talk to me! The kids' got a shy side a mile wide! Don't know where he gets that.... :)

Later in the evening we finally got around to putting the Christmas tree up. Hayden got antsy and demanding when we told him what we were going to do but we had to feed Tucker and make popcorn before we got started! He was so excited to help that he couldn't stand still! Kept going back and forth, almost stepping on lights and yelling at the dogs whenever they came in the room. Then he kept telling us he was a "good helper"  (even though all he did was be more in the way than anything else!) and had to hang up ornaments all by himself! I'd give him an ornament and he'd either put them all on the same branch or he hit the balls together and lose the hooks. Eventually the strings were hung and all of the ornaments were placed on the tree. Hayden stepped back and says, "It  bee-u-t-ful" "Ta Da!" Too cute!