Happy 2009!

A Christmas post is coming soon, but in the meantime, I thought I’d look back at my favorite moments of 2008.  Here they are, in no particular order:

1.  The boys’ birthday parties–a construction party for Will’s 2nd birthday and a race car party for Christopher’s 4th birthday.  We always have such a great time!

2.  Watching Christopher progress from writing his name (barely legible in March) to figuring out how to spell and writing entire pages of “to do” lists.

3.  Hearing Will’s vocabulary grow and seeing him develop into our little chatterbox who loves to talk and sing.

4.  Watching Will and Christopher’s friendship grow as they play together more closely.

5.  Watching Christopher learn to read and seeing the new world it opens up for him.

6.  Our family trip to Salt Lake City in July and Noel’s and my 10 year anniversary.

7.  Seeing both boys grow in their understanding of God and His Word, and hearing their sweet prayers.

8.  The look on Christopher’s face when we told him we are having a baby, and the look of sheer joy the day we told him it is a baby sister!  (I think I already know what my favorite moment of 2009 will be!)

9.  Watching Christopher ride a bike for the first time.

10.  Laughing at how Will likes to run almost everywhere he goes–usually trying to keep up with Christopher!

A Little Confusion

Today Will and I had a conversation that revealed a little bit of Christmas confusion . . .

Mommy:  Will, what is Christmas about?

Will:  Me!  (This is his answer to most questions these days.  Egocentrism at its best.)

Mommy:  No, Will.  Who was born at Christmas?

Will:  Moses!

Third time was a charm, and I got him to acknowledge that Jesus was born at Christmas.  Later, I found him putting the characters from the nativity set in the “ark.”  Time to review Luke 2 a few more times!

Not Just Puppy Dog Tails Anymore!

It might be time to change the title of my blog.  (But not the address, that would be too much trouble.)  We are having a baby girl!  I know there was roughly a 50/50 chance of this happening, but after two boys, it seemed like a long shot.  We are so excited!  When I told Christopher, he literally jumped up and down and couldn’t stop hugging me.  I was picking the boys up from school, and he couldn’t want to run to Will’s classroom to tell him.  Unfortunately, Will was waking up from his nap, and after telling him about 10 times that we are having a baby sister, Christopher still didn’t get the response he was looking for.

We plan to name her Sarah Katherine and call her Sarah Kate.  It is kind of funny, since Christopher suggested the name Sarah back at the beginning of May (months before this pregnancy).  He and Will will make wonderful big brothers to their baby sister.  We can’t wait to meet her!  In the meantime, here are some photos from the ultrasound:

This is a 4D image of Sarah Kate’s face, with her hand next to her right cheek.  I have no idea what that weird blob is next to her left cheek.  And, yes, I was warned by the ultrasound tech that they are supposed to look a little freaky at this stage.

This is our beautiful little girl’s profile and tummy!

Yes, I am showing you my daughter’s private parts.  Please don’t tell her.

Will is in charge (for 5 minutes a day)

We seem to have a new dinner time routine.  The other night, Will started instructing all of us to put our hands in our lap and “pat pat pat pat” . . . all you Little Einsteins fans will recognize this as the sequence that causes “Rocket” to blast off.  When we all followed Will’s instructions, he then told us to raise our hands in the air and yell “blast off!”  (Again, from the video.)  We all three followed his commands, and the look on his face was priceless!  The poor second child (soon to be middle child) hardly ever gets to give orders that are obeyed.  You could tell he was loving every minute of it.  And ever since, whenever the four of us are gathered around the table, Will leads us all in at least two rounds of blasting off.

Will is also cracking us up with his interesting pronunciations.  He still has trouble with specific starting sounds . . . “cupcakes” are “pupcakes” and “lunch” is “munch.”  He calls Chick-fil-a “Chick-a-pay.”  And he has picked up an accent somewhere that causes him to pronounce “dad” like “dah-yad.”  It’s like a southern accent on steriods, which is bizarre, because I don’t think Noel or I have much of an accent.

Will amazed me today by writing some letters.  The boys were putting in their usual hour at the coloring table, and when I looked at Will’s picture, he had written H’s and P’s on it.  I thought maybe it was by accident, so asked him to write some H’s for me, and this is what he did:

Last weekend, Noel and I travelled to North Carolina to the wedding of one of my college roommates.  While we were in Asheville, we toured the Biltmore with all of its bizillion Christmas trees.  I had never been, and I thought it was just a big house.  Boy, was I wrong!  That thing is a castle!  It was incredible, but I was pretty tired after traipsing all over its five floors!  Noel took this amazing photo:

Today the boys and I decorated our first-ever gingerbread house.  The kids had a blast!  They were very deliberate about what they did, even if you can’t really see it in the finished product.  Christopher also used a gumdrop to put a “shooter” on the front of the house.  I asked what the shooter was for, and he said that of course, you have to have a shooter to get the bad guys.  That’s life with two boys!