Hittin' the highlights.

2009 - The Highlights.

January - President Obama is inaugurated. Raleigh gets snow! Theo gets laid in said snow, our families resist calling CPS on us.
February - Susan goes back to work after a 12 week leave for Theo's birth. Melissa continues to pound the pavement for work.
March - Melissa begins caring for two babies in our home. Otherwise known as "what the hell was I thinking?" Susan begins a new weekend/overnight schedule.
April - Melissa stops taking care of the two loudest babies in the history of the world and begins work as an in-home therapist. Easter. Easter on Parade. Hit 6 month breastfeeding milestone. Theo begins a little solid food eating.
May - Susan's birthday. Mother's Day. Theo and I do a swimming class.
June - Visiting with family. Playdates. Melissa begins LCSW supervision.
July - Trip to VA. Theo sees fireworks on July 4th and falls asleep. Melissa begins caring for Sydney in the mornings during the week.
August - Family vacation to the Outer Banks! Theo sees the ocean. Melissa interviews for a new job while standing on the beach.
September - Theo participates in a hearing study. Melissa gets a new, awesome part time job, ending months of frustration and uncertainty.
October - Birthday month. Almost apple picking. Pumpkin patching. Halloween with the cousins. Melissa survives first month of new job and Susan and Theo survive first month of two solo days. Lots of funny outfits ensue. Theo begins walking.
November - Theo turns one. Melissa weeps. We go on our first date in 6 months with a babysitter that does not share DNA with either of us. Thanksgiving.
December - Theo is walking full time. Christmas.

It's been quite a year. It started on a low and ended pretty high. We are both finally settled in jobs and getting our feet back under us. Theo is growing and thriving and becoming a little person we are very proud to call our son. We are working hard, but enjoying our life too. We are both looking forward to 2010.

Happy New Year to all of you.

Recycle your holiday cards!

St. Jude's Ranch is accepting used Christmas (or any occasion) cards until February. The children who are staying at the ranch redo the cards and then they are sold as a fundraiser. A great way to do something useful with your cards and help a great cause!

Click here for the information, including the address to send them.

Death by cuteness.

Is it possible to die from cuteness? While toddlerhood is coming with lots of challenges, it's also coming with watching our baby boy turn into a little person. Super fun.

Today, he has decided that Keegan (our Boston Terrier) is his BFF. Keegan was sitting in front of him and Theo leaned down and kissed him on the nose. Then proceeded to follow him around and kiss him. Later, he kissed his Scout on the nose as well. I thought I'd die on the spot.

Tonight when I put him in his crib, he tucked Mr. Monkey under his arm, flipped on his belly and put his tush right in the air and closed his eyes. Seriously, I can't stand it. He is just so darn cute.

Christmas pictures.

Click HERE to see all our pictures from Christmas, 2009!

Christmas in Suffolk!

We had a very Merry Christmas in Suffolk! Theo was spoiled rotten and finally got into opening presents. He got a bunch of puzzles, some books, a wooden fire truck, a dog that he can pull, a soccer ball, pancake molds in jungle faces and this car (in green). Susan and I got a bunch of wonderful things, including a new dSLR camera! Susan's parents were very generous and bought us a Nikon D3000, and it's the nicest camera we've ever owned. We have had such a good time with it, taking all kinds of pictures. I can't wait to get Theo out in the natural light and take some good ones. I also very much enjoy my great BIG bottle of Tide. Seems silly, but it was on my list! Tide is pretty expensive and keeping Theo in organic groceries means we have to go cheap on the detergent - but I looove how it smells. Hey, at least I am very easy to please!

More than gifts, we had a wonderful time with the family. Theo played with his cousins, Susan enjoyed time with her parents and I enjoyed visiting with my sisters-in-law and in-laws. I got very lucky in the in-law department and always enjoy coming to visit.

Theo is walking full time now and is beginning to try and run. He has had a fun time walking all over his Gran and Grandad's house, playing with their dog and trying out new foods like broccoli casserole (which he loved).

We head home tomorrow and are looking forward to one last little Christmas celebration with my parents, niece and grandma next weekend. Then we are looking forward to getting our life back to normal, applying for preschools for next fall (!!) and transitioning Theo to one nap a day.

Hope your Christmas was as merry as ours!

Christmas came early!

Of course, we planned it that way. We are traveling on Christmas Eve to see Theo's Suffolk family so we decided to do our own Christmas here on Friday. We made Thursday Christmas Eve, and it actually really felt like the real deal. On Christmas Eve, we had a yummy dinner and then bundled up for a walk around the neighborhood to look at the lights. While we were gone, elves broke in and left us all matching Christmas pjs. We had some doughnuts (I even let Theo have a bite!), scribed a letter to Santa, gave Theo a bath and read The Night Before Christmas. After he was tucked in, Susan and I had some hot chocolate by the fire and watching his whole first year of home movies which she just got onto a DVD. Then we took care of Santa's work and headed to bed.

