The nightmare before Christmas

Annie is having her first Christmas where all the gears are turning and she "gets it," boy, does she ever. We wrote a letter to Santa and mailed it to him at the North Pole. Her primary wish is for a red bike. She added later that she'd like a double stroller for her and Oscar (she's so practical), but I told her she can only ask for one big present per Christmas.

We've tried to embrace Annie's new awareness of the holidays by taking her to holiday-themed events, one of which was a "Santa Fly-in" that we were invited to by our landlords Beverly (shown above with me and Annie) and Al (Al is a retired pilot and Beverly still belongs to a wives club that hosts the event each year). Santa taxis in a red plane at a local airfield, deplanes and the kids get to follow him back to the air club where he hands out presents to each child (supplied by the parent elves earlier). When it came to Annie's turn, I had to carry her up (she wouldn't walk by herself) and then screamed bloody murder as soon as we got within a foot of him. I had to take her present from Santa, and ever since then she has often pronounced that she doesn't like Santa. I'm hoping he's hard of hearing at his advanced age. Fingers crossed. My thinking is she's just never been a fan of big loud crowds and this place was packed and noisy with kids hopped up on candy canes. She's more into the "Silent Night" version of Christmas we believe. Well, we'll just have to see what ends up under the tree to learn just how forgiving he is.

We're headed up to our own North Pole on Sunday, aka Connecticut. It's going to be one big family-palooza with my sister and her boys, Jay's sister and her family and my good childhood friend Miranda and her family returning for her first Christmas in Connecticut since they moved to Jakarta 3+ (maybe 4?) years ago. She has a little girl who will be almost 2 and the last time we saw her she was 6 months old, so we can't wait to see how she'll give Annie a run for her money. I expect the results to be hilarious and fully documented. Oscar will also be there, observing it all with his few hours of awake time per day. We can't wait.

Oscar just chillin', waiting for Santa

Speaking of Oscar, he's the gruntiest baby we've ever met. It's his way of getting noticed, we gather, since as the second child, he's got to find creative ways if he's going to get any kind of attention. He's a great, albeit slow, eater. He's getting better at the sleeping thing, usually getting up once in the middle of the night, then again in the early morning. We cart him around everywhere and he doesn't seem to mind, and, as a result, is (sadly) becoming a great car-seat sleeper. Today at his one-month checkup, he measured around 9+ pounds (I have it written down somewhere...), and a little over 20 inches. He's at 25th percentile for weight and height and 35th for head circumference; his head is smaller than Annie's was (she had and still has a huge noggin). He hasn't smiled yet but gives us this sort of pleased look. He coos (which melts me every time), and as mentioned before, grunts like a sow.

P.S. Just so I don't forget to document this: Annie's newest Annie-ism, when I'm kneeling to put her jacket on or something and tip over saying, "Oh, I lost my balance!", she pretends to pick something up and hands it to me, and says, "There you go, Mama, there's your balance."

We'll have more after the new year with what I hope to be some hilariously cute photos and video of all the relatives and ensuing shenanigans. Until we return, Happy Holidays, everyone!