Christmas Break!

My apologies to those of you out there who check our blog daily--we've been on vacation in Seattle and not updating on a regular basis. However, we are preparing "Einar's tour of lights" for you as well as pictures of Einar all bundled up in his winter clothes. Early this morning, his 5th tooth broke through so now he has 3 teeth on the bottom and 2 on the top! He can't stop his tongue from feeling all of the changes in his mouth and his fingers keep checking out the new arrival as well. I'm off to give him another dose of Vitamin T (Tylenol) and then shower for the day. Merry Christmas to all of you!

Only Three Days till Seattle!

Wow, where has December gone? Packing hasn't started yet for our trip North, but we are having fun visiting with Karin and her two girls, Marlene and Amelia a.k.a. 'Peanut.' Last night we visited Downtown Disney to see the decorations and have dinner. Since the traffic up to Annaheim was out of control, we even got to see the fireworks since we were there so late. Today is a stay at home day and go to the park and maybe the pool with the kids. Marlene and Jared are outside doing yoga and the babies are inside playing with the blocks. Einar is extremely mobile, of course, and Peanut still just sits, so it's been fun to see the interactions between them. They are totally aware of what the other one is doing. Now it's time for me to take care of Einar's diaper and see if he wants to go down for his morning nap. He's been up for about 3 hours now and I just witnessed a big yawn.

My Boy is Back!

Einar's two top teeth broke through yesterday and last night he slept from about 8:45pm till 6:30 this morning--my boy is back! Then he woke up for a quick breakfast of milk and then went back to bed until 9! I have missed that kind of sleep so much and slept like a baby myself after I finally went to bed last night.

At the moment he's whining here at the arm of my chair saying and gnawing on it. I think he wants more food, so I'm going to go whip up some more breakfast for the little guy. He likes a mix of plain yogurt, fruit, and rice cereal in the morning for breakfast. Ok, it's getting louder, gotta go!

It's Done!

It's Done!

Meeting Santa

This morning we went to the Santa Breakfast at church and Einar had his first run-in with the Jolly ol' man. It didn't go well. As soon as we approached Santa and Einar saw him up close, his entire body tensed up and he clung to me for dear life with his head buried in my shoulder. He just cried as we handed him over to Santa. Even when Jared gave Santa my car keys to distract the little guy, a trick that usually works wonders, it didn't console him. Only going back to mom worked and it took him a little while to relax after the ordeal.

I guess we know now that he's into that stranger anxiety phase now. He also struggles when I go downstairs and he is still upstairs, even if Jared is with him. Wish us luck over the holidays. He's hoping that he won't come face to face with any more Santas even though the picture that we got this morning is a Polaroid and I'd like a better print for the future Santa collection. If he knew that I'm planning to have one of these pictures taken every year, he'd probably lose it all over again!

New Big Boy Shoes

Einar-elf and I went shopping this afternoon and we chose a pair of real shoes for the little guy. He wears a 3W and his little tennie-runners are soooo cute. We still have some elfing projects to do, but we had a great day and at least got the grocery shopping done as well before we came home.

Einar's cold is getting a bit better. The snotty nose isn't nearly as gooey and he hasn't been plagued by his cough today. He had lots of smiles today and even provided me with entertaining raspberries as we were walking through the crowded mall. Those two top teeth sure look like they are going to be poking through any moment, but they have yet to make an appearance.

Let's see, I know I haven't updated the blog in a few days, but not much has been happening this week. I keep putting the tupperware and toys away at night and he can get them all out again in a matter of minutes. He has been having a rough time going to bed at night. Not settling down easily and once he wakes up, he just can't go back down. He falls asleep on me okay, but the instant his head hits the mattress, it's back to square one again.

Close-ups

The table is finished! I forgot to take the pictures before I put the leaves away and pushed it all together, so you can only see the short version in my pictures, but isn't it pretty? The chairs are still being finished and each have 2 more layers of clear coat to be applied.

The other close-up is of Einar shortly after he woke up from his mid-day nap today. This morning we went for a walk down at Dana Point Harbor with another mom and her son. When we came home, Einar was pooped and went directly to bed. Now he's rolling around his blue spiny ball on the floor and chewing on the letter 'Y.'

