Busy Holiday

Just wanted to post quickly to tell you what we've been up to. Christmas was fantastic, and I'll post some pictures and videos next week. Danny's first "healthy" day was yesterday, and he has been moving ever since! Unfortunately yesterday was Annelise's first day of this awful sickness. She has had a fever and was either held or asleep most of yesterday and today. Tonight she ate solid foods again, and we saw some of the signs of our dear girl (making noises, waving, smiling, playing in the bath, etc.).

Tomorrow we are headed to Philadelphia for the MLA conference. It is so hard for me to believe that one year ago we were here in DC (I was 6 months pregnant) while Randy did his interviews at the conference. Randy will be going to some panels, but a lot of the pressure he has felt in the past is off. He will be making some contacts with others in his field, and we are excited to see some friends from all over the country who will be interviewing or participating in the conference. Neither of us have been to Philadelphia, but I'm not really sure how much sightseeing we'll get done. It is only a two hour drive, so we can always go back!

I'll post when we return and tell you all about our Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Well, what would a Christmas dinner be without your 3 year-old vomiting during the meal? Danny's cold actually seems to be the flu. He has had a fever since the middle of the night last night and was achy most of the day. Danny wanted to eat dinner with us, but didn't get more than a couple of bites down, when out came all sorts of fun things (including olive chunks and red jello!). Yuck! Randy and I both went into super-care-taking mode to clean, comfort and medicate. Fortunately, Annelise couldn't stay awake any longer and was taking a nap when all of this happened. Once Danny was bathed we talked him into taking a nap (which he hasn't done for a year), and Randy and I found ourselves having a microwaved Christmas dinner to ourselves.

After Danny's nap, he was doing better, although the fever is still being controlled through medicine. We played, and the kids got to each open a gift. Danny was pretty overwhelmed by everything, while Annelise was thrilled with the wrapping paper.


By the way, Annelise thought she would get in on the Christmas unwrapping early. We caught her digging her way into this package this morning. She does have a love affair with paper!


Before bedtime, Danny still felt up to leaving a note and some cookies for Santa. Danny is excited about Christmas. Randy and I desperately hope he feels better tomorrow, so that he can fully enjoy the day.

Damny and Christmas Eve

You did read me right... Damny. Danny has been a lot of fun these last weeks. As I mentioned in a previous post, he has been pretty obsessed with spelling things, especially his name. We have magnet letters on our fridge, and Danny was quick to discover that he can't spell Danny because there aren't two ns. I didn't prompt him in this AT ALL, and one day I was making lunch and he said, "The M looks like an N, so I'll just put an M in my name to spell Danny." So I look, and sure enough, there it is... Damny. He did have one time in the last few days where he couldn't find the Y, and that was amusing for Randy and me.

We have been counting down the sleeps until Christmas, and Danny has also been enjoying an advent calendar. I am cooking our Christmas meal today, and he was confused why we were having our holiday meal a day early. Randy and I explained that the day before Christmas is Christmas Eve, and that we would have our meal on Christmas Eve. Of course, he wondered when we would be opening all of the gifts under the tree, and we had to explain that the presents wouldn't be opened until Christmas morning. This morning, while Randy, Annelise and I were in the kitchen, Danny woke up and strutted out to the kitchen saying, "Mom, today is Christmas Eve." The way he said it was so factual and insistent... like "today's almost Christmas, Mom, don't you know?"

Nine Months and a New Tooth

Annelise is nine months today. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone. She continues to be a joy to have in our family, and I can't imagine life without her! These are pictures of her in her Santa suit in front of our tree.

The last few nights have been pretty rough with sleep for her, and Randy and I assumed it was the beginning of her sickness (she has a cold...with Randy and Danny). But today I noticed that one of her top teeth had broken through. It probably broke on Thursday or Friday.

