Tales of Wiener Fun

I realize that I am woefully behind on my blogging updates.  Additionally, my last post was both emotionally wrought and lacking pictures.  This post will be longer, but much more fun.  I picked out my favorite pictures from the last few months with stories to go along.  Sending love this holiday season to all my family and friends!

At Halloween time Abigail was obsessed with a certain house which was decorated elaborately for the holiday.  Her favorite feature was a clown that, when activated, would cackle and take his own head off, revealing a bloody stump of a neck on both sides.  Her response: "yuck", with a big smile.  She stood in front of this clown for longer than was polite to do so on many occasions, as this was her second year admiring him.  Bruce, as he is called, was requested in face paint last month.  Here she is pretending to take her own head off.

 Upon getting into the car after a trip to the park, Elijah signaled his sister for a big, wet kiss by opening his mouth as wide as possible.  This was her response.  I'm sure they'll love this photo when they are teenagers!

Elijah has a tendency to wake up at 5:30 am.  We didn't quite catch the sunrise on this early morning walk, but I never regret it when I just get out instead of sulking around the house.

We have not yet braved Disneyland since Elijah started settling into two real naps per day, as opposed to four 45 minute snooze sessions  (Elijah has been to Disneyland on three previous trips, but napping in the carrier was a norm back then).  Here we are wishing Jake and Abigail a fun day as they went off to the happiest place on earth.

Most of the pictures from Disneyland feature Abigail eating corn dogs.  I don't know why this is. I guess Jake is sitting there, relaxed, and she's cute as a button eating this ridiculous piece of food….. 

And she tells animated stories… 

corn dog in hand.

Tea cups are a very favorite

Her face when she learned she was tall enough to ride the swings.  I wish I could have been there for that!

And in case you didn't notice…Jake grew a mustache for Movember.

Our little swimmer has turned into a fish.  She can't get enough water time.  At class she swims the length of the pool solo, can be thrown in the air into the pool and swim to the side, or jump into the pool and circle back to the wall.  She's fast in the water!  And she's currently learning how to stop to take breaths and lower her head again to continue swimming. 

Elijah gets really into mommy kisses sometimes.  He might just be hungry, since he's practically sucking on my lips, but I'll take it.  He's such a little sweet angel. 

This kid is flexible and MOBILE.  It's impossible to change his diaper, and he's across the room rolling, like he's going downhill, in the blink of an eye.  He finds all kinds of creative ways to reach what he wants on the floor, from scooting forward to rolling and twisting in different directions, once he gets the right angle he grabs one of his sister's dolls, only to have it ripped from his hands the moment she catches sight of his prize.

Here they are sharing a toy!  Now that Elijah is sitting I am able to leave them for a minute or two (within earshot).  Here I changed the laundry over and came back to this.  

Most days Abigail's required "quiet time" is a huge struggle.  She doesn't want to stay in her room.  She wants me to play, change her dress, clean her room up, read her a book…..there are bad guys in her room, she wants the talking phone that no one has seen in three months, or she has to go potty.  Whatever the excuse, quiet time is rarely quiet.  But every once in awhile something like this happens.  I knew she wasn't asleep, because of all the clanging, but I thought she was just throwing toys all over the room, as usual.  She was building a city. 

Little man is eating more and more food!  Mostly he loves pears, which is a rough one to make at home, since the pears really have to be perfectly ripe to taste sweet.  If you put half a spoonful of pears and half a spoonful of most anything else he will eat it.  He also loves avocado, fresh sweet potato (but will NOT eat it out of a jar), and apples.  I'm working on the veggie variety, but overall I'm sure he will do just fine.  At nearly 8 months, he still doesn't have any teeth.

Jerry recently celebrated his 85th birthday!  We had sandwiches and cake.  Abigail made him a crown with princess stickers, which he wore happily while munching away on deli meat and admiring his sons.  Barbara printed out some stories that she wrote up from conversations with Jerry about his childhood.  She made a book, and it was the highlight of his party.  He really enjoyed reading it.

The sunsets at Windansea are unparalleled this time of year.  Every day it's an amazing sky!

While my boy is very happy, almost always smiling, he doesn't laugh out loud all that often.  He's mellow.  Here he is really enjoying the swing, making his mama feel like a million bucks. 

Elijah's hair either looks like a stylish haircut or a wild case of bed head.  I can't decide which I like better.

We spent the Thanksgiving holiday visiting family, first Jake's family at his mom's house in Poway, then my family in Riverside on Friday.  While it was nice to avoid cleaning my house and cooking a huge meal, it was a little stressful to take Elijah out of his comfy crib environment and watch him try to sleep in strange places.  As a result, I didn't take a single picture between the two days, not one!  I brought both my nice camera and my tripod to both houses with intentions to take family photos, but did not make it happen.  Then I opened iPhoto on Saturday and through the "Last 12 Months" folder was taken directly to pictures of Abigail last Thanksgiving.  She was all dressed up with barely any hair, looking so tiny and adorable.  Of course I felt terrible for missing the opportunity to have that memory for 2013, and even moreso since this is Elijah's very first Thanksgiving.  So I decided I would dress them up and take the pictures anyway.  Two days late is better than never.

And now we are on to Christmas, so I'll be sure to take every opportunity to document this precious time in our family life.  3 years old and 8 months old.  I hear from people with grown children that it doesn't get any better than this, but I'm an optimist.  I think it must just keep getting better and better.

Waiting to pick up his big sister at school (30 min overdue for nap time)

Dressed in holiday shirts in anticipation of Grandpa's arrival for Tree Day!

My dad hit a lot of traffic on the way down to SD.  So I took the wagon and both kiddies with the tree stand down to the local lot to get the process going, since baby meltdown was not too far off and I wanted to at least reach dinner time before putting Elijah to bed.  Abigail was not amused by the fact that there was a dog running around trying to lick her.  She doesn't like dogs.  It's very inconvenient for me, actually, because she actively runs away from them or freezes in her tracks and starts yelling.  I'm not entirely sure why she does this, but the other day she told me that she doesn't want them to lick her, she wants them to go like this (as she sweetly approaches me to plant a gentle kiss on my lips).  She's such a funny girl.

Got the tree home!

Last year Abigail wanted nothing to do with the actual tree.  She climbed up and down the step stool  while we decorated.  This year she couldn't get enough ornaments!  She picked out one particular spot on the tree and piled on so many ornaments that they were touching the floor by the time she proclaimed "I need more ornaments".  All the while she was singing along to the obscure Neff family tradition Christmas music, Roger Whittaker.  I have the fondest memories of warm lights and Christmas music with family.  I love this time of year.

11 years and counting.  Love you Dad!

Elijah didn't get to see the decorated tree until morning.

He was joined by his sister an hour later.  She woke up and said two words, "Christmas tree". 

Here she is making a face like a snow man

Then she insisted on dressing like Santa Claus, which led to a hunt through her clothes for a red shirt and pants.  Luckily they existed (thanks to Alice Lee-Dutra, the best clothing provider of all time -- when she comes to my house bearing hand-me-downs from her daughter it really is like Christmas day).  

These photos makes me wish I didn't already have my holiday cards printed.   

Wishing you joy, laughter, love, and special memories this holiday season.  Mwa!