Video Extravaganza

Hello dearest all!

Here are a few videos of Lewis from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, mostly to show off his singing. Plus, you can get a feel for what our Christmas morning was like!

We can't tell you how much we love this little boy. He has a very tender little heart, and he's an absolute sweetheart. We're so grateful to have his love and his fun in our lives! He's going to be SUCH a wonderful big brother!

Love to you all!

Twinkle Twinkle - high! (takes after mom!!!)

Old MacDonald Skip to my Lou

Twinkle Twinkle - bouncy

Pirate in Bath

Ya Mon in Bath

Merry Christmas, Lewis!

Push, Push - Scooter

Wheels on the Bus

January Snow

We’ve actually had lots of snow so far this year! I think we’ve already had 3 blizzards, and a few smaller snow storms besides!

Lewis now loves the snow. He likes tromping through it, whether he has his boots on or not. But, he does really love his boots! He also likes putting on Mommy’s boots. In fact, Lewis seems to have acquired his Mommy’s love for cute shoes and cute things. He’s a total crack up! A couple months ago, I put on my galoshes (which are rather snazzy). Lewis ran up to them, looked them over, then looked up at me and said, in a very high voice, “Cute shoes!” He now describes lots of things as cute! He’ll tell me, “So cute”, if I have a new hair band that he likes, or a new hat. He’ll tell Daddy that he’s “so cute”! He’s told Rachel that her hair is “so cute”. And, he has commented on his own boots and shoes being “so cute”! He has great taste! But, back to the snow...snow boots are one of his favorites! He has also gone sledding for the first time. His cousins took him a couple weeks ago when we were watching them for the day. He wasn’t totally sure what to think, but if the girls are doing it, it must be fun!

Otherwise, it’s been a pretty low-key month, which is perfect. We’ve spent a fair bit of time cleaning the house, post-construction. Norah was a little panicked for a while, but once we got enough critical cleaning done, my nesting instinct seems to have gotten under control, and I’ve calmed down a bit. (Well, you should ask Mike...maybe that’s not true!) We’ve had some play dates and time with the other Wasdens. And, Mike and I have tried to catch up on sleep since we don’t seem to be sleeping as well...not a good sign before the baby is even here! Lewis seems to sense that change is in the air, and he’s been waking up at odd times. Norah has pregnancy carpal tunnel that keeps her up at night sometimes. Boo! And, perhaps Mike’s just excited!

Another exciting development this month is that Lewis has learned to take his clothes off all by himself, including his diaper. This is extremely exciting for him, but not so much for Mom and Dad. We’re not very into changing sheets in the middle of the night because it turns out that Lewis was sleeping naked and wet the bed. And, we’re not thrilled with Lewis being too excited to take his nap every once in a while because he’s managed to get all his clothes off. But, Lewis is thrilled with this! It’s a very exciting discovery!

Here’s another cute anecdote from a couple weeks ago. At the end of lunch the other week, Lewis insisted that he wanted some cereal. Eventually, I got a bowl of cheerios out for him. I don't think he was actually too hungry at this point, and he didn't eat most of them. After a bit, I went out of the room for a minute and came back, only to see quite a lot of cheerios on the ground. Truthfully, it didn't seem like he had necessarily thrown them or pushed them on the ground as purposefully as sometimes happens. I just wasn't sure. He seemed to have a lot of them stuck to his hand and was having trouble picking them up, or playing with them, or whatever he was trying to do. So, while we normally give a time out when Lewis throws food or utensils, I wasn't sure what to do this time. I did get him up, as he was clearly done, and I had him help to pick up all the cheerios that were on the floor and put them back in his bowl. (This is also part of the routine when he throws food...before time out.) He did this happily, singing "Clean up, Clean up" the whole time. After we finished picking them up, we went into the kitchen so I could throw them away. Lewis immediately toddled over to his time out corner and put himself in time out...without my saying anything about it! It was so funny! He just stood there for a bit, and eventually I asked him if he was putting himself in time out. He seemed to think this made sense, so I rolled with it! I made it a pretty short time out, since I was so proud of my little boy for following the drill so well!

Other things to note about Lewis:

Lewis loves talking on the phone. But, not just the pretend phone anymore. He’s pretty good at carrying on a very excited conversation with his family members. He’ll tell you all about his various trucks and busses and books. It’s so cute! He’s getting quite good at sharing with other kids. In fact, today we bumped into our friend, Carter, at the library. Lewis ran right up and said, “Hi, Carter!” Then he brought him a book and a bear and said, “Here you go!” So sweet! He’s also quite good at clean up. He loves the song. And, he still seems to be quite organized, so clean up is a natural fit for him. He’s pretty active still. That said, he’s turning over a new cuddle leaf, and Mommy gets a few snuggles and huggles here and there, which she loves! Lewis does ask regularly to “snug in the bed”, which mostly consists of him lying down for a few seconds, popping up, rolling over on us, bouncing down somewhere else. Not quite the calm snuggling Mommy might dream of, but pretty cute! He is loving books more and more. He’s always loved them, actually. But, he’s just learning to love listening to them a bit more and interacting with them in a way other than turning the pages really quickly! He’s also becoming a very prolific singer. He knows literally tons of songs, and we hear them all the time! He also seems to be excited about his baby brother. I’m sure we’ll have some sad moments when Lewis can’t get quite as much Mommy time as he’s used to. But, hopefully he’ll adjust quickly. He’s very sweet with babies, so we’re hoping he’ll be thrilled to have a baby brother of his own!

