The Evolution of a Christmas Card

Or, the outtakes from my Christmas card photo shoot.

There are many, many ways taking pictures of multiple kids can go wrong. Below, I present just a few examples.

Here we have The Clapper, The Mover, and The Blinker.


The Whistler, The Wish Mommy Would Pick Me Up, and The Wish I Could Be Done With This Crap.


The Narcoleptic.


Sometimes at least one child cooperates. But beside his smiling face, he has The Laugher & The Lunger.


Or, Smiley, Stressed, and Sick of Smiling.


And when the kid who was cooperating gets tired of fake smiling, you get If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em.


Sometimes it's not the subjects' fault, but the photographer's, as pictured here in The Invasion of a Foreign Object.

And sometimes, it's both.


And finally, after sweat, whining, bribery, and the exhaustion of all reserves of patience, somehow you end up with an adorable Christmas card of 3 handsome little boys.


And you can breathe a sigh of relief until it's time for the next photo shoot.

Let's hear it for the boy

Let's hear it for Will, who has had an eventful couple of weeks learning new tricks and hitting new milestones. Adults aren't the only ones staying busy during the holiday season.

So what's Will been up to?

For starters, babbling about Dadada. No Mamama's yet, though, but my turn will come soon enough. And Jeff is just eating it up. Of course he isn't associating Jeff with Dada yet, but it's still cute to hear.

He's cruising! Pulling himself up to stand is old hat now, so he decided to start walking while holding on. Several times lately, he has even stood without holding on for about 4 or 5 seconds. It's so exciting to watch him grow, but I'm not sure I'm ready to see my last little baby hitting milestones so quickly.

He's also a fan of unloading the dishwasher, and it doesn't even matter whether they are clean. Dishes are just FUN.



Speaking of fun? Christmas trees are awesome. There are dangling ornaments to pull (his favorite is Alex's Wolverine) and presents to pick up, smack, and chew on. I always feel a little sad when it's time to get rid of the tree, but this year, Will might be even more disappointed than I.



Hmm, what else...he's a brand new fan of macaroni & cheese. He actually smiles when he sees the jar.




And within the past 2 days, he began clapping! Sometimes all on his own (this morning he burst into a round of applause as he watched his big brothers argue. "Fight! Fight! Fight!") And other times, he copies us when we clap. It is unbelievably cute.

"Yay, macaroni & cheese!"

"Yay...everything!"


He has also started giving hugs. He lays his head on our chests while we hold him, usually grinning up at us so he can see how much we're enjoying it. So loving is my 8 month old son, that even inanimate objects receive affection. He hugs the table, the floor, and pillows. He gets a kick out of the "Awwww!" reaction he gets every single time.


The picture of Will hugging the pillow reminds me of this one of Jacob at 8-1/2 months.


I'm so happy that Will is here with us this Christmas.


See the message on his shirt? On the onesie that's a tad too small, but since the message is so fitting, I hate to pack it up?


Yea, I think having all 3 of my boys to celebrate with definitely qualifies this year as the Best Christmas Ever.

Elf on our shelf

What have I been doing for the last two weeks? Not writing blog posts, for one. I've been busy celebrating Thanksgiving twice (once with each set of grandparents), Christmas shopping (I am officially done shopping for the boys and usually at this time of year, I'm just beginning!), working on Christmas projects and gifts for others, and let's see...I know there was one more thing. Oh yea- watching 3 kids.

I've been extremely busy, but I absolutely love this time of year. Christmas is my favorite holiday (always has been, with Thanksgiving in 2nd place). Our tree is up (albeit not decorated yet, but I'll get to that soon), Christmas lists are made, our wreath is hung, and we have an elf on our shelf.

A what?

Less than a week ago, I had never heard of The Elf on the Shelf. But after hearing about it from a friend, I looked it up and fell in love with the idea. I ordered one for our home promptly.
The idea is that a tiny scout elf watches little children during the day, and at night, while everyone is sleeping, he flies back to the North Pole, reports both good and bad behavior to Santa, and returns to the home before children wake up. Upon his return, he chooses a different hiding spot, which means it becomes a fun morning game to spot his new location. The rules clearly state that he must not be touched (that makes him lose his magical Christmas powers), and that while kids should talk to him and share secrets or their Christmas wishes, he cannot talk back to them. Also, the elf becomes magical as soon as children decide on a name for him.

After sharing all of this information with the boys this morning, and reading the book that came along with our elf, the boys began hunting for his hiding spot. They looked under furniture, in the bathroom, inside Jacob's backpack, in our tent, and in the Christmas tree. I finally suggested they try looking up high since perhaps our elf was afraid Hailey might eat him.

And then they spotted him up high on our mantel.

They were fascinated. Especially Jacob.


And so began the line of questioning about our new friend.



"What's he made of?"
"Is he real?"
"What's inside his body?"
"Is he gonna fly?"
"Is Santa his friend?"
"Can he talk?"
"Where are his feet?"

After I answered their barrage of questions, it was time for the boys to choose a name for our elf.

Alex suggested, "What about Santa Claus?"


Jacob suggested, "How about Handsome?"


And finally, Jacob chose a name that all of us liked. Smiley!


"Because he's smilin'!"


They have already shared their Christmas wishes with him, and a little while ago, I heard Jacob say, "I love you, Smiley Elf."

So far, Smiley's watchful eye is a helpful tool to remind the boys about good behavior ("Uh-oh, Smiley may have to tell Santa about that.").
And I'm excited to begin a new Christmas tradition in our family.



I love Christmas.

Will Power

I've mentioned that Will has mastered pulling himself up onto his knees. And while he's come close to straightening those legs out, he still hadn't quite gotten the hang of standing. But Will is a determined and strong-willed little fella. His name suits him well.

