Christmas 2013

Levi's first Christmas will forever be remembered as the one plagued with illness, but we survived and made the most of it.

He and I both started showing symptoms of a cold on Monday the 23rd, along with a fever for Levi. He (and I) slept awful that night. We had to move him to the rock n play so he could be at an incline. He was restless the first part of the night, and from 1:30 on he was crying every 30-60 minutes, needing either his paci, or just a gentle rock or pat if he didn't want the paci (too stuffy). Mama was very tired on Christmas Eve, and even more so on Christmas Day. The second day is always the worst. His fever went down to low-grade on Christmas Eve and was thankfully back to normal on Christmas Day. Rodney and my mom started showing symptoms a day or 2 after us, and Isaac so far has managed to avoid it, although he did have a low-grade fever (only symptom) last Friday, so maybe he started it all.

Levi did so well through the Christmas festivities, even being sick. Isaac was 7.5 weeks old at his first Christmas and he got so overstimulated. Levi can get that way at times, but he surprised me this time. It helps that he is finally able to stay awake for longer periods of time between naps. He actually enjoyed being passed around from person to person and surveying the room. He was awake for our Christmas morning present opening, then took a nap the whole time Rodney's parents were here.

Isaac loved playing with his cousins and of course opening presents. He didn't even really care about it at his birthday last month, but he really got it this time. It's funny, we have a million Thomas and Chuggington trains that go on the track and train table Santa brought him last year, but he got it in his mind that he wanted one certain train for Christmas this year (Emery), so of course Santa had to bring it. It's the only thing he actually asked for. We're also buying him (and Levi) a play set for the backyard, but we haven't actually purchased it yet. I can't wait for spring!

Isaac's favorite gift was probably this electric drill from R's parents. He sat and worked on it for a long time on Christmas morning.

My husband is definitely the neat freak in this house. He can't stand clutter. Only minutes after the last gift was opened, our house went from this...

to this...

While it's great that he is so motivated to keep things clear and neat, part of me wants to just sit back among all the wrapping paper and bows and enjoy the cliche Christmas morning.

I love catching unexpected things in photos. I took the above picture of Bob and Larry from Veggie Tales, Isaac's newest friends, but it wasn't until I saw it on the computer that I saw the sweetest scene ever in the top left corner. Isaac loves Levi so much and Levi is starting to show some love in return.

Aside from the sickness, we had a great Christmas and a wonderful Christmas season. Rodney and I were talking yesterday as we took the ornaments off the tree...Levi will be walking next Christmas and probably wreaking havoc on our tree and the presents underneath. That is so hard to imagine! I know Isaac will be even more fun next year too. Seeing the world through my children's eyes makes everything so much more special.

Some other notes that I want to remember about this year...

- Isaac loved watching the classic Christmas tv shows. He fell in love with Charlie Brown last year, but this year he also enjoyed Rudolph and Frosty. We sat down and watched Daddy's favorite, Mickey's Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve.

- Isaac saw Santa at Dollywood and at the mall. He talked Santa's ear off both times and told him he wanted a train and Levi wanted bath toys (which is what Mommy put in his ear).

- On Christmas Eve he asked when it was going to be Christmas and we told him it was actually the day before Christmas. He then said, "When is it going to snow?" because it always snows on Christmas on tv. We told him it probably wasn't going to snow, but the funny part is we saw the tiniest of flurries later that day on our way to Nana's house. He was thrilled!