Christmas 2008

Wow, it is hard to believe Christmas has come and gone so quickly. We had a very lovely holiday. We got to spend time at the Joneses and Underhills as well as at our own house which was very nice. Adrian was much more into Christmas this year altough still does not 100% understand what was going on.

Here are a few pics of Adrian enjoying the festivities....

Adrian enjoying one of Santa's cookies. He was VERY upset the next morning when the plate was empty.

Adrian finally settled in for a solid sleep on Christmas Eve.

Delivering presents on Christmas morning at our house... he has all of the tags memorized at this point.

Opening a present... some of his favorites were the Curious George books, the Diego laptop and view master and a firetruck.

Not a great photo but the only one of the 3 of us.

Christmas cracklers with Uncle Brian.

Playing with Aunt Tracey. She's a lot of fun!

Finally starting to play on his own with some Christmas toys... he can use the drill to take all of the parts of the truck off all by himself.

A special afternoon of skating with Daddy.

Merry Christmas 2008

Well we have been super busy around here lately. Jan has been trying to finish up work and preparations for the baby and she is happy to report that she had her last day of work until 2010 yesterday! What a relief. And of course there are Christmas preparations! Adrian is really starting to get into this Christmas thing and enjoys doing anything Christmas related.

This morning Adrian and Jan made some cookies to leave for Santa tonight and that was a lot of fun. Adrian really likes dumping ingredients in the bowl, using the mixer and of course lots of sampling. He is excited to leave cookies for Santa but is quick to stress that Santa is not getting them all! We also have some 'reindeer food' to leave on the front lawn to attract reindeer.



Adrian was very excited to wrap Barkley's presents and did a pretty good job considering he is two! Had I known he was such a good wrapper I would have put him to work earlier!

For anyone that hasn't heard my favorite Christmas story... I asked Adrian what he wanted to name the new baby and he replied 'Baby Jesus'. He seems to think that because we are reading books about Baby Jesus and there is a baby in Mommy's belly that his little sister is going to be Baby Jesus. In subsequent conversations he elaborated her name to 'Baby Jesus the newborn king'. Well we don't have a name yet so it is on the list.... stay tuned.

We are very excited for the holidays and for the soon to be new addition to our lovely little family. Merry Christmas to all of you from Jan, Jamie, Adrian and Baby-to-be! Stay tuned for more excited news in the new year!!

Santa... love at first sight (this year).

Please excuse my blog slacking.... I am so exhausted these days that once I get supper made, Adrian bathed and in bed it is all I can do to prop myself up on the couch with a heating pad for an hour before I go to bed. I frequently think "I should go post some pictures" but that is as far as it goes. Only 12 more days of work left before I am off for a whole year and about one month until the baby is due. I am sure I'll have lots more time to blog then. (Yeah right.)

Our Christmas festivities are well underway. We didn't think that Adrian would like Santa based on his reaction last year and his extreme phobia of all dressed up creatures recently. He is also very shy all of the sudden and can burst into nervous tears if someone tries to talk to him at the mall. But to our surprise Adrian is in love with Santa. I guess he feels like he knows him personally because Santa is everywhere this time of year.

We have been to two Santa parades (Florenceville and Fredericton) and two Santa parties so far and Adrian loves him more and more every time he sees him. Our first Santa party was at Jayden's house and Santa came right to the window and banged on it and Adrian went running to the window and then to the door to great him. I was shocked. He ran up and gave Santa a big hug. Then Santa started passing out gifts and Adrian didn't know that he had to wait until his name was called so he ran up and grabbed the first gift he could get his hands on. It was priceless. He got to see Santa again that afternoon and he was an old pro that time.

So I am starting to realize why Christmas is so much fun with a little one around... it doesn't take much to get him excited. Just opening his daily advent calendar door provides big excitement (and I might add they don't make advent calendars like they used to in my day... the chocolate is about the size of penny and always square!) and a candy cane can just make his day. We are looking forward to the next 3 weeks of fun!

Adrian and Grampy U at the Florenceville parade... Adrian didn't understand why they kept throwing candy at him but he still talks about it to this day.

Meeting Santa for the first time after the parade at Jan's old Intermediate school. Ah the memories!

The bag of candy from Santa sealed the deal... Adrian and Santa are friends for life now.

Adrian and Abby waiting for Santa at Jan's office party. Adrian cannot contain himself (literally). I thought we were going to have a riot of pre-schoolers on our hands.

