Christmas 2012

We have had a wonderful Christmas so far!  Our festivities kicked off on Sunday with Christmas at my parents' house.  We enjoyed lots of good food, way too many presents, and the good company of family. 

Vera's godmother got her an ornament and a Mr. Potatohead complete with the Mr. and Mrs., a cat and a dog.

Checking out Mr. Potatohead.

Grandma and Grandpa gave Vera a baby, some clothes and a feeding set for the baby.

Papaw threw Vera in the trash box.

It's baby Blake's first Christmas and he's as sweet as can be!

The Homan Family

When the guys left for milking, the girls headed out to the extended Otte family Christmas party at Briarwood.  The party was nearly over, but it was good to see grandma and a few of my aunts and cousins.  Great grandma gave Vera a Minnie Mouse book, which is a perfect gift!

On Monday, Christmas Eve, Vera and I went out to breakfast with my friends from high school.  It was a nice, cozy, and crazy visit.  I believe Jenny said it best--from bars to babies to a nice breakfast.  Everyone made it except for Kendra, and most everyone brought their husbands and families.  It is always nice to see everyone!  Vera colored with Claire and tried to run around the cafe.  She wasn't at all shy.

Monday afternoon we went to visit Adam's parents for Christmas.  Vera chased Rudy and played with the toys.  When we came home, she took a nap and we waited for Santa to arrive.

He came!

When Vera woke, she was surprised to see that Santa made his stop.  She was excited to see all of the presents.  (She says Happy Birthday when you give her a present instead of Merry Christmas!)  The first gift she wanted to open was a potty chair.  Major disappointment there.  Second, she opened her activity cube that has a bead maze, xylaphone, abicus, and other activities.  That was a huge hit.  She played with that for a long while.  As a matter of fact, she could've cared less about the other presents.  She cried when we took the wooden mallets away and asked her to check out some other gifts.  We hid the mallets, tried to distract her, tried to hide the xylephone.  Nothing really worked at first.  I was thinking that it'd be a long night if she didn't want to open any other gifts. 

She calls the mallets "drums."  Surprisingly (or maybe not) she knew the word xylephone before she opened this gift.

But slowly, she became more interested in other gifts.  She really didn't show much interest in ripping open gifts at all.  We still helped her, but she was really curious about what was inside each present once we got her started with the unwrapping.  Santa brought a kitchen, Aquadoodle, a play piggy bank and coins, a basketball hoop, some books, puzzles, a potty chair, activity cube, a CD of silly songs, and a princess house.  All of the gifts were a hit.  Our house has never been messier. 

Santa brought me a new bike.  It's the perfect size for my short legs and it has a comfy seat.  I'm looking forward to using it this summer...and maybe putting a baby seat on the back.  Santa brought Adam a new sweater and an iphone.  He has been customizing his phone and having fun doing so. 

When we were almost finished opening gifts, Adam's parents stopped by and brought Chinese food and popcorn.  We all played with the new toys and ate popcorn.  After they left, we tried to get Vera to wind down for bed.  She had a rough night of rest.  I think she was just too excited and stimulated to let her mind rest.  After two rocking attempts, I finally got her to sleep in our bed.  We carried her to her bed when we laid down, but at 3am, she was crying again.  She ended up sleeping the rest of the night in our bed.  Needless to say, Adam and I didn't sleep much.  We were running on low sleep for Christmas day.

On Christmas Day, we went to church at 11 and sat in the cry room.  Vera was her typical awful self.  She yacked and cried, wanted up and wanted down, fell off the kneelers, and insisted on juice and fishies. 

After church, it was on to the next party.  Paula's house was the site of the Bertke gathering this year.  It was a nice time.  We enjoyed a new gift exchange this year, and everyone went home with a gift card.  Vera was pretty good and so was Blake!

When we got home, we put Vera to bed and crashed ourselves.  Since Tuesday, we've enjoyed lots of time at home playing due to the "blizzard."  Vera has barely asked to watch Mickey Mouse because she's so busy with all of her new toys.  She doesn't even have time to eat breakfast when she wakes up because she is so excited to play.  Last night, while she was awake and crying at 3:30am, she asked to play toys.  I don't think so! 

We have one more party to go on Sunday.  We're looking forward to seeing Bailey and the rest of the family.  It's sure to be a good time!

Christmas at Patty's House

Patty is the best!  This Christmas, we are especially thankful for Patty.  Vera loves Patty's house!  We are always amazed at what Patty teaches the little kids...colors, numbers, alphabet, shapes, prayers, manners....She treats each one of the children that come to her house as if they were her own children or grandchildren.  Everyday she opens her home and loves the kids, even when they're crying or fighting.  It really makes going to work a little easier in knowing that we have a great babysitter caring for Vera.

