November and December in the Life of Kieran

I am so bad about posting on this blog! I can only imagine that posting will get even more sporadic once Baby X arrives. I seriously cannot imagine what it's going to be like with two. I feel like I'm sometimes barely keeping it together with just one--and that one is becoming more and more adept at entertaining himself! Thank goodness for my mom, who will be here for a couple of weeks after the new baby's born! (And, I guess I should say thanks to my dad, too, who works hard so my mom was able to be a stay at home mom and now has the ability to just drop everything to come out here and help me out, and to my brothers and sisters who are going to be helping out around my parents' house while my mom is out here, and to my grandparents, too, who will be doing the same thing. Apparently it does take a village...) :)

Anyway, there's a lot to catch up on in the lives of Kieran and co.
November started out with very mild weather, and we took advantage of it by spending a lot of time outside. Playing in the leaves was one of Kieran's pastimes, and we had a lot of leaves in our yard for him to play with. He also enjoyed raking the leaves and helping load them into paper yard bags to take to the landscape recycling center in town. We made one final trip as a family of three back to Virginia for the Thanksgiving holiday, and had lots of fun, minus a stressful start to the trip when our flight out of town was delayed, then canceled for about five minutes before the airline reinstated it. Kieran is old enough now to really play with his cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and friends, which is incredibly fun for everyone. He really enjoyed seeing everyone, and he talks about different family members all the time. He's pretty stoked that his "gamma"/"maa-maa" and "Annn Diannn" are coming to visit him in just a few days. he certainly remembers them both from his visit back east just a few short weeks ago. Below are some pics from our visit:

Kieran and cousin Jay playing in the tub

Three little stairstepped KieFerg boys

With Aunt Cathy and the newest member of the fam, Uncle Darren

With "Annn Diannn" and Uncle Lincoln

We returned to find all the mild weather gone, having been replaced with the frigid prairie winter. Blah!! Between the extremely cold conditions, a fair amount of snow, and my pregnancy-induced lethargy, we didn't spend too much time outside, although we did make it out one night to pick out our Christmas tree from the local tree farm where we always get our tree. This year they offered "moonlight" hours, so off we went the first Friday we were back to pick out our tree (especially since the ACC championship football game was that Saturday at noon, so we weren't going to be going anywhere lest we miss the big game). Usually we get a white pine, but the selection was sparse this year, so we ended up getting a red pine, and it was great. I think we may go with this option again next year. The branches are sturdier than a white pine and the tree stayed fresher so much longer (perhaps because we remembered to water it more frequently this year...). In fact, the tree is still up in our living room, partially because Kieran loves his "key-bee-bee" (christmas tree) so much. He was fascinated with the decorations and for the first few days it was up he kept bringing ornaments he'd take off it, saying "uh-oh key-bee-bee" and would want to help put the ornaments back on. A particular favorite of his was a blue and white foam snowflake ornament made and given to us by his Aunt Molly several years ago. Kieran was also particularly fond of the lights on the tree and outside (which I smartly told David to put up BEFORE we left for Thanksgiving one balmy Saturday before Thanksgiving when it was 60 degrees out--he mocked me at the time, but I know he was ultimately glad he had done it with the nasty 20 degree weather that arrived after Thanksgiving). Unfortunately, Kieran also learned how to plug in the tree lights all by himself, which is an advanced feat I am not so proud of. One morning I was sitting eating my breakfast in the kitchen and he came bounding in, excitedly proclaiming, "Dee-Dee (which is what he calls himself--we have no idea where that name came from!) key-bee-bee dight on. Dee-Dee key-bee-bee dight on!" When I glanced around the corner, the lights, which had previously been off, were sure enough on. We've spent a few weeks trying to explain to him that turning the lights on without mommy or daddy or another grown-up could give him pain, so he should always ask one of us to help him turn the lights on. (As I sat here typing this, the little guy walked over to plug the tree lights in BY HIMSELF again! I guess it's time to start reusing the electrical socket covers again...)

Christmas was fun and very laid-back, which was great since I wasn't feeling too hot on Christmas Eve or Day. David and I think it was something I might have eaten since no one in the rest of the family got sick, thank goodness! (Fortunately, it also didn't mean that I was getting ready to go into labor because my doctor was out of town until the 28th.) Kieran got lots of fun toys, which he loves to play with, and some great books, too. It's a good thing we're having another baby because he would be one spoiled little boy if we weren't! Kieran has been all about the holiday season this year. He's really into "no-man" (snowmen), and he's started singing, too. His favorite song right now is "Frosty the Snowman," although the alphabet song is a close second. Our neighbor at the end of the street really goes all out with their holiday decorations, which include a huge, inflatable snowman and Santa. Kieran loves them both and is always asking to go down and look at them. When they're off during the day, he will say, "Frosty/Santa night-night" and he's always really pleased when it's dark out and they're inflated. He is into Santa, although as evidenced in this picture, he much prefers the inflatable Santa to a human one. David and I have decided that we're not going to make a big deal about Santa because we have some issues with the whole "you'll get presents if you're good" idea (because, really, that's not the reality for a lot of kids). So, all of Kieran's presents this year were from mommy and daddy or grandma and grandpa or this aunt/uncle/cousin, etc. We'll see how effective this is once Kieran's a little bit older and has more exposure to the whole Santa lore.

With Christmas over, we rang in 2008 with our friends Erin, Brian, and Maya (who is Kieran's best bud). It was so nice to have a family-friendly New Year's party to go to. Last year, we stayed home and watched a movie, which we both thought was kinda depressing, and it was great to be able to go out and share in the revelry with others this year. Kieran didn't quite make it to midnight--he went to bed at 10:30ish (but he could easily have gone done earlier than that), but he enjoyed the party while he was awake. Here's a nice picture of the two little ones during the holiday festivities: Mom and Dad had a great time, too, and we didn't leave until well after 2:30 a.m., which made for an interesting day on New Year's (more so for David than for me since he got up with Kieran when he awoke at 7:30 while I slept in).

As you may have noticed, Kieran looks like he's grimacing in many of these pictures. In fact, he's actually *smiling* for the camera! Clearly, we're going to have to work on the smile. :) Here is another picture of Kieran smiling: I put this up as the background on my computer, and when Kieran saw it he said, "Dee-Dee kai. Dee-Dee sad" (Kieran cry. Kieran sad), and I explained to him that he actually wasn't sad here, but rather, he was smiling. He pondered that concept for a while, but he still *smiles* like that. We'll see. I guess I'm going to have to try to take some more candid shots for a while. If he's making this kind of face in any of the pictures with the new baby, don't worry. It actually means that he's happy and smiling.

We hope you all had a great holiday season. Keep checking back for news about Baby TEUF (pronounced "tough"). Yes, we've decided on a name, we think! Let the guessing begin. You only have a brief amount of time to come up with your guess before we make the big announcement about her arrival sometime (hopefully!) in the next week or so! Happy 2008! We have a feeling it's going to be a good year!