The making of a Christmas card

We always send out picture Christmas cards. I was especially excited this year now that we've got someone else to include! Our usual pictures of the big fish we caught throughout the year will now be replaced by our sweet little man.

Thanks to a cute idea from Pinterest, we got Evan all dressed up in his Christmas Day outfit a few weeks early and wrapped up a box. We set him in his Bumbo chair and positioned him so it looked like he was in/right behind the present and put him next to the tree.

I was actually surprised by what happened next. I thought Evan was too young yet to get the whole "unwrapping" thing, but I should have known better. The kid loves to grab things and put them in his mouth, so why should paper and a bow be any different!

I snapped away as we laughed at his antics. Here is pretty much how it went down...

Here's the first one, so sweet and innocent....

...immediately followed by, "what's this?"

Can't decide what is more interesting - the bow, paper or ribbon

Eating it! (I love this one though. He is so determined!)

Again with the bow in the mouth.

 

Actually looking!

And smiling!! (This was the one that made the card.)

Just having a good old time, while Mom and Dad are desperately trying to pose him. Lesson learned!

 

We of course wanted to include a family photo as well. While Chris and I know that we're not the most important people anymore/the people our family and friends are interested in seeing pictures of, we still wanted one. The day after our present photo shoot, Evan was in a great mood and we were all put together since friends were coming over. We decided to try out the self-timer and had my doubts, but thanks to the bright flashing light that counted down the time until it went off, Evan was actually looking at the camera every time!

 

Merry Christmas, Merry Merry Christmas!

Evan had a VERY good first Christmas. Thank you to everyone who spoiled him with gifts and love!

We spent Christmas Eve with Chris' family and Christmas Day with mine, also stopping at Chris' aunt and uncles where Evan got to meet a lot of his extended family. Needless to say both nights he was very tired after all that partying - but he slept amazingly well thanks to that!

As I said, he was very blessed with lots of gifts and love. He got two gifts from Santa and one from Mom and Dad, plus a few goodies in his stocking. We opened those on Christmas Eve morning.

He is actually pretty good at ripping the paper! Loves to grab things and has a really good grip!

Also love to put everything in his mouth!

That's a BIG present for such a little boy!

Santa brought him a sports set - complete with a basketball hoop, spinning football and baseball.

 

Checking out his blocks set from Mom and Dad. This is by far his favorite thing right now. But he hates to have any of the blocks in the bucket, or the cover on top. He will dump them out and take off the cover himself. What a silly guy!

 

At Grandma and Grandpa Steinhoffs, Evan was of course spoiled with toys and clothes, but one of the coolest gifts he got was a lifetime fishing license! It's pretty much a given that he's going to be doing a lot of fishing in his life, so this is a wonderful and very useful gift. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!

 

Christmas Eve outfit

Digging into my first present - a motorcycle from Uncle Steve that I can walk behind and ride on. Super cool!

 

Cuddled up with Santa...I mean, Uncle Steve!

 

 

Christmas Day meant spending time at Grandma and Grandpa Sell's house with Evan's crazy cousins :) Those three are going to be trouble in a year or so! He again got a ton of wonderful gifts. Evan loves, loves, loves books, so we often read one or two before bed, but Mom and Dad were getting a little sick of reading the same ones over and over, so we asked Auntie Kari and Uncle Josh, as well as Grandma and Grandpa for some new ones...and boy did we get them!

 



Here's all my new books! After this picture was taken, we read a bunch and he was so, so happy!!

 

Christmas Day outfit

 

Evan and his cousins!

Ripping into his present from Auntie and Uncle

 

This present is as big as me!

 

Grandma and Grandpa have stockings for all the kids. Evan's contained money for college, an ornament and some sweet potatoes, since he isn't quite ready for the usual Christmas treats :)

 

Thanks again for all of the gifts everyone! What a great first Christmas for our little man!!

Baby's first Christmas party

We used to celebrate Christmas with my mom's side of the family on Christmas Day, but now that all of the cousins are getting older and many of us have children ourselves, we've moved the celebration to a weekend prior to the holiday. It's nice to still get together, especially this year since it is the first Christmas without my grandpa, so I'm glad we made the change. More people can get together this way!

One of the things we have always done with this side of the family is a gift exchange. Until we were 18, us cousins picked names and exchanged presents. Now that there is only one of my cousins left under that age, the cousin's kids are taking part!

So Evan received his first official Christmas present from my cousin's little boy. Coincidentally, Evan had his name too! A few of my always generous aunts also gave him a present since it was his first Christmas.

He is so good at grabbing things (something I learn every day having longer hair) that he can actually get ahold of the wrapping paper and rip. He of course has no idea that he's doing what he is supposed to, but it works!

Checking out his new stuffed snowman before unwrapping his "laptop" from my cousin's little boy

My grandma had an ornament for each of the great-grandchildren with their name on it and had them each put there's on the tree. Dad gave Evan the assist with his :)

Back the other way!

We knew this day wasn't too far off, but it seems crazy that it's actually happened! Evan rolled from his back to his stomach!!

He's been rolling onto his side for awhile and staying perched there, as if he wants to go over, but couldn't figure out how to get over his arm. So we knew it was just a matter of time before he got the extra "oompf" he needed to get all the way over.

Today we put him in his crib for a nap and he was fussing a bit, so we went to check on him and there he was, on his stomach!