Watching Santa pass out gifts. Adrian is waiting at patiently as possible for his turn.

Skating

I went shopping with the girls in Bangor this past weekend and Jamie was left to entertain Adrian all weekend long. He thought that would be a good excuse to get Adrian on the ice for his first time. I am sorry to have missed it but love that it is something that they got to do together with the 'boys'. As with anything Adrian was very timid at first but once he warmed up to it he loved it. I am sure it is just the first of many many visits to the rink for them.

Aren't those little skates adorable!?!

Halloween (a.k.a candy day)

We had a delightful Halloween. The festivities began Wednesday night at my office's kids' party. Boy there sure are a lot of young kids at my office and they threw one heck of a party. Adrian was very spooked by the costumes at first (especially a scary ghost that seemed to be everywhere we went) but once he realized he could run around the office picking up treats everywhere he was happy again. And when his best pal Abby showed up he was extra happy. Adrian was a Boston Red Sox player this year as I know he wouldn't keep a store bought costume on, especially inside.

Here he is getting ready for the party... not really sure what to expect.


And finding Abby was an extra sweet treat!

As if that wasn't enough Halloween fun Adrian had another party at Lisa's on Friday. He came home with more candy and lots of Halloween crafts. We had a quick supper and then it was off again for some trick or treating around the subdivision. It was very cold that night and I quickly realized that a baseball player with a winter coat and mittens on just looks like a boy with a hat. So I dug into the closet and found his monkey costume from last year. He didn't want to wear it again this year until he realized how warm it was. Okay... check out my blog from last year and compare the pictures!!! (http://janunderhill.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html)

So Adrian and I were off trick or treating while Jamie stayed home and gave out treats. Adrian was timid at first but once he realized that he could just walk up to people's house and they gave him candy he didn't want to quit. We were out for a good 45 minutes and he walked the entire time. He was getting tired and impatient carrying a whole bag of perfectly good candy that he hadn't even sampled so we headed home. He also really enjoyed giving out candy at our house and would keep watch at the door for any 'kids coming'.

So we let Adrian dig into his treats and he was quite delighted. He wasn't sure why he was getting candy and staying up past his bed time but he liked it.

Here he is with all his treats (minus one that is on his face and hands)


And here he is enjoying a cold glass of milk and peanut butter cup after a hard night's work.

Surprisingly Adrian went to bed, an hour late and full of sugar with minimal fuss. We sure had a fun Halloween this year! Hope you did too. I will be glad when the Halloween rush is over and he stops asking for candy for every meal. I asked him what he wanted for breakfast this morning and he answered 'candy'.

Fall leaves... where did you go?

Fall seems to have come and gone very quickly. Or perhaps it is that I have been too busy to fully appreciate it. I love this time of year and have had good intentions of taking Adrian to the country pumpkin and out for a nice family fall drive. It doesn't look like it is going to happen. We have been so busy lately with illnesses, home renovations and just life in general that October has been a blur. Luckily we did make it out for an impromptu leaf session at Nanny and Grampy Jones a few weekends ago while the leaves were still if full swing. Adrian liked raking and jumping in the leaves. He did not like it when you threw leaves on his head though because one went down his shirt and he did not care for that at all.

So it is hard to believe that there are only 2 months of this year left. I am especially cognisant of that fact because our baby is coming early in 2009 (due Jan 8) and the clock is ticking. It is hard to believe that in about 2 months Adrian will be a big brother. I am trying to enjoy all of my uninterrupted time with him that I can right now. I am not sure he 100% understands what is going to happen but he does frequently point to the nursery (his old room) and says 'baby sleeps in there' so he must have some idea. We have been reading lots of books about babies and big brothers and he is cautiously curious about everything.

Sick

Well we have had quite the week at the Underhill-Jones household. It started Sunday after Adrian and I got back from Sunday school (his first time!)... he was sick to his stomach and we knew we were in trouble. From there on in we all ended up with the flu. Jamie got off easier than Adrian and I which is good because we always had one flu-free parent. I was home from work for 3 days and what a long 3 days they were.

Poor Adrian was still sick yesterday. He is getting so skinny from not eating. Hopefully he will be all better this weekend. He certainly seemed to have lots of energy this morning. Even the babysitter got the flu so Adrian got to spend the day with Grampy Jones. He was pretty excited about that!

My attempt to get Adrian to eat... homemade mini pumpkin muffins. He was just excited to carry them around.

Sears catalouge.... here comes Adrian!

