Tomorrow, tomorrow...

One thing I forgot to include in Emily's monthly update is her current wacky sense of time. She's going to have a very busy day tomorrow because everything is going to happen tomorrow. She always says she's going to see you tomorrow. Or maybe we'll go to Grandpa & Grandma's house tomorrow. Or maybe she'll stay clean & dry and won't have any axe-a-lents tomorrow. Or maybe we'll go to Waterloo tomorrow. Just recently she has added, "or maybe on Saturday" as an alternate option. :o)

New Year's Christmas

Since we didn't make it down to Waukee on Christmas Eve due to the weather, Austin's parents made the trip up to Waverly to deliver gifts and watch bowl games on New Year's Day. Emily had the present thing down by now, and it was hard for her to wait to eat first. Then Lincoln finally fell asleep for a nap, but we didn't make her wait for him to wake up. He was a little out of sorts because his first tooth officially poked through today! Emily loved her new Little People princess castle and carriage (which she calls a "cabbage") and her new dress-up clothes. Princesses have finally infiltrated our household, but I'm okay with it. It's not the princesses themselves that I have a problem with, it's the "princess attitude" that often comes with it. I feel confident enough that we have established rules and boundaries to counteract such a thing.

However, we are going to have to quickly establish new rules and boundaries about where certain toys are kept and played with. Lincoln is growing more mobile by the day and can roll, pivot and slide himself backwards just about anywhere if you leave him alone long enough. All floor space is now fair game. Just today he started really going up on all fours. Emily is going to learn fast that her safe territory is shrinking!

Happy New Year!

Tonight we attended the Ulven's annual "It's Midnight Somewhere" family New Year's Eve party. It's a fun time with good food and lots of kids. I think I counted 11 of them Emily's age and younger. We rang in the new year at 8:00pm and everyone was out the door by 8:45pm. We literally had to carry Emily to the van kicking & screaming because she didn't want to leave. Mieke has a mini trampoline that Emily loved. Julie got it for Mieke to burn off energy before bedtime. Somedays I think we need one of those, too. :o) Mieke also has lots of other fun toys. I think I was the only one who stayed awake on the way home, which was good since I was driving. Below are some fun pictures from the evening. The one of Austin is for those of you who know how he feels about cats. ;o)

Nativity

Emily really enjoyed doing a Jesse tree for Advent and still asks if we can put something else on it. She also enjoyed playing with her Little People nativity set. I think she's starting to "get" the Christmas story. This is how I found the nativity set on the couch after she went to bed...

38 months old

Emily has sure grown up a lot over the last month! The biggest milestone, of course, has been potty-training. With the exception of a few bad days, she has been doing great--especially overnight. She was perfect the whole time we were traveling for Christmas and went at everybody's house. Her reward for staying clean & dry all day is bubble bath and/or an animal sponge capsule in the bathtub. She talks about not having an "axe-a-lent" (accident) so she can get bubbles and a sponge.

Another growing-up step is insisting that she always dress herself. If you try to help her she pushes your hand away and declares, "It's my turn!" This has lead to lessons in finding tags and putting them in the back. The only problem is that so many clothing items these days are "tagless" and just have barely detectable printed words or nothing at all. I still have to supervise underwear since it's so easy to get legs in the wrong holes. Self-dressing has also continued the streak of interesting outfit combinations. Emily's Christmas dresses did not make it in the suitcase to Hull, but she has made up for it by alternating between them every day we've been home since Christmas. Since she only has one pair of black leggings, and I really don't want her wearing out her tights running around the house all day, she has resorted to leaving on her pajama pants from the night before. Besides the big picture above, another example is on the right along with the stack of hats she attempted to wear with it.

A milestone I was starting to have concerns about was surpassed when Emily experienced a magnificent bloom socially this month. All of the sudden she moved from mainly parallel, independent play to interactive, imaginative play with other kids. She is doing quite well with taking turns and being polite.

Something that is still a little unnerving to me is the fact that Emily started calling us "Mom" and "Dad" instead of "Mommy" and "Daddy" abruptly one day. It makes her sound so much more grown up (and me feel so old)!

One not-so-grown-up, but very normal, development has been jealousy over toys involving Lincoln. If he starts playing with something she'll often stop playing with whatever she was playing with, declare, "That's mine! I fink Lincoln doesn't want it anymore. Here's a toy for Lincoln," and gets a different baby toy she doesn't care about at the moment and shoves it in his face. I foresee many lessons to be learned in this area in the near future with all the new Christmas toys and as Lincoln grows more mobile by the day.

Of course, there are always funny quotes when you have a 3-year-old around the house. Right now whenever I raise my voice in the slightest, Emily looks at me forlornly and observes, "You're bery angry." Sometimes I am, sometimes I'm not, but it always makes me laugh inside. Sometimes when Emily starts crying/fussing about something she announces, "I'm sad." That also makes me laugh inside.

