Bath time fun!

As we all know, bath time has been a favorite of Matthew's from day 1. Now that he's sitting up and wanting to keep busy, we've been trying to figure out the best spot for his baths. He's been enjoying them in the big boy tub, but we were having trouble with it. We found this yesterday and it seems it will do just fine:

Matthew's first Christmas!

Matthew's first Christmas was fun, peaceful, chaotic, exciting, and tiring. I'm sure I could think of a few other words to describe it if I thought about it hard enough. We had a nice Christmas Eve dinner, Matthew, Mike and I. I tried to make it like our old Polish Christmas Eve's from home, but really the only things resembling it were the fish and the pierogi (although frozen, not homemade).

Christmas morning we opened gifts. Matthew actually took pretty much all day to get through his stack. It went something like this: open some presents, play with that toy, eat some wrapping paper, nap, repeat. I think he had fun, although I'm quite sure he had no clue what was going on. He was a little grump for the latter part of the day, maybe because he slept very poorly the night before. I guess he was just too excited about Santa coming. I managed to make my very first turkey, and it was actually quite delicious. Of course, even though I got the smallest one i could find, there were leftovers galore! I have since made a huge pot of turkey soup, a turkey and rice casserole and pureed some up to freeze for Matthew. That sure looked gross! It was much easier making his food with my new food processor (thanks mom and dad!) It's a small, simple one that is perfect for making baby food, among other things.

Yesterday the three of us spent the day shopping the sales. Got a few Christmas things for next year and some things for Matthew. All in all, a good Christmas! Hope everyone had a very happy holiday!

Shout out to my Child Life peeps!

Christmastime at a Children's Hospital. I'm pretty sure most of you out there couldn't even begin to wrap your brain around what this means. At the core of it, are families with their sick children, stuck at the last place on earth they ever imagined they would be. As a new parent, with a completely different perspective than I ever before had, I can not even fathom this. To us child life specialists out there, it is pure, total, complete insanity. So, to all my friends out there in Santa's Workshop right now, I'm thinking of you- with you in spirit, if you will. Keep at it. I know, because I've been there, how crazy tired you are right now. But the week's almost over. And those kids will be so stinking happy on Christmas morning when Santa "finds" them at the hospital and brings their gifts to them. Merry Christmas to all my little elves!

Baby it's cold outside...

If you look closely enough, you'll see among the decorations, our very own Dallas Cowboy's brick! We are just dorky enough that we purchased a family brick to be put at the new Cowboy's stadium. Beyond that, we are even a bit more dorky because decorated it for the holidays.

Can you believe there's only 4 more days until Christmas?!?! We are gearing up for Matthew's very first one. I'm pretty sure he'll be good and spoiled on Christmas morning, judging from the amount of presents both sets of grandparents have sent. I'm also pretty sure he's going to LOVE playing with that wrapping paper. He is already pretty entertained by the presents anytime I put him near the tree.



We have been in a winter wonderland all week. Since last weekend we've gotten a little more than a foot of snow here and we're expecting another 8 inches or so tonight. The worst thing is it's SO cold out! Well, by our standards anyway. Mike and I have both served time living in cold weather states before, but since we're coming here from CA, and TX before that, this single digit weather has a chill to it. Matthew and I pretty much just hang out inside where it's toasty warm.

Matthew "borrowing" Boss's reindeer antlers. (ok, not really borrowing. More like "daddy put these stupid things on my head and now mommy's taking yet another picture".)

We got this adorable little Christmas ornament in the mail yesterday. It is front and center on the tree, and we think it actually looks a bit like our little snow baby. Thank you GREAT grandmom K!!

And now....the Cowboy's game is starting, so obviously I have more important things to get to.

Love the holidays!

Snow dog

Getting ready to go see Santa

He likes to hang out by the tree

Our tree.

His favorite friend.

Not much to say today. Matthew had an appointment yesterday with his pediatrician because his reflux has gotten worse again. He has gained about a pound, so his Zantac was increased. We will see if that helps him and if not, try something different. Yesterday after nap time, I went in his room to see him laying in a little puddle of his spit up. It was pathetic looking, all over his nose and mouth. TMI? Oh well. That's the life with a reflux baby. His weight is up to 13.9, which means he's gained- but he's now barely in the 5th percentile. Pedi didn't seem concerned, but I will ask her about this next time we go. Seems like he keeps falling...25th...then 10th...now 5th...there's not much else to drop to. Makes a mama nervous, you know? Please let this Zantac help him keep more of his feedings down!

I've been busy doing my holiday baking. Well, when Matthew allows me to be in the kitchen. Thus far I've made double chocolate graham drops, no bake cookies (aka Susan's infamous "bumpy" cookies), snickerdoodles, oreo balls (holy YUM!), bourbon balls, and buckeye's (a recipe from Matante that is popular at Christmas!). Oh, and a batch of regular old chocolate chip cookies, but those did not turn out right. I have several more to make and then I will get them all packaged up. Mike will bring a lot to work and some will be gifts for neighbors. I'm keeping everything in the outside fridge so we don't eat them. I love to bake!