December and Christmas

I wanted to start out the month by getting a visit to Santa in.  So to the trusty mall we went.  The Santa last year was plain gross but the Santa this year was great!  Carter started getting nervous about seeing Santa before we even arrived at the mall.  He kept telling me "I already sent Santa a letter at school.  He already knows what I want, I don't need to see him."  I told him that's fine but if he didn't get a picture with Santa for his mom, then she would write Santa back:)

 He was a little shy at first but did tell Santa that he wanted Legos and a remote control train or car.  I made Carter go first because I knew when we added Jackson to the mix, it would get ugly.

 And.....I was right.  As soon as I steered Jackson towards Santa he tried to run away and started crying.  But as traditions go, I quite like the screaming pictures with Santa.

Bless Santa's heart as he held Jackson with a death grip while I snapped a few pictures.  Neil kept whispering "Let's go, that's enough."  The boys will thank me later for these priceless gems.

December brought the re-introduction of a few foods back into Jackson's diet.  We tried giving him fish when he was much younger and it wrecked havoc on his poor system.  We decided to try it again and it was a beautiful outcome.  Not to mention Jackson loves it.  Our neighbors gave him fresh Halibut from Alaska.  He had a $30 dinner that night.

Something we've been working on since Jackson turned 1 (not kidding) is to have him ditch his bottles and drink his milk out of a sippy.  The problem is that he has to drink some horrible tasting formula and needs to drink A LOT of it.  And thanks to being denied food when he was a baby he has a bit of a mild oral aversion.  Although some days it feels more than mild:(  We have bribed, threatened, prayed, pleaded, cried, cheered, groaned, tricked, forced, you name to get him to drink milk from a sippy.  But come to find out, Jackson is stubborn.  The picture above shows him drinking a tiny sip or 2 to get a bite of his favorite sorbet.  But that only lasts for a minute.  We've even taken the bottle away cold turkey and no matter how hungry or thirsty he gets, he will not give in.  I've taken him to feeding therapists, Occupational Therapists and talked with Feeding Specialists at 2 different Children's hospital.  And paid a lot of money to have people tell me that we can't force him to do anything.  They are all stumped and out of ideas as well.  And since he desperately needs the calories from the formula, we can't take it away.  So someday I'm hoping he will give up the bottle.  If not, I'm thinking about starting to drink.  And heavily.   Don't judge:)

Jackson started a heavy dose of Steroids the first part of December to help the inflammation in his esophagus.  The side effects for him:  Roid Rage, poor sleeping habits, and chubby cheeks.  The first 2 side effects are not funny, nor pretty.  Trust me.  The chubby cheeks on the other hand are darling.  It's the first time in his entire life that he's had anything chubby on him.  As we have done a slow taper, the chubbiness is slowly fading too.  I think we will miss that double chin and cheeks when they are gone.

Christmas 2013
For Christmas Eve we decided to take the boys to the Jump Zone to get out some energy and to let them do something they love.

The boys are in heaven here and have the time of their lives.  It was a great hour.  The place wasn't crowded either.

 Jumping and balls, and foam pits are everything my boys need to stay entertained.

After jumping our hearts out we headed to Coldstone and then home to relax for a few hours.

After a yummy steak dinner we started our Christmas Eve "stuff."

 The boys each got to open a present from each other.  Carter got a wallet from Jackson and he was beyond thrilled.  I was worried that he would be disappointed that it wasn't something to play with, but he wasn't.  He immediately ran and got all his money from his treasure chest(that santa brought last year) and put it in his new wallet.  He kept yelling "Thanks Buddy.  I can't believe I have my very own wallet."

Brother Hug!  Jackson got a set of tiny cars from Carter and they both spent some time playing with them.

Next came family pictures in front of the Christmas Tree.  Poor Jackson is just realizing what a crazy family he has:)

 As I look back I realize this is the only family picture we got during the holidays.  And one of the only ones with me in it.  My boys may look back and wonder if they ever had a mom.