Theo got up and toddled out to his gifts chattering all the way. He LOVED his Santa gift and the stuff from us. The dogs got a little something too. Susan and I had fun watching Theo play with all his new toys. We spent most of the day playing and then I made a Christmas dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts. Roasted brussels are the best thing ever and my new favorite way to eat them. SO good. Susan then had to brave the ice and go into work while Theo and I did our regular evening routine.

It was a really nice celebration and I'm glad we did things our way. Here's a picture of the tree on "Christmas" morning. I know it looks scant, but we only do 3 things for Theo for Christmas to try and keep the commercialism out of it and Susan and I decided just to take care of him this year. It was more than enough, though!

Oh, and the activity cube is from One Step Ahead, since a few folks asked.

Merry Christmas!

Why little boys need helmets.

Today we survived Theo's first trip to the ER. While I was busily making him a grilled cheese for lunch, he was playing in the kitchen near me. I turned my head for a second, hear a 'thunk' and a scream and the next thing I know, my poor baby has a big gash on his head that is bleeding everywhere. He had fallen head first into the door hinge on the pantry door. I screamed for Susan and we rushed off to the ER while I held ice and kept pressure on it the whole time. All the while, shaking like a leaf while Susan took a turn being the calm one.*

By the time we got there, it didn't look as bad as it did when it first happened, but they did use some skin glue on it and said he didn't need a stitch. He charmed the pants off all the staff and really, I took it the worst of the three of us. We were in and out quickly and came home for lunch and a nap. Oh, and I broke my biggest rule about his eating and let him try two Wendy's french fries on the way home. I figured he earned them. 

So, he's fine. We're fine. And, we are getting him fitted for a helmet. At least Theo has relieved me of having to live through my 90's, because I am sure that took 10 years off my life. 

*The pineapple incident. Enough said.

Here's a picture of him calling his grandparents while we waiting on the doc (except it wasn't a doc, it was a PA - I guess the triage nurse assigns PAs to nervous parents whose kids really aren't injured that bad). 

These boots were made for walking.

Theo took his first steps about 6 weeks ago and since then, he's been gaining more and more confidence. The past few days, he's a walking machine! He can walk across his whole room and almost all the way across the whole living/dining area at our home. He's also doing a ton of un-coaxed walking, where he just screws up his courage and goes for it. The look of happiness and determination on his face is probably the cutest thing I have ever seen. 

When he decides he's going to walk somewhere instead of crawl, he basically aims for whatever stationary object he can find. Sometimes, that's one of the dogs. The dogs that aren't always, well, stationary or willing to be a landing pad for a fledgling toddler. This has led to some near face plants and lots of funny scenes where one of the dogs tries to get away while Theo holds on for dear life. He'll learn, though, and the dogs for all their faults are super patient with their young master.

In sleep news, glory, glory. Last night was the best night on record. He went down a bit early, as his afternoon nap wasn't great thanks to an impromptu visit from Gramma (which was great!). Asleep at 7:35 pm, cried out for a second at 5:00 am and then woke for good, happily, at 6:30 am! We are consistently getting at least 8 hour stretches at night and he goes down without even a peep or needing us to stay in the room. We are even feeling confident enough to go on a date. You know, if we had a sitter close by.

He has 4 teeth now, two on the bottom and the top two have just busted through. His favorite thing to do with these new teeth? Grind them. God in heaven, this is the worst sound ever. I know it's a phase, but I hope it ends soon. 

He also has two official words, "mama" and "yeah." He's said "mama" for awhile, but the "yeah" is new. Usually in response to, "do you want to eat?" I didn't think we said "yeah" a lot, but we must!

It's so fun watching all this development. He's definitely becoming more toddlerish every day. 

Nine.

Nine. 9. That's how many hours baby T slept last night without a single wake up. That is the longest stretch of sleep he has ever had in his whole life. I was shocked! Of course, he woke up at 5:25am and was ready for the day, but hopefully we will get him sleeping at least until 6 soon. 

I love you, Sleep Lady.

It's beginning to look a lot like ...

... well, you get the idea. We finally got around to decorating for Christmas. With a new toddler in the house, it was done in stages. The tree was up for a good three days before it actually had any decorations on it. And well, by that time, a naked tree was kind of starting to grow on me and I briefly considered not decorating it at all. Alas, we felt like Theo would like it, so up went the decorations. And the score thus far is, Tree:0, Theo:3. That's how many times he has taken down my wooden cranberries to chew on them. Can't really blame him, most of his toys are made of wood, so he just assumes all wood is for him!

Anyway, I'm pleased with how it came out. We even did up the outside with some lights, which we don't usually do. It started with just icicle lights on the awning and turned into a bit more. Susan did the hard work, as usual. It looks pretty and feels festive. Christmas will be slim around here this year (just like every year!) so it's nice to get into the spirit in other ways. 

All the pictures are on Flickr, but here's one just of the tree!

Merry Christmas!