23 Months

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

The annual Christmas card photo shoot proved to be extra challenging this year.  You wouldn't know it from the results, but it was hard!

My serious model face

And my cute smile!

Sporting my new Christmas jammies

Love my moose!

The moose was much more cooperative with wearing the Santa hat than I was.

 

It's been a crazy last month in our house!

We had a family fun night at Mall of America.  After lots of time spent unpacking boxes it was time to take a break and have some fun together.  I was super excited that Boots and Dora were there. 

Mommy and I took a ride on the carousel.  For some reason it took forever for the ride operator to start the ride.  I was getting really antsy.  Right before it finally started I declared I was "all done" with my horse...errr rooster that wasn't going anywhere.

I still have some awesome bed head.  That isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

This is me having just hanging out with Uncle Steve at Thanksgiving.

One night we went to dinner at Cowboy Jack's.  The best part about Cowboy Jack's is that the kids get a mini ice cream cone for free for dessert. 

 

I got this awesome fire truck.  It's previous kid owner wasn't using it anymore so his mom gave it to me.  I was happy to accept!

 

 

Mom and I headed to Toddler Tuesday one day at Mall of America.  It was Sesame Street Live day so she thought I'd really like it.  Unfortunately, the show wasn't much of a "show" and it was pretty lame.  So we went on the train ride to up the fun factor of our morning.  I love the train.

 

And of course, we had to go on the carousel again.  This time I wanted the kitty with the fish in his mouth.  After our fun it was time for Mommy to do some Christmas shopping.  I'm not much of a shopper so we just got things on our list.  There is no browsing with me in tow!

 

Mommy was a little frustrated with the morning with the lameness of the so-called "show", my crankiness with shopping, etc.  Then lunch happened.  I love Chinese food (well I guess we actually got Thai on this day).  Mom and I shared Mango Chicken and Fried Rice.  There weren't any high chairs so I had to sit in a regular chair and I was so good.  I sat, ate loads of fried rice and chicken, and was completely delightful. 

 

On our way out of the mall we ran into Sharky.  The day really did end on a bright note!

 

The next week started our adventure in sickness. On a Tuesday Mommy woke me up and found me covered in vomit.  I had thrown up sometime during the night.  I didn't cry so no one knew.  After getting Megan on the bus, Mom made a doctor's appointment.  It turned out that I had strep throat.  Mom was relieved it wasn't the stomach flu since that is so catchy.  I got medicine and didn't throw up anymore and everyone thought we were home free.  Then Wednesday morning Mommy got me up and I had soiled my jammies, sleepsack, and bed.  Another call to the doctor and she thought I had a stomach bug on top of the strep.  By the afternoon Mommy was throwing up.  Thankfully Daddy was home early that day and she went off to urgent care to get anti-nausea meds.  While she was there, Megan started throwing up.  And by the time Mom got home from urgent care at 10:30 at night, Daddy was sick too.  On Thursday everyone recovered. I was doing pretty good at this point.  Then Friday morning Megan woke up throwing up again and had a sore throat.  Mom got Megan cleaned up, went in my room, and I had thrown up all over again and developed a very red rash on my chest.  Another call to the doctor and she took both of us in.  Now Megan had strep, and I had either an allergic reaction to my antibiotics or the antibiotics weren't strong enough to cure my strep and I had a strep rash.  So I got a new antibiotic and some Benedryl  On Saturday my rash was gone and we were all on the road to recovery.  Megan and I spent a lot of time playing blocks while we were sick. Mom was trying to keep the number of toys we were playing with to a minimum to decrease the amount of toys she was going to have to sanitize.  So blocks it was! 

 

Sunday night we were all feeling good so we headed to Macy's to see Santa.  Time was running out to let Santa know what we wanted for Christmas. 

 

At first I wasn't so sure about Santa, but then I saw how excited Megan was to talk to him so then I wasn't scared. 

 

Before going to Wells for Christmas we opened our presents from our parents and our other relatives that mail gifts. We both got lots of nice things! 

 

We'll talk about Christmas, Christmas break, and beyond in our next blog!

 

What's new with me?

• My favorite phrases to say lately are "I got it!"  "I found it!" "I did it!" "Where ARE you?" "Oh, right!" "Oh!  Great!" "Oh, hi!"
• I love to do "roll call" and name everyone.  I call myself "Anroo"
• I've got two bottom teeth poking through.  I think I'm just missing my 2 year molars and I'll have a full kid set of teeth.  This was poor timing with the flu epidemic as I like to have my fingers in my mouth and gnaw on them.  Not good for preventing the spread of illness!
• I'm super friendly and always want to say hi to people.  Whenever I see construction workers outside working on the other houses I want to go say hi to them.  We compromise by saying hi to them through the windows. 
• I love living in a new construction area.  There are always a lot of interesting trucks and big machinery around.  I'm going to love the spring when everyone else gets their concrete driveways.  That is going to be a happy few days of my life. 
• I was about 28 pounds at the doctor when I was sick.  We'll see next month at my 2 year appointment if I gained any of that back.  I was about 30 pounds for awhile. 

Catch you soon (hopefully!)

Andrew