Whoa, Santa!

This Christmas, we planned on having a low-key affair focused on enjoying some quality time as family. Well, Santa didn't get the memo.

I don't know what happened. Arlo must have learned how to work the Christmas system. Of course, we have explained the benefits of prioritizing one or two things to Arlo, and Ryan and I have also talked about planning future holidays around experiences rather than presents. Lesson learned.

Sigh...

With that said, the pictures and videos below summarize our wonderful but excessive Christmas. We missed our family and friends, but we hope everyone had a memorable and relaxing holiday!

Arlo was so excited about Santa's visit that he wished the big night would come already. To cope with the long wait, he played the blues on his harmonica.

Arlo went to Madison, WI, for a few days where he learned how to dance to the Nutcracker. Arlo's cousins, Lucy and Amelia, are not only talented ballet performers, but they were in the Madison Ballet's rendition of the holiday classic.

Ryan and Arlo enjoying a fully decked out Christmas House on our traditional Christmas Eve walk through Olympic Manor.

Christmas morning cinnamon rolls - yum!

Legos!

Arlo is just starting to figure out how to unwrap presents.

Now we have an official play room complete with little table and chairs,

a "Secret Garden" tent with toadstool pillow, a tunnel, and a basketball hoop (see Arlo's demo below).

Ryan and Arlo opening presents. So ridiculously cute.

A playroom that is now ready for action!

Decking the Halls

On the day after Thanksgiving, we have a tradition of getting our Christmas tree with our good friends, Amy and Byron. This year was the first year we had both of our kids in tow. We are looking forward to continuing the tradition as the kids grow up, but this year the parents had the most fun selecting the perfect tree.

I don't know what it is about a Christmas tree. Perhaps it's the fact that we load it up with twinkling lights during the darkest time of year. Maybe it's the familiar smell that you forget about until you get the tree in your house. Whatever it is, I love it. 

Now that Arlo is a toddler (how did that happen?!), we debated whether or not we should fully decorate the tree with ornaments. At the end of the day, we decided we could risk it if we exercised the right amount of caution. We put breakable ornaments up high, made sure there were no choking hazards within reach, and tied the tree to prevent it from falling over. I'm so glad we decorating the whole thing. It seems like a shame to pay money for a tree only to use part of it for its intended purpose.

Byron and Wyatt scoping the selection. 

Wyatt did a great job choosing his first Christmas tree!

 

Jack Frost nipped at our noses.

Arlo thought Ryan could use a little help getting the tree in the stand. 

 

Let the Nonerick family Christmas begin!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We enjoyed a fantastic Thanksgiving with good friends and good food. Wonder what a bunch of vegetarians do for a holiday centered on turkey?

The Main Course

Fake turkey sliced into discs make a perfect turkey with stuffing taco! De-lish! 

A Full Table = Excessively Full Bellies

We devoured Amy's sweet potatoes with ginger and orange juice, two types of stuffing (yes!), mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, a yummy salad and many more tasty treats. 

 

Wyatt was perfectly content after a wonderful meal.

Arlo, on the other hand, was so full he had to take off his pants. 

Buddies playing

I'm so sad that I only captured the last of what was an adorable moment of love between friends. 

Barely Keeping Up

Arlo is walking like a maniac. We are barely keeping up with him, which may be evident based on the messy room in this video. Despite the fact that we have to be even more on our game with a toddler, we are loving the walking phase. For one thing, he sleeps more at night. Perhaps he is wearing himself out more?

 

Happy Halloween!

My favorite holiday is... wait for it... Halloween!

Every year, I go a little nuts, and having a child only makes my obsession worse. Sadly, Arlo was sick this year with a fever, congestion, and a full body rash, so we had to cancel all of our celebration plans, including trick-or-treating! Don't worry, though, we made the best of it!

The front porch by day.

Arlo and Shelob welcome you!

 

A garden that is slowly going to sleep for the winter reveals a terrifying secret tombstone. 

 

Yes, we did force a sick little boy to wear his garden gnome costume for 5 minutes while we took pictures. Poor baby!

The front porch by night.

Hope everyone had a fantastic and frightening Halloween!

And we have liftoff!

Arlo is walking! He's also doing his best Frankenstein impersonation for Halloween week. Something tells me it's time to batten down the hatches.

It would be scary if he wasn't so darn cute.

Helping Papa unpack after his bike commute home.

Times, they are a changin'

Arlo is turning into a toddler. Someone once told me that every new phase with a baby comes with its own pros and cons. In my experience, this is very true. If it wasn't, parenting would be fairly straight forward and easy to figure out after some period of adjustment.

In Arlo's case, he's throwing temper tantrums over every little thing -- diaper changes, picking up toys, eating. At this stage in the game, I have a hard time feeling confident about what to do. Our pediatrician suggests that we don't respond because a reaction will only feed the behavior. Who knew sweet little babies could turn into master manipulators so young?

Ignoring a screaming, flailing baby is really hard. My gut reaction is to say, "Arlo, stop it. Enough of that nonsense. Let's do something else." Ok, it's more than a gut reaction, it's something I've tried but it doesn't work. For some reason, engaging with him just makes it worse, and he is not cognitively developed enough to respond to rationalization.

 

What did I do? 

On the plus side, Arlo is getting more and more curious and and fun to interact with. We've been trying to get him to use sign language to communicate, and he can sign for "milk" and "finished/all done" but we're still working on "more", "change" (as in diaper change), and a lot of other practical signs. 

I have to admit that I want to give up on the sign language thing. It seems to work well for some people and not as well for others. We've been trying for months and months, and while we don't sign as constantly or consistently as we probably should, Arlo doesn't seem too rushed to communicate (beyond screaming, of course).

Anyway, back to the fun department. Arlo is walking! He can walk between Ryan and I when we sit 6 or so feet apart. He can walk to us from a piece of furniture. One unexpected part of this walking thing is how important confidence is to a baby. I really believe that Arlo could walk all the time if he wanted to, but he gets nervous, looks for a hand or something to hold onto, and sits down. 

I didn't realize how psychology is just as important as physiology. I always assumed a baby had an instinct to walk and decided to give it a try based on some natural urge. That's only part of the picture. It's exciting but terrifying at the same time because it means the stakes are increasing. We need to be more aware of what Arlo needs, provide what we can, and leave the rest up to him. For a neurotic control freak like me, that's really hard.

Circus Scholarship?

I will post a more up-to-date video within the next week, but this is a video from last week when Arlo was more unsure of his walking skills. Crazy!