New Year's Eve

Last post of the year...and of the decade. Wow. And, post #100!

We had a really nice day today. This morning, we did a small Goodwill donation drop off, then drove down to Federal Way to visit Stanley & Halina. She made a delicious casserole of chicken, brown & wild rice, corn, kidney beans and 2 cheeses. Pretty simple, but perfect for this rainy day. The kids had a good time playing there. Vincent loves to run around their house. Stanley was very surprised & impressed to hear Vincent address him & Halina by their names. He just couldn't believe that he knew their names. Tyler was a little shy at first (he had fallen asleep during the car ride down & just woke up), but by the time lunch was over, he was giving Halina kisses on her cheek. So sweet.

Both kids fell asleep on the ride home. Tyler continued back for a nap when we got home, but Vincent just stayed awake, resting, in his room. During the time he was in his room, he got up and peed in his potty all on his own. He came downstairs to get me & tell me. Of course, he ended up pooping in his diaper a little later. Oh well, eventually he'll get there. David and I took a little nap as well.

The rest of the afternoon, we played with the kids, had dinner, and played some more. During dinner, we toasted to the new year. We've been showing Tyler how to toast, thinking he probably won't get it for a while. But, tonight, he did! He kept raising his sippy cup to clink glasses with us & got such a kick out of it.

After dinner, we went in the living room and danced to George Michael's "Freedom '90". Then, Vincent requested that we do the dance workout video for a little while.

Right now, the kids are both in bed, David's messing around with the T.V., & I'm posting...we both have a goal to be in bed by 10pm and sleep through the countdown to midnight. I know, boring & uneventful, especially for the last day of the decade. We plan to ring in the new year a tiny bit more rested.

Anny's New Year's Resolutions:
1) Visit Stanley & Halina with the kids more often; goal of once a month.
2) Cut out chocolate...there's a lot of it in the house right now. This'll be a hard one.
3) Less late night snacking.

David's New Year's Resolutions:
1) Get us to the gym on Saturday mornings.
2) Only snacking after dinner once a week.
3) Bring lunch from home to work once a week.

A Merry Christmas Indeed

We had a really great Christmas this year. This year, it felt a little different, since it was spent with only each other, but we were able to connect with both sides of our families on the web-cam.

Here are some highlights from the past few days.

Christmas Eve, decorating cookies for Santa. I got the recipe from MSN's delish.com (http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/roll-cut-sugar-cookies-recipe?click=recipe_sr), which was surprisingly good. Vincent did great with decorating. Although the picture looks like we're calmly decorating, it was actually a bit of a mad rush trying to get them done. Vincent would do a little decorating, then run around, and then repeat, while Tyler would crawl around the floor tugging at our legs. Vincent picking out cookies and putting them on a plate for Santa.

After Vincent carried the milk and cookies to the fireplace and we opened it up for Santa, he happily posed for a picture for us.

Santa arrived and left a loot!

Christmas morning! Vincent and Tyler come down to see that the cookies and milk are gone, and their stockings have been filled.

Vincent pulled this gift out of his stocking and was so thrilled. He kept shouting, "CHICK! IT'S CHICK HICKS!"

We had planned it out in our heads that we would let the kids take their time opening gifts and playing with each one as they opened them. We figured it would take all day to get them all opened. That's how it was the last two years. Well, Tyler was happy for that, but Vincent was ready to open them up all at once. We had to slow him down. When Vincent opened the gift from Santa and saw that he got what he asked for, he was so excited and said, "I got the 'Lightning Thing'! I was being good!"

Today, we went and visited our old neighbors and dropped off some cookies. We were only able to see two of them, but are happy to report that they are both doing well.

Merry Christmas!

Some cute things done by Tyler

Tyler is so cute! Although David had taken him this morning so I could sleep a little more, I couldn't sleep because I was thinking about the cute things Tyler is doing, and had to get up to post about them, so that I can look back one day and remember.

Cute thing #1 - "Aaarrrgghhhh." He says this in sort of a piratey, drawn out way when he is feeling happy, and I think a little sassy.

Cute thing #2 - If he is sitting on his bottom and something makes him happy, he does this sort of "happy dance" where he uses his legs to spin around on his bottom. Sometimes he will add in a little squeal.

Cute thing #3 - Self-feeding. So cute. In the photo above, I decided to try letting Tyler sit at Vincent's little table with him while the two had a snack. To my surprise, he sat there and did great! Luckily, the chairs we have are plastic armchairs, which help keep him contained.

Okay, I only have 3 right now, but pretty much everything he does is cute.

Oh, one more! #4 - Climbing up the stairs.

Happy Birthday Vincent, Part 2

Here's what happened after Vincent's nap today.

We had to wake him up, since he was sleeping past 5pm. David gave him the birthday card he received in the mail from cousins Anabelle & Ashton. It was a talking Transformers card. We was blown away by it and kept opening it to listen. After a pasta dinner, which Vincent barely ate, he opened a gift from Aunt Diana & Uncle Ken.

