Christmas Eve 2007

It was a nice quiet day at the Livingston household. We spent some of the time cleaning and getting ready for hosting Christmas tomorrow with the Livingston family, but mostly we just hung out as a family. We had fun tracking Santa on the web and seeing where he was throughout the day. (Okay--so I thought it was cooler than the kids did.) We went to church and then came home and had a nice dinner with Nana and Poppa. Zander was full of smiles as usual.This morning Mary dropped off the projects that the kids worked on at daycare. Aren't they adorable? Zoey told me that she used her hands and Zander used his toes to make the Christmas banners.

More to come. . .Merry Christmas Everyone!

Just Enjoying the Break

Christmas Cookie Party

It was our second annual attendance at Mary's Daycare Cookie Party this year. As always, it was a blast. The kids were all pumped for the special visitor and there was enough sugar to keep us all hyped for the rest of the night.

Here is Tyler and the kids waiting for Santa to arrive.

Zander was in the spirit of the holidays and was full of smiles.

Zoey did the right thing and pottied all by herself before Santa arrived. Then she washed her hands. Yea, Zoey!

When Santa came, Zoey was so excited that she sat on his lap and froze. Zander however had to sit and think about what he was going to ask for.

Santa and Mary gave all the kids gifts. Zander got a book.
Zoey got a magnetic dress up doll-which she LOVES. She couldn't contain her happiness when she went to say thank you to Mary.

Here she is at home playing with her new doll.

Zander is ready, as we all are for a nice relaxing winter break.

Playing Hookie

Ok, so I wasn't really playing hookie today. Zander had pink-eye couldn't go to daycare so I stayed home and did nothing really but hang out with him. It was nice. In the morning Zander was a little fussy until I finally got him to fall asleep on my shoulder. Then in the afternoon, he fell asleep on the family room floor--I didn't have the heart to move him. He slept there for almost 2 hours! I love watching him sleep. (Why can't he do that in the middle of the night?)
Zander did have time to pose for a few pictures though. As I was playing with him today, I discovered that he has two top teeth trying to break through. It could explain a lot of the fussiness.

Last Friday there was no daycare so Daddy stayed home with the kids. He brought them both to school to have lunch with me--which I love! Zoey was very excited to be a part of my kindergarten literacy group and they were thrilled to have her there. The kindergarten girls all took Zoey under their wings and helped her sing songs with us, clap her hands and shake her sillies out. When it was time for Tyler and my kids to go home, Zoey didn't want to leave. It was very cute.

Speaking of cute, Zoey loves to watch storybooks on the internet and I am fortunate enough to have a membership through my school that allows us to watch these stories online. So Zoey has gotten into the habit of watching two every night ("Because I'm 2!") She has her favorites, but she also likes to watch new stories. So tonight I told her she could watch the story called Joseph and the Little Overcoat. As I was getting it ready for her, she was playing around and then came up and impatiently said, "I want to watch Jesus and the Little Jacket peas."

So while she watched her story book, I was trying to watch my television show. Zoey gets off her chair and goes and turns off my TV. "I want to hear my storybook!"

Tyler took Zander upstairs to put him to bed and I was folding laundry. I folded up some of Zoey's socks and playfully threw them at her asking her to put them away. All of a sudden, she starts to go upstairs and I ask her where she is going. "I am going upstairs." Why, Zoey? "I going to tell Daddy you hit me!"

Happy Birthday Gia!

I asked Zoey what she wanted to do for Gia's birthday today and she said she wanted to bake a cake. So here is your cookie bread hamburger cheese and peas cake--Zoey's specialty. Hope you had a wonderful birthday and a safe trip back home!

Happy Birthday Poppa!

Mom: Zoey, what is this picture all about?
Zoey: Grandpa
Mom: What is inside the circle?
Zoey: a baby suppi-o
Mom: Did you write your name?
Zoey: Yes--h, i, j, k, l, m, n. . . I found a Z!
Mom: What should we tell Poppa?
Zoey: Birthday cake! We having a birthday cake!

Happy birthday Grandpa Livingston! We love you and will get that birthday cake taken care of soon!

P.S. In honor of all of the grandparent's birthdays this year, a Christmas light was bought in your names. The money went to a food shelter in Mahtomedi.

Signs she is growing up

Zoey was downstairs playing quietly a couple of days ago and came running upstairs yelling, "Mommy! I wrote my name!" Then she handed me this post-it note. I must say, that being a reading specialist, I was quite excited to see her attempt. This morning, Tyler told me that Zoey looked at the jeans that Zander was wearing and they had the letter D at the bottom and the words dump truck. Zoey read the words, "Happy Birthday Halloween!" It is VERY fun for me to see the process of learning to read and write from the very beginning!

Here is Zoey's picture of herself. She told me as she was drawing what everything was. "Here is the head and here are some toes."
Zoey is carrying around her drumsticks, exploring what things sound like when she hits them. She also asked me to put her hair in a ponytail. This was the best I could do.
Then the kicker. . .Zoey is still plugging away on the potty training journey. She has had some set backs, but has been doing well overall. She doesn't like it much when Tyler or I go in to help her. She wants to do it all by herself. So today we let her go in and potty all by herself when she told us she had to go. After about 5 minutes, Tyler goes to check on her and says, "Get the camera!" So I went to see what was up--here is Zoey at the sink. Please notice that the pull-ups are put on over her pants and her hands are full of soap. She has the right idea, but. . . we may still have some work to do.
On the napping front, we have had 4 days in a row of good naps and overall good bedtimes, too. I hope I am not jinxing it. I am not ashamed to admit that it took a little bribing with some art supplies, but the deal has been that if she has a good nap (or at least a good quiet time) she and I get to watercolor together afterwards. So far, so good.

The Dance Line

Our goddaughter Hazel was elfed recently and it was so cute that I had to do it to our kids and neice also.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1168962049

Happy Holidays

4 month stats

Zander turned 4 months old last Saturday and had his appointment on Thursday.
He weighed in at a healthy 15 lbs. 12.5 oz. He is 25.5 inches long and his head is 17.5 inches in circumference. All of these land him in the 75th percentile range.

Other points of interest:
Zander is able to roll over from his back to his stomach in one direction.
He still only has the two bottom front teeth.
He isn't sleeping through the night yet--but I can tell he really wants to--oh wait--Tyler and I really want that.
He is holding and playing with toys now--although I don't think he always realizes it.
He loves to try to stand up by holding our hands and he has really good head control.