A few days ago, as I stood by our kitchen table helping Jacob with his homework, I glanced into the family room to check on Will. And what did I see? Will standing, of course. Just hanging out with one arm casually balancing himself on the hearth.
I scurried around, frantically looking for my camera, but he had plopped back down on his diaper butt before I could find it.

So naturally, we had to try and make it happen again.

We tried enticing him with a toy.

And what do you know? It worked.

We were very proud.

And I think one of us began singing, "Weeeee are the champions..."


Then yesterday evening, I glanced in the family room again to find my (not even 7 month old) baby standing. (I can still call a standing baby a baby, right?) This time, I managed to grab my camera.


He'd stand, look at the toys from his new vantage point, and then take a break to bend down and begin chewing on the protective padding around the hearth.



Stand, bend, chew...stand, bend, chew.



So what does this all mean? Well, it means Will is super strong.
Is probably trying to keep up with his big brothers.
Might be walking early.
And is growing up way faster than his Mommy would prefer.

Rub-a-dub-dub

Every bath I've given Will at home has been in the kitchen sink in an infant tub I've had since Jacob was a baby.

Except one.

Once, when he was covered in poop after a particularly bad poop explosion, I plopped him in the boys' bathtub for a good scrubbing. And he loved it. It was all I could do to keep him in one place as I tried to clean him. He crawled. He kicked. He lunged for the water. My back was aching after the experience.

On previous occasions, he has sat on my lap and watched his big brothers play in their tub. Keeping him from lunging forward into the tub was a Feat of Strength. He just had to get in there with them.

Last night was bathtime for the boys. Will is a pro at pulling himself up onto his knees, but hasn't yet mastered a standing position. But last night, so great was his excitement over the bathtub, that he came closer to that milestone than I've ever seen him come as he pulled up on it.

"I remember this tub. Boy, I sure do wish I could get in again."



"Please? Can I, please?"


"Oh my gosh, my diaper is off. Daddy stood me up in front of the tub to watch my brothers. Either I'm about to get frisked, or..."


"Does this mean...? Could it be...? Am I getting in?"


Rub-a-dub-dub, 3 boys in a tub. Big brothers were excited about their new bath buddy. As for Will? I think his expression speaks for itself.

Award

One week ago today, Aunt Tricia walked into my house to pick up Lainey. And she said, "I need to tell you something that's going to upset you."

Quite a preface.

She proceeded to tell me that she'd been at the elementary school for an awards ceremony because Daniel was presented with an award. I hadn't known about the ceremony because it seems that only parents of students winning an award were informed.

However.

Tricia then told me that Jacob won an award.

I felt surprised, happy, and proud. So proud. But then, I felt annoyed with the school because of their oversight. And very upset (I'd been warned!). Upset that I'd missed his first ever awards ceremony in school and his first ever award. Apparently his teacher realized her mistake, and approached Tricia following the ceremony, saying, "I think we may have forgotten to send a note home with Jacob." Tricia was quick to assure her that, yes, they absolutely had.

Instead of crying (I managed to hold off on that until I was alone), I began bombarding Tricia with questions. What kind of award? Was he excited? What did Daniel get an award in? Was he excited? Did everyone in the class get some kind of award? The answer to the last question is no. Only a select few in each Kindergarten classroom, which makes the award even more special.

Tricia told me Jacob had been happy and excited. Which made me simultaneously happy and sad. I could just picture the smile that would have been on his face if he'd been able to look out in the crowd and spot me and Jeff in the audience.

She'd asked Jacob if he wanted her to take his certificate, or if he'd rather keep it and tell me about it himself after school. He chose to keep it because he wanted to surprise me with the news.
So when it was time for me to pick Jacob up from school later that afternoon, I was pretty excited. As I walked, I wondered if he would tell me right away, and imagined us stopping in the grass as he pulled the certificate out of his backpack. I even took my camera with me, envisioning the shot I'd capture of him beaming excitedly as he shared his news with me.

I kind of built it up quite a bit in my head. It actually went like this:
Me: "How was your day?"
Jacob: "Good."
Me: "What did you do today?"
Jacob: "Nothing."
Me: "Nothing? Did you go to Art?"
Jacob: "No. We didn't have our Specials today."
Me: "Oh? Why not?"
Daniel: "Because we won awards! I won two and Jacob won one!"
Me: "That's great, Daniel! Jacob, did you win an award?!"
Jacob: "Yep."
Me: "What kind of award?"
Jacob: "A rainbow award."
A rainbow award? And then I remembered the paper the award was printed on was very colorful.
Me: "Wow! Do you want to show it to me?"
Jacob: "I'll show it to you when we get home."

The whole conversation was a bit anticlimactic. My imagined photograph would clearly not be happening. I was a little disappointed by his lack of excitement, but then realized:
1) He's FIVE.
2) He's tired after a long week at school and wants to play with his cousins instead of being interrogated by his mother.
3) Clearly I understood the significance of the award better than he. And my absence at the awards ceremony was harder on me than him. Realizing that made me feel better about missing it.

Luckily, Tricia and her dad took pictures. And although I still would have rather been at the ceremony to see him accept his award in person, the pictures are definitely the next best thing and I'm so grateful for them.





"Hey, Tricia, look at this cool rainbow award."


Time for pictures of the boys with their impressive awards!

Jacob won Outstanding Achievement in Science. Daniel won Perfect Attendance and Outstanding Achievement in Citizenship. Way to go, guys!


I think it's pretty clear they're happy for each other.



And proud? Yea, I'd say so.


That evening, he got to choose whatever he wanted for dinner. I knew what he would choose before the words came out of his mouth.
"Wendy's! A cheeseburger, fries, and a Frosty!"

I love this kid. We are so proud of Jacob for his "rainbow award". And for his outstanding achievement in Science and Kindergarten!