I forgot to mention on my last post that Eli started solids on Thanksgiving Day- Yay for food! Of course, we held back on offering him the turkey and sweet potatoes, but we did offer him some lovely rice cereal. We gave the first feeding privilege to my dad as he loves, loves feeding babies. I must say, he is quite good at it even though Eli was less than interested. I don't have any pictures from this to post as my brother did the honors and he has yet to send me copies. Here's a video taken a few weeks later. I think more ends up being spit out than actually ingested. And to be truthful, the amount consumed hasn't really improved! This has been a really huge difference between Caleb and Eli. Caleb took to food like crazy and absolutely loved it. He rarely refused food and would eat and eat and eat. Eli, on the other hand, takes just a couple of bites and readily lets you know he is done.
One of the great things about a 3 year old is they are really into events. Caleb loved seeing the decorations go up for Christmas and was more than thrilled to help decorate the Christmas tree. He thought it was a daily job, however, as he could not leave the tree alone! A week or so after it had been up, most of the lower third of the tree was void of ornaments as Caleb was continually moving them so Jeremy had to move them up to the top of the tree.
Jeremy and I (and Eli) missed out on my family's Christmas celebration due to a horrible stomach bug. The bug bit Caleb (and several of his school classmates) a couple of days before we got it. Jeremy loves to share the fact that he knew he would get sick because the night Caleb got sick he threw up on Jeremy's face. Anyway, it was not a fun day for us but we were relieved that my mom took charge of Caleb for the day so he could have Christmas with them and open his presents but we sure did hate to miss sharing it with him and everyone else. I think his favorite gift was the oreo cookies my mom put in his stocking! Interesting note, my mom, dad and brother Luke all came down with the bug as well as Jeremy's mom. I felt like we were a germ mine! When Jeremy picked Caleb up the next day (my mom was wonderful enough to let Caleb spend the night with them, which is likely why she got sick) he couldn't wait to help us open our gifts. (I'll remind you I was just recovering from the sickness in these pictures!) He did the same for Pat and Russ when they came over to celebrate with us a couple of days later.
Christmas Day was a nice morning for us. Caleb woke us up early as usual. When he noticed the gifts under the tree he said something like "Who are the presents for?" I'm not against Santa or anything like that, but I have not pushed Caleb into believing anyone other than the person giving him the gift is responsible for giving it to him. We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and lit a candle to celebrate (Caleb really associates birthdays with candles, so we thought it would be a good way for him to make the connection.) We then opened our gifts and then invited my parents and brother over to eat breakfast with us.
Pre gift-opening
A football! Jeremy knew just what to get Caleb- this was by far his favorite gift!
Eli loved his new gift for his first Christmas so much he fell asleep in it!
Jeremy was quite pleased to eat lunch at my parents later that afternoon before he headed off to work. We had missed the good food from the family celebration due to our sickness (nothing tasted good then) so this more than made up for it!
Oh the anticipation! It was funny trying to convince Caleb of the need for layering one's clothing.
Angel-making anyone? Not enough snow to fall backwards onto the ground without giving yourself a concussion.
Didn't really want to be in this picture either.
Check out that snow outfit!
We checked, there were no sleds size 6-9 months.
Bringing out the big guns! This was Jeremy's family's sled when he was growing up. Worked like a charm!
Eli, "I am so over this snow thing."
And they're off!
The picture that ended it all!