It was a Duplo yellow bus! His first bus toy of any kind. He was over the moon, and started singing the Yellow Bus song that he loves.

Time for a birthday cupcake!

Family photo.

After the cupcake, Vincent opened the gift from A-ma. Ooh, and he pooped in the potty!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Vincent Hunt!

We had celebrated Vincent's birthday a couple of weeks ago when David's parents and sister were in town. We had cake, a balloon, hats, blower things, and we let him open his presents. We told him that it was an early celebration and when his actual birthday would be. He seemed to sort of understand it. So, here are the photos from the birthday party, followed by what we did today for his actual birthday.

Soon as the cake was in front of him & we finished singing the birthday song, he immediately blew out the candle without hesitation!
Lightning McQueen cake, of course.

With his balloon and baby brother.

A few days later we were at Red Robin and had to have them sing to Vincent.

He even got a sundae!

Actual Birthday

Vincent requested to go to the Museum of Flight today. He's been saying this is where he wants to go for the past couple of weeks. So, we obliged. While there, the 2nd new Boeing 787 was making its first flight today, and we got there in time for its landing. We stood outside for about 15 minutes waiting, but it was too cold, so we opted to go in. We did see it touch down, but it did drive right past us on the runway.

Vincent and Tyler lying on the floor in the space station module looking at a video of Earth, as if we were way up in space.

He is officially old enough to go on this ride. Don't look too excited, Kiddo.

He really wanted to go on this, and seemed to like it, but was really quiet & sort of confused when he was on it.

Me and my boys outside the Concord.

A Picture Says a Thousand Words

You might not believe it, but there is so much more to this picture than just a happy boy in a box.
1) The box - it came from Costco. It's the one I mentioned yesterday that I reused. After it came home with us the first time, it became a tunnel for Vincent's cars and trains to go through. It also became a nice, dark napping spot for Stella. Then, some time ago, it became a car. Yesterday, it was the engine of a short train. Today, it is a sled. As you can see, it's not all the way up on the floor, but halfway hanging off, waiting for Vincent to tip it forward and slide down the two steps into our living room.
2) The yellow and the blue strings - they are attached to a "Happy Birthday" balloon floating above. The balloon was Vincent's "crane" that helped him lift the box up to the top of the steps.
3) The thing on Vincent's head - it is his birthday crown that he got to wear in class today as they did a mini early celebration for him and his classmate, Liam's, birthdays. It says his name on it, and it has a snowman on top. The snowman indicates that this is a cold time of year, and near the holidays.
4) The happy boy - super excited to be playing this little game, and a little bit amp'd up on sugar from the treats at school and the treat he got for having just pooped in the toilet. AND, it is rare that we can get this kid to pose and smile so well for pictures anymore these days, so this is extra special!

FYI, I did not mean for Vincent to look like an elf in this picture.

Costco, in 15 minutes!

Vincent and I went on a date today, running errands. I had an appointment at 11am at the consignment store near our house, but also wanted to go to Costco and take Vincent out to lunch, and be home for naptime. I tried to move my appointment earlier, but couldn't. I looked online and saw that Costco actually opened at 10am (I thought it was 11am). So, I quickly decided to rush there (less than 6 miles away, but no direct route from our house) and make it back for the 11 o'clock appointment. I had less than one hour...

We pulled out of our driveway at 10:10am and arrived at Costco at 10:30am. Vincent and I zoomed through the store so fast, got all the things on my mental list and even some other stuff (cuz you can never just buy what you went in there for), made it through a fairly short and quick check out line, and was loaded up and in the car by 10:45am. And, I even saved a box because I brought back the one from our last trip. Unfortunately, I didn't get us to the appointment in time...10 minutes late, but there was parking right in front.

A few weeks ago, after slamming my finger in the trunk of our car because I was so flustered by all the people at Costco & the crazy busy parking lot & the person waiting for my parking spot, I had vowed not to go there again for the remainder of the year. Well, that didn't happen, but at least I was only there for 15 minutes.

Thanks for the help, Vincent!

Runs In The Family

Vincent's preschool had their annual Winter Festival and Snowflake Jog-a-thon today. Vincent had to get pledges for the amount of laps he would run. We didn't know how big the laps would be, but decided to give him $1 a lap. The course was tiny, but not easy. I mean, there were corners they had to get around, lots of children (and adults) to dodge, and so much action to distract them. But, Vincent did great! He must've ran at least 2o laps, and barely stopped. He slipped once because he ran into a cone. Here's the footage!

At the front of the pack, ready to go. And, he's off!

Rounding a corner...

Having such a fantastic time!

Everyone earned themselves a candy cane. This is Vincent's first one ever (I think).

We were one of the first families to get to the party, and while we waited for everyone else to arrive, many of the kids were running around chasing each other. Tyler wanted to get right in with them. I could barely hold him back.