This Blog is being brought to you by the letter 'T'

After several weeks of searching, last night we finally found alphabet connecting foam mats for Einar to play with. He first was introduced to them at Braden's house in Las Vegas where we were told that he played with them non-stop. He does like chewing a bit on the letters.

He isn't exactly cruising yet, but he does go around the room in his crawl and then using chairs, couches and chests to help him stand up. He is even sitting back down without the crash and head banging that was common earlier in the week. That one stair at Thanksgiving has now led to the entire staircase from bottom to top. We still won't let him attempt them on his own of course, but it's a great way to wear him down a bit!

Tonight Venita is coming over again so that Jared and I can go to the Church Christmas party at a restaurant called the Blue Danube in Downtown San Clemente. We've only got an hour till showtime, so I'd best get hopping.

Einar's Mom has been a Slacker

Sorry that I've been such a slacker this week when it comes to posting the adventures of Einar. On Wednesday, Einar and I went to Los Angeles on the MetroLink train with our visiting neighbor-friend, Linda. We left our house at 6:30AM (!!!!!--much earlier than Einar and I are normally out of the house) to catch the 7:04 train. After 7 there doesn't seem to be another train until later in the afternoon. For $20 round-trip we rode the train from San Clemente into Los Angeles Union Station which was about 1.5 hours away. Then our tickets enabled us to take the busses and subways anywhere in the city all day as well. One interesting thing is that the only time that our tickets seemed needed was when we rode a bus. Other than that, no one even made sure that we had them! The train was nice.

Los Angeles was really kind of seedy. We got there about an hour before any of the stores were really open. Our first stop was Hollywood Blvd. We stopped first at a Starbucks for some coffee and where Einar had his banana-yogurt-rice cereal combo for his breakfast. Then we walked down to see the Kodak theater and the Chinese theater. There is a mall there as well that we checked out. I did buy a new onesie for Einar that I had customized to say "free tickles" on the front of it. The other night, Jared was saying that he should have a t-shirt that had that on the front since it is so much fun tickling the little guy. I would have included a picture of it on him, but I bought the 24 month size and he has just a bit of growing to do in order for it to fit.

We then went for a walk and eventually headed downtown again where we ate lunch. It was all quite an adventure and the little guy was super tired on the ride home and slept all night once we got home!

Today was just a day at home with some book reading for both of us, table finishing and dinner cooking. Not much happening tonight either. We all took a shower after dinner and then Einar went to bed. Jared is being a snoozing couch potato tonight after a long day at work. He was at work by 6 am this morning for a barracks inspection. Thank goodness he wasn't inspecting our barracks since I need to vaccuum and put away a load of laundry.

Einar Lends a Helping Hand

We had a relaxing weekend at home after Thanksgiving which is a good thing considering the amount of sleep that we have been able to get this week. Einar's top two teeth look like they are trying to make an appearance and I sure hope that they come quickly and give him some relief.

Saturday night we went to San Clemente's Downtown Putting on the Glitz Christmas season kick-off. We wandered up and down Del Mar Avenue (the street with all of the little shops and boutiques as well as the community center and library) looking at all of the holiday displays as well as the winter fashions that were being modeled. There were people actually wearing winter boots, wool coats, scarves, hats, and such when it has been only in the upper 50's at night and in the 70's during the day! Of course we also saw folks wearing t-shirts and shorts too. The lines were a bit long for the santa pictures especially with a teething tot, so we just meandered and then came home for some tea and the last bit of the sweet potato cheesecake.

This morning, Einar was helping me by checking out my ski boots. I know I won't need them in San Clemente, but we are travelling to Seattle from the 19th till the 1st and Jared wants to bring along out ski stuff. He's been dying to hit the slopes this year. I guess after 4 years of constant snow and skiing during the winter, a winter in Iraq makes a guy yearn for snow.

The next pictures are of Einar helping Jared put away the dishes. He's intrigued by the dishwasher as well as what he can pull out of the bottom shelves in the refrigerator when the door is open.

Happy Turkey Day!

