Typical

I love Lucas and Ellen together. They adore each other and I think they are so lucky to have each other. I always wanted a big brother and Jeff always wanted a little sister : ) So I say they adore each other... Lucas will show this by giving Ellen a toy he thinks she may want or helping her if she's about to fall. Ellen shows it with her adoring smile... he is still her hero. She wants to do what he is doing, even if it bugs him. In this sequence of events Ellen was bugging him during his quiet tv time. He ignored her for a few minutes, but then begin to retaliate. Tyson is used to it.

Bedtime Routines

Jeff is putting Ellen to bed now! Lucas still won't allow anyone but me to tuck him in, so we are thrilled. Ellen is such a quick learner. Jeff had put her to bed for the past several days and last night around 8pm (we were at a neighbor's house for dinner, so her bedtime got pushed out) she reached for Jeff and said "Dada, Dada". They both waved goodnight to Lucas and me and then he carried her up the stairs. I expected her to cry once she figured out that they were actually going to bed, but then I realized she initiated it and knew what she was doing. Jeff ended up falling asleep with her last night, which was great because she only woke me up once to nurse between the hours of 8pm and 5:30am.

Lucas is totally in our bed now, which we are both totally fine with. I will go as far to say that I prefer it and love it. If he starts in his bed, he makes his way to our bed eventually, so he might as well just start there. And he's a deep sleeper now, so we can move him or turn on the lights to brush our teeth after he is sleeping and he won't budge.

We are getting more rest... well rested family equals a happy family!

Our Little Worker

Lucas enjoys working around the house as much as any other activity. Vacuuming is his favorite chore and wiping everything down with one damp rag and one dry rag is his second favorite. He also enjoys the satisfaction he gets after cleaning the playroom. We've gotten into a good routine of putting everything away before dinner or at the end of a play date. He always runs to get Jeff, if he isn't helping, to have him come look at what a good job he did. He doesn't have any chores that are only his yet... just random helping out.

Saturday

We took the kids to Marbles this morning. We just renewed our yearly membership so that we have something to do during the brutal cold and hot months. We've been a few times in the past few weeks, just the three of us. Lucas was very proud today to have Jeff there and to show him all of the things that he likes to do there.

Jeff and I had an afternoon date tonight, of which I'm now a big fan. Karen got here at 3:30, Avatar at the IMAX started at 4:05, grabbed dinner to go from The Point at 7:00... home right at 7:30. An hour or so of bedtime routines and then the house was quite. I like this much better than the stress of going out to dinner and leaving two tired kids that can't go to bed without us at home.

Avatar was awesome, by the way.

Ellen in a Blanket

We got this little baby wrap when Ellen was born, but it was sized large and so it still fits her. It's coming in super handy during this cold spell in Raleigh. It leaves no room for the cold air to get to her legs or her belly.

Sleep

Here we are again, talking about sleep on this blog. Will we ever NOT be talking about that subject? My parents visited over the holidays and my parents were shocked that we weren't a happily rested family (we are happy, just not rested). My mom said that I don't talk about it on the blog like I did ALL THE TIME with Lucas. I guess I've just accepted that Ellen won't sleep well until she's 3yrs old, just like Lucas. At that age I'll be able to reason with her and hopefully convince her that sleeping is awesome. Lucas said the other day, "I like sleep now", so I know there is hope. For now, however, she wants me by her side all night and when she wakes up - sometimes 3x, sometimes 6x - she wants to nurse herself back to sleep. It took us 14 months, but Jeff and I are starting to question ourselves because we are just so tired and sometimes frustrated if the bedtime routine takes an extra long time or if I don't get enough rest and am grouchy the next day. I know, however, that I'll question myself and in the end do just what I'm doing... because it feels right. And Ellen is awesome. Maybe she would be awesome anyway, but maybe she's awesome because of the way we respond to her. Anyway, I know I'm not going to change me, so I'm trying to change her. She doesn't eat tons during the day. She can feed herself well, and prefers to, but then gets bored or distracted by Tyson (who is begging beside her high chair). So this week I put Baby Einstein on my computer and stuffed her with mashed potatoes and peas as she was entertained by the t.v. Maybe if she is more full she won't wake up as much. I'm sure I tried this with Lucas and I'm sure it didn't work, but I'm hopeful and that helps : )

Art Museum

The NC Museum of Art (on the outside) is one of my favorite spots in Raleigh. We went there this weekend while Sandy was in town. It was freezing, but we still enjoyed it. In the second picture you can see that the sculpture is just a pair of legs. In the third picture you can see Lucas laughing at his joke... he was dancing around singing, "Look at that booty crack!"

A mini Tom Cruise...

... without the tighty whities.

Super Cold in Raleigh

It usually doesn't get that cold in Raleigh, but we've been having January-like weather this

month

.

