Christmas Eve and Day Coming Soon!

I still need to download the pics...they will be coming soon! I posted quite a bit this morning so make sure to scroll down!

Tristan's many faces

I just had to post these because they are funny...good thing I always have a camera with me!

A Few Christmas Parties

Our playgroup had a little Christmas party for the kids and parents. We did an ornament Chinese Christmas exchange for the moms and a book one for the kids. I ended up with the cutest frog ornament and a great magnet book for Tristan.

During the whole party Tristan clung to Victor and wouldn't leave him for anything...he was very anti-social the whole time. He is definitely going through a "Daddy's boy phase" at the moment...Mommy might start to get jealous soon!

Tristan and Daddy at the playgroup Christmas party

Riding a toy

Yana and Knox (and Knox's daddy)

Salem

A group shot, if you can call it that


After the playgroup Christmas party, we went to my parents where my brother William, sister Margie, her husband Richard, their two kids, Richie and Wyatt and my brother James and his wife Shari all got together. We all got a chance to visit, eat and watch the kids open some presents.

Just thought I'd mention that once we arrived at my parents, Tristan did forget all about Daddy. I guess he figured since he was the only baby there he could be the center of attention and ham it up. He played, laughed and teased everyone. He even got into one of his laughing fits. When he gets really worked up and excited, he will stand up and start laughing uncontrollably, his face will get red and he loses his breath sometimes, causing a little cough, but he keeps going. It is the funniest thing I have ever seen.

Tristan, Richie and Wyatt

Opening some gifts

Tearing into a gift

Mommy and Tristan

A long day of Christmas shopping

One of the first truly cold days of the year, and of course, we had to go Christmas shopping! Good thing the sun came out to warm us up in the afternoon. A combination of hard shopping and a little warm sun put Tristan out for his nap. His afternoon nap does wonders for his night-time attitude...after a good nap, he's ready to go for hours. And, I mean hours, it has been really hard for us to get him to bed before 11 p.m., on the plus side, he sleeps until 9 or 10 in the morning!

Shopping is a lot of work

It can really wear a boy out

Trying to sneak into some unwrapped presents

Got caught

What a smug little look

Is That You Santa Claus?

Every kid wants to have their picture taken with Santa, right? Tristan wasn't too excited about sitting on Santa's lap, but was more than willing to let Mrs.Claus hold him. What a little stinker!

"Aahhh, who is this old bearded man?"

"Mommy, Daddy, HELP ME!"

"What are you looking at Santa? You'd be scared if you were me!"

"Oh, this is much better"


A year makes a big difference. I dug out the picture of Tristan with the same Santa Claus from last year...I can't even remember when he was that tiny! I guess it won't be too long before I know what it feels like to have an itty bity one again!

Supermodel

A couple of posts ago I put Tristan's Christmas pictures up that I had taken at Picture People in the mall. If you remember (and were a good diligent reader, like I know you all are), you will remember that I was complaining what hard work it was to get him to stay still so the photographer could hopefully get a few good shots and that they asked me to sign a model release. Well, over the past two weeks or so Victor and I received a couple of phone calls and emails from friends saying they saw Tristan's pictures up at the mall. Needless to say, we had to go to the mall to see our little supermodels first debut.

We went into the studio first and they had a big 14x24 picture of him standing, wearing his red and white striped pants, holding the teddy bear. It was too cute! Then we scoured the mall to find the display that had a trilogy of his pictures displayed. And naturally Tristan wanted his picture taken by the display, so I happily obliged:)

Doing Laundry and Playing With Toys

Aawww, Mommy's little helper. Take a look at Tristan helping with the daily chores. He has learned the word "close" now, so when you tell it to him, he will close whatever door is around him. It was the washer this time!

Checking out the contents of the washer

Heard Mommy say "close"

Got a hold of the door

Almost done


Tristan's new favorite thing is to pull toys (or whatever else he can find with a string or cord attached, like my blowdryer).
Pulling around the corn popper

Checking to make sure it's still there

Yep, still there

We have movement!