Lastly, a fun thing Emily likes to do lately to entertain Lincoln is run around or twirl in circles until she gets so dizzy she falls down. She then announces, "I think the house is tipping over!"

The December Winkflash pictures will be uploaded at the end of the month and the December video player is below. It will likely have some additions from the end of the year.

Foyer floor

Back at home meant back to work on the house. Austin spent part of two days tearing up the old tile and sub-floor in the foyer. What a mess! The foyer/stairwell also received a 3rd coat of blue paint. The color is more of what I was aiming for, but there are still blotchy/streaky spots. Austin has declared himself to be done painting (which I don't blame him), so we'll see how it looks once things get hung on the wall.

Winter on the farm

While we escaped the epic snowstorm with a lot of rain and just a couple inches of light snow, my parents bore the brunt of the storm in NW Iowa. They received a total of 20" of snow and blizzard conditions. I took Emily to the home farm while we were in Hull to take some pictures and visit Grandpa Boote while he was doing chores.


Emily tried to "help" feed the calves in this video



The icicles on the milk barn were incredible.













All the trees are heavy with snow.













I don't think my parents will be grilling any time soon.


















Sunset over the snow

Christmas in Hull

After the snowstorm blew through we packed up and headed to my family in Hull on Sunday morning. The roads still weren't great, so it was an extra-long trip, but we made it to my Grandma Boote's house in time for leftover lunch and presents. Lincoln loved his new tractor and wagon of animals.
Then we spent the evening with my family. Emily got to open two gifts so she'd have something to play with the next day. The Little People amusement park and stacking clowns were lots of fun. Lincoln also got up close & personal with Milo, Auntie Abbie & Uncle Wade's dog.

We had my family's official Christmas celebration on Monday night. After the traditional soup & bread bowls Emily opened presents. Literally. There were 8 adults, 2 babies and Emily. And she got to open almost every single present for everyone. It was funny to watch and listen to her continuous commentary. I just missed recording her declaration of "I made a terrible mess!" on video at the end. Lincoln sure enjoyed rolling around in (and eating) the wrapping paper. Emily will definitely have more competition next year, but it was fun for her to be the star this year. That's one of the privileges of being a firstborn! ;o)

Here are some other quick pictures...

Emily holding Cousin RyanFamily shot

Best attempt of the grandkids

Best attempt at the kids/grandkids (Uncle Wade has an ugly Christmas sweater contest with himself every year. This picture does not do it any justice.)We swung through LeMars on our way home on Tuesday to visit with all of Austin's grandparents and eat lunch with his sister and her family. It was a full three days, but it was nice to see everyone again.

Christmas Day

After the excitement of opening gifts it was back to painting. Austin put a second coat on the half bath and we both worked on the foyer/stairwell. It was quite discouraging. Even after two coats the bathroom is still splotchy--especially around the edges. The edging in the foyer is unbelievably tedious with all the rounded edges. Plus it turned out a very bright Royal blue, which is exactly what I was trying to avoid. Although the color I picked is called "Deep Royal" it's supposed to be more of a darker, navy shade to match my Dutch decor. There is some hope where there are overlaps in paint that a second coat will turn out darker. I don't know if it's because of the dark color in general, the fact that it's different brands of primer/top coat, the fact that the wall has never been painted before or it's just the brand of paint (Behr). Whatever the case, it's not exactly turning out as expected. At least all the white woodwork looks beautiful!

It's probably a good thing we were home all day because Emily had a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad potty day. Dealing with that, plus the painting fiasco, plus Lincoln's increased night-wakings again made for a bit of a tired, crabby rest of the day. At least the snow storm turned out to be a dud for us--mostly rain with only a dusting of new snow. We have rescheduled or altered our family Christmas gatherings, so we still have something to look forward to. :o)

Christmas Morning

It was fun to spend Christmas morning at home, too. Emily was up at 6:30am, but not because she knew there were presents. Those didn't come out of hiding in the basement until after the kids were in bed last night. She had her Christmas dress on again before she even made it down the stairs. (We have been alternating between two of them for three days now.) She eventually noticed the presents under the tree and started jabbering about them non-stop, but we distracted her by letting her help make blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Then she put together puzzles with Austin until Lincoln woke up.

Watching Emily open her presents (and narrate the process) was such a joy. Christmas is definitely more fun with kids! Lincoln was pretty much only interested in pieces of wrapping paper and the ribbon that tied up his new pajamas in his stocking. Emily made up for it, though. The dollhouse we got her was a hit, along with a beanbag chair for her room, the tent/tunnel combo that was technically Lincoln's gift and a few other small things--including new pajamas. :o) There is a long video montage in the December video player.