Thursday, December 25, 2008

Christmas #2

Wow! After all the weeks of dreading Christmas (because of the boys behavior in the past surrounding any type of celebration) it was a wonderful day! I don't know who put what in their hot chocolate last night, but it sure did the trick! They woke up happy, were calm but excited to open their gifts, shared with each other without being required to and were happy until at least 3pm when I left for work. We went to Chinese buffet for lunch with all of our children and they were well behaved there too. They ate the food they put on their plates, didn't make a huge mess, sat still, didn't complain about anything and were able to converse with each other and us. Amazing! Now I want it to be Christmas everyday! :)
Jonathan and Bethany came over last night and slept on the couches so they could be here early for the opening of gifts. We had a good time watching the boys open their gifts and a good breakfast of french toast and bacon. Plenty of playing with new toys and cleaning up the wrapping paper mess. All in all, the best holiday we have ever had with them. Hope your day was special too.
Karen







Friday, December 19, 2008

When will the Holidays be over?!

Dan keeps asking me if I've blogged - (as if he doesn't have fingers to type) so I'm taking advantage of the fact that everyone is in bed and I'm not sleepy to do a little update.

Christmas is coming and it certainly is obvious in the behavior of the boys. All we have in the way of decorations at our house is a tree with lights. We haven't even put ornaments on yet, but just having the tree up seems to have been enough to get them excited. Here's recap of the events of Tuesday to give you a taste of what it's like at our house lately.
1. Juan Pablo found a burning candle in my bathroom, lit a piece of paper and melted part of
the toilet seat with it.
2. Juan was mad about having to do his schoolwork, so he poked Andrew's leg with his pencil
(through his pants) and punctured his skin.
3. Maicol shot me in the face with his Nerf gun.
4. Maicol and Juan broke a lightbulb in one of the pendant lights over the kitchen counter.
5. Juan took a toy sled and put the rope from it around Andrew's neck and was trying to
make him follow him by pulling on the rope.
6. Neither one of them could sit still and do their schoolwork. It took them all day to finish
what should have been 2 hours worth of assignments.
7. And last night while I was rocking Andrew I discovered the "thump" I was hearing was
Juan throwing a 2-lb dumbell weight from his bed across the room and hitting the wall
putting little dents in the drywall.
I finally sat Juan on a stool in the kitchen so I could keep an eye on him and sent Maicol outside to play by himself. Why and how do they think of the things they do?! I know that alot of it is just the excitement of Christmas coming, but they were driving me crazy that day! And so they went to bed early, becuase I hope to keep the house and myself intact a little longer! :)

We haven't had much snow, but have had some ice. The boys have been sliding down the neighbor's driveway on their sleds. The ice is evidently faster than snow and is alot of fun. They are still anxiously awaiting enough snow to really sled. They still watch the weather daily to see if there is any chance of a big snow coming.

Wish there we something more interesting to say. The days continue to speed by. Maicol's behavior and attitude are improving. He still struggles with comprehending the permanence of being a part of our family and having a mom forever, but I think he is slowly allowing himself to relax and enjoy it. We're not always as much "fun" as he would like, but then that wouldn't be reality either would it? Juan Pablo continues to show his creativity. Today he was using garage door opener boxes to make race cars and space ships to play with Andrew. He and Andrew spend alot of time playing together and generally get along very well. Andrew is growing up! He isn't going to be the "baby" much longer. His vocabulary is growing rapidly and we are enjoying him so much.

Until next time....
Andrew and Maicol playing with K'nex.
Biggest brother and littlest brother.

Andrew with my Uncle Ted. I'm pretty sure he believes that Uncle Ted is Santa, otherwise I don't think he would have been so affectionate.


When I went in to check on them the other night this is where I found Andrew. Obviously not in his bed!