Dinner Time

After walking in the rain downtown, we decided to grab some food at Capitol City Brewing Company. The atmosphere was similar to BJ's pizza, but they didn't serve pizza. The food was OK, but the atmosphere was great and it was a kid-friendly place. It was nice to get in from the rain and have some dinner. This was the first brew-pub opened in DC since Prohibition. Capitol City Brewing Company only opened in 1992... we got a kick out of that!

Randy bought himself a t-shirt from the place, after trying their Amber Waves Ale. He loved the logo... (I wonder why?). Anyway, she has great "full-bodied" hair (I know I need to lose weight, but I do think this refers to the volume of her coiffure, not the volume of her body!). Have to show you his t-shirt!

National Christmas Tree

Rainy, but beautiful. Each state also had a representative tree, so we snapped a picture of California's tree!

Museum Fun

Yesterday and evening we had an excursion to DC for some sightseeing. We went to the Museum of Natural History. Danny had fun looking at the fossils and the mammals exhibit. It wasn't very crowded, so Annelise got to crawl around and explore some exhibits, also!

Christmas Lights

Because we are renting this year, and don't know what our future homes may be like, we kept the outside of our house undecorated. One of my favorite pastimes is to drive around our neighborhood and look at the light displays. Some of our neighbors have gone all out, and Danny and I have really enjoyed seeing our neighborhood transformed.

Tonight, for something special, we all piled in the car after the kids had an early bath, and drove to the historic section of our town. We saw some amazing light displays. My favorite was a house that has an incredible number of lights. When we pulled up closer to the house, there was a sign that said: "Listen to the Music on 98.1 FM!" When we tuned in, we noticed that all of the lights in their front and side yard were twinkling and flashing with the music. My favorite song was Carol of the Bells. What an amazing sight!

Warmer Weather... and Then Cooler

Over the weekend and on Monday we had ridiculously warm weather. On Monday it got up to 73 degrees. Randy is done with his teaching responsibilities, so he was home early, and we all had fun playing in our backyard. Danny even insisted on pulling out the wagon, and Annelise got her first ride in the wagon. I think she enjoyed it, although she did try to crawl out while it was moving. Now don't get too excited about our warm weather... on Tuesday we were back down to the low 50's, and today it was in the high 40's again!

Sandals, Shorts and Swimsuits

Today I went through the rest of the kids' clothes, tucking away outgrown clothing and figuring out what summer clothes could be worn in Hawaii. Some 9 month dresses will still work for Miss A, but the 12 month stuff fits much better. I could have gotten this swimsuit bigger, but it will work for one week. Danny's shorts still fit from summer, even his swim trunks and sandals!

Giggling Annelise

A tired Annelise got very giggly at dinnertime.

Getting Ready!

The Ontiveros family is anxiously awaiting our trip to a warmer climate. We really haven't had too many complaints about our weather, except the surprising 20 something degrees we had for a few days. In January we will be going to California (a little bit warmer) and then Hawaii (a lot warmer). I pulled out some of Annelise's warm weather clothes to wash for the trip. I couldn't resist trying this little dress on. My mom bought it for her when we were in Hawaii last year and I was almost 8 months pregnant. So cute!

Santa Visit

Santa made a visit to our little neighborhood this evening... on a fire truck! We were just getting the kids to bed, and I heard a siren. It didn't sound like the normal emergency siren, though, and I peeked out the window to find Santa riding on a fire truck waving to all of the houses. We snatched Danny up so quick so that he could wave at Santa from our porch. These pictures aren't great, but the whole experience was very cool!

Traditions

Preparing for Christmas has been so much fun this year. Because I am not working I have had much less stress in planning ahead for the celebration. Randy and I sat down in November and talked about what events we wanted to attend, and what traditions we wanted to continue or start this year.

One aspect of the holidays that we couldn't overlook is that we have a new addition to our family. Taking all the things we do and adding one person has been fun. I have little picture ornaments of Randy, me and Danny as babies (which Randy's mom started several years ago... before Danny), so I got one together for Annelise. My mom made another matching stocking for Annelise. My stocking was made for me when I was a baby, then Randy was added when we got married, then Danny and now Annelise! I love the thought of Annelise being a part of our future Christmas traditions, too.

