Puffs

A couple of weeks ago at the little Christmas party at school, Andrew tried his first puff. At first, we would put one in his mouth and he wasn't thrilled about this new thing. New texture, new taste...icky. His less-than-thrilled expression was captured here.
Since, he's gotten better at picking them up himself and putting them in his mouth. And he actually enjoys them!

Billy Mays and the Big City Slider Station

I don't know how many of you know what I'm talking about. But, that man, Billy Mays, the man who yells and sells everything these days, from Oxy Clean to Mighty Putty, has started selling something called a Big Slider thing that makes mini-hamburgers. The commercial is all over the TV. And every time it comes on Austin asks us "Do you want to get that?" We haven't mentioned wanting this this or even made mini-hamburgers in a normal way for Austin to be asking us this. We've asked him if he wants us to get it. Maybe he's trying to tell us that he wants a mini-hamburger??

First movement

Andrew has made his first official crawling movement. He was after a small toy. He's been getting up on his hands and knees for the last few days, but that's been as far as he's gotten. Today, he commando crawled just a little.

Christmas family picture

I can't believe we actually got a decent family picture on Christmas!
Snapfish:Photo:Shared

November photography session

Now that Christmas is over, I can share some pictures we had taken in November when Andrew was 6 months old.

Joke telling

Austin has started telling us jokes. At least, he thinks they are jokes. Essentially, he sees things around the house or in the car and makes a joke or a punchline out of it. He told these at the dinner table the other night.

How does a monkey swing from a banana? From eating a snowman!

How does a crocodile eat snowflakes? From eating all of the napkins!

6:15 a.m.

Our Christmas morning started at 6:15 a.m. Austin's an early riser even on non-Christmas mornings. He ran into our room and said, "It's Christmas Eve! I so excited!" And we all came downstairs. Andrew was still asleep, so we got started with Austin and Santa. Once Andrew woke up, it was nuts. It took about 3 hours to open everything starting with the kids (must open everything to keep them occupied). Finally, Gene and I opened our presents about 3 hours after "Christmas" officially started.

Andrew, pooped already

One of Andrew's most favorite things...wrapping paper!

Austin and his batcaveOne of Austin's favorite things from Santa...a toy tornado

Santa's arrival and Hermey's departure

On Christmas Eve (prior to the spanking), Austin and I made cookies for Santa and Hermey. We cut out cookies, iced and sprinkled cookies for Santa. We left plain ones for Hermey. The large circle cookies were for Santa because "his belly is big." By the time Austin and Andrew went to bed, we had three plates: one for Santa with his 4 large iced cookies, one for Hermey with two plain cookies, and one for the reindeer with celery and carrots. We put the cookies plates (and a small cup of milk) on the coffee table for Santa and Hermey. The reindeer plate we placed on the doormat on the porch because Austin said reindeer don't come inside. How else would they get their food?

Christmas Eve rebellion

We entered the final push for being good because Santa Claus is watching you. Well, Austin has been testing us lately, both our patience and our tempers. There have been various things over the last few weeks (i.e. throwing blocks at school, pushing down someone at school, etc.) that have caused us to cut out TV and issue time outs. The stickers on the calendar for good behavior obviously doesn't have the same draw that it did a month or so ago. Neither does the prospect of a trip to the dollar store for a treat for behaving (for the most part) for 10 consecutive days. Today, on Christmas Eve of all days, it finally came to a head.

I've always said that every couple of months we have to have a "come to Jesus meeting" and today was the day. We'd told Austin repeatedly that we weren't going to watch Charlie Brown's Christmas until after dinner. Well, of course that didn't meet with his approval. So, a fit was pitched and Austin got a spanking. That's right. On Christmas Eve. We'd done and said everything to avoid that but sometimes it just comes to that. Hopefully, this will be it for a while.

No longer "supported sitter"

Andrew's been working on sitting up by himself for the last few weeks. He would sit up for a minute or two and then tip over probably because he's such a large baby, in weight and height, that it just takes more to hold himself up. He finally got the hang of it in the last couple of days. He's even gotten himself from laying down to a sitting position a few times. He still completely loves the bows on the presents under the tree. Don't be surprised if one of your gifts was attacked by a 7 month old baby. You'll know yours has been a victim by the lack of bow or if the bow is crushed.

All kinds of things

Sorry for being M.I.A. lately with pictures. It's been so busy around our house getting ready for the big guy. Here are some recent pictures of the Andrew from school.

Jingle bell circle

For Austin's Christmas program, his class sang various Christmas songs. It was perhaps the cutest thing I've ever seen. The teachers had set up risers in the school's multipurpose room, the kids painted white t-shirts to look like Rudolph with their hands for the antlers, and the kids filed in. They sang Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and We Wish You A Merry Christmas.

Austin loves singing Christmas music. Every day, we've been listening to it in the car. One of his favorite songs is Jingle Bell Rock. He changes the words though. The real lyric is "Dancing and prancing in jingle bell square." Austin has changed it to: "Dancer and Prancer in jingle bell circle."

Hermey's latest

As we're winding down Hermey's visit, he's gotten more adventurous. One night, he unrolled the toilet paper in Austin and Andrew's bathroom. Another night, he pulled out all of Austin's underwear and socks and threw them on the floor. Last night, he was in the "snow" at the top of the stairs.