I mean "movement" literally! Since I finally got my Handycam software fixed on the computer I can download the video I have taken of Tristan over the last few months. I won't bore you with the problem, let's just say I spent a lot of time on the phone with Dell and Sony!

Now you can see Tristan truly in action. Victor and I took this video around the first week of December of him dancing to music, one of his favorite things to do!

Dancing Part 1

Dancing Part 2

Baby Kadish is a...

Today was the big day, our 20 week appointment for Baby Kadish! The baby was moving a lot and constantly had their thumb in their mouth, so our OB was having a hard time getting good pictures, but we managed to get a few. And we definitely got a good look to determine the sex...check out the pics below to see if we will be having a boy or girl. Hope you are good at reading sonogram pictures!







Okay, so did you figure it out? If you said girl, you were WRONG! That's right, we are having another boy! Enjoy the pics.

Let Me Out!

These pictures are too cute. Tristan likes to look out the front windows, so when he wasn't paying attention I snapped some pics of him looking out the window from inside and then went outside to capture the look on his face when he realized I was outside and he wasn't!

He really hates when he can't go outside...as soon as he hears or sees the door open he sprints for it and usually isn't quite fast enough and the door gets shut just before he reaches it! This usually elicits a fit-throwing episode that includes a lot of crying and screaming, and sometimes a little throwing himself on the floor. Yes, Tristan has become very good at throwing little tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants!

So after many little fits recently about not getting to the door in time, I guess he decided to take matters into his own hands. Yesterday, for the first time ever, he was able to reach the door handle (standing on his little tippy-toes) and opened the door himself...what a little smartie!

Poor Pumpy (short for Pumpernickel)

I now have a new appreciation for a post my friend Courtney wrote on her blog a few weeks ago (she is the the "Williams Family" link). Her son, Clinton, was sick with a stomach bug and she so eloquently described his sick episode as follows:

"Clinton would lay across my chest almost lifeless, he'd start to squirm as if to look for that perfect position that would offer him some sort of relief, he'd get clammy, he'd give his best attempt to cry, a large gurgle would come from his belly, he would spew, he'd cry a little, then feeling better he'd offer a little smile...then we would rinse and repeat. I changed clothes four times and Clinton had two baths"

I think Tristan contracted a similar stomach bug (not from Clinton, obviously, since they live in Tennessee) and we had a very similar experience over the last few days. It all started on Tuesday afternoon on Victor's day off, of course.

Victor had just finished feeding Tristan lunch, consisting of a chicken stick or two, a few crackers and some apples and chicken (sounds yummy, huh?). Throughout the entire mealtime he had to coax Tristan into eating, which we don't normally have to do. Well, I guess there was a reason he didn't want to eat, because within seconds of Tristan finishing his food, everything he ate, plus the food from the day before, came flying out of his mouth. It looked like a volcano erupting with tons of molten lava, and it wasn't just once or twice, no it was over and over again.

He was still in his high chair when the eruptions began so we wheeled him into the bathroom, removed him from the chair and he got a bath. I cleaned the high chair while Victor gave him a bath...I know, I know, this may sound a little backwords, but give me a break, I'm pregnant afterall! Finally, he was cleaned up with fresh pajamas and we thought we were in the clear. WRONG! The eruptions began again.

At this point we decided it was time to go to the doctor. It was nearing 4 o'clock in the afternoon by this time so we had to convince the doctor's office it was urgent that they see us today and we quickly got in the car and drove down to our pediatrician's office. Before getting inside the office, Tristan had another small eruption in the car. Luckily he didn't have too much more to throw up and what was left landed on me, so at least the truck doesn't smell!

After leaving the doctor with some recommendations to stay away from milk for the night and let the bug run its course, we went home and let Tristan rest. He slept through the whole night and seemed to be his old self in the morning, so I gave him some milk. For about an hour afterwards all seemed well and I thought we were definitely on the road to recovery, then the eruptions hit again. His tummy was gurgling and everything came gushing out, again.

