December

This is how we get wild n' crazy wrapping up 2008 - Mismatched, disheveled & eating waffles for dinner.

It just isn't Christmas...

without Rudolph & Clarice!

Isn't he as delicious as a plate of Christmas cookies!?!

But he conked out just as the festivites got rolling...

And what festivities they were! Nick really needs to pay attention to Adrienne's technique in getting the grandparents to do just about anything she wants....

Tickling Papou's ears.
Or rather sticking her fingers IN his ears & him being a good sport about it.

As much as Adrienne now looks like me, Nick is ALL Greg.

SUCH a daddy's girl...

Santa brought her a potty! And no potty is complete without a good 'poo face' to go with it.

Multitasking with her schmancy new pink cell phone (apparently Papou was calling her) while she's on the potty. She'a a modern woman alright!

She was simultaneously fascinated by & terrified of Pop-pop's trains.

Curiousity finally won out.

I had visions of her going Tazmanian Devil on her gifts & everyone elses, ripping open boxes to unveil all sorts of fabulousness and passing out in a heap of gift wrap, bows & tissue paper clutching as many new treasures as her little arms would allow. Yeah, not so much. Christmas Eve she opened a few presents, no problem. Christmas morning she lost interest after ~3. Getting her to open any more after that was virtually impossible. I only got her to open TWO gifts later that day and that's because I halfway opened the 2nd one so she would be tempted by what was inside.

Funny though... the one thing she had NO problem tearing into were the snacks. Christmas Eve, ...

... Christmas Day, ...

... Peter & Keri's house...
Adrienne is drawn to food like a moth to a flame. She REALLY needs to learn what screamin' seams are...

Aunt Keri got a toy tool set as a gag gift. Although I think it was better suited for Uncle Peter who doesn't know what a 'toolbelt' is. He kept helping Adrienne with the 'pouch'.
(And yes, the J-E-T-S suck suck suck. We're burning all their Jets gear.)

I'm not sure if we're going to be invited back to the McMillan's for our annual day-after dinner next year. These kids wreaked havoc on her house. Not only did Adrienne make herself right at home in the middle of Aunt Grace's snowman collection but both of them decided to take the potty theme to a whole new level... JUST as dinner was being served she needed a diaper change. She not only blew up the diaper but her onesie as well. This hasn't happened in MONTHS! As I'm getting her cleaned up & changed Greg announced that Nick needed a diaper change too. I lay him down and get as far as unsnapping his sleeper - I just groan. Aunt Grace looks down at me & asked what she could do to help. A tub & towels. He's going in the bath. He had poo from his knees to his neck. Maybe next year Santa will bring me 2 potty-trained KIDS instead of just a potty....

Speaking of party tricks... When Adrienne counts it's 1, 2, 6, 9. So in the middle of a diaper change last night she totally shocked us both... Greg said something to Nick, "blah blah blah too!" Thinking Greg said '2' Adrienne said, "3". Greg said, "4"... on & on, up to 10! And in an even MORE surprising move we actually got her to do it AGAIN for the camera!

Check out Nick's newest party trick...
He busted out this move a full month before Adrienne did!

Did I mention.....
I gave birth to the Messiah? Yes, our very own Niko was cast as Jesus in the St. George Nativity Pagaent. It was a true family affair... Greg's godson was a wiseman, his brother was Joseph, Corinne was an angel...

... and Cassandra a star

Santa came to town last night!

Tears of joy.... no. Total hysteria.... yes.
She FRRRR-EAKED. It would've taken a crowbar to get her off of me.

This is as close as I managed to get before I thought it would cause longterm psychological damage.
But the kicker is when we got home I was getting her out of her carseat - she had a huge grin on her face and she yelled, "FUN!"
??!?!? WHAT part of that was fun for her I haven't a clue...

Not sure what Norman Rockwell picture Greg was thinking we lived in but in a very sweet gesture he thought it would be 'fun' if we took them to Burger King for a special treat then headed over to pick out a Christmas tree. (I thought we'd put them both to bed & ask our neighbors to hang out at our place for ~30min while we ran to get one.) Well.... Nick had a rare, random meltdown at Burger King & Adrienne was completely freaked out by the chainsaw in the tree lot. Let's just say more than one ba humbug was uttered this eve & next year we'll be doing it my way.

Adrienne was intent on 'helping' get the tree in the stand.

It's a "Tis-tis tee!"

Modeling a Christmas gift... it was just too cute not to put up...

She LOVES to clean up (heaven knows she doesn't get that from me...) and at school they have a song: Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share. Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere.
Adrienne's version: Keen up, keen up, ah-be-da-be-doo

Now you don't even have to ask her if she's pretty. All you have to do is put something in her hair & she'll tell you herself...

There was a reindeer raid at the DeGeorge's...

They had a pizza picnic.

(More importantly, please take note of the glass of wine on the table behind them.)

To be added to the Valuable-Life-Lessons-I'm-Passing-On-To-My-Children List:
It's just NOT a party until you're half naked and there's more booze on the carpet & furniture then in your glass.

And if a glass of red wine on the light gray carpet & cream couch just WASN'T enough, Adrienne got a hold of Cassandra's Yoohoo & dumped it on herself.
How does that song go....? "It's the MOST wonderful time of the year...."

A little photo-shoot with Mima & Pop Pop yesterday

Dum-dah-dah-dum! It's Captain Boogie!!!

Oh yeah. This picture has Rhodes Scholar written ALL over it.

OK, so we can now take pictures of her without her wanting to see the camera RIGHT THAT SECOND but we are now only getting one smile.
The must-show-all-my-teeth-CHHHEEEESSSEEE-smile.

Finally a break from the her must-show-all-my-teeth-CHHHEEEESSSEEE-smile. Instead we get her fish imitation. HOW we managed to get that fab Christmas card picture is beyond me.

What kid doesn't have this classic shot in their baby book?

Come ON! Every baby should be this freakin' cute & happy!!!!!!!

"The Bald Gene runs strong in my family. My father has it. My daughter has it. ...

... My son has it."

Oh hallelujah! He FOUND THE THUMB!!!!! He FOUND THE THUMB!!!!!

Nick's first day of 'school'.... It's noon and I've managed to only call to check in on him once!

But I miss my little guy.... sniff, sniff...