Big Eater

Our big boy has graduated from baby food to table food. I am so excited since he is my first baby to really love avocado and banana! That makes it much easier to switch him to table food. His typical breakfast is a whole banana, cut up, and some plain cheerios. For dinner he often eats half/whole avocado and half/whole banana. Or if I am cooking sweet potato or winter squash, he has that instead of the avocado. This boy loves to eat!

Happy 5th Birthday, Stephen! (deferred)

Stephen's birthday was really last Sunday, but several of us were still sick/recovering from illness, including him. So we decided to defer celebration to this Sunday. He requested breakfast for lunch, and then we finished it off with brownie bottom ice cream sundaes. It was enjoyed by all, including Pawapaw and Manah. It was so hard not to be able to celebrate our sweet boy last week. He has been counting the days til his birthday for months now. His party got postponed too. He did open gifts last week, but it just isn't the same when you can't be together to sing and eat! I was so glad we could celebrate some today.

We are so thankful for our Stephen. You are such as sweet, generous, talkative boy. You are full of energy and love! I am so thankful to be your mommy and watch you grow!

yum yum...

We also opened our Christmas gifts to and from our own little family since it is the Feast of the Holy Family today.

And the girls have been enjoying these pillow crafts from Lito and Lita! So fun!

Merry Christmas!

We had mass Christmas Eve where Allia and Mariana sang with the children's choir. Allia's choir director gave her a quick lesson on organ, and she played one of her piano pieces as a prelude. She also cantered the psalm and sang a verse of the Communion Antiphon, as did Mariana. We were so proud of them. The mass was very beautiful, and we had a lot to be thankful for with everyone well and Pawpaw and Manah here for their first Christmas as locals!

This morning, Austin and Allia generously sang for mass again since they were short on musicians. The rest of us had a yummy pancake breakfast and headed to Pawpaw and Manah's to open gifts, where Daddy and Allia joined us.

Then we headed home to open the gifts Lito and Lita sent. We wish they could be here too!

We had a yummy lunch with pie and a birthday cake for Jesus after. Looking forward to continuing the celebration!

9 Months Old!

Our big boy is 9 months old today, on Christmas! And just in time, he started whispering the name of Jesus this week when he sees a crucifix. It is the sweetest thing ever! It sounds like "tsst, tssah".

You are such a JOY, Sebastian! We are so happy to spend Christmas with you this year!

Illness

This sums up our advent this year. We had two rounds of the stomach bug, I had some other tummy issues going on, and amid all of that, Sebastian had a random very high fever that almost sent us to the hospital! We did a lot of cleaning and will be on a regimen of sleep and vitamins for a while so that hopefully we can stay well and enjoy the beautiful Christmas season! We did make it to a few Christmas parties, etc. but missed a few as well. And Stephen's entire birthday celebration, party and family day, was postponed. Poor guy...but he was one of the sick ones! At least we were able to go to Christmas Eve mass together! I was starting to wonder...

This guy willingly accepted Manah as a substitute for a bit. Sweet little boy. He was just pitiful!

Christmas Piano Recital

"It's the Most Wonderful(ly busy) Time of the Year"

It has been quite a week. We started out with an all night vigil Monday, as Anastasia took her turn with the stomach bug. :p Then we had two Christmas parties for Austin's work and a whole host of other things going on, with the finale being the girls' piano recital today. They played beautifully! It was worth the effort even though we were exhausted!

Allia really nailed this piece. I was so proud that I actually "hooted" at the end of her performance instead of just clapping. I am totally a clapper, but I just couldn't help it!

Festive Weekend!

What a weekend! We celebrated St. Nicholas day Saturday, our anniversary Sunday and now Immaculate Conception today.

I love the simple joy of opening the stockings...just a few little special items, and the children take such care (sort of in contrast to the crazy explosion of gift opening on Christmas!). It was nice that Daddy didn't have to rush off to work afterwards this year too.

First Haircut!

I caved in and gave Sebastian his first haircut today! He is definitely our earliest to need one...although if he had been a girl he could have gone much longer. That was the problem. He was starting to look like a girl! The hair on top was hanging into his eyes, and I measured the hair I cut that was hanging over his ears...almost an inch! I tried to make it as subtle as possible. I am not ready for him to look like he has enlisted in the army yet...just don't want him to be ready for pony tails!

I did around his ears while nursing him and had to play Neverland Pirates on Netflix (he actually tries to watch this when it is playing for the other children) to get him to keep his head still for a bit so I could trim the back and top!