Visit with Santa

The holidays are here and that means the annual Santa visit!  With Noah, he did great in 2008, HATED Santa in 2009, we skipped it in 2010 (you wouldn't blame me if you saw how the year before went), and then we tried again this year.

This year's visit to go see Santa went surprisingly well!  Noah actually sat on Santa's lap and had a short conversation with him.  Later that afternoon, Noah woke up from his nap and started crying that he wanted to go back and see Santa AGAIN!  too funny!

Callison was super sweet and smiled a ton at St. Nick (although somehow the photographer missed her biggest smiles).

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!!

Callison is three months old!

Our sweet "Callie girl" is three months old!  She has the biggest smiles and is so easy going.  While she loves being held and played with, she also doesn't mind exploring her playmat or checking things out from her bouncer seat.  This is very nice when one of us is home alone with the kids and we are giving Noah a bath, taking him to go potty, cooking or anything else where it is handy to have to two arms.

She is sleeping through the night which is perfect timing for me since I went back to working full-time on Nov 21st.  But I should clarify that her "night" usually begins at 11 pm and ends around 6 am when I get up.  She tends to take a nap from 9-11pm and then is ready to party just when we are trying to go to bed.  Thankfully, we just swaddle her, turn on her "sleep sheep" white noise maker, lay her in her crib, turn off the lights and go to bed.  She seems happy to fall asleep on her own.

Her biggest milestone was that she rolled over on December 1st!  My mom called me at work to let me know and when I got home she did a repeat performance for Wes and I.  Our little girl is on the move!  She is also grasping things too.  At her two month check up, she weighed in at 9lbs 9oz.  Our pediatrician commented on how she was an overachiever in the motor skills department.  We are so impressed by how quickly she can do things.  When we put her on her tummy, she can push herself way up on her arms to look around.  She is gonna keep us busy for sure!

All in all, our baby girl is pretty content and happy.  Unless of course she is getting ready to nurse (insert big sigh here), then she can sometimes get fussy.  Nursing has been a hit or miss from the get-go with her.  She absolutely refuses to nurse unless she decides she wants to eat, even when she hasn't eaten in several hours.  This is tough when I meet her and my mom at lunch or try to feed her before I leave for work.  She also won't nurse if there is a lot of activity/noise going on around her (TV, playgroup, her crazy brother yelling/running around). Our picky eater!

Callie also seems to like her big brother.  The other night, Callie was giving Noah the biggest smiles while we were reading books.  Noah said, "Look, sissy is happy.  She is smiling at me!"  I have also caught the two of them playing together. Callie was sitting in her bouncer seat and Noah sat in front of her and put his feet up to hers.  Then the two of them happily played footsie.  I wanted to run to get the video camera, but I knew the moment was likely shortlived and didn't want to miss it.  So I just watched them play for a few seconds.  too cute.  It will be fun when Callie is a little older and they can really play together.

Callie has the most infectious smile! Sometimes my cheeks hurt from smiling at her so much.

Noah loves to sit near his sissy

A car in one hand, sissy in the other!

Playing with Bram, Callie looks like she just got caught. hahahaha

Her shirt says it all... we are so in love with our sweet Callie girl!

Thanksgiving!

This year for Thanksgiving we stayed home and spent the holidays with family.  It was nice to be with family, although I was wistfully remembering that last two years we spent Thanksgiving in Hawaii with our good friends, the Dodges. Now both of us have added baby girls to our families since then.  So much can happen in one short year!

Thanksgiving morning, my mom stopped by the house to give Noah a special present from Vegas.  A big Mickey Mouse plush toy!  It was so cute to watch Noah show Mickey around our house, his bedroom and play with him.  He acted like Mickey was a famous friend who was coming to pay him a special visit!  Now Mickey has been added to the large reportiore of his bedtime pals (puppy, his water and his three "danks").  A few times a week, Noah will wake up around 3-4am and crawl into our bed.  He does not come empty handed.  He will make several trips from his room to toss up his danks, toys and water into our bed and then lastly climbs up himself. 

