Clara's First Bath

Clara's umbilical cord fell off awhile ago, but it was only today that we decided she really needed a real bath. She wasn't a fan. I think part of the problem was I followed the advice about making the water as warm as what feels comfortable on your wrist/elbow. Which to an adult or even a toddler, is cold/luke warm water. Clara seems more a fan of the warmer water. I used something that felt more comfortable to me to rinse her hair and, though the word happy would definitely be a stretch, she seemed less miserable. Joshua watched and didn't seem sure why Clara wasn't recognizing the awesome that is water playtime.

Merry Christmas!

Today most people in our house woke up early. Not Jason since he normally stays up with Clara so I can go to bed early and get up with Joshua. Both Terrence and Joshua were a little bit impatient with him, but Terrence more so than Joshua. We'll see if next year is the year someone in our house is more excited about presents than Terrence.

After Jason woke up, we had a great Christmas morning of unwrapping and playing followed by a Christmas dinner of Sauerbraten.

Merry Christmas Eve, Happy One Month Birthday

Today we had a nice and relaxing Christmas Eve. During the day we just hung out at home. Today is Clara's one month birthday. Last week at the doctor she was 6 lbs, 4 oz, which is a full pound heavier than she was when she was born.



This evening we had our traditional Christmas Eve meal of Shrimp Bisque (Joshua doesn't eat soup and doesn't like shrimp so he had the less traditional baked ziti) and, at 11pm, we went to Christmas Eve service at Church of the Resurrection. We go every year and debated going to an earlier service this year, but we like going late. Both kids did pretty well. Joshua did have a brief tantrum over not being allowed to crawl under the seats, but he and Jason were able to come back into the service later and participate in the candelight part. Here is our family with our candles at the end of the service.

Looking at Lights

 

Meghan and I want one of our family traditions to be a drive around town in the days leading up to Christmas to look at Christmas lights.  Tonight we started that tradition.  It'll be better when Joshua and Clara are older and can better appreciate it, but we still had fun tonight.

Lunch with Donna and Lexi

Today Joshua and Clara and I went to lunch with Donna and Lexi. Donna hadn't yet met Clara, though unfortunately Clara slept the entire time (or maybe it's fortunately since I am glad she didn't cry) so they didn't really get to interact much. It was great to catch up.

Full of Pride

Joshua is getting bigger all the time. He recently realized that he could move a throw pillow to the base of our chair and climb up in it. He thinks this is the best thing he has done in awhile and is really proud every time.

We Wish You a Nicholl Christmas

Since it'd be nearly impossible to get all of us together on Christmas day or Christmas Eve, we tend to have the Christmas on my mom's side of the family a week or so before Christmas.  This has worked really well, as pretty much every year we have everyone, including Uncle Brent and my grandparents, in attendance.  This year was no different, and it was great to have everyone there to celebrate Christmas as a family.  Every year we take a photo identical to this one, except for adding in any new spouses or babies.  This year Clara joined the party.  Fortunately, she doesn't take up a lot of space, because as you can see, we're nearly out of it.

Blackout

When we moved to our new house, we were surprised that Comcast was the only internet provider.  SureWest had infiltrated much of Kansas City, but not where we lived.  Apparently they're rectifying that now, as they're in the neighborhood installing and digging.  However, perhaps not coincidentally, our power (and the power of many of our neighbors) went out tonight.  It was out for about an hour, came back on, and was then out for another half hour.  Power outages were fun when I was a kid in Alaska, but now that I have to ensure my wife and children stay warm and safe and I have to think about a house with freezers and refrigerators, the outages don't seem quite as fun as they did in the past.

Sharing a Snack

Joshua likes most of the food that he's given.  But he also likes whatever food someone else happens to have.  Recently I bought some apples, and Joshua saw me eating one, and he wanted some.  So I let him take a bite out of it.  He's still learning how to take bites off of food, but he did it, and he liked it a lot.  Since then, every time I'm eating an apple, he really wants it.  As I was on my way out the door to work today, I was eating an apple but was carrying it in my mouth since my hands were full.  Joshua saw it and really wanted it, so I knelt down and let him take a bite out of the opposite side.  He loved it and was happy to get a small bite of apple as a bonus morning snack.  Natalie, who also likes apples, looked on enviously.

