'tis the season

Did important things, such as writing the wish list to Santa. Ty wrote it completely himself. It appears that Santa doesn't have much to work with this year. Tyler's list included an Eeyore and Mickey (as if he could possibly need more Disney), a penguin, a candy cane, and a surprise. He later made an addition to his sealed list, which included the game checkers. Hmmm.

I started working on getting the perfect shot for the 2009 Christmas Card. I learned that 2 mobile kids is waaaaaay more difficult than 1. Jason had absolutely no intention of cooperating. It was a real shame that I couldn't explain the candy cane bribe that worked for Tyler.




Jason tried out the Pooh Santa hat. Always a hit.

I continued the insane attempt to get Christmas pictures for cards. As you can tell, it didn't go well. I did post these on facebook and got many responses encouraging me to use the last one as our Christmas card. One person suggested using it with the caption "Merry Christmas Anyway". Tempting.


My beautiful niece Carli celebrated her 7th birthday at International Sports center. Both boys had a great time!


On Saturday night they had the annual tree lighting for the tree that floats on the lake in the center of our town. Shockingly we were actually getting snow, which made for a beautiful (and cold) setting. Inside they did a reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas, went outside to light the tree, and then Santa made a surprise visit via fire truck. Tyler was in total fascination. Jason was in it just for the free cookies. The boys sat on Santa's lap. Jason screamed. Tyler told Santa he doesn't behave at home. Not sure that Santa knew what to make of that. The child is honest...I'll give him that. LOL.




After the tree lighting we went to my brothers to celebrate this 29th birthday.


The next morning, early, Ty got to experience his first "snow" before it got a chance to melt. He doesn't know what a real snow fall is, so he was thrilled with our snow. He even referred to it as a "snow village" and insisted on throwing snowballs (which didn't work well)and frollicking.


I left the boys with their Grandmom for 1.25 hours (yes, I kept track) and Ty was thrilled to make a gingerbread house.

Ty has his "secret Santa" shopping at school. Turned out to not be so secretive, because he had to show us immediately what he purchased for us for Christmas. At least I can say he was proud of his purchases.


Another photo attempt...would have helped if I would remember to make sure the flash was on.

Jason coerced my dad into showing him numerous youtube videos. It's amazing how much authority he has even though he does not speak. He's lucky he's cute.

Tried, AGAIN, to get Christmas pictures. Some cute ones of the boys individually, but no luck on the ellusive group photo.




Picked, according to Tyler, "the best Christmas tree ever".



Finally settled on a Christmas photo for the Christmas cards. Not ultimately thrilled with it, but it's gonna have to do.



Finally got the tree up and decorated! The house got decorated as well, which proved to be fascinating for both boys. Oh, and Jason learned he likes candy canes. And boy can those 4 little teeth do some chomping!









I finally had the appointment with Ty's doctor to discuss his behavior issues. The tantrums are like nothing I've dealt with and the anger was getting to be of concern. They decided on doing some bloodwork to rule out any physical things, and I will be contacting a counselor for him.

We finally got around to making Christmas cookies. We learned that Ty can rock the spritz cookies all by himself with the cookie press!



On Thursday Tyler had to have his blood work to test his blood sugar, amongst other things. It required a fasting blood draw, so I woke the kids up early in the morning and bundled them up to get the blood work done when the lab opened. Tyler was not a happy camper, to say the least. He cried and trembled. Jason actually needed his iron retested (after finding it low at his 1year appointment and later starting supplements). Well, shockingly he sat there in fascination and never said a word during his blood draw. Unfortunately his little vein collapsted and the didn't feel confident that they could finish the blood draw, so they asked me to bring him back in 2 hours when Ty needed his blood sugar retested. That proved to be a disaster, with both boys needing to be stuck numerous times on that trip. Apparently they acquired my crappy veins. Anyway, long story short, I felt like crap about putting him through that, so I promised him a trip to Pump it Up for their holiday fun night. They got pizza/drink, an airbrush tattoo, glow necklace, a picture with Santa, and of course play time....all for $10. Not bad. Tyler, of course, was in his glory. Jason surprisingly had fun too, except when expected to sit on Santa's lap. That lasted about .3 seconds. LOL.





Got the blood work back. Ty's blood sugar was within acceptable limits, but had definitely dipped fairly low. They want me to make sure he eats every 2 hours and we'll be keeping a close eye on him. His cholesterol was high too, which surprised me, but they said that the balance of the HDL and LDL was "very good". Wonder what that is about.

Jason has decided he loves beads. I have to make sure he's not wearing them when he sleeps. If I take them off him they are back on in seconds. Goof.

Tonight we were busy while my parents were off to AC. A trip to the library, to McDonalds for an ice cream cone (Tyler) and apple dippers (Jason) with our coupons from Halloween, and then finally to Murphy's to drop off toys at the Toys for Tots drop-box. Tyler was so excited.