We had Thanksgiving dinner at the Oistads' with my parents as well as Wes' godparents.  The spread of food and desserts was incredible and we all enjoyed each other's company. After dinner we were looking at the Black Friday ads and I spotted a crazy good deal on Barbie dolls and games at Walmart starting at 10pm Thanksgiving night (which is just a few miles from my house).  I had already planned on skipping the early morning shopping madness on Friday, but I thought I could "swing by" Walmart really quick at 10 and just pick up those few items. Yeah, right! When I arrived at the store at 10pm, there was a long line of cars the parking lot was completely full.  I lucked out and a car was leaving so I got a spot pretty easy.  I headed into the store and there were no carts! I had to go back to the parking lot and find one. When I headed back in, it was pure chaos.  I will spare you all the play by play, but long story short, all the advertised specials were scattered around the store and I ended up leaving without the items I wanted.  What a nightmare.  Never again!

Noah showing Mickey around the playroom!

Pao Pao and Callie on Thanksgiving



She loves her Pao Pao

Gong Gong, Pao Pao and Callie girl

Auntie Renee can always make Callie smile!

The Grandmas



Don and Bonnie Bladow (Wes' Godparents) and Callie

The Oistad Fam (even Lucy!)



Our family + our newest addition Mickey Mouse



Our little architect!! Noah has been having so much fun building with legos and blocks the past few months!



Vegas Baby!

As a final hurrah to my maternity leave, we headed down to Vegas for a week of fun with my parents!  It was sunny, albeit a little chilly.   However, it was a nice change considering we are in freezing wind/snow storms in AK right now.  Both Noah and Callison did really really well on the plane and in the airport both ways which was awesome!! Noah played with his V-Reader and coloring books and Callie slept almost the entire flight (except for when she woke up to have a smiling contest with us).

At first I was worried there wouldn't be enough kid activities in Vegas, but Noah had a blast! His favs included the lights on the strip, the tunnels (parking garages and bridges), Bellagio fountains, Venetian gondola ride, M&M store, the sports cars people could win in the casinos, monorail (aka train), Children’s discovery museum, dolphin habitat, shark reef, park and going to dim sum!  Callie slept most of the trip as 2 month olds do, but we showed her all the lights and sights too! When she was awake, she loved all the lights and action of Vegas!

My parents generously offered to watch the kiddos several evenings so Wes and I could check out the Vegas night scene.  It was fun to have a few date nights together (our first date since Callie was born)!  We had dinner with Kalei’s bro, Stuart, one night and then went to a dance club.  We also saw a show and had several nice dinners out.   We did go to “Coyote Ugly” in the NYNY casino but we didn’t like it.  The dancing girls just stood on the bar, yelled at the 20-something guys and said rude things to them.  We left and found a nice quiet bar where we could actually talk and hear each other.  We are officially old.  

All in all, it was a nice getaway, our first as a family of four!

Yummy Dim Sum

Noah LOVED this car exhibit at the Children's Discovery Museum!  He spent a good 40 minutes "fixing" the car! Every time we tried to show him something else, he would break away into a sprint back to the "red car!"

Our little mechanic

 

Noah loved all the hands-on exhibits at the museum



Gong Gong and Noah

Dad and Noah racing cars at Circus Circus

Can you tell our boy loves cars?

 

Noah was excited to point out all the big flashy McDonald's signs in Vegas



Sweet Callie girl

Noah loved the flashy sports cars in the casinos

 

We took our little man on a gondola ride in the Venetian Canal.  He loved going under all the tunnels!



First family vacation as a foursome!

I gave Noah a dollar to place on the platform.  Instead of setting it down with the other bills, he walked right up to the statue and placed the dollar in his hand.  Then the statue gave Noah a little wink.  Too funny!

Noah's first gelato!

Noah resting on daddy's shoulders.  Such a cuddler!

It was cute at first, until he thought it was hilarious to claw out daddy's eyes. Poor daddy!

Like father like son.  I often catch them sleeping in the same position like this! 



Pao Pao made Mickey pancakes for our favorite Mickey Mouse fan.  (Note the Mickey jammies!)

Noah loved checking out all the fish in the various casino aquariums

Hanging with the Yellow M at the M&M store



The M&M race car was awesome!



Noah got to meet Mickey Mouse!

Heading into Sigfried and Roy's Secret Dolphin Habitat!



Three dolphins swam right up to say hi to us!



Dolphin Love!

The aquariums were neat and Noah loved the underground tunnels