Christmas Fun

We had a fun Christmas this year. All my brothers and sisters made it to the homestead for Christmas Eve. It was crazy at my parent's house but the kids were constantly being entertained by one of the many aunts and uncles. I post a ton of pictures on facebook, so all I've uploaded here is one of the Christmas card mishaps. JR took wonderful pictures, but the older child would not cooperate even with promises of Dora, Diego, M&Ms, and painting!

Some of my favorite memories of this past Christmas:

• the way that EB said "kissmas"
• EB's diligence at pointing out all the kissmas lights
• watching EB make snowmen with her Dad and uncles
• trying to prevent an overly excited 2 year old from opening any and all presents! (thank goodness JR was not really into opening presents because EB was loving the ripping of the wrapping paper!)
• watching JR just watch my parent's Christmas tree - I guess we probably could have gotten our own, but we didn't want to chance it since JR was walking pretty well by that time and feared that he might tip the tree over!

Boo!

I can't believe it's been almost four months since my last post. It's amazing how fast life zooms by when there are two little ones to keep track of! My goal is to get caught up before JR's first birthday (only two weeks away, yikes!).

Even though we are deep into winter, I thought I would go back to my favorite holiday - Halloween! EB was a zebra and was very excited about the tail on her costume. The best part of trick or treating this year was watching EB's eyes get so wide each time the candy went into her bag. After each house she would ask if we could "do it again?!" I think she shares her mom's love of all things Halloween - especially pumpkins! She was very excited to pick out a pumpkin of her own. Maybe next Halloween we will actually get to carve them!

The Haircut...

As most of you know, I apparently have something against cutting a baby's hair in the first year. EB was almost 2 years old before her first haircut. I was really hoping to at least hold out for a full year with JR. However, his hair seems to be growing 3 times as fast as EB's and I made a deal with Chad that we could cut his hair after his 6 month pictures. So here is what my little boy looked like the week before his pictures.

OK - I'll admit he looks a bit shaggy now that I have the clarity of time. But he's my little guy and haircuts mean he's growing up and I just couldn't / didn't want to admit that at the time. I was even more unprepared for what was to happen next. I took JR in for his photos on a Tuesday morning and then went to work. When I came home from work I found this-

I think he is just as shocked in that photo as I was! I wish I had a better side view because he had a full on mullet. So I had to do something about it - so I trimmed it and ended up with this --

So clearly I am not a hair dresser and should stick to my current line of work. What you can't see is that the very back of his head has not been touched by our kitchen shears yet because neither of us knew what to do (not that either of us should have attempted this in the first place)! So off to the professionals I went and I think we landed in a good spot.
I still miss the shaggy head of hair my little guy used to have, but he is the cutest little man now!

Missing Summer!

All this rain is making us a little stir crazy at the Gallager house. So I thought I'd make my own sunshine!

Coming next post - JR's first haircut experience! The before, during, and after are a sight to be seen.

Full Day Fridays are back... sniff, sniff

For those of you not familiar, Kate's work has a wonderful benefit called summer hours. Basically Friday's are half days and therefor only require a half-day of vacation to have the full day off. With the passing of Labor Day, we are now back to full day Fridays and 2 day weekends. I don't think the kids will have as hard a time adjusting as Mom and Dad!

We've had a very busy summer and I am desperately playing catch up in all aspects of life right now. So here are some pictures from August. JR is getting very big and is on the verge of crawling forward (he's mostly mastered backwards and getting places he wants to go by rolling). EB is mostly toilet trained. We decided to give it a serious go over the Labor Day weekend and I would say she's been 80% successful. She does a great job telling us when she needs to "go". We've still got some challenges - making it through the night (especially since she's always asking for something to drink right before bedtime).

EB is also quite the talker. Things often heard in our house from EB:

• Mom/Dad can I go fishing? (wonder who taught her this one?)
• I want to catch a biiiiiiiiiiiig fiiiiiiiish
• I want to catch a muskie (again, I wonder where this one came from)
• I watch movies (pronounced moo-bees - which is what she calls all her shows - Dora, Mickey, ect.)
• Eat cake!? - said after you inform her that we are going to an upcoming friend/relatives birthday part.

5 months old

At the Children's Museum

Infant/Toddler room at the Children's Museum

Chillin' at the park - seems irritated that I am only pushing EB in the swing!

More chillin' at the park - seems she has quite the rough life.

Loves to swing - even on slides!

Look who has soft fur Daddy!

Elizabeth was caught white handed today, she thought it would be a good idea to open a jar of skin cream. Daddy was feeding baby Jon and thus vulnerable to her mischievous ways. Unfortunately, Jetta was the victim of the Elizabeth's crime...Poor puppy.

My oh my, 5 months already!

I can't believe my little man is 5 months already. He is getting so big and all that hair is just plain crazy! While his sleeping through the night skills are lacking, he makes up for it with his exceptional cuteness and myriad of facial expressions.

Other notable 5 month memories:

• very good at rolling to his stomach
• getting better at rolling to his back
• able to scoot/scrunch/roll across the floor
• has the cutest pouty face I have ever seen - it is amazing how far out that lower lip can go!
• able to lift his head off the floor
• can't quite sit up by himself - still very tippy!
• not a pacifier baby at all - but does like to suck on his hands, bibs, clothes, blankets, toys
• super smiley - especially when his sister entertains him
• likes to sit in the high chair while we eat meals
• is very chatty, and as we like to say, "gives you the business"
• starting to grow out of the swing (sniff, sniff) and into the exersaucer (yeah!)
• still not sure on eye color: maybe green or blue or could still turn brown like big sis