What a great day we had! Just hanging out at the house this morning so that Jared could teach Einar how to clap. We did some cooking for dinner and cleaned the place up a bit for our guests. While we were doing the latter, Einar and I were downstairs folding his laundry and he wandered out of his bedroom into the hallway. I had already shut all of the doors off of the hallway so that he couldn't go exploring things like the bathroom or guest rooms that aren't fully baby-proof. He'd been gone a few minutes so I went out there to check on him and he had his hands on the second step leading upstairs and his left foot on the first step. While he was looking at me, he kind of grinned and then pulled up his right foot. Einar climbed his first step on Thanksgiving Day 2005! After that, the babygate went up on his room. I'm not ready for stair climbing yet!

Later this afternoon, two of Jared's co-workers, Cole and Isaac, came over for Thanksgiving dinner. We had yummy turkey, green beans, broccolli salad, mashed potatoes, roasted butternut squash, and roasted sweet potato cheesecake for dessert. It was great. Einar was devouring the turkey. The guys took back a couple of plates for the marines on duty today.

Tommorrow we're going to go watch the Harry Potter movie in shifts. Since the movie theater is down the street, We'll take turns walking down there to see the show and the other one will stay home and play with Einar. Maybe there will be a trip to the pool too! It's still in the 70's down here, sorry to tell those of you who are bundled up in sweaters and wearing your jackets.

First Visit from Einar Friends

Lots of pictures for you tonight! The other boy in the pictures is Nathan and he is only 3 days younger than Einar. He and his mom as well as Kailani (3mo) and her mom came over to the house yesterday for lunch. The boys seemed to have a bunch of fun with each other and it was neat to see the two of them doing the same things since they are so close together in age.

Today we went to the grocery stores to get the last of our Thanksgiving ingredients. Einar not only slept well last night (!!!) but he had a nice nap this afternoon. He sure is getting around quickly now. I can turn around and then look back for him and he's on the far side of the room into something that he really shouldn't have found. WE've tried to keep the table project away from him by separating the dining room from the living room with the couch and two hampers. Well, it only took about 5 days for him to figure that out and now he gets through our barrier without any trouble at all. You can see that he is inspecting our handiwork--don't look too closely Einar!

The other pictures are from church tonight. Even after our Thanksgiving service they had treats outside! I just had to take a picture of that and of the turkey cupcake. I started the turkey carnage early this year. One turkey down, one to go tomorrow.

Jared is going to cook up a big turkey tomorrow and two of his coworkers are coming over for dinner since they don't have any family in town either.

p.s. The hamper as containment device lasted all of 30 seconds.

A Real For Real Babysitter for Einar

Last night the daughter of Jared's First Sergeant, Venita, came over and watched Einar for the evening. Jared and I went to a special fundraising event at the mall (hey, isn't every evening at the mall a fundraising event?) that they have every year before the holidays. Organizations like South Orange County Family Resource Center and NPR sell $10 tickets and they get the majority of that money while the mall gets extra business, has entertainment all night and raffle prizes, merchants have specials, etc. We certainly could have taken the little guy, but it was great to have Venita come and watch him while we cruised the mall.

Einar had a good time at home. He took advantage of the constant attention and needed lots of snuggling last night. He ate well and when we came home, they were on the couch, Einar finally worn out and sleeping soundly. His outfit is a result of him really not wanting to get dressed.

The table and chairs are coming along well. We've already done 2 coats of the stain and think that we'll leave it the color that it is now. Next is the top coat and Einar and I are heading to the store this afternoon to get a couple new foam brushes.

New Table and Chairs!

They finally came! Our new table and chairs were delivered on Friday evening and Jared and I have been rubbing stain into them all day long. We're hoping to finish the project before Thanksgiving since we've invited a couple of Jared's co-workers over for turkey dinner. Thank goodness it was delivered on Friday and not on Monday so that I can take advantage of a willing worker in Jared this weekend and not have to try and complete the whole thing by myself. It's looking good so far.

Our little helper, Einar, has been keeping busy with his Tupperware today and by trying to get past the hamper barriers into project central. He was such a good little guy today and even took some long naps. Before bed tonight I let him splash around in his bath a bit longer than usual as a reward. He stayed in the sink until he started putting the soap dispenser in his mouth--definitely a party-foul.