So, we spent the rest of the day avoiding milk. Instead, I tried to give him Pedialite (an electrolyte substitute), but he wasn't really interested in drinking it and seemed to be in a good mood. He took some long naps and was acting like a normal 13 month old, at least it was "normal" for him. Once again, I decided to try the milk again at night since he pretty much hadn't eaten or drank anything all day. Finally we had success, he managed to keep 4 ounces down during the night into bedtime.

But, I shouldn't have counted my chickens before they hatched. Tristan woke up around 3:30 a.m. and I decided to give him some more milk, I figured he had to be hungry since he hadn't eaten all day. He drank a few ounces and went back to sleep. Around 4 a.m. more eruptions began. Luckily he was sleeping in our bed and I don't always fall back asleep when I am awaken in the middle of the night. I heard, and felt, him throwing up in the bed.

This had to be the worst spell of all. This throwing up went on until 9 a.m., at which point he just didn't have anything left in his little tummy and it was so painful for him, but I think it was almost just as painful for us to watch our poor baby be so miserable.

We took him back in to the doctor and she told us to definitely not give him any milk for awhile, but that he had to drink the Pedialite, even if it meant I had to syringe it in his mouth. So, that is what I did until he decided he would drink it from a bottle.

So far he has drank around 26 ounces of Pedialite (and it's 10:30 p.m. and he's asleep) and hasn't thrown up again. Hopefully tomorrow his appetite will increase, he will keep his fluids up, eventually returning to the crazy baby we know and love!

I'll keep everyone posted!

A little catching up...

I have really been slacking when it comes to posting updates and pictures, especially in chronological order. I realized yesterday that I hadn't downloaded my Canon camera in a few weeks and my little Sony camera that I carry in my diaper bag in over a month. A few months ago this wouldn't have even been possible because my memory sticks would have run out of room way before I reached a few weeks, much less a whole month! I guess as Tristan has got older, I have been so busy chasing him around and trying to keep him out of everything in the house that I haven't been taking as many pictures.

Then when I finally do have a bunch of pictures, it seems next to impossible to download them. I am sure there are some of you out there thinking "what could be so hard about downloading the pictures, you have all day to do it, right?". The days of me sitting down at the computer during the day (aka when Tristan is awake) are over. As soon as I start walking into the room where the computer is I hear the pitter-patter sound of little feet hot on my trail. I can usually make it to the computer and sit down before Tristan gets there, since he still isn't quite as fast as me. But, once he reaches the computer, he throws his arms up in the air in his first attempt to persuade me to get off the computer and come play with him.

When that alone doesn't work, he adds some very loud screaming and starts hitting my legs with his powerful little hands. But still, I persist on. This angers Tristan even more, so he knows he has to go all out. He pulls the wireless mouse off the keyboard rollout, throws the mouse on the ground, starts hitting all the keys on the keyboard, screaming at the same time. At this point I usually give up, thinking I will try again later.

So, you see, it's not all that easy for me to use the computer anymore, much less try to connect the camera(s), download the pictures, organize the folders, back the pictures up on CD and post them, unless it is after Tristan goes to bed for the night, which is why I am posting this at almost midnight tonight!

Hope you enjoy the pics below, from the last month!

Swinging in the park
(You can tell this picture is old, Tristan only has his two bottom teeth!)

Look at me Mom

Wurstfest 2007

Pushing my train

Wandering around the house

"Hmmnnn"

"I found a phone in this room"

"What Mom?"

Taking a break

Fell down, have to get back up

Look at that face

That's better
(see the other bottom teeth now?)

Toe touches

"Look at my belly"

Oh, another face

Happy Tristan

Mad Tristan

"Do it like this Daddy"

"Good job, Dad"

Playing with the hangars

Caught in the act

Trying to dispose of the evidence

"Dad, I really don't want to eat this"

"If you keep giving it to me, I'm just going to spit it out"

"Yeah, dinner's over"

Helping Mommy decorate for Christmas

Trying to move the Christmas tree box

Opening and closing ALL the boxes

Putting on, or taking off ornaments

Unraveling the ribbon, thinking that no one is looking

Walking away like he didn't just do that

Crashed in the car

Who couldn't love that face?