Our Christmas

Traveling, jet lag, geno's, lite rail, monorail, seattle center, pegasus, pancakes, santa pics, cheesecake factory, cinnamon rolls, polar express, parties, extended family, sugar, sugar and more sugar, presents, presents and more presents, zoo lights, snowball fights, carousel rides, children's museum, popcorn, shopping, sickness, seahawks game.

I think that pretty much sums it up.

I actually started writing this while we were in Seattle. But then the flu happened. So the blog wasn't high up on the list (it never is obviously). Emmory got sick at the very end of our trip to Seattle, and I did as well. When we got back to SC, Evan was coming down with it too. And then Mark. Thankfully Mark wasn't down too long, and thankfully I didn't have a fever because I had every other symptom but could still (barely) function. The boys were bad. I think Emmory's fever lasted 5 days and Evan's 7. Besides that and the congestion/coughing, they both had ear infections and Evan got conjunctivitis and threw up a few times. Neither of them slept well at night, I would leave one room and then the other would wake up. Evan was basically attached to me the whole week. When the fever would spike in the afternoon he would just sit in my arms and doze off and on and occasionally look at me and say "don't feel good mommy" or "my belly hurts". When he would wake up at night I would take him to the living room and sleep with him on the couch. A few memories I don't want to forget even though it was a rough time. Very reminiscent of having a newborn. Sleep deprived, feeling like the walls are closing in on you, and forgetting that there is actual normal life going on outside of your home. Yet despite the fact that it felt like things would never get back to normal, they did and now here we are in February! I am very thankful right now for my boys' health. That week was such a minor trial compared to what some families face on a daily basis.

Our flights this past trip were awesome!! This was the first time not traveling with a child under 2 and it makes a huge difference. The boys did so great, even on the way back when Emmory was sick. DVD player and games on the iPhone kept them occupied the whole time. In fact on our way to Seattle, we sat right behind another family who had two boys and they were having such a rough time, each of them threw up, and I just kept thinking "shouldn't this be us?" I felt so bad for those parents but they kept their cool amazingly well even when snarky comments were made from other passengers.

Kissing cousins

Christmas lights

Tonight we took the boys to a house nearby that goes all out for Christmas...the man uses four of his neighbors yards and pays their electric bill so he can put up all kinds of Christmas lights and other such things. They have popcorn and hot chocolate and music and a path you walk through to see everything. We had a great time and afterwards took a few pics of the boys. I tell ya, Evan turning two has been a great thing. I feel like I can *sort of* breathe now. There are now moments where they play together well instead of fighting constantly. Don't worry, there is still plenty of fighting (they are brothers), but there are times where there isn't. There are times where they get along and entertain each other! This is huge. I feel like we are coming out of the crazy-no concept of boundaries-have to follow them everywhere and can't ever leave them alone for even a second-one year old stage. Except it really starts before one for us because they started walking at 10 and 9 months. As soon as Emmory turned two and started to come out of that stage, Evan was crawling. And then walking (running) a few short months after that. So I feel like I have been in that stage for a very long time and I am very thankful to be coming out of it. And even though when they play together, it always involves a huge mess or something dare devil-ish...they are playing together!!! So I'll take it. They will always be boys, they will always be noisy, yelling, crashing things, banging things, wrestling, climbing and jumping off things, making messes, getting dirty, high-energy...but at least they can be that together now. And hopefully as Evan gets even older...those moments will turn into hours! (I can hope, right?).

Here is a good pic of them we got at the lights tonight. They started off sitting about five feet away from each other, so I told them to scoot closer and put their arms around each other, which Emmory took very seriously, and he tried to force Evans arm around him because Evan wouldn't do it himself.