Wow, it's almost time to ring in the new year. I had no intention of staying up this late, but we've been working on gathering things for Denny to take on his deployment and time got away from us. Denny's still downstairs looking for specific DVDs and things.
So, here I am writing about wayback in years past. Lets go back to January 2006 when we rang in the new year with a traditional Japanese rice-pounding party. To read all about it, click here.
Me, pounding the rice. The rice is pounded into a sticky dough called mochi and then used in various dishes, both sweet and savory.
Now, lets move forward a year. In January 2007, we had a new little guy as part of the family. Dylan was just a little more than 2 months old on New Year's Day. Our friends Yuko, Yuki and their little one Chi-chan invited us to their home for a traditional New Year's dinner. Here's a link to the whole story.
Chi-chan insisted on "holding" Dylan. I don't think she realized just how heavy he would be.
Last year, we visited a Japanese shrine on New Year's Day. In Japan, it's tradition to visit the shrine and burn offerings for the gods after midnight on New Year's eve. Here's the whole story.
And I didn't get any photos of us on New Year's Day, so here's a cute one of Denny and Dylan taken in early January, and one of Dylan digging in his stocking on Christmas Day.
Stay tuned for photos from this year's New Year's Day celebration.
Like Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve brought a bit of sickness to our house. Can't seem to catch a holiday break can we? Denny was the victim this time around of a funky tummy and lack of energy. Poor guy. He came home after trying to do a little shopping and just went and crawled in bed. After a nap he was a little better, but headed to bed early on Christmas Eve.
He did stay up long enough to help me get Dylan's new train table all put together. And, I was left to do all the other parent-y things....like clean up the mess, rearrange the playroom, make sure our stockings were hung properly so Santa could fill them, and so on. I didn't make it to bed until midnight...which is never fun at our house because morning comes EARLY here.
The playroom after Santa was done with it.
The tree on Christmas Eve.
The next morning, we were up at em by 6. We all headed downstairs to see the reaction of our little guy to Christmas morning:
Dylan has been asking to bring Edward and Rusty home from the bookstore for awhile now. I started telling him that maybe Santa would bring them....and he did!
We just love the different ways he says Rusty's name.
As you can see, Dylan was very excited about his new trains. He wasn't much into the opening of the presents. I'd start to rip one for him and he'd not really care so much. So, I ended up doing the opening and then he'd see what it was and want to hold it or open it (like the puzzle in the top photo). We ended up with his fridge phonics magnets and puzzle pieces all over the floor while he went from being focused on one thing to another to another.
Dylan's Grandma made him a cozy new set of flannel pajamas. We put him in them and he quite happily climbed all over me. I am, after all, his favorite jungle gym.
Dylan plays a game of "tackle mommy".
We spent the rest of our morning watching "Elf" and playing with or reading our presents (we love books at our house). Dylan wasn't interested at all in having a nap and going to bed was not his idea of fun either. He ended up sleeping with Rusty clutched in his cute little hand.
We had to delay our annual French Custard Toast until Saturday when Denny was feeling better. We invited some friends to share the yumminess...and it was yummy.
Tomorrow I'll try and do a Way-Back Wednesday with photos from Christmas past.
Merry Christmas from all of us to all of you! We hope Santa brought just what you wanted.
I'm writing this on Christmas Eve, late, when I should be going to bed. I'm tired, but excited to see happy faces in the morning. Dylan was really wound up before bedtime tonight. He was giggly and saying "Christmas Eve". Tomorrow should be interesting and fun!
Dylan adds a sticker to his advent calendar.
I'll leave you with two cute videos of Dylan and his favorite Christmas Carol: Jingle Bells.
Dylan dancing to Jingle Bells wearing his jingle bell. I purchased the bell at the mall, and he wanted to walk and watch the bell hit his belly and ring the rest of the time we were there.
We had a little snow a couple of weeks ago. But unfortunately, we're going to have a wet and rainy Christmas instead of a white Christmas this year.
