Best Gift EVER!

Santa Visit

We took the boys to see a Santa during the first week of December.  This was a Santa/photography studio that I heard great things about last December when I was pregnant with the boys.  It is located at Country Village in Bothell.  When I checked out their website to find out times, I saw that we would reserve an appointment time with Santa, thus cutting out having to wait in a line.  Brilliant!  We arrived a bit early to the appointment and walked around Country Village and looked at all the decorations and chickens/roosters that were wandering around.
 

We then went to the photography studio and waited for our turn.  They were very kind and professional.  We went back to the studio and there was Santa waiting to visit with the boys.  The photographer suggested we place them on Santa's lap and just back away to see what would happen.  At first the boys were both stunned.  The photographer took some pictures and then Ragnar started wiggling to try and get down.  Nate swooped in to reposition him and when Nate backed away again Ragnar started to cry.  So that was that.  We picked up the boys and looked at the picture previews of the photos taken.  None of the pictures had them smiling, but that's ok.  I'm happy with the outcome.  It was nice to not have a line to wait in and be able to have solo/quiet time with Santa.

It was a great day to share as a family!

Grandparent Visit

My parents arrived in early December for a visit.  The boys quickly warmed up to them and loved all of the time spent playing together and reading books.  During the trip we visited the aquarium and went to lots of Christmas activities.  Unfortunately, both Magnus and Ragnar came down with hand-foot-and-mouth disease during the visit.  Because of this we were unable to attend the Ikea holiday buffet or do our big Seattle Christmas activity trip.  We were sad to see Gramsie and Grumpa go.  We can't wait to see Gramsie again for the boys' first birthday.

I LOVE the sweaters that my mom knit for the boys that they are wearing in the pictures.  Magnus' has cars on it and Ragnar's has sailboats.  Sooooo cute!

11 Months Old

Wow.  My babies are 11 months old!  1 more month and we’ll have 1-year olds!  This past year has been so amazing and has absolutely flown by.  Nate took great pictures for this month.  Magnus was VERY sad and didn't want his picture taken, but I love some of his sad faces.  Ragnar loved the photo shoot and tried to crawl off of the bed as fast as he could at every available opportunity.

Magnus:

• Size 3 diaper
• 6-12 M pants, 6–9-month onesies, 6–9-month sleepers
• Has 4 bottom teeth and 4 top teeth that he uses as tools to get into items he wants opened
• Extremely vocal: laughs, giggles, babbles, screeches, tries to mimic our words
• Army crawls all over the place
• Can stand up on his own from sitting in our laps
• Pulls himself up on furniture
• Walks while holding onto our hands or furniture
• Can sit up from a crawl on his own and get into a crawl from a sit on his own
• Rotates in a circle when seated to see everything around him
• Likes to “clap” toys together
• Points with one finger at pictures in books
• New foods he likes: quesadillas, veggie smoothies, stuffing, yams, pumpkin pie

Ragnar

• Size 3 diaper
• 6-12 M pants, 6–9-month onesies, 6–9-month sleepers
• Has 2 bottom teeth
• Explores everything!
• Crawls on his elbows and knees occasionally, but primarily army crawls
• Pulls himself up to stand on everything and everyone
• Can get into a sit on his own from a crawl and into a crawl from a sit
• Opens the baby gate and crawls through if it isn’t latched completely shut
• Tries to open doors by pulling on the door from underneath
• Throws toys through the baby gate for the dogs
• Uses toys as tools to try to explore
• New foods he likes: quesadillas, veggie smoothies, stuffing, yams, pumpkin pie

Both

• Play with each other: hide-n-seek, tag, tug of war
• Make each other laugh (and US!)
• They recognize changes to everyday objects
• Great eaters- eating 3 balanced meals a day and still nursing regularly
• Sleep through the night
• Laugh and splash in the bathtub and pull down their bath toys on their own
• Empty toy bins
• Try to “help” Mama and Papa with electronics
• Like to look out the front window (stand on the couch to see out)
• Love looking out the car windows as we drive

Christmas Pajamas - Week 46

We started a new Christmas tradition with our family this year.  This is a tradition that we've borrowed from the Durbin family that I nannied for.  On the day we put up our Christmas decorations (typically the day after Thanksgiving) the children are given a present with new pajamas that have Christmas designs on them.  This way they can enjoy wearing Christmas pajamas for the whole month of December.  Magnus and Ragnar enjoyed opening their presents.  They weren't too enthusiastic about the pajamas (as expected) but they sure look cute in them!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas - Week 45

We got out the boys' Christmas outfits for pictures this week -these are some adorable knit rompers from Hannah Andersson.  Magnus' and Ragnar's "My first Christmas" stockings also were used for these photos.  The container this week (to keep wiggly babies in one place) is our new sled.  Hopefully we will get some snow this year and get a chance to use it.