The final excitement, as of late, was a very fun baby shower that Michelle and a couple friends of Norah’s threw for her at our church. It was a karaoke baby shower. I had dropped the idea to my friend, Katie. But, once things took off, it turned into a full out party with a professional karaoke DJ! How fun is that! I mean, who wants shower games again when you’ve already done that once. Karaoke was totally perfect! It was very thoughtfully planned, and I had a great time singing some good old 80's hits and dancing the night away.

Now we’re just awaiting the arrival of our new little guy...just a couple weeks away. We’re very excited!

Christmas, Mon!!!

Our December was filled with more treats than we can count. Well...particularly for Norah, whose sweet tooth has been out of control! (Although she did barely pass her 32 week glucose tolerance test – Phew!)

On the first day of the month, our house was filled with banging and drilling and sawing and more power tools than Lewis had ever seen! The work started on a new master bathroom. It was a hectic first week. My neighbor was an angel and let Lewis nap over at her house during the first few days of demolition. That was such a help! I quickly learned that the month was not going to consist of getting much done besides keeping Lewis away from the construction and trying to wipe up some of the dust here and there. But, it was all very exciting! The project lasted the whole month, ending on New Year’s Eve. We’re so, so happy with the finished product! (Well...almost finished...the glass on the shower will be installed this week! Then we can officially move in!) We love how it feels in the bedroom, and the bathroom is wonderful. Plus, this was great timing to put in a bathroom that’s literally 3 steps from our bed when Norah is 8-9 months pregnant. It’s getting lots of use in the middle of the night!

We had our last big trip of the year right before Christmas. Norah’s Uncle Dave turned 70, and planned a family reunion for the whole Lewis family to...Jamaica! What a treat! As if that wasn’t enough, Norah’s parents thought they should capitalize on the family all coming out for the reunion and decided to add a few extra days on to the trip for an Ellis family get together before the whole family reunion. So, we all flew to Jamaica! It was such a treat to be with the family and spend time together. Lewis loved the attention from his aunts and grandparents. He also absolutely loved the beach. It was really fun for us to get to see him at the beach during the winter. He changes so quickly that every month or so is different. It was fun to see him in a context we normally wouldn’t have. With the Ellis family, we filled our time with beach, tennis, ping pong, the playground for Lewis, yummy jerk food, a trip out to some “glistening” waters, a visit to a bird sanctuary, and a stop by the local market.

After about 4 days together, we joined the entire Lewis family (about 45 people) for a big reunion. It’s always a special treat when the Lewis family (Norah’s mom’s family) gets together. There are 5 siblings in the family, and they’re literally spread all over the world. What a generous birthday present from my uncle to bring us all together. The resort was gorgeous. The family stayed in 4 different villas and we got around by golf cart. (This, of course, was Lewis’s favorite part!) There were just the right number of organized activities to accompany general fun and catching up. We had dinners planned every evening as well as a sand castle contest, a scavenger hunt, a volleyball and a tennis tournament, and a birthday celebration night at the end of the week. My cousins all really know how to have a good time, so the whole thing was one, grand party! The last time the Lewis clan all got together was 6 years ago in Cape Town. A few of the cousins were married by then, but there weren’t any little kids running around. This year, there were 10 little kids to keep us all entertained. Lewis had a great time. He did get sick in the middle of the week, which was so sad – first baby throw up of his life. Luckily it didn’t even last 24 hours. But, poor thing was a bit tired needed a bit of extra love from Mommy after that. Otherwise, everything went well, and we all came back loving Jamaica, mon!

Margie and her brothers

The birthday boy - Uncle Dave, with Auntie Fogo

When we returned, we stepped into another few days of fun because Didi and Papa John were visiting! How lucky are we!!! They were out for Rachel’s baptism. It was so special to get to attend Rachel’s baptism – she just shone. Besides the baptism, Didi treated us all to an evening out in NYC to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes. SO FUN! We hadn’t done that since we were kids, and we loved every minute. Mike got to show off his parents at work over lunch. We also did a Christmas tour of the governor’s mansion in Princeton together.

And, the night before Didi and Papa John left, we celebrated Lewis’s birthday together. Norah had actually won some catering from a choir raffle a few months earlier. Since the house was totally under construction, and we knew this was just the crowd to appreciate a catered dinner, we thought it would be a great time to use it. So, for his 2^nd birthday, Lewis had a very fancy catered dinner! Other activities of the evening included coloring on the paper that was covering the floor for the construction with his cousins and his friend, Carter. And, opening presents. He got the hang of that pretty quickly! Lewis was spoiled with lots of great presents for his birthday, including a train set from Didi, a Boise State outfit from Papa John, some V8 (his favorite) and pretend fruit from his cousins, and a bus from Jaime, Jeff, and Carter. He asks about all the presents on a regular basis and clearly loves them all. But, the bus has become a new snuggle buddy in bed. He has slept with it every night since! Who knew! A big plastic bus?!?

