Almost here

The big weekend is here finally! Alex and Josh are getting crazy for Christmas and so are we as getting the Santa fever is really fun. Emilynda bought little josh some new toys for the big day too. We have to remember that hand me downs will only work for so long. We plan on having a quiet day here at the house with the boys and my head to my dads home too for some other holiday fun. My deer meat stash is starting to dwindle so maybe I should go for a hunt this weekend before the season ends. Also I need to get these Christmas letters out! Crap I am always late with these. Merry Christmas to all my readers.

Started a family tradition

I have a fellow friend of mine who too stays home with his infant daughter and he told me what he used to do as a child growing up. His family would celebrate the 12 days of Christmas and get to open one package each day up until the 25th. He explained that this way you would get to play with the toy or whatever that day and not be overwhelmed by the holiday and the mountain of gifts. We are lucky in that Alex and Josh have lots of people who buy for them so we are going to adopt this practice in our house. Last night Alex opened his first gift from his Grandma(my mom)and it was a 100pc puzzle of spiderman. WoW! He says its a big people puzzle so he needs help but not to much as puzzles he loves.

update on the potty front.

I am pleased to announce that Alex has had no accidents since Monday at the library and oh what a scene it was. A puddle of fresh yellow pee on the carpet and a trail of pee to the bathroom. Spent a good 15minns cleaning and apologizing to the staff and then skunked home as dumb daddy did not remember to bring a change of clothes. He was pretty uncomfortable and so now he tells me when he has to go and all is good "knock on wood" I still put a diaper on him at night but so far he wakes up dry and then tells me he has to go with in 15mins of waking up. High fives to us. So glad that we are on the right track of independence as changing was becoming a real pain.

Potty time

The time has come for me to go in full force on the training. We took away the diapers on Friday as we are planning to put little Alex in pre-school in January and he needs to be trained. It was my hope that I could get him traned last summer but my lazyness and mostly his protest kept me at bay but now he must. He has done really well and seams happy when he gets it right but he had two set backs today with one pee-astrophy and one poop-astrophy. I must have an iron stomic as today I got both a handfull of pee and a handfull of sticky smelly poop. eeeewww! We put him in a diper at night and some say that is cheating but I say it is just insurance! My my has my little buddy grown and no going back now!

Musical beds

Being that my wife has a strong Filipino culture ingrained in her it is the custom to co-sleep with the kids at birth and then to move them on to their own bed in time. Well that time has come for our not so little Alex. The past month or so we have been weening him to his own bed that that my dad and Mary Ann got us last year for Christmas. The first night was blood curdling screams of misery and protest. Not a fun night by the way! I did the time for the crime and so now he goes in their with out protest but and I repeat but There is a list of must do's for this to happen. First; I must go with him and carry him, Second; I must have his water ready and available, and Thirdly; I must stay until he is completely asleep and absolutely no sneaking out or a tongue lashing will accrue. Daddy You left me, I'm afraid of the beaver ect. ect. So it is best to just stay put until the inevitable snore of a three year old. The funny thing is that at 0200hrs or so I mysteriously wake up to a little boy next to me sleeping soundly. Oh well at least he sleeps in his bed to start.

Snow is here!

We got our first snow of the season today and may get an inch or so. Alex's first words this morning were "Daddy snow look! Daddy snow look!" while pointing and jumping up and down in a frenzy of delight. He has been wearing the boots we got for him last year in the house but he wore them with out socks so his feet got blistered. ack! I like snow and the seasons but just in short doses however. That reminds me we have to get our Christmas picture done so I can get it out to you all on time this year!