From Building Leaf Piles to Snowpiles (and snowmen, too)

Dear Nathan and Hannah, 

This week has been quite busy as we prepare for the Christmas season. I've decided that we will be putting out just a few of the Christmas decorations because truthfully, I just don't have the time and energy to put everything away after the holidays are over. 

The weather has continued to stay nice...(until recently, I'll explain later)but we have been spending more time than I would like inside. 

Last Friday, I brought home a project from my MOPS meeting that I didn't get to finish. I had you two help me out while Hailey supervised.

You two took turns hammering and only a few fingers were smashed. 

 Nathan, you've gotten pretty good with nailing things down yourself. You don't even need the clothespin to help you hold the nail down.

 The end product turned out nicely. You two are very proud of your work and exclaimed that it looked just like our tree. There's even a nice clump of ornaments at the base of this one too!

 Afterwards, we brought out the Bear-nativity set and started to set it out.

Another day we stayed home and decorated gingerbread houses. We normally have friends over and make it a party, but this year, we had a free afternoon where Hailey was taking a good nap, so Hannah and I baked some cookies. It turns out the next day, we receive an invite to a gingerbread house decorating party - our friends decided to carry on the tradition! 

A few days later, I picked up a few bags of candy, made a bunch of frosting and we all sat down to make our own gingerbread house. Note to self for next time: Decorate the walls first, then, assemble the house. 

 I had to keep a close watch on you two because occasionally, someone would sneak a piece of candy or suck frosting out of the piping bag...

 In the end, I love how they all turned out. Nathan's had 3 D features like a tree out front.

 And Hannah's looked like someone dropped a bunch of candy right on the house. Very cute.

 The next night, I looked the other way as I let you two break apart your house for consumption. Aaah, so much sugar!!!

Another night we made sushi for dinner. One evening we decided to go out to a new japanese fusion restaurant for dinner and you guys (specifically Hannah) wanted sushi very badly, but knowing how picky you two were about what is inside your sushi, we promised that we would make our own that week. You two scarfed 2 cups of rice down quickly, leaving very little for Daddy and I... we had to look for other things to eat when ya'll were finished. 

 You all tend to make these giant burrito sized sushi. One entire piece took up Hannah's palm

 and it took you several bites to finish one piece.

The weather reached 80 degrees one day this week, so Daddy took you two to the Veloway to go bike riding. We were hesitant on taking you two, but Nathan, you insisted that you would be able to finish the course and you did 1.5 times. 

 Afterwards, you guys came home and raked some leaves and then that evening we met up with some friends to celebrate Hannah's baptismal birthday.

 It was fun times. Live music, delicious food, great friends, and beautiful weather.

On Saturday, I was working downstairs while you two were playing upstairs. I would hear "blasts" and "let's go fight bad guys" and "I want to be the princess!" ...ok, all normal. But then I hear loud thumps, so I go upstairs to investigate. I think this photo perfectly captures what was going on. 

 You two were twirling to fight bad guys. Nathan decided to jump and twirl off of a step stool because your "tutu" acts like a parachute and it slows your descent. Maybe...

 It's interesting to see you two integrate your interests. Hannah, you are Ok with playing cars and transformers, and will even help Nathan find pieces for his legos, and Nathan, you are Ok with putting a skirt on, and with playing prince charming when Hannah wants to play dolls.

Hailey, you had your 2 month check up. Besides getting 3 shots and crying, you did pretty well. We found out that you are in the 100th percentile in height and 26th percentile in weight. You are one long baby!

 Sleep, however is not going very well. I don't think you are sleeping enough. All the books say that you should be getting between 14 and 17 hours at this point of your life, but you are averaging about 13, lately 12. You often will wake up 10 minutes after I put you down. If you make it past 10, the next interval of wakefulness is 30 minutes. So the frustrating part is that I can sometimes spend more time getting you to fall asleep than you actually spend asleep.

One night, you did sleep for a 5 hour stretch. I was very hopeful that you would give me another 5 hour stretch the next night, but you went back to you 2 hr. and 22 minutes (average) stretch of night sleep. Last night, they were closer to 3 hours, so I'll take that for now.

Everywhere you go, people comment on how large your eyes are and how alert you look. When I take you out, people comment on how big you are for 2 months and when you smile at them, people just melt.

You still hate riding in the carseat, although there have been a handful of rides where you will be content for about 10 minutes before you start to cry. This usually happens when we take a ride after you are fed and rested.

Tonight, December 7th, 2017, it snowed in Austin, TX. We got about 2" of snow. Good for building snowballs and snowmen.

 You two were so excited as you ran around scooping snow up and throwing it at each other and me. I got to play with you guys for a bit and then Daddy came out and built two snowmen with you two.

 Nathan, you came in and after warming up, you complained that your hands still hurt. But when you found out that Hannah was going back outside to play, you told me that you wanted to go outside and make 1 more snowball and then come back inside, something told me that you were going to make a few more snowballs than 1.

We let you two play outside for about an hour, up to your bedtime because come on, how often does it snow in Austin?

Daddy's going to take 2 weeks of his paternity leave starting tomorrow, so I'm sure we'll get to do fun stuff next week with him. Until then,

Love,
Mommy