Up and coming

So glad we have a break coming up. It means planning for Elsa's birthday party (she's turning FOUR!) and general Christmas prep. We just bought a new Christmas tree at the Home Depot in Kenai. Sometimes it hits me how crazy it is to have to drive an hour and a half to the nearest Home Depot. Most everyone else probably has one within fifteen minutes, depending on traffic. We managed to find a budget-friendly, skinny, pre-lit tree. It took minutes to set up. Perfect. Elsa is enthralled with decorating for Christmas. She helped Nana with tree decorations and we enjoyed listening to her "ooohs" and "aahhhs" as she discovered the many treasures that Nana has for the tree. Every ornament elicited exclamations of joy and wonderment.

I have the invitations to Elsa's party finished...just have to hand them out! The theme is Noah's Ark. Over the past couple years, she and Nana have been collecting those very realistic looking plastic animals for the "ark," a resin-cast ark that Nana purchased. The collection of animals no longer fits in the ark and have their own box now. Elsa will spend hours setting them up, putting the mommies and daddies and babies together. She sorts them from smallest to largest. We will often find a trail of animals extending far from the play area. I guess the next exercise is to count them. When we are out shopping, Elsa has a mental list of the animals that we are missing for the ark collection. "Mom, the baby zebra needs a daddy!" It seemed the right theme for the party this year.

Ethan can no longer be on the floor on his back without rolling over. He's mastered the skill. Evan seems content to lay which ever way we put him. Just an observation of the differences in their developmental timeline, despite their shared DNA and similar "nurturing." Pretty fascinating! Both boys are remarkably happy and are very good-natured; they always smile upon waking and are going to be responsible for many smile lines, as Nana puts it.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It's December. My favorite month for many reasons. First, we usually get some snow. I'm not into any winter sports, per se, but I love watching it snow. I love hot chocolate, slippers, and having a really good reason to stay inside, warm and cozy. I will occasionally venture out. Elsa and I built a snowman this morning at Nana's. The snow up on the hill was wet and perfect for snowman construction. It was amazing how quickly it turned into a big snowman. Alas, when I returned this evening, he had lost his middle and head. We will have to reconstruct.

I also love Christmas. The music, scents, colors, and foremost, the reason for Christmas. I think we have over-commercialized the holiday in our efforts to make it special, but that's not enough reason to call it off! I particularly love gift wrapping and gift giving. It gives me tremendous satisfaction to make a gift look amazing. Often the outside looks better than what's inside...

Elsa was born in December. She was nearly two weeks late and I just wanted her to have some time between her birthday and Christmas so it was easy to differentiate between the two events. As it is, there's just over a week between her birthday (16) and Christmas (25). People tend to be around and available for parties, so it's working out pretty well.

The last reason I love December (that I will list here, anyhow): peppernuts. You've got to be a family member to get this one. Well, it's the only time of year we make them and I can't get enough.

It starts with Thanksgiving; I'm always very grateful through the holiday season for family, home, and health. This year should be quite interesting with our two newest additions to the family. I'm looking forward to it all!

Cousins rule...

Big news! Joel's brother, Seth, and his wife, Ashley, are having a GIRL! So far, all the Pietsch boys with kids have had girls first. Coincidence?

Also, Ethan rolled over several times from his back to his front. I have succeeded in missing the actual event but I know he had to roll over to get to where he ended up. Evan laughed at a toy, a cute little hippo wearing a tutu. Evan's big development is reaching up when he's about to get picked up out of the seat he plays in.

And my almost-four-year-old is starting to read. Elsa (and the boys) are doing a great program called Your Baby Can Read. It's fun to watch her figure out things and recognize words she knows, however out of context. I was hoping that the S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G out of words we don't want her to hear would last a little longer. She is master of the remote...since she can read the word P-L-A-Y!

Evan (l) and Ethan (r) enjoying tummy time

First Blog...I swore I never would.

I guess I've decided I do have things to share. Even if it's just a way for me to keep a kind of record of events for the kids. They are doing so much growing every day and I have a hard time getting it written down. Maybe this will help.

As I type, Ethan is squirming on my lap. He's my big smiler. Born with a super round, "Charlie Brown" head, he's the one in the pictures with the gigantic, open-mouthed, lots of tongue-grin. He's just getting to the grab-everything stage. So far, I've been able to do almost everything with a baby in hand: type, bead, write, cook... I think those days are soon behind us.

Evan is enjoying a bottle upstairs with Dada and Elsa. Elsa is playing, hardcore as usual. It's all or nothing with her. She's so desperate for someone to play with her. I hope she hasn't outgrown that before the boys get big enough to join her.

Time for bed.