When he got up from his nap, we put him on the floor and enticed him with a toy to do it again. I didn't get the first one he did for us on camera, but I did find my phone for the second one!

p.s. purely out of coincidence he is wearing the same sweatshirt he wore the day he rolled from his tummy to back! Must be a lucky shirt!!

Ho Ho Ho

We really love our daycare center. The staff is excellent and Evan really is thriving there. Another thing is they have a lot of stuff going on for families, including parties!

Last Wednesday was the holiday party. Most of the activities are for the older kids (coloring, arts and crafts and games), Evan was able to partake in a few things - most importantly, sitting on Santa's lap for the first time!

Chris and I both went because we didn't want to miss his first visit with Santa!

He wasn't scared (I'm sure that will come NEXT year!) and he was really more interested in the lights on the Christmas tree next to him than the guy holding him.

Who IS this guy?

We did one of the crafts stations they had set up, since it seemed baby-friendly and his infant teacher was running it. She put shaving cream and a orange, foam triangle in a plastic bag and he smashed it all around. Then she put some foam circles on the front - a snowman!

Snow day

Last weekend we got over a foot of snow - our first big snowfall of the year. It wasn't too cold out, so after Chris cleared the driveway, we decided to bundle up Evan and see what he thought of all that white stuff!

It was still snowing a little bit, so he didn't seem too impressed. It was probably a little too wet and cold on his face for his liking. But as we reminded him, he lives in Minnesota, so he's going to have to get used to it!

All bundled up and Daddy's putting snow on me - what the heck?!?

 

Propped up in the corner of the sidewalk

4 months

 

Evan smiles all the time...except for when I stick the big black thing in his face! Then I get this look :)

 

 

Again I will say it, I cannot believe that my little baby is four whole months old! He's not even my baby anymore in the sense that he's wanting to move around more, isn't sleeping all the time and is much more interactive. We love it!

With four months comes another doctor appointment, which means more shots. He did really well and they didn't seem to phase him, aside from the crying right away. But he calmed down as soon as I held him and rocked him a bit. Last time he pretty much slept the rest of the day, but tonight it was business as usual!

As for his check-up, he is still one solid, healthy boy! He does have a bit of a cold. He's been stuffed up before but this time he's got a runny nose and a cough. Chris has had the same thing for about a week, so Evan was due to get it too!

Evan is tipping the scales at 16 pounds, 6 ounces! He is in the 70th percentile for weight. He measures out to be 25 1/4 inches long. That puts him in the 56th percentile for height. I still feel like he is much longer than other babies, but maybe all the babies I see are below average. Maybe he also seems so big to me, because I'm only 63 inches tall myself (yes, I googled it)! He's already a third of my height!!

Everything else looked good to the doctor and we're set for another two months!

Besides eating solids, one of his other developments this month has been trying to roll over from back to stomach. We're not quite there yet, but he can get on his side before falling back down to his back.

He is still talking and laughing quite a bit. We're getting some "responses" to things we say or ask him that sound sort of like real words :) We've also gotten a few full out laughs instead of just giggles.

We get major smiles, especially when he wakes up and when we pick him up from daycare or come home. The first time he sees us after a long stint must just be so magical :)

His favorite thing to do/play right now is hopping. Chris and I will literally just bounce him up and down off the floor between each other and he smiles and laughs. He also has started liking being thrown up (and caught of course) in the air.

He is playing with his toys more, meaning grabbing for them, holding onto them and moving them around. Of course this also includes sticking them in his mouth! It's fun to see him spot a toy and do everything he can (which usually means stare at it until we notice) to get it!

The next month will be a fun one! We've already bought some Christmas presents for him, though we don't plan to go too crazy since he won't even know what's going on. And he's already "bought" a Christmas present - for his (second) cousin! As kids we always drew names for a gift exchange with the cousins on my mom's side of the family - and now all our kids are doing it! Very fun for me to see my kiddo take part in a tradition that I loved.

Happy Holidays!

Sweet potatoes!

With his fourth-month birthday behind us, we (as well as his doctor and daycare teacher) decided that Evan is ready for solids!

His doctor has always said four months because he's gained weight well and is a bigger kid too. His daycare teacher has been noticing he is getting hungier sooner during the day and showing an interest in the foods that she and other kids eat in the classroom. We also noticed his interest in our eating and he meets all of the other requirements of holding his head up on his own and being able to sit on his own, with a little help. Those requirements are mostly so we know he will be able to swallow the food.

So we steamed and pureed up a sweet potato this weekend and off we are on the new adventure! Thanks to my college roomie for our "Baby Bullet," which has all the necessary equipment to make our own baby food. Pretty slick!

Checking out what Dad's serving up

First bite...not so sure about this!

 

And now I'm a mess!

Here comes Santa Clause

We usually don't waste too much time after Thanksgiving to put up our Christmas tree and decorations. We always have the Friday after Thanksgiving off work, so usually at some point during that long weekend, Chris says it's time to break out the tree.

This year we put it up on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and were really excited to see Evan's reaction to it. We figured it would be a hit, because it has lights and anything with lights is cool with that kid.

I bought him three "Baby's First Christmas" ornaments that day as well. I know, I know, maybe a little overkill, but I couldn't choose between them all at Target!

 

Putting on the first ornament with Dad! (It's a fake tree so no worries about prickly branches!)

Admiring my work and my very first ornament

Dad showed me all of the ornaments before handing them to Mom to put on the tree, which I then inserted right into my mouth! (He especially liked holding onto the stick on this rocking horse ornament, which I've had since childhood.)

 

Three stockings this year!!