December 2016: Part I - Daily Festive Fun

Oscar's mom requested a family picture of us for the Hunt family newsletter she sends out each Christmas. Though we had a tripod and could have just set up some timed shots, I asked our neighbor Chris to come over in order to better catch the kids' attention. He got some good smiles out of Tyler by saying "pickles" in place of cheese. He says it work every time. Allison wasn't super smiley, but she was pretty sleepy. By the time we were done with our photoshoot she was crying for her nap.

Chris had also brought his fancy camera, which worked out wonderfully since his turned out the best. For some reason the ones on Oscar's phone were blurry, in spite of being set on a tri-pod. We chose the one on the left for the newsletter.

cuddles with Tyler and Nibbler

Tyler's finally learning how to pet the kitties softly, but I haven't been able to stop him from chasing after them. It will probably be awhile before he learns how to approach them gently. Nibbler came to us that evening because we were already still and silent.

My sweet little sleeper hiding in her blankets and my silly little guy holding his chair while he sleeps. I went in and took the chair off of him since I didn't like not being able to see him. 

He always starts off sleeping in his bed, but sometimes we find him later curled up on the floor near his sitting pillow.

At Pump It Up, Allison can't do much on the inflatables, but she's really cute playing with the foam building blocks. Here she is showing off her new standing skills. Cute little goober!

While we were there Tyler met his equal in craziness, fun-loving, and intensity - Andrew. They both ran around like balls in a pin ball machine alternating between playing, wrestling, fighting over things, and hugging. They also both pinned me into the corner of this jumping area. We sunk all the way to the ground and I was completely stuck. I had to instruct them how to climb out one by one before I could get myself out of it.

They followed each other around sliding down and crashing into each other on the slides and popping balls up from the air funnel. 

Allison had fun catching bubbles. This little girl in purple kept petting her whenever she would pass by. I can't blame her because I remember doing the same thing to my cousins' kids.

We hadn't been to Pump it Up in over 6 months, and Tyler had never been able to do this particular obstacle. That day he started being able to jump to one successfully, but couldn't make it the rest of the way. 

He seemed totally done with it, then I asked him to go again so I could record it for daddy. He did, and he made it all the way across for the first time. Now he loves it.

My mom flew in for the holidays the next week, so I left Allison home with her and took Tyler back to Pump it Up. It's always easier when she can get her nap and I'm more able to play with Tyler. It turns out I didn't need to though, because Andrew was back and there was fun new equipment for them.

Here are some of Ty's holiday crafts and gifts from preschool and storytime.

One day I explained to Tyler that he was in time out because he had made a bad choice and was receiving a consequence. He said "I want my consequence to be happy!" Another funny thing he said that month was "I want to eat a stinky garbage taco with poopy!"

Allison really put our babyproofing to the test one day. She nearly knocked Tyler's dresser onto herself (mommy came to the rescue just in time before the corner fell right into her eye), and she managed to get into the cupboards and soak herself in liquid dishwasher detergent. The dresser is now mounted to the wall and the cupboards have better guards.

The kids thought my climbing into Tyler's bed was the most amusing thing they'd ever seen. That happened a couple days after Allison took her first steps! They were stabilizing steps spinning herself in circles as she tried to stay up standing.

"We're so glad when daddy comes home. Glad as we can be. Clap our hands and shout for joy and climb upon his knee. Put our arms around his neck, hug him tight like this. Pat his cheeks and give him what? A great big kiss!"

Preschool was cancelled and the kids got a snow day. I knew it wouldn't last, so I bundled up the kids and we went out in the backyard to take advantage of it.

Allison was more interested in the sand than in the snow. She even got a little mustache from it that looks cute in the pictures. Eventually she noticed the snow and had fun sliding around in it. Then at some point she realized she didn't have access to her sock covered hands and started screaming. I tried putting her in her little walker, but by then she was done. Nothing would console her until she was back in the house in new clothes.

After mom arrived, Allison thoroughly enjoyed sleeping on grandma with her soft pillow. She sleeps better in her crib than on anyone, but I couldn't deny mom her grandchild cuddles.

Cute kids climbing kids into drawers

Oscar and I had our first concert with the Ensign Chorus down at Benaroya Hall. Mom's visit just happened to coincide with it, so she was able to see it too. She went down with our friends Cynthia and Sarah while Ria came over to babysit.

We met up with the Maliwacki family for dinner the Wednesday before Christmas, and they gave us back the monkey rocker we'd loaned to them. I forgot to take it out of the car before going to work the next morning, so I did my best to make use of it. It took up too much space, but at least it kept my arrangements nice and stable. I was able to work the full week thanks to mom's being her, but I barely saw the kids. There were two days in a row that I didn't see Allison at all. :( I told the store owners my mom deserved a little treat for all her hard work that week, so they made her up a box of various chocolate covered strawberries.

Mom and Oscar each made up stockings for the family. We have too many electronics to hang them on our mantel, so Oscar hung them up where he normally keeps his pull up bar.

Christmas day itself was on a Sunday this year, so we went to church at 9:00am. We decided to just do mom's stockings for us before church to keep things from getting too crazy before we had to leave. It was only Sacrament meeting at church, but it was lovely. It was so nice to start the day with a reminder of why we celebrate it in the first place.

We waited to do presents until after the kids' naps. It actually took nearly the entire day before we got through all the stockings and all the presents on top of doing a bunch of cooking for our dinner with the missionaries.

Tyler got the most gifts because he's just too darn fun to shop for, and Allison's not old enough to get about unwrapping gifts. She enjoyed the packaging at least as much as any of the toys.

We received more here than we got pictures of from our parents, Oscar's grandparents, Mike and Shannon, Amy, the Kawaguchi family and Ryan and Emily. Throughout the year I'll post pictures of us using our gifts in my monthly posts.

Allison's favorite gift was clearly her new walker from Mike and Shannon. We never had a push walker for Ty, so this is a new toy of her own catered to her age, size and development. She loves it! She often wants to push it from the front so she can play with the lights and buttons while she walks.

This was Tyler's gift for us that he made at preschool. I love it! I remember rolling my eyes at my parents for keeping things like this year after year, and now I could totally see myself crying over it every Christmas. His teachers also gave the family a cute nativity ornament and a little kaleidoscope.

What's interesting is that Tyler just happened to start preschool on picture day, so I didn't have him at all dressed up or prepared for it. But when they asked who wanted to go first, he immediately volunteered and gave them a big, beaming smile. That's my guy!

During one of mom's last days here, I took Ty to Shoreline Recreation Center's indoor play time. I bought a 5 punch pass card when we first came here one year ago, and this is only our second time using it. Like Pump it Up, it's challenging to take the kids places that don't open until 10:00am because Allison misses that morning nap and gets really miserable. Since mom was still staying with us, I was able to take Ty while Allie got a nice nap. I probably won't take them again until Allison has dropped to one nap.

Google stitched together this neat panorama of Tyler doing two different activities at the same time. He really liked rolling the huge yoga ball over and trying to tag a little boy on his bike with it. Fortunately the little boy enjoyed it too and would try to bike out of the way just in time. Then his grandfather took the ball and started rolling it towards him and Tyler on their bikes.

Oscar spent a lot of his free time making a car for Tyler

 Allison likes it too and Ty even slept in it the first night it was complete.

Mom took off on the 29th, and that same day my dishes stopped washing themselves, my laundry stopped cleaning itself, and my floor stopped sweeping itself. What's a girl to do?! ;)