We are having our windows replaced at the moment so they are all torn apart and it is cold and drafty in our house at night. I figured this was a good time to dig out Adrian's warm fleece PJs I picked up for him last year. He looked so darn adorable in them so I asked him to stand against the wall for a nice posed picture. He sure looks like a handsome (and warm) little guy, don't you think?

The funny part came after the first posed picture as he started trying out some new 'poses'. I don't know where he got these from but he is such a little ham. I think maybe I should stop letting him stay up to watch "America's Next Top Model" with me (kidding). Some of them are blurry because I was laughing so hard the entire time Of course that just egged him on all the more. These are just a few of the funny ones from his 'photo shoot'. These are so straight out of the Sears catalogue!

Diggers at our house - part 2.

This was the scene at our house last week. The novelty of living up close and personal with the construction vehicles has worn off and I am glad that they have moved on and we have our driveway back in working order! They are just down the street though so we still get to visit every night.

Men at work

A man's work is never done around our house. This fall is especially busy as not only are we preparing for winter but Jamie is trying to get the house ready for our renovations that start next week (new siding and windows). Luckily Jamie has some eager help.... and he even comes with his own tools!

Bubbles

Adrian likes his bubble baths all of the sudden. This picture makes me smile because I swear my Mom has one of me that looks exactly like this one.

Diggers at our house!?!

Our little subdivision is getting a whole new water system so there is a multitude of construction vehicles around these days. That is always the big topic of conversation all evening in our house (at least while Adrian is awake). They made it almost to our house last night so Adrian can actually see them from the front window which is nice (for me because I don't have to sit and watch 'diggers' for an hour each night). The downside: we probably won't be able to use our driveway for a few days.

I was going to do a whole photo shoot with Adrian and the construction vehicles last night but we had a pretty bad accident. Adrian was jumping on his bed and crashed into the headboard sending two of his sharp teeth out of his bottom lip. There was a lot of blood and even more crying but we managed to get it under control with the help of a wet face cloth and the diggers as distraction. I thought for sure we would be headed into the hospital for a stitch or two but it seemed much better about 20 minutes after the incident.

So for now, all I have is a picture of Adrian reenacting some digger action in his sandbox from last week.... stay tuned.

Firetrucks galore

We were fortunate enough to have Grampy and Grammy Underhill come up for the weekend to give Jan a little break. Adrian and his grandparents sure play each other out. Adrian was in bed a whole hour early last night after they left. He could barely keep his eyes open for story time. I am sure Grampy and Grammy were in bed early too!

Sunday afternoon we were headed to the park and we noticed a big crowd at the fire station... they were having an open house! Both Adrian and Grampy are firetruck fans (Grampy helped build some of them) so we lucked out on discovering that. I am not sure what it was the Adrian liked about them as he would just climb from one to the other and sit for a few minutes and then be off to the next vehicle. He sure didn't want to leave. (They also had free timbits to sweeten the deal.) And then on the drive home we ran across free bouncy castles down in Officer's Square! Wow... it doesn't get any better than that for entertaining Adrian.

Drained

It has been a busy couple of weeks... especially for me as Jamie has been out of town a lot. Taking care of Adrian, working, being pregnant and having a cold on top of everything has really drained my energy levels. I'll be glad when Jamie gets back from Toronoto on Tuesday.

Adrian has been a busy boy lately and is very entertaining. He is just starting to play independently (which couldn't have come at a better time) and will draw at his desk, play with his sandbox or in the tub for a good 20 minutes with minimal supervision. I just have to be careful if it gets too quiet... that's when I know something's up!!!

FREX 2008

We weren't going to but we were bored Monday afternoon and decided to brave the FREX. I have to admit that in the almost 10 years that I have been here I have never taken in the FREX activities. I am really not into crowds these days but once we waited 20 minutes to get in it really wasn't that bad. It helped that Adrian didn't really want to go on any of the rides! We did get him in the bouncy castle (he LOVES it, even when there are scary big kids bouncing) and on the merry-go-round which he thought was okay but perhaps a little boring.

He loved the animals as predicted. He got to feed some at the petting zoo area and then see the massive livestock in the barns. I honestly didn't know that horses could get that big! Impressive. We got to watch a baby calf with his Mommy which was cute (and more my speed).

And perhaps the most exciting part of FREX 2008? The tractor display of course!!! Amazingly there weren't any lineups to see that. (-;

A great way to spend a cool but sunny September afternoon. We'll probably be back next year!