Mommy, Daddy, and Auntie Fogo (as Lewis now calls her...and who visited after Jamaica through Christmas) also celebrated Lewis’s actual birthday with another birthday dinner and some pumpkin cake...another Lewis favorite. We’ll have to include some videos of Lewis singing with his new microphone, which was his main present from Mommy and Daddy. Too cute!

And then, Christmas! All this fun in one month, and we’re not even to Christmas yet!!!

Actually, Christmas felt very peaceful, quiet, and just lovely. We had plans to get together with the other Wasdens, but Lewis actually came down with a fever just before Christmas, and so we ended up having it just be us. We had a lovely time! It was such a treat to have Fogo here too, not only for her fun, but also her cooking! We had gone to our local Christmas Tree farm to pick a tree the weekend before Christmas. Lewis loved the

lights, and did learn not to take off the ornaments, although he loved pointing them all out. He did quickly figure out that the candy canes on the tree were edible, so those all had to come off! Christmas Eve consisted of a bit of tidying (again...we were still in the middle of construction!), quite a bit of cooking, and relaxing together. We acted out the Christmas story with Lewis and sang lots of carols, and that felt very special. Since Lewis was sick, he didn’t quite make it to our scrumptious dinner that evening. We enjoyed every morsel! Then, Mike and I experienced our first Christmas staying up to wrap presents and get the stockings all sorted out so our little boy could be surprised the next morning! It was so fun!

Lewis did love Christmas morning! We opened stockings up on Mommy and Daddy’s bed in the morning. He had lots of goodies to explore, just from that. Then we brought him down to see the tree and his present from Santa. He was very excited by all of that. As we got into presents, we had a bit of calming down to do because, of course, he had learned to expect that all presents were for him, since we had just celebrated his birthday! He caught on before too long though. Auntie Fogo treated us to a scrumptious breakfast. And we spend most of the day relaxing, playing with some of our toys, and just enjoying. We did head off, about mid-day, to catch the annual re-enactment of Washington crossing the Delaware over at Washington Crossing State Park, just about a 10 minute drive from our house. It was nice to be outside, even in the crisp air, and we had fun seeing the soldiers cross the river. We had another scrumptious dinner that evening, and finished off the day feeling extremely full, and very happy!

I should mention here that Lewis does sort of get Santa. We read a couple different Santa books leading up to Christmas, and he definitely got the connection with the tree, lights, stockings, cookies, etc. But, Lewis is actually obsessed with a different person – Noah. He has a Noah’s ark book that he absolutely loves. Ever since I started reading him Santa books, he has insisted on calling Santa, Noah. In fact, he is rather obsessed with his Santa books, only he calls them Noah books! This has continued throughout January. So, not only can he tell you about how “God told Noah there would be a great flood”, but he can also repeat to you that “Noah” says, “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!” (He throws his arm out to the side and says this phrase very excitedly whenever we get to that picture in the book!) Ah well. Maybe next year he’ll decide that it’s Santa who comes. For now, the guy with a beard and robes is definitely Noah!

November without Turkey

November flew by!

At the beginning of the month, Norah took a trip with our church’s youth down to DC. We had a very special visit to our temple there and also took in some sights and museums. Everyone seemed to have a very fun time, and it was a treat to be back in DC!

Later in the month, we had a visit from our cousin, Jeff Wasden. It was great to spend time with him. Mike got to show him a little of the big apple, and Lewis learned a fun spinning on the floor trick from him. We also had a wonderful weekend with our friend Debby who visited. Such a treat!

Our month ended with another quick trip – this time out to a dear friend’s wedding. We flew out to Utah on Thanksgiving, so there was no turkey for us this year. We did manage to find some southern chicken and sweet potatoes in the Atlanta airport, so we figured that was close enough! It was a lovely trip filled with family and friends. We had a wonderful time catching up with Uncle Thurl, Aunt Millie, and cousins Ginnie and Laura. Since Lewis stayed on east coast time the whole trip, we decided we might as well too. So, the whole family was up at 4am on Black Friday. By 7am, we figured we had better get out of the house, so we did a little shopping! We also snuck in a quick visit with our friends Kevin and Leah and their little girls. Then, we saw most of the DC family at our dear Hanalee’s wedding, plus a little catching up with some of the gang beforehand. The day of the wedding was, in fact, Norah’s birthday, and Mike spoiled her rotten. We visited a scrumptious pancake house for breakfast followed by a morning at the spa! It was the royal treatment for this little pregnant lady. Mike has actually managed to surprise me every year with a massage for my birthday, which either says that he’s really good or that I’m easily surprised - this is 5 years running now! It was such a treat! We also had a little birthday lunch with our DC friends before the wedding. And then, Hanalee and John’s wedding was just lovely! It was wonderful to be with dear friends and celebrate their happy occasion.