December, 2009

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Catching Up

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

Sorry for the lack of updates lately.  Things have been crazy around here, but I’ll do my best to recap the last month or so.  I’ve been traveling a lot for work the past few weeks (I was in DC the weeks before and after Thanksgiving, and I’ll be heading back again in January), and Shae has been busy editing photos almost every night the past month or so.

Halloween
Jack and Ella’s second Halloween was not very exciting.  They still aren’t old enough to go Trick-or-Treat-ing, so we pretty much just hung out around the house and handed out candy.  Our porch light is burned out, so even after putting up some Halloween lights around the window it was a pretty quiet evening.  I have a feeling next year will be pretty exciting.

Thanksgiving
I can’t speak for the rest of the clan, but Thanksgiving (and the weeks before and after) was exhausting for me.  I fell into taking over a project that requires a lot of travel to Washington, DC, and between trips to DC and our trip to King City/Lockwood I spent about 12 hours in San Diego from November 18th to December 3rd .  Somewhere in there, we had a nice trip up to KC/Lockwood for Thanksgiving.

I’m not sure if it was having some extra room to move around or if they just got tired of crawling, but about 5 minutes after we got to King City the kiddos were walking all over the place.  They had been doing a little walking at home, but nothing like this.  After a couple of hours it was pretty clear we had full blown toddlers.  That’s right, Ella and Jack toddle.  They spent most of the trip walking and crawling around and getting into all kinds of stuff they shouldn’t.  This whole walking thing is going to be super.  I’m in a lazy mood, so rather than a full recap here’s some highlights.

  • Our first night in KC, Ella and Jack put on quite a show.  Ella was crawling around screeching, and they took turns chasing each other around the living room.  It was great watching them play with each other and have so much fun.
  • For this trip (and for our trip to Houston later this month), we got some small travel beds for the kids to use.  They are basically little baby tents that we can zip the babies in at night and for naps.  We were a little worried about whether or not the munchkins would be OK in their new beds, but after one night they did just fine.  The best part was the effect of the static electricity on their hair.  Ella’s stood straight up and Jack’s curls flattened out.
  • Jack is really focused on figuring out how things work.  He spent about 45 minutes one night studying a magnetic door on one of my mom’s small cabinets.  Every 10 minutes or so he would run off, but then he would turn around and go study the latch for a while again.  He was also interested in how doors bounce off door stops.  He may end up being an engineer like his dad.  Of course, he also spent 20 minutes throwing Tupperware all over the kitchen so I guess he takes after his mom, too.
  • Out in Lockwood, Jack and Ella had lots of fun swinging in their new swings.  They also had a great time playing in their wagon.  Ella started to get a little cocky and tried to ride the wagon with no hands, but after a few bumps she lost a little bit of her courage and went back to her death grip.
  • Thanksgiving was great as always.  Jack ate a bit of everything, but Ella was only really interested in the cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes.  They both LOVED the pumpkin pie, especially the whipped cream.
  • The twins got to meet a whole new set of cousins.  Jeff, Val, Lindsay, Jennifer, Josh, AJ, and Chris came down to King City a couple of days after Thanksgiving.  It was great to see them, and Ella and Jack had a lot of fun.

That’s about it for now.  We’ll try to be better about providing updates, but it’s still pretty crazy around here.