Shooting Some Hoops

Last time we had an older toddler over, he made baskets in our basketball hoop. Joshua had never shown much interest in this before, but he is getting taller and apparently learned by example. He recently started putting the basketball in the hoop. He is still a little short so he has to reach pretty far to be able to do it, but he seems to enjoy it.

An Evening With Talking Vegetables

Tonight we decided to have a family movie night. The ones we tried in Colombia didn't go all that great (partly due to us thinking it would be reasonable to give those kids pop in the evening. Lesson learned.).  Joshua is old enough now that he can watch things on TV if we choose to let him.  Because it's the Christmas season, Meghan ordered Veggie Tales: The Little Drummer Boy for us to watch as our family movie.  It was actually pretty good, and it was long enough to be a movie, but not so long that Joshua quit paying attention.  He especially enjoyed the separate song they did in the middle of the movie, which caused him to break out his little baby dance moves.  Clara didn't seem to get as much out of it, due to her being sound asleep the entire time, but we didn't blame her.  The pugs had the same plan, though Terrence woke up briefly to pose for this picture.

A Tale of Two Hodies

I watched a lot of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood when I was a kid.  One of the puppet characters in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe was named to sound nearly identical to Don Quixote: Donkey Hodie, who was of course, a donkey.  One of the first Christmas ornaments I had as a kid was a blue and white rocking horse.  Being a big fan of the show, and knowing of Donkey Hodie, I apparently decided the ornament should be named Horsey Hodie since he was a horse, not a donkey.  I wasn't exactly aware of the literary context of the puppet's name, so it seemed to me like it was just a simple switch of animal types. 

Regardless, Horsey Hodie became an important ornament in our family growing up, as he was always the first one on the tree.  I don't know that we will necessarily always continue that with my new immediate family, but for this year anyway, Horsey Hodie was the first one on the tree.  Here Joshua helps me begin the process or decorating our tree for this year.   

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

A few years ago, the Halls got us this little thing from Hallmark that has 2 penguins and a snowman play "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree". We got some of our Christmas things out today and that was one and it is definitely a favorite of Joshua's. It took him awhile to figure out how to make it sing, but now that he has it figured it out, he loves to push the button and dance to the song, as you can see here.

Playtime with Grandpa

Joshua did not get a chance to see Jim last night since he arrived after his bedtime, but the two had a lot of fun this morning playing with toys and especially building and demolishing towers (one of them was doing a lot more building and one was doing a lot more demolition).

Big Brother

We had hoped we would get released from the hospital today, but they wanted to keep her one more night. Jason and Joshua used that time to go shopping for a few things so Clara would have something to wear home tomorrow. Here Joshua is in Babies"R"Us holding a new outfit that he sort of picked out for his sister.

Party of Four

We have big news! Last night we got a call about a newborn baby in Wichita who needed a family. We decided to adopt her and drove down today to meet her. This is our first picture as a family of four with Clara Madelyn.

Having Fun and Learning

Our friends, the Hansons, are foster parents and they were away today. One of the kids who they are fostering came over to play until they came back. He and Joshua had a lot of fun playing together both inside and out. He looks really big because he's very tall for his age, but he's only two years old. He showed Joshua some new things like how to make engine noises when you push a toy truck.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a very good Thanksgiving this year. My parents (and later Christine, who wasn't able to make it for picture time) came and we had a lot of fun spending time together and had a great meal.

Mesa Por Seis

Since my parents are in town for Thanksgiving we decided to go out to dinner. We decided to go to Chapala and had a fun time eating good food and catching up.

First Haircut

We love the little curls in Joshua's hair, so we've continued to let his hair grow.  But finally it got to the point where it was a little out of control.  Meghan did some research and found a barbershop, Purple Label, that specializes in multicultural haircuts.  They are sort of famous in KC for being the go-to barbershop for many of the city's professional athletes.  So today I took Joshua to Purple Label for his first haircut.  He was very calm, possibly due to being a little tired, and he did really well.  His barber said that out of all the first haircuts he's even done, Joshua was the best behaved.  I was so proud of him, and I'm looking forward to me taking him to his barber as being a fun father/son activity for years to come.