Brody Meets Santa

The Monday after Thanksgiving we did our annual visit to the Bass Pro Shop to see Santa and their Winter Wonderland that they do every year. 

Brody did much better than I thought he would! We put him on Santa's lap with Boston at first, so I think that helped him feel a little more comfortable. Then we had Boston move so we could get a couple pictures with just Brody. He was half nervous and half trying to smile at all our noises and cheering we were doing for him. 

We got a quick picture and then he wanted out of there. 

We will have to remember to go the week after Thanksgiving every year because there were no lines!  It can get really crowded and busy, so it was nice to be able to see Santa and do all the crafts without having to wait in long lines! It probably helped too that we went on a Monday night. 

Brody liked the animal merry-go-round. 

Since there was no line for the merry-go-round, the operator kept it going round and round until we were so dizzy that we asked him to let us off. 

It was fun having TWO kids to do the Christmas traditions with this year. :)

  

Boston had fun making a reindeer ornament and coloring some Christmas pictures at the craft table. 

Our good friends, the Reeves, met us at the Bass Pro Shop. They were getting ready to move, so we were trying to squeeze in as much time with them as we could before they moved. 

Stacie was my first friend when we moved to San Antonio, and we just clicked. I was so grateful to have had her as a friend the past 4.5 years we've lived here. They are in Georgia now, close to Stacie's family. We still miss them and are trying to adjust to San Antonio without them. 

Boston and Kylie met when they were 1 1/2, and they were like two peas in a pod. Stacie and I used to take them to the YMCA in the mornings, go home for nap time, and then get together in the later afternoon for Sea World or other play dates. It was really fun having a good friend with kids the same age!  

I'm glad we got these pictures of our family and kids together with the Reeves this night!

I love holiday traditions! I missed out on this tradition last year because I was on bed rest. It's weird to think that just last Christmas I was pregnant, and now I'm holding my almost one year old! 

Zane The Elf

I didn't feel left out at all when all the elf on the shelf hype started a couple years ago. I was just grateful Boston had never heard of it, so he didn't even know he was missing out on anything. I had a feeling that Kindergarten would be our first year doing elf on the shelf, and I was right. He heard all about the elf excitement from his school buddies, and his Kindergarten class even had their own classroom elf! 

Boston really wanted an elf, so I called Santa up one day on the secret Santa phone number that only adults have, and I asked him to send Boston an elf. 

As soon as I saw how Boston's face lit up when his elf arrived, I knew the extra effort it would take to have this elf would be worth it. It was definitely inconvenient some nights, but it turned out to be so fun! 

Boston named his elf Zane, and he was the highlight of Boston's day every day until Christmas. He couldn't wait to go find his elf every morning, and he treated his elf like a best friend. He wrote him little notes, and drew him pictures. It was adorable. This note says, "Dear Zane, I think you're cool. I hope we can be best buddies. Love, Boston." That's the correct interpretation. It really said, "Dear Zane, I thik yuor cool i hep we ka be best bde." I love when kids first start spelling things on their own. :)  

I thought the picture Boston drew of Zane was adorable. Zane liked to leave little notes for Boston asking him to do nice things for other people like sharing a treat with his neighbors, playing with his brother, and picking up things that weren't his. 

Zane only moved at night while Boston was sleeping, so each morning Boston liked to go see what Zane was up to during the night. He wasn't allowed to touch Zane or he would lose his powers. 

One night Zane decorated Boston's bathroom with snowflakes and left him a little snow globe. Boston loved it, especially the snow globe. 

Here's another adorable picture Boston drew for Zane. You have to look closely. It's a reindeer, Santa's sleigh, Zane, and Santa. Zane liked it so much that he hung it up in Boston's bathroom with the snowflakes. 

The elf didn't always leave snow globes and notes though. Sometimes he just did a little exercising. One day he was so tired he didn't even move! Oops. Luckily Boston didn't think too much of it though. 

One morning Zane left a note asking Boston to watch a Christmas movie with him after church. Boston thought that was awesome!

He sat as close to his elf as possible without touching him, and he made sure his elf had a good view of the movie at all times. He chose the movie Elf, thinking his elf would like that. When he moved off the couch to lay by Scott on the floor, he scooted Zane's chair next to him on the floor. He wanted to make sure his elf wasn't sitting by himself. :) 

Christmas Eve Zane left a goodbye note and some little gifts outside Boston's door.

On Christmas day, Zane allowed Boston to touch him since we was leaving that night. 

When Boston woke up the day after Christmas, Zane had gone back to the North Pole. Boston was pretty sad when his elf left, but he'll be back next year! This was a fun little tradition we started. I was hesitant to commit to all the maintenance of having an elf, but it's worth it to see how happy it makes the kids. Kids make Christmas so much better!

Saying Uh-Oh, Stair Climbing, New Foods, and New Teeth at 11 Months

Just a few more weeks until my little baby turns one! He's starting to look and act like a toddler! I'm sad he's not my little cuddly baby anymore, but I love seeing him learn new things. He figured out how to climb the stairs and it's his new favorite game. He rushes over to the stairs as fast as he can, then he turns around to see if I'm following him. He likes to be "chased" up the stairs. He'll motion with his hand for me to follow him when he wants me to chase him up the stairs. 

I can tell he is so proud of himself once he gets all the way to the top of the stairs. I keep the couch positioned so he can't get up the stairs when I'm not willing to chase him, but anytime I need to go upstairs I try to let him climb them himself while I follow him because he loves doing it. 

He is super fast too! If I turn around for less than a minute, there's a good chance he's already half way up the stairs. He's not walking yet, but he sure can crawl fast. 

Brody is also  learning to mimic us more and it's really cute. He tries to repeat words that we say to him, and the first one he mastered is UH-OH! He'll repeat it if you say it to him, and sometimes he'll just say it over and over again just because he wants to. He also repeats Da-Da, but is still working on mastering Ma-Ma. He loves to wave to people and say hi, and now he loves to motion "come here" to me when he wants me to follow him. 

I'm glad we only have one more month of his fox pictures because it's pretty much impossible to get a picture of him sitting next to his fox now. He's active and on the move, and he's fast! 

I tried over and over on his 11 month birthday (Dec. 11) to get a decent picture next to his fox, but finally gave up and decided to try again the next day. 

A couple new foods that Brody has had are string cheese, almond butter and jelly sandwich, and scrambled eggs. He loved them all, and this kid can eat a lot! 

He loves to sit in his high chair and feed himself. 

He is still nursing 3 times a day, morning, afternoon, and before bed, and the rest of his diet is different finger foods like cut up fruit, pieces of bread, eggs, cheerios, and cheese. He also loves baby oatmeal, and applesauce. 

His eyes are now bluish brown. They are definitely not as blue as Boston's. They have gradually gotten darker as he's gotten older, and they might still be changing. So we'll see is they stay hazel, or go dark brown! 

Day two of trying to get a fox picture for his collage went a little better because I actually got one after taking about 30 or so pictures!

He thinks it's really funny to move the second I sit him down. It was quite the game to him! 

He's had some major teeth growth in the past month! This picture shows his top right front tooth coming in really well. 

Here's a shot of his bottom two teeth and the beginning of a couple more on the top. 

We love our sweet little Brody who is also developing a feisty side now, especially when it comes to his brother. It's pretty funny how Brody will yell and try to push Boston if he tries to take something from him that he wants. He's always been too young to care, but he's starting to care now! If he doesn't get his way, he'll let you know! He can really yell and growl. Can't wait to see more and more of his cute personality develop. I was kind of dreading the toddler years because I remember how hard they can be, but now that I'm entering them, I'm also remembering how fun they are too.