Rainbow Bright

Check out the outfit I got for Miss A (all on clearance!). Aren't those bright colors great?

Growth and Development

The last week has been big for me in realizing how much Danny is growing up. I have always made it a point not to "work" with Danny on things. As a teacher, I could sit him down and teach him his alphabet, his numbers, Spanish vocabulary, the presidents (hee, hee!), but at this young age I really try to let him guide his learning. As a result, he still does not count to 20 correctly (Randy's literary genes are already apparent!), and he still gets confused by a couple of the letters. Fortunately for me and Randy (both educators who love to learn), Danny asks a ton of questions and always wants to know stuff. He can recognize and name several of the presidents, he does have his alphabet down (recognizing letters and most of the sounds of the letters) and he has a general curiosity about EVERYTHING! Because I don't formally work on skills with him, I was stunned yesterday when he wrote his whole name. Sure, his Y doesn't look perfect, but it is his name! I have noticed improvement with his fine motor skills, (including drawing people, which began last spring) but I didn't even think he was capable of writing his name. He doesn't go to an academic preschool, either, so unless he asked for help or instruction, they haven't been teaching him. Watching a child grow and develop is so amazing!

The Pure Joy of a Fire Truck

As Danny's big bribe/gift for potty-training, he received a Tonka fire truck today. The last month he had been getting little plastic toys (airplanes, dinosaurs, astronauts) that were cheap and small tokens for his effort of going poop in the potty. Since he had been using the potty exclusively for the last 10 days I realized that I was not going to be able to give him toys forever. In fact, this morning Danny said we would need to go to Michael's to get more toys. I told him that I had a big surprise for him instead, and that there would be no more little toys. He was elated to learn that it was the fire truck he had been wanting for Christmas. It sunk in that he wouldn't be getting any more little toys, too, because after doing his business this evening he said, "I don't get a little toy anymore because I have a big fire truck!" Funny thing is that Randy was just about as excited about the fire truck as Danny was.

Nice Nap

Yesterday I had a nice nap, I mean a REALLY nice nap! Unfortunately it came at the expense of being heavily sedated so that a GI doctor could stick a camera down my throat... but it was a nap!

As many of my friends and family know, I have a problem swallowing foods. The food gets stuck in my esophagus, and I have to wait for the food to either come up or go down (the preferred method). It is a genetic thing (my mom and uncle both have the problem), and I finally decided to get it taken care of after 5 years of on and off problems. Basically the doctor just wanted to look, take a biopsy if anything looked unusual and widen part of the esophagus if need be. He did take a biopsy because he had a concern about allergies. He widened part of my esophagus, and he noticed I have acid reflux (fun!). I have never had symptoms of reflux, so he called it silent reflux. And I got lovely pictures of my insides. Danny is totally fascinated by those pictures, but as you can imagine they are pretty gross.

I was glad I was having the upper GI (endoscopy) and not the lower (colonoscopy). And I came out of it feeling rested, something I rarely feel these days.

Jingle Bells

After this holiday season I hope that I will be hearing less of the song Jingle Bells. I truly do enjoy this song and have always thought it was a fun song, especially for kids. Unfortunately it has been a little over sung in our household. For the last year (yes... you heard me correctly... year!) we have sung Jingle Bells to Danny each and every night. It started in November of 2005 as preparation for Christmas. When January came we couldn't talk Danny out of singing it... in fact, if we said we didn't want to sing the song, he would cry for it or fuss until we sang it. Being the kind of parents that like their kid to go to bed without too much strife or trouble (especially over a song), we would just sing it. I mean, pick your battles, right? So in June we were still singing it. And October... still singing Jingle Bells every night! This January Danny is a little older and wiser, so Randy and I are going to tell him that Jingle Bells is a Christmas song and it is no longer Christmas, so we won't be singing Jingle Bells every night. Do you think we'll have any luck? I'll let you know! Here is a clip of Danny singing (more like chanting!) Jingle Bells. (Notice what Annelise is getting into!)