Hermey goes home on Christmas Eve and we're trying to prepare Austin for his departure. I'm sure he'll be sad to see his friend go, but there's always next year!

What a week!

The week began with Andrew's Christmas party at school on Monday. Tuesday, as I was getting Andrew out of the car at school, Austin was standing on the sidewalk and proceeded to throw up. I got both kids back into the car and took them home for the day. Tuesday afternoon, I took Andrew to the doctor; he'd been pulling at his ear and had a goopy eye. Diagnosis? Ear infection and pink eye. On Wednesday, Andrew stayed home while Austin went back to school. Thursday we were actually back into the routine. But, today, Austin had his Christmas program and party at school. All that to say, the Fambrough house is pooped!

7 months old (already?)

Andrew is officially 7 months old. As you can imagine, he's into EVERYTHING. He's attacked the cat, the presents under the tree, and is presently trying to bite my sock foot. So weird. Anyway, I measured Andrew with the tape measure. This is a hard thing to do since he wants to roll over and scoot around. Based on my measurement, he's 31 inches long which supports my belief that they measured him wrong at his 6 month appointment. It just didn't seem right that he was only 28 3/4 inches. And I just weighed the big man. He weighs 21 pounds. Now, my scale isn't calibrated like doctor scales, but that's quite the weight for a 7 month old. Based on this weight, I made the right decision to purchase 18 month onesies yesterday. That's right...18 month clothes for a 7 month old baby.

Smiley or frowny face

Last week, I had two conferences at the school, one for Andrew (the typical 6 month) and for Austin. Andrew's was uneventful; what could they say except that he's just the perfect angel? Austin's wasn't as smooth. We've had trouble with Austin at school really since Andrew was born, but things have gotten better. He still has some issues with focusing his attention and getting distracted with things and listening to his teachers. So, we've devised as system. There is a small sheet of paper with a smiley and a frowny face on it with a place for comments. At the end of every day, Austin has to circle what kind of day he had, a good (smiley) day or a bad (frowny) day. We've done this for 3 days, 2 of which he received a smiley face. Yesterday, however, he got a frowny face for not listening to his teachers and jumping around at nap time.

We used this opportunity to have Hermey not do anything based on Austin's behavior. But, he did write Austin a note to explain. "Austin, I was sad about your bad day at school today, so I think I will just go to sleep tonight. Please be a good boy next week so I can play again! Love, Hermey." We'll see if this works.

Various

Things are quite busy these days around our house mostly because of the holidays. Needless to say, blogging has been the last thing on my mind. Here are various updates from around our household.

• Hermey's been busy. He went with Austin to school on Wednesday and today. Last night he wrote "Ho, ho, ho" with toothpaste in the sink. We laughed at this, of course. And Austin said, "I can't stop laughing!"
• Andrew's busy too. He loves pulling the bows off presents and he has gotten into our Nativity scene under the tree. And, today, he enjoyed playing with his school friends' feet! Andrew has also discovered the cats. He's fascinated by them and watches them and plays with their fur.

Hermey brings gifts

Saturday night Hermey brought Austin the first of two surprise gifts: candy canes. Austin said "I've been waiting for these!" Who knew that two candy canes would bring such joy? Last night, Hermey brought Austin a tin of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer hot chocolate. And there was Hermey, shoved down inside of a big mug.

Break through

Andrew's first tooth finally broke through today! Maybe now he won't be quite so miserable although for a miserable, teething, drooly, snotty baby, he's been in a pretty good mood. It seems like forever ago that he first shoved his hand in his mouth and started gnawing.

Hermey update

After forgetting to feed, water, and sprinkle Hermey the other night, Austin's been quick to remind me that we have to take care of Hermey before going up for bed. On Thursday night, Hermey stayed up playing Austin's computer game. Last night, Hermey managed to get into Austin's pajama drawer. Austin didn't realize that Hermey was in there so when he got up this morning he just closed the drawer. We had to go into Austin's room to get something and we opened the drawer and found Hermey inside.

This close to crawling

Andrew is pretty close to crawling these days. He's scooting around in a circle to see things (i.e. me, Austin, Gene, the cats, etc.). He's not sitting up unsupported yet I think because he's just such a big, tall baby. When he is sitting up and we let go, he slowly tips over. Oh well. He'll be sitting up (and crawling) before I know it. Watch out Austin and cats!

The elf latest

Hermey's been all over the place the last few days. One night, he was upside down in Austin's stocking. The next night, he pulled off all of the cushions off the furniture in the living room and was sitting on top of them.

Unfortunately, last night we forgot to feed, water, and sprinkle Hermey. He did not come to life and do anything. Austin was disappointed, of course, but he's made it a point to remind me tonight that we need to "do" Hermey. Hopefully, we won't forget again.

Hermey's super funny

Austin woke Gene up this morning with "Daddy, come see what Hermey did. It's really super funny!" When I came downstairs, Austin told me that Hermey banged on our bedroom door, snuck into our room, got Austin's school napper, banged on Austin's bedroom door and snuck into his room, and had a slumber party with Nemo.