Our Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Well, Christmas is over again for another year! It was a good holiday for us though a little unusual. What with the renovations going on in the kitchen and being somewhat tied down with a newborn, it was difficult to prepare for all our Christmas traditions. No baking of cookies; the kitchen wasn't in full working order til the 23rd, so we didn't get our tree decorated or our kitchen put away til Christmas Eve, of course we then had to clean the place! So there was no time for our customary Christmas Eve skate, and we couldn't squeeze in that visit to the German market either. We felt the absence of Nanny on Christmas morning for sure, and though we had a lovely Turkey dinner that night at the Driver abode, we didn't get to see them on Boxing Day so they were also missed. It wasn't until our first guests arrived at our 9th annual Boxing Day open house that it really felt like Christmas. Thanks again to all our visitors for making our holiday, we ended up with a great turn-out again this year!

Jordan took that bow off his first present and it stayed there all day, even through a nap, until it was time to go to Mark and Aida's for dinner and Jordan put on his hat.

Knock! Knock! Tia Aida and Uncle Mark, I am here for Christmas dinner.  I brought my new backpack, hat and play-doh set.

Uncle Mark, you make a GREAT dessert!

With Daddy having this week off after Christmas, we have been trying to get some fun activities in for Jordan.  We went swimming on the 27th.  He doesn't know that he doesn't know how to swim!  He made Daddy take him into the lap pool to splash around.  He loves jumping into Daddy's arms from the pool edge and he always tries to get any balls that are floating in the pool.  He appears to be at home in the water so afterwards we signed him up for the "Sea Turtles," level of Red-Cross swimming lessons.  We will be going to the pool every Saturday and Sunday starting on the 7th.

He looks SO cute in his first hockey helmet!

The next day we took Jordy to the rink to try out his bob-skates (that Nanny Mary got him for Christmas last year) on the ice for the first time; and he seemed to be a natural!  After a few laps around the rink Daddy had to drag Jordy kicking and screaming off the ice in order to get a break for himself.  When I met them just outside the doors, and asked if everything was all right, Chris said, "we're not here because of him, we're here because of me!  My back hurts.  We'll go back in a few minutes."  Jordy even let go of Daddy's hand and struck out on his own.  We were amazed at how well he did; he could see a target and go for it without holding Daddy's hand.  He fell several times, but he always fell on his bum and laughed about it as he got up to try again.  We think in another six months or a year he will be able to go into skating lessons, and eventually ice hockey (if he wants...but he is loving the mini hockey set that he got for Christmas so it's looking good).

No help needed, Dad!

Guess who knows how to make falling look cute....

He tried the skater trainer a little, but he felt he didn't need it.

Solo!

Signing "ice skating" - I think that means he likes it.

Skating all done!

Today was a cool, clear day so we went outside to try Jordan's new Balance Bike.  What is a Balance Bike?  Well, it's more common in Europe, but it's basically a small 2-wheeled bicycle without pedals.  The idea is that the child learns the balance p

art of riding a bike when he is very young...none of that training wheel stuff.  We first saw it when we spotted one of his daycare friends absolutely flying around on one.  So far, so good for Jordan.  He got on the bike when he saw it under the tree on Christmas morning and today he did very well, using his legs to push himself along with tiny bits of gliding in between.  We took it out to the playground in our complex and then back and he really seemed to enjoy himself. 

Ya, even with my new bike helmet on I look cool!

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that he's graduated to the Big Boy swings...at least part time anyways!

Really what the last 4 days have shown us is that Jordan is a physical kid.  He's already built like a running back and loves rough-housing and doing flips off the couch (and Daddy's lap).  I think 2012 is going to be about encouraging Jordan to try out more types of physical activities.

One non-physical aspect of Jordan that is always changing is his speech.  We are amazed at how he is using more and more words every day.  At times it just about feels like you are having a conversation with him, which is a great feeling.  As you'd expect, his pronunciation isn't perfect; in fact, Mommy and Daddy are probably the only two people who understand most of his words.  But it is SO cute to hear his early words.  One word in particular stands out...the word he uses for his sister.  He often calls her "baby" or "baby girl" and he does her sign-name really well.  But when he says her name, he says "It-ty" - as in "Itty Bitty".

Lest you all think that everything is rosy in the Dumaresq household, Jordan is squarely in the midst of the terrible twos.  He constantly surprises us with ways he figures out to make a mess or break one of Daddy's things.  Especially since he has lately gone to carrying around a step stool in the house...he now has access to may new and dangerous things.  Most notably, while the kitchen was still under construction he got ahold of a fingernail clipper and jammed it in the exposed light switch box!  Yes, bad parents, we know.  The clipper created a short circuit which sent sparks shooting out and melted one edge of the clippers!  It was pretty scary and Daddy put the light switch cover back on afterwards.  You'll be happy to know that all outlets downstairs are the safety kind, and all outlets upstairs have those annoying plug covers.  So we don't expect a repeat of this until he is a teenager.
 

Getting chubbier (and louder) every day!

Baby Cygni is doing just fine.  Growing all the time, and getting pudgy and cute.  She is a cuddler, and while this is very sweet, it is very challenging trying to get anything done, because even if she is full of milk and her diaper clean she will sometimes fuss to be held.  She is sleeping rather well though, we regularly get 5 or 6 hours of sleep out of her at night.  Even though she often will wait til 1 or 2 am to go down for a long rest, it's hard for Mommy to complain when there's such a good long period of sleep to be gained before it's nursey-time again. 

No too interested in this present from Dad...

It's been great having Daddy home, and though he goes back to work in just two more days, we have had lots of fun with him and Jordy and it's been such a help to Mommy having him home.  The new year brings us a lot of excitement: time for Jordy to go to pre-school two days a week, a visit very soon from Nanny, and of course all the growing that the kiddos are going to be doing.  We'll ring it in low-key, with a salmon and crab leg dinner at home, maybe some fizzy pear-juice that we can pretend is champagne and maybe a movie if we're going to really splash out.  But we're happy, and hope you will be too, no matter how you celebrate.  We wish you all the best in 2012.

Before

After