Annelise and Santa Retry

Because I use Mozilla/Firefox and most of you probably use Internet Explorer, the YouTube Video could not be seen by everybody. Click here for a direct link to the Annelise and Santa video.

In the future I'll have a link with every video clip.

Ok... I think we have made it!

I have been hesitant in posting about this the last few days, but I think I can safely say that our 3 year-old boy is now potty-trained! Yeah!!!! We tried to hurry him along in August, but he just wasn't ready. The pediatrician said not to worry about it until he was 4 (I was dismayed at the thought of changing poopy diapers for one more year!), and that he would probably do it when he was ready. Well, Danny came through!

The Farm

The farm that we cut our tree at was absolutely beautiful. And to think that it was only a 30 minute drive from our town. Here are some pictures of our drive and the farm. They also had fun things for Danny to do while we waited for the tree to be bundled and put on the car.

Oh, Christmas Tree!

Today we had a great family adventure to Triadelphia Lake View Farm to cut down our own Christmas tree. We had a beautiful 30 minute drive to the farm. I grew up cutting down the family tree with my parents each year, but the farm my family went to wasn't nearly as fancy as this! We couldn't park right next to the trees, so they had these wagons to haul the tree back to your car. They had a needle shaker (to shake the tree of all of its dead needles), and a machine that wrapped your tree for you to make it easier to put on your car. It was a lot of walking, but Danny found some creative ways to get around. And Annelise was on either Randy or my back. Here are many pictures from our day. We actually had a warm day, too, in the high 50's. So nice to be outside!

Christmas Decorations

We did the preliminary decorating tonight. Tomorrow we will get our tree. Danny had fun peering into the boxes trying to figure out what stuff was. Annelise had fun getting into trouble and watching Santa.

Annelise and Santa 2

I posted a video of Annelise watching Santa, but here are some cute photos, too!

Annelise and Santa

My Pixie

OK, it didn't take long. I had to change her! Weather girl #9 at least puts a hood up if it gets below 20 degrees. And right now she has got a coat on. When it gets warmer and you can see what she is wearing, you'll realize she is a bit goth (black hair included), but at least she puts on some clothes when it gets cold! (So long, Weather girl #6... I may see you again when it warms up!)

Yikes!

OK, I feel like I am beating a dead horse, but I can't help but make a short comment about the weather. Hopefully you noticed my little weather pixie I added to my blog. I thought she was great because then you would know my weather, and I wouldn't have to post about it. But I can't help but point out that the temperature on my weather pixie doesn't take into consideration the wind chill. Right now the temperature is 25 degrees, but with the wind it is considered to feel like 17 degrees. I also have some decisions to make about my little pixie friend. I like her because she has red hair, but she seems to under dress for the cold (I mean... put on a hat, lady!). If I picked a pixie with different colored hair, she might actually bundle up a bit more when it is 25 degrees, so I don't know exactly what to do. Don't be surprised if you see a change!

Surprises

3 year-olds aren't very good with surprises. I have taken Danny along on some shopping trips for Randy, and let's just say that Randy won't have many surprises from me for Christmas. Both Randy and I have tried to explain that Mommy or Daddy will want to open a surprise present on Christmas day, but he is just too young. I guess we'll have to do some shopping without Danny! (What do you think of Danny's bedhead from this morning? Wow!)

The Kids at 8 Months

I got sucked into looking at my pictures of Danny when he was Annelise's age. It is so fun to look for similarities and differences. I found these two pictures with similarly goofy expressions. Poor Annelise's nose is raw from her cold!

A Mover and A Shaker

Always wiggling, moving, babbling, crawling, pulling, chewing, etc. That's our girl! (Randy and I were noticing how red her hair looks in that second picture!)

Santa Fly-In

The College Park Aviation Museum has some great seasonal events. On Saturday we went to their Christmas event, which includes Santa flying to the museum in a helicopter. Randy and I were as giddy with anticipation as all of the kids. Danny thought it was the best!