It's only just begun...

Kaden and friends up above. The twins are about a year and a half older, and have much fun figuring him out. Generally, they're getting the hang of "gentle" and have quit poking him the eye! What's much fun now is that Kaden is aware of them, and starting to try and join them in their play. We'll see how excited/tolerant they are when he's mobile enough to mess their stuff up!

And because I forgot to post it two weeks ago, here's Kaden at 5 months. He's now a bit more reachy, grabby, and generally more squirmy than ever before! Church is a bit less of a long reflective time and more of snatched prayers between bouncing him away from the hymnals.

Kaden's Christmas gift to us last week? TWO - yes, one and then another, TWO nights of 12 straight hours of sleep. We'll take 'em, because the rest of the time he's a bit more fussy about going to bed or being t-i-r-e-d in general. We're thinking a tooth or two might make an appearance soon.

And here's to 2009! May we all be blessed with health, happiness, and the courage to widen our circle of friends :)

Santa Baby

Here's Kaden figuring out how to open presents...



And try the gifts out...



You'd think he was confused all night!

But by Christmas morning, he got the hang of it:

Somehow, we missed the photos of Kaden eating the wrapping paper- generally, his favorite activity of the day. Maybe because we ran out of battery juice?! Here's a short take on how Christmas morning went:

Merry Christmas to all...

Three hours of wrapping, arranging and straightening up and I'm still in the Christmas mood. Must be the Spirit, eh?

While many folks have asked, I didn't really reflect a lot on this being Kaden's first Christmas. Until tonight, that is. I chased family off to bed early so I could start, um, FINISH my wrapping. Baby K woke up just after midnight, a tad hungry and really wet. Feeding him by the light of the tree was pretty neat. He watched the lights when he started, but soon drifted off. His little fingers were wrapped over my thumb, helping me hold the bottle. I can't help but think of next Christmas, and the one after that, and the next. Where will we be? Will he still be holding my hand? How big will those little fingers grow each year? I'm trying to fix this image, this feeling, in my mind. This is Peace.

7 Quick Takes

I'm totally stealing this from Aimee and I may have gotten the rules wrong, but here goes:

1. When I'm done with this, we're running out for more formula as the can is almost empty and I'm tempting fate the longer I wait...

2. While we're out, we may buy a tree. And lights. This seems like a good weekend for decorating, yes?

3. All Kaden wants for Christmas is post it notes. It's the only thing keeping him from typing with me right now, and entertained him for 20 minutes last night. Seriously- don't believe me?

See for yourself:

4. I SHOULD have taken pics of the piles o' laundry- I mean gifts. But I didn't. Maybe one of my sister in laws will save me and send a digital pic along when they open the box.

5. The only thing worse, possibly, than disappointing recycled wrapping is wrapping a young boy's stuff in this:

Look closely my friends, and you'll see the pretty flowers are actually whisky bottles. I ran out of regular paper midnight before the mailing deadline-- and used this stuff. I'm hoping they won't notice. I think they read this, though. Most likely, they'll post about how weird I am!

6. I agree with Aimee- Lindts chocolate is good stuff. Thanks to my Aunt Jeanne for introducing us to them. Actually, she introduced my mom, who was kind enough to share, and now they magically appear each Christmas...

7. I am running out of time, as the post its are no longer distracting the babe.

TTFN!

ps- is it me, or does the whisky paper look kinda pretty from a distance??