Big Boy!

For the first time today, Jack wore underwear all day and still had no accidents! We've done several partial days before, up to 8 hours with no accidents, but today was the real thing. No more diapers, except at night! We get a short hiatus before the baby is born. YAY, big boy Jack!

This boy melts my heart.

What a 4-year-old Dreams

This morning when he came downstairs, Alexander announced excitedly, "Mommy! I had a Star Wars Lego dream and it was two player!"

With Liberty and Justice for All!

Those who can't do: teach.

While playing Super Mario World with Alexander:

Alexander: Mommy you can't let them kick you.
Me: It's not like I did it on purpose, Alexander. I know that.

... a few minutes later...
Alexander: Mommy, you can't jump there.
Me: I know, Honey. It was an accident. If you know how to do this level so well, why don't you do it and show me?
Alexander: I can't do it, I can just tell you how to do it.

Let it Snow!

We had the first snow of the season yesterday and I couldn't quite pass up the photo op! So I took the boys out in the yard for a while and up the hill behind our house. We slid down the hill on our tushies, had a snowball fight, caught snowflakes on our tongues, and then (of course!) went inside for hot chocolate when they started getting snow inside their mittens! I had told Alexander earlier in the day, on our way to see Santa, that Santa had magically brought some of his "North Pole snow" here to make himself comfortable while he was visiting children here, and that he was leaving it here as a gift for us, and Alexander totally latched onto that idea and was really excited to play in Santa's special snow.

Santa is real!

This morning I awoke to Alexander climbing into bed with me, climbing over me to get next to the window, and then announcing, "Mommy, I see snowflakes in the sky!" Indeed, a beautiful snow was falling. It set the mood perfectly for our visit to see Santa. We had a great visit with Santa last year through the county's recreation program, so we decided to go with the same thing this year. The snow may have kept some people away; it was not crowded at all! There were never more than 4 or 5 families waiting in line to see Santa, and usually it was less. So, we got right in to see Santa and Mrs. Claus. Alexander was just slightly shy this year, but hopped up on Santa's lap pretty quickly and started joking around with him. Jack was more nervous, but managed to sit fairly peacefully on Santa's lap for a few minutes. He never quite managed a smile, but it was an improvement over last year's total meltdown! We didn't really get any card-worthy shots of the kids with Santa, but we did have a great time chatting with him, making Christmas crafts, eating snacks, and playing games. The boys especially enjoyed the reindeer sack race. I saw Mrs. Claus taking notes about what all the kids want for Christmas, so hopefully the boys are pleased with Santa's selections this year! ;) Also, children of the future, beware. Justin announced today that he would love for he and I to play Santa and Mrs. Claus in 40 years. Actually, I think that would be pretty darn fun!

Waiting to see Santa:

With Santa and Mrs. Claus:

Crafts and Sack Race:

Baby Pictures!

4D Sonography has been around for a while, but I only recently experienced it with one of my own babies. I was chatting with the sonographer the other day as she checked out the anatomy of the baby, and I told her how silly Justin is; he thinks he can tell what the baby will look like from the sonograms. She laughed and said, "Now he'll really think he can," and switched to 4D. I gather that they can't tell as much about the really important stuff like anatomy from the 4D ultrasounds, and they can't really measure or anything, but man are they COOL. The black and white stills that she printed out are really neat, but seeing Baby, in color, on the big screen moving around in there was pretty surreal. He looks like a real baby! He was moving his arms all around in front of his face; it looked like he was sleepy and was rubbing his eyes! He probably was sleepy after all the moving around he was doing during the scan! In any case, the quality of these scans isn't the greatest, but you can get the general idea.