It's amazing how the time slips by so fast. We've been busy doing our last minute shopping and wrapping and packing and shipping and baking and going to parties for the last couple of weeks. Evidently too busy to blog. So, I'll catch you up on what's been going on in our neck of the woods.
Last week some friends of ours hosted a kids Christmas Party, complete with Santa Claus. Denny had fun playing with Dylan and some of the other children at the party.
Dylan had a good time running around with the other kids. He was not, however, interested in seeing Santa Claus. Poor little guy. Mommy really wanted a photo though, so Denny held him in the vicinity of Santa while I snapped a photo. Here's what we ended up with:
As you can see, Dylan was much happier with Daddy than with Santa. Poor little guy....the torture we put them through.
But, you know, torture followed by cupcakes isn't all bad.
Yesterday evening, we went to one of Denny's co-worker's homes for a little Christmas gathering. They have 3 cats and 2 dogs, and Dylan was very excited about the cats and scared of the dogs. And he really, really loved the drum set in the basement. We have a video that I need to download of him playing drums.
Today, we headed out for some last minute things (like breakfast fixings for Christmas morning). We've been teaching Dylan how to 'ask nicely' for things (saying "please"). As we were going into Target, Dylan told me "go home". And then he tried "please, go home." And when that didn't work, he said "ask nicely, go home." He really, really wanted to go home...and it was only the first stop! He ended up being a good sport and hanging in until the very last store.
And now it's Christmas Eve! I'm excited to see my guys' faces tomorrow morning. Denny and I have a bit of work ahead of us this evening, but I'm sure it will all be worth it. Dylan has been watching the "My Friends Tigger and Pooh Christmas Movie" a lot this past month, and we've been telling him "tomorrow is Christmas!". I hope he's as excited as I think he will be tomorrow. Stay tuned to find out.
I love this progression of images. My boys have some serious amounts of sillies in them and love love love being silly together. It's sooo cute to watch. I only wish the last photo in the progression had been in focus so I could have shared it too....the boys had their heads together. So sweet.
At first I was just glad to be tagged and have something to blog about, since for some reason I haven't been taking many blog-worthy pictures lately. But as I answered the questions, it really made me think- what do I look forward to? And what do I wish for? And is there any chocolate in the house?
8 TV Shows I Watch 1. 30 Rock 2. Ugly Betty 3. Heroes 4. Fringe 5. The Office 6. Prison Break 7. Supernatural 8. My Friends Tigger and Pooh (this one gets watched every day.....we've seen all the episodes at least twice and Dylan has started requesting which one he wants to watch)
8 Favorite Restaurants 1. Chick-Fil-A 2. Red Robin 3. Okay, I'm seriously blanking on this....I know we eat out and I like food, but I really am having a hard time coming up with favorites. Especially around here. 4. Flying Biscuit (Atlanta) 5. UnQuinto (Japan) 6. That Chinese restaurant at the Grand Duo in Tachikawa (Japan) 7. Ingleside Village Pizza (if I ever make it back to Macon) 8. We obviously don't get out enough here in Dayton.
8 Things That Happened Today (actually, Yesterday) 1. Told Dylan to go back to sleep numerous times after 12:30am. 2. Realized I still don't have a voice and tried adding some apple cider vinegar to my tea with honey. It tasted good...but still no voice. 3. Washed my hair 4. Went to the Dayton Art Institute with Dylan and others in our playgroup to see their Kids Experiencenter. Realized it really wasn't meant for toddlers. Tried to have fun anyway. 5. Whispered to Dylan "no" many times as he tried to climb over the barrier to the jellybean and butterfly sculpture. Realized it's really hard to corral a toddler with just a whisper. 6. Whispered to Dylan to stop yelling "Hi" as loudly as he could as we were walking through the room of African Art. He evidently really liked the echo it made and thought I was hilarious when I was whispering to him to "stop". 7. I had to use Tina as my voice so that I could tell Denny we were still at the Art Institute eating lunch. Whispering through a cellphone doesn't work very well. 8. Had a cookie while finishing the book I was reading (The Baby Trail--a fine piece of chic-lit that will make you never have to go through fertility treatments).