Carter had to then head out and sprinkle his reindeer food on the snowy lawn.  He was so excited for this.

He made sure to sprinkle it everywhere so all the reindeer could have a fair chance of getting some.  After that we watched "Home Alone" together, read the Christmas Story from the Bible and set out cookies and milk for Santa.  Then put the boys to bed.  Carter really wanted to sleep on our floor that night and we agreed.  I thought for sure that he would be up several times in the night and up super early for the morning.  But he wasn't.  This kid doesn't mess around with his sleeping.  That's why I love him so much.

Neil and I then wrapped presents and filled stockings before we went to bed.

 

To my surprise, Carter didn't wake up until almost 7 am.  And since Jax was still asleep I asked him if he wanted to watch a movie in our bed, while we waited.  He pleasantly agreed.  I couldn't believe it.  Finally at 7:30 I was much to antsy and I woke Jackson up.

We started with our stockings first.  Carter was thrilled to find some of his favorite chocolate treats in there as well as new sunglasses and a toothbrush.

Know the old saying "Never wake a sleeping baby?"  Well it proved itself true this morning.  Jackson was a bit grouchy and wanted nothing to do with his presents or stocking.  He grouchily sat himself on the couch and only wanted to play with the Iphone.

Finally we unwrapped his Santa present in hopes that that would get rid of his grumps.  It worked!  Santa brought him tiny cars!  These are actually Neil's old Micro Machines from when he was a kid.  The boys had seen some similar ones when they were at Aunt Linsey's house and fell in love with them.  After searching the internet for them and realizing they were no longer in production, Neil's mom allowed us to have Neil's old cars that she had kept safe all these years.
Both boys call them Tiny Cars and both boys LOVE LOVE LOVE them.

Carter found some chocolate gold coins in his stocking.  Last year when he couldn't have chocolate Santa brought him real $1 gold coins for his treasure chest.  This year Santa could bring the cheaper version:)  And wouldn't you know it, Carter preferred the edible ones.

Jackson's grumpies were gone at this point but he wanted nothing to do with anything but his tiny cars.  He was taking them out one by one and announcing their colors.  Grandpa was kind enough to humor him and closely examine each one.

One of Carter's Santa gifts was an old school, vintage Little People's Jeep and pop up tent trailer.  Similar to the one we have and camp with.

We finally persuaded Jackson to open another present and he was thrilled with a box of fruit snacks all for himself.

Then came the Legos!  He was very into presents at this point.

And what's better than Legos?  Legos that make a train.  He kept squealing "look at my Thomas!"  (All trains are called Thomas by him."

Carter also got a couple of sets of Legos from his Grandmas.  He was so excited.  He and Neil got right to work after present opening.  I'm not sure who was more excited for Legos, Neil or Carter.

One of the only shots I got of Neil opening his presents.  I'm such a bad picture taker.

More Legos.  He stayed and played with Legos for several hours until we went to Grandma's for Christmas Lunch.  

 Aunt Linsey gave Carter the biggest box of Mike and Ike's I've ever seen.  He was thrilled.  Who wouldn't be thrilled to get their favorite candy in super super size?

Jackson was an old pro at this point and loved opening all his presents there.

Aunt Linsey knew the way to his heart as well with Despicable Me pajamas and giant Monster Trucks.
Legos and Tiny Cars now litter my floor daily and I have tried to make peace with this.  Some days are better than others:)  But I am glad for their presence because I'm quite sure they make great booby traps for burglars, if any should attempt.  Maybe I should leave them scattered all the time.

A couple days after Christmas we went skiing.  Carter has a season pass and his own skis now.  I guess he's an official skier.

Somehow I got convinced to come along and ski.  I use to love skiing as a teenager.  Now that I'm old, I don't enjoy it as much but I do enjoy skiing with Carter and watching him learn.  Our ski day was a great way to spend New Years Eve and end our Christmas Season.