Merry Christmas!

This Christmas was perfect. Jack was determined from the very beginning that he wanted a Little Einstein's baton. It took Braden a little longer to think of something that he wanted, but finally settled on a train.

You can watch this video to see how they made out...

My new year's resolution this year will be to keep up with this blog. I will post more often, even if they are just quick updates. I have missed it and based on the hate mail in my inbox some of you have too.

 

a long overdue update...

Gosh, their birthday seems so long ago. So much to catch up on...

Christmas was magical. This was the first year that they understood Santa was coming and they were really excited to wake up on Christmas morning. In early December we got an elf, Tinsel, who flew home to the North Pole each night to report to Santa on whether the boys were naughty or nice! Each night he would return sometime before we woke up he would hide in a new place. On this particular day, he had gotten into a snowball fight with some friends.


Jack and Braden got to meet Santa at their preschool Christmas party. They surprised us by going right up and sitting with him. We thought for sure Brian would have to go up with them or go and retrieve them when they started screaming.


I had butterflies in my stomach as the boys came down the stairs Christmas morning.



They loved sitting in their Jeeps and if we had let them they would have gone right outside to ride around.




We spent the morning opening gifts with boys.




Just before noon both of our families arrived at the house. Braden and Jack made something special for each of their grandmas.


We spent the rest of the afternoon playing with Matthew


... and of course, our new Jeeps!






More recently we have been focusing on potty training. We received some very sound advice from our friend Jane (A potty training expert and mother of four) and just woke up on a Saturday morning and said goodbye to diapers. What happened next were some of the craziest, most trying, and intense hours of my years as a parent. They seemed to understand immediately that they didn't have a diaper on but it took some time to fine tune the sensation of having to go to the potty and then the logistics of what happens when you get there. The first day we went through 32 pairs of underwear, the next day half that and drastically less each day since.

So much of what happened that weekend though was about much more than peeing in a potty -- It was about independence, control, patience and above all trust.

I was so against these small pottys when we first talked about potty training, but as we got closer I started to see the value in them. The boys picked them out!


The boys have come a long we in just a week - we all have.




Looking forward to the nice weather so these boys can get outside!