Christmas 2012

My parents, my brother (Mark), and sister in law (Alice) came for Christmas. 

We did a traditional Christmas ham (in the crockpot) for Christmas Eve:

Corinne approved the wine choice:

In lieu of a prayer, my brother made a toast...to Obama. My uber right wing mother was NOT amused. I was though. A debate about the fiscal cliff, abortion rights, health care and the like continued throughout dinner.  Typical family gathering.

Thankfully, no rolls were thrown.

Despite the heated discussion, Corinne really enjoyed dinner.

Evan didn't get the ham, but he was satisfied anyways.

We decorated cookies. I made the chocolate boobs, and Mark made a VanHalen one.

Evan got his own cookie as well. It was delicious (trust me). Corinne was going to have a decorated cookie, but she took her "C" cookie off the table and ran away with it to eat it before I could decorate it and get the standard yearly cookie photo. 

Corinne opened up one gift on Christmas Eve. We should have had her open more. Each gift took 15 minutes to upwrap. She was still unwrapping at 5p on Christmas Day. She'd peel a corner of the paper, drag the gift into the other room, someone would need to go grab her and the gift to be brought back into the family room, she'd sit on the gift, then someone would rip a little more off for her. She would then take the piece of wrapping paper around the room like she was offering a plate of olives. 

http://youtu.be/3g6eakOINvE

Then, Christmas morning arrived.

Grandpa got underwear. Standard gift of choice. 

Corinne in her Christmas morning PJs:

Evan in his Santa suit: 

Dad's lap is a good place to spend Christmas morning: 

Matt's family sent a very large gift. The anticipation of this huge box was akin to the leg lamp in A Christmas Story.

But, it wasn't a leg lamp. Rather, it was a huge ass giraffe. Huge. 

As time went on, the giraffe got creepy. It stared at babies:

It watched the family....plotting:

It watched us eat:

I'm certain the giraffe is plotting our demise.

However, in the meantime, we used the children like photo props. 

 Corinne found that a chair against the wall enabled her to reach the lights. on, off, on, off.  

19 months

Size: 18lb 11oz, 12m clothing, size 5 shoes

Likes: feeding herself, walking with swagger (she does this weird walk with her gut out and lazy legs when she's being silly), when strangers pay attention to her, soup (looooves soup; apparently, she'd rather eat soup than a chocolate chip cookie), unloading the dishwasher.

Dislikes: getting her diaper changed, when strangers don't pay attention to her (she will yell at them until they pay attention to her), being tired (omg I've never heard such whining and tantrums as when she's tired), when someone takes something away from her, having socks on.

Corinne celebrated turning 19 months by catching my cold. Poor thing is miserable. She's a huge snot rocket with a bad cough. She's now on antibiotics, so hopefully it will clear up in a few days and she'll be well by Christmas.

She's starting to use utensils and can even feed herself soup (and make a huge mess, but that is besides the point).

Stranger danger is abating. My dad arrived Monday night (she hasn't seen him in 8 months), and she warmed up to him pretty quickly, even allowing him to pick her up on Tuesday.

She still doesn't have any words. A speech evaluator came out and ranked her at a 17 month level for receptive language (understanding, following directions), which is what her adjusted age is, so we're perfect there. But she is ranked at a 7 month level for expressive language (talking). So, back to therapy we go. She'll have speech therapy twice a month until she is mostly caught up.

The pediatrician said this is one of the most common preemie issues. Her take on it is that the brain isn't getting as much nutrients/development outside the womb as inside. So the body directs the resources towards the evolutionary important stuff (like how to breathe, eat, maintain body temperature, etc). Since talking isn't a tool needed to survive, that section of the brain doesn't get as many resources.

So, back to therapy we go. I knew she was behind on talking, I just didn't think she was soooo far behind. Thankfully, she seems to be meeting all the other milestones.

And the hair loss starts

Right on time: 3 months postpartum and I picked 6 hairs out of my cleavage yesterday and woke up to a nice little nest of cast off hairs this morning laying on the bed.

Man, I'm going to miss my hair. It looked so nice and full.

Sicky sick-a-roos

I don't think there's anything more pitiful looking than a sick kid.

Last week, I came down with a sore throat/running nose/low grade fever. And both kids have it this weekend.

But in other news, Santa delivered two nosefridas early this year. Man, those are awesome. Corinne even lets me suck her nose with that whereas she hated the bulb syringe.

And it feels oddly satisfying in a "I just popped a huge zit" type of way.

Poor Evan stopped eating for 12 hours because he felt so miserable. But he would wake up and cry (loudly, which he doesn't usually do) and. Want his butt patted so he could go back too sleep.

Poor Corinne kept trying to nurse (Omg.her.favorite.activity.EVAH) and she couldn't. She'd suck, pull off, breathe through her mouth, suck, pull off, breathe through her mouth, repeat.

Pro Pics

I have to give props to JC Penny. They manage to take a $9 photo shoot, add in a Grandma who lives across the country, and turn it into a $150 photo CD.