8 Things I Look Forward To 1. Making Christmas crafts and baking with Dylan. 2. Seeing Dylan's face on Christmas morning. 3. Being done with breastfeeding. 4. Going on a real nighttime date with my husband and having someone else be able to put Dylan to bed. Gosh, to be able to go to a party together would be soooo nice. 5. Hanging out with Denny after Dylan goes to bed. 6. Getting my voice back. 7. Denny coming home (from work, from a trip, for lunch) 8. Having a house of our own one day (no more crappy apartments!)
8 Things I Wish For 1. A long and healthy life for all of us. 2. A trip to see my friends. 3. Dylan to be over his "mommy-only" phase 4. A personal grocery shopper *grin* 5. Motivation to clean the rest of my house (my kitchen looks great) 6. Clothes that wash themselves (and put themselves away) 7. Caffeine-free chai lattes at Starbucks (or anywhere for that matter....no one seems to have these) 8. Someone to invent guilt-free chocolate.
8 People I Tag 1. Jen C. 2. Jena 3. Sherry 4. Shantell 5. Shona 6. Barbara 7. Denny 8. Anyone else reading this who wants to play along... leave me a comment that you did it!
So, first, I have to thank Bethany and her blog for getting me motivated to get mine updated (finally). We've had a lot of "fun" at our house since Thanksgiving day...the day of my last blog post.
Dylan and I on Thanksgiving morning.
Thanksgiving was off to a good start. Dylan was up and in a good mood for the morning....he was very busy and crawly-climby and wanting to be helpful. We had lots of fun watching the parade and having Dylan climb all over us in between me running back to the kitchen to do something useful for our meal. Our plans were to go over to Tina and Jax's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Tina's parents were visiting and we were looking forward to meeting them and having the boys tire each other out so we could get a good nights sleep. I made the stuffing bright and early and took it over so they could stuff the turkey. After that, I made butternut squash souffle, apple pie and pumpkin pie. I had a little help with my pie crust from both of my guys. Dylan also helped me mix up some cornbread dough (to which he really really wanted to add chocolate chips).
Dylan helps us stir up some bread dough.
Dylan had a good nap, but woke up still tired and cuddly. Denny had some good cuddle time with him and then we got him dressed so we could head over to Tina's. The food was all packed and we were ready to go, and Dylan (of course) asked for some milk. We headed to the couch, I laid him in my lap, and he threw up. Poor little guy! So, Denny took our food to Tina's and brought back things for us to eat. We spent Thanksgiving watching Cars with a poor sick toddler between us and taking turns eating. And we didn't get that good night's sleep that we had wished for. Dylan threw up several more times, and I ended up going downstairs so that I could hold him upright-ish on the couch and still be comfortable myself (and hopefully catch anything that might come up and not have to change the sheets for the third time). Luckily, he didn't throw up any more after that. He wasn't very interested in eating for a few days after, but his appetite finally came back and he's eating normally again.
Denny and Dylan after his nap....before we knew he was sick.
In between Dylan getting sick and me getting sick, we went to the mall to play. They were giving out free reindeer ears and Dylan enjoyed wearing his.
Unfortunately, I caught his stomach bug on Sunday. I was through with the worst of it by Monday, but it took all week for my stomach to get back to normal. And once it was, my allergies kicked in and yesterday I lost my voice. It's still gone. *sigh*
Despite my funky tummy, we did manage to get our tree up last week, and we took family photos on Friday. It snowed all day Saturday (Denny was out of town for training), and we stayed inside. Sunday, we headed out into the snow a bit (which Dylan very cutely calls sssinow) and got out of the house. Tina watched Dylan for us in the afternoon and we got to go to the movies. yay! Of course, heh, to top off the week, as I was carrying my sleeping boy from the car to Tina's backdoor, I managed to fall on my knees and bruise them up pretty good (and to wake up Dylan in the process). Here's hoping my voice comes back and I can be normal again soon.
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