Happy Birthdays

Dada and SaSa. Notice how Lucas always sits next to the birthday person. He knows they are the 2nd person to get a piece of cake...

Imagination Toys

3 is the age that the imagination takes off, or so I've heard. We're seeing that with Lucas... he's having a blast with the blocks that Santa brought and the magnetic tiles that SaSa gave him. He usually likes to build them and then immediately knock them down, but sometimes he likes to save them... which is a challenge with Ellen-zilla around (thanks for the name, Jenn).

Fighting Fires and Crime

Lucas and his friends are really into costumes and imaginary play these days... I love it! On this day they were pretending that things were on fire and people needed to be saved... obviously.

Oreo Bribe

Jeff and I were so tired the day after Christmas that we bribed Lucas to take a nap with two cookies. Ellen was asleep and so we put him the bed between us and told him that if he went to sleep he could have two cookies upon waking. After several, "Can I have my cookies now?" he finally fell asleep... ahhhhhh. Here is evidence of the bribe...

Christmas, Christmas, Christmas

Christmas was kind of confusing to me this year. It felt like the celebration of commercialism as I made list after list of things to buy and get done. And we don't go to church, or really talk about religious things at home, but Christmas is the celebration of Jesus' birth... so, hmmm. Next year, when Lucas understands more, maybe we'll go to church to celebrate what is supposed to be celebrated on Christmas. I have never been bothered by this before, but I guess now I feel it's my responsibility to teach Lucas and Ellen about the meaning of Christmas. By the end, I remembered.... it's about sharing, giving, and spending time with friends and family. The Santa part creates some magical childhood memories, and goes along with the giving part, I guess. Next year I hope to focus more on the giving part with Lucas and less on the "what is Santa going to bring you" part.

We got the spending time with family part right. My sister, Ty and Mary were here before Christmas and then my parents. We all loved being able to spend so much time with them. And having my parents here for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day was special because it brought back so many memories for me. They both really get into the presents and then cooking dinner on Christmas Day, so they added a lot of excitement to the day.

A Christmas Eve tradition when I was younger was for my parents to ring a bell outside around bedtime. This was supposed to signal Santa's sleigh being nearby and that we should hurry off to bed. I remember being snuggled under my covers and looking for Santa out my window - so exciting! So we did that for Lucas this year. His face lit up when he heard the bell, but then he went right back to what he was doing : )

Before bed we were sure to put out some cookies and milk for Santa and a piece of celery for the reindeer. The cookies were on a plate, but Lucas took it upon himself to transfer them to this bag.

We have no extra room in our house to store gifts, so we had to do EVERYTHING on Christmas Eve. This was both fun and stressful, but once we got it all done, I loved the way it all looked. Santa didn't wrap the gifts this year since a lot of them needed to be put together and ready to be enjoyed. Plus, we saved paper!

I was in bed with Ellen in the morning, but set my phone for 6:30am so that I could go climb in bed with Lucas to see his reaction when he woke up. Lucky I did because at 6:50 he climbed right over me and started to walk into the living room! I asked what he was doing and he said he wanted to see if Santa ate his cookies. I thought it was funny that he didn't mention the presents. I convinced him (it wasn't easy) to wait for everyone else to get up and then we were able to go see what Santa brought for us. He walked right by all of the castles that I knew he would love and asked if he could open the first present that he saw. I think he was a little shy and unsure with all of us looking at him. It only took a few minutes to adjust, and then he was all about the toys. He played with them for 7 hours straight.

And Miss Ellen was just happy-go-lucky, as usual. She enjoyed the day, but for different reasons. There was chaos, noise, paper, and boxes... all fun to her.

After playing with his Santa gifts for a while, he opened the gift from Grandma and Grandpa - a big wheel!

And then he played with Ellen's pile of toys for a while...

And then back to the castles, knights and dragons...

While Tyson got some Christmas love from his daddy...

And then he moved on to the trucks...

While Ellen made her way through the mess...

More castle stuff...

And then they moved on to playing with the boxes : )

And then the costumes that Santa got on sale at Target after Halloween...

My parents were so fun to have around. Their dogs, Roo and Missy, tried to stay out of the way...

Later that morning Max and Ben came over to wish us a Merry Christmas.

And at some point Lucas lost his pants. I had such nice outfits picked out for both of them to wear on Christmas Day, but it just seemed to make more sense for them to stay in their comfy PJ's... or underwear.

Lucas helped to set the table... in his underwear. My parents love to cook, so we made a turkey, dressing and all of the stuff that goes with it. It was fun for me since that is how we used to spend Christmas Day... cooking and playing.

Again with the boxes... and the annoying peanuts.

But he was so cute that I didn't care : )

And then as quickly as it went up, it came down! All we had to do was tell Lucas that Christmas was over and he went to work taking everything down. The kid doesn't mess around. As far as he is concerned, if it's over then there needs to be no trace left in the house. On to Daddy's birthday celebration!