Vera, Ryan Magoteaux and Max.  Max is the oldest of this trio and Vera is the youngest.  They're all about 6 months apart.  Karly wasn't there on this day.  She is about 2 weeks older than Vera.  From the way it sounds, Vera is the boss of all of them.  Maybe because she doesn't ever stop talking!

Ryan, Vera, Max

Ryan, Vera and Max

 

Ryan (22 months) and Vera (20 months)

The Magoteaux boys.  Ryan and Reece

 

Patty made Christmas cookies this week on Tuesday and had all of the little kids decorate.  She emailed me the pictures...and we enjoyed them very much!  Thank you Patty for being the best babysitter ever!

Vera got to bring the 3 cookies home that she decorated.  There's one for each of us.  They were delicious!

Christmas Cookies at Grandma's House

Last Friday we joined Aunt Mandy, Blake, Aunt Lindsey, Uncle Steve, Aunt Karen, Grandma and Grandpa at Grandma's house to make Christmas cookies.  Vera spent a lot of time running around and cooking in the pretend kitchen.  She also helped decorate a cookie or two.  (Read: she mostly ate icing, pretzels and M&Ms that grandma and grandpa gave her.  She had fun!

Grandma gave Vera a pen to play with (mistake!) while she sat in the high chair.  When no one was paying attention, she scribbled on the tray with the pen.  Oops!  Sorry grandma!

At the end of the night, Mandy, Karen, grandma and I were sitting around talking and trying to get Blake to sleep.  Grandpa and Vera were in the front living room playing.  After a little while, we didn't hear grandpa's voice anymore, but we could hear Vera chatting away.  This is what we found:




She kept saying "Here go Papaw." and she'd bring him 2 dishes at a time, even if he didn't respond.

Washable & Nontoxic!

Vera loves to color.  She asks all the time to get the markers out, so we spend about 3-4 nights per week coloring.  She loves the Color Wonder markers, and they're awesome because they don't write on anything except the Color Wonder paper. 

St. Nick brought Vera a set of 8 crayons four days ago. 

Here's the latest:

Can you guess which crayon she chewed on, spit out and smeared everywhere?  I can't be upset though.  It's partly my own fault.  I was trying to sweep and clean carpets.  (Sidenote:  Vera has been randomly throwing up this week...three times to be exact.  She shows no signs of being sick except that she doesn't eat and her behavior has been exceptionally bad.  All three vomit episodes have been on the carpet.  Awesome.  I've scrubbed and cleaned, and steam cleaned, and scrubbed, and Fabreezed.  Our house has smelled like vomit for about 3 days.  Everytime you sit on the couch you smell it.  So we bought some carpet deodorizer powder that you sprinkle in the carpet and then vacuum up.)  So that's what I was doing while Vera was coloring.  Adam was gone watching the Browns game.  Vera was in her high chair coloring.  I was sweeping carpets.  You know, sweep a room, check on Vera.  Sweep a few minutes, check on Vera.  One of the times I checked in on her, I found red, chewed crayon juice dripping from her chin and all over her hands.  She kept saying, "I all messy!"  There was smeared crayon in her hair, in her ear and all over her face.  I almost started laughing, but I took the crayons away and calmly told her that we don't eat crayons.  Then I grabbed the camera and took a few pics.  I also sent some pictures to her dad watching the game. 

Both of these shirts are from the chewed crayon incident.

This is the under shirt.  There was more crayon on this than the actual shirt.  When I changed her clothes, several pieces of chewed crayon fell out. 

 

Crayons are nontoxic and these are washable.  I know this because I washed crayon out of a different white shirt two days ago.  So in four days, I've washed crayons out of 3 shirts and we're down 3 crayons out of 8.  I think we'll stick to Color Wonder.

St. Nick 2012

St. Nick visited our house on Wednesday evening.  Vera wasn't much into St. Nick, but she did receive some nice treats.  In fact, she was really grumpy the night of St. Nick.  Somehow, she still found fruit snacks, goldfish, a package of fat crayons, a book, and some pretty bracelets with a necklace to match.  Our magic Elf also was hiding in Vera's stocking.  He brought the storybook with him to remind Vera of the story.  She was actually more interested in the Elf on the Shelf book than she was with any of the other gifts. 

St. Nick brought Adam some work gloves, Combos and beef jerky.  I got candy. 

Here are a few outtakes. 

Right after we took a nice picture together, she poked me right in the eye.

St. Nick evening involved a few tears too.  Probably because she wanted to read the book.

Santa! I know him!

The Winery had Santa again this year as part of their holiday open house.  It was much less crowded this year than last.  It was also bazaar taking Vera to see Santa when it was 60 degrees outside.  Crazy Ohio weather!

To her mom's surprise, Vera did a great job with Santa.  She didn't cry at all.  She was a little uneasy and mostly just stared at him, but she didn't try to get away.  Reluctantly, she even whispered "Hi Santa" and gave him a very slight "five" before we left.