Christmas in PA

We went up to PA to celebrate Christmas at Mimi and Popi's house. Uncle Mike, Aunt Jill, Madison, Simone, and Hannah were visiting so we were able to exchange gifts with them. Caitlynn and Luke loved the clocks they got for their rooms. Uncle Rusty got them a Thomas the Train table, which Caitlynn LOVED! She also received a doctor set and lots of stickers. Luke got a travel bag with his name on it and it was big enough for him to fit inside! We all went to Candy Lane at Hersey Park with all the girls while Mimi and Popi stayed home with the babies. Caitlynn loved going on the rides with Madison and Simone. They also had a light show and she enjoyed bobbing her head to the music. While we were all in PA, we got some new family photos. Here they all are:

Christmas Day

We spent Christmas morning as a family at our house, which is a tradition we quite enjoy! Nonna and Pop-pop spent the day with us too. Caitlynn and Luke must have been VERY good little children as Santa must have unloaded half his sleigh at our house! It was an all day opening affair this year. Some of Caitlynn's favorite gifts were: Princess tent and sleeping bag, Princess dress-up clothes, socks and sneakers, rain boots, pink snow boots, a microwave, and play dough. By far, her favorite gift was a purple bike(and is was ONLY thing she consistently asked Santa for)! Some of Luke's favorite gifts were: drums, guitar, mini-piano, tool bench, pj's, sippy cups, Puffs, and Yogurt Melts. Luke's favorite activity of the day was taking the wrapping paper out of the bags. Both of the kids received a wagon, which had to put together right away for rides around the house. It was another great Christmas and we loved being able to celebrate Luke's 1st Christmas at home!

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve with the Harbold family in PA. We started the day with a visit to Grandmom Harbold's house. Caitlynn, Luke, and their cousin Hannah all dressed up for a photo with their Great Grandmom! Then, off we went to Uncle Tom and Aunt Dot's house for the annual Christmas Eve gathering with the extended Harbold family. We got to see Mimi and Popi, Uncle Rusty, Aunt Jill and Hannah, and Nonna and Pop-pop came too! Santa even stopped by for a quick visit. Luke didn't mind sitting on his lap but Caitlynn barely stood next to him. She did remember to tell him she wanted a bike for Christmas! It was a whirl wind visit for us all!

10 Months Old

Luke is now 10 months old and we can barely keep up with him! He weighs 21lbs 6 ozs and is 29 in long. He is crawling all over the place and gets faster with each passing day! He pulls himself up on everything and always wants to "know" what is going on. He can climb the stairs all by himself and we can never leave the gate open anymore. You can see him in his stair climbing action in the video from a previous post!

This was a big month of "firsts" for Luke. He cut his first bottom tooth on November 23rd and his second one on December 11th. This explains all of the drooling and crankiness he has been having lately. He also said his first words on right after Thanksgiving. He looked right at Ryan and said "Hi Da!" Ryan was one proud papa that day! Luke had his first bout of illness towards the end of the month. He had a high fever and had to stay home from daycare for 3 days. Mimi and Nonna came down to watch him so that Ryan and Laura didn't have to take off all the days he was home. We are lucky to have the extra help! His high fever was from Rosella and he ended up with an ear infection. Though it was a rough couple of days, he was put on antibiotics and was well for Christmas!

Luke follows the same eating and drinking patterns from last month. Sometimes, he even sleeps in till 6:00am before waking for his morning bottle! Because his teeth broke through, he is able to eat more table foods. This month, Luke has tried the following foods: turkey, mashed potatoes, Yogurt Melts, ground beef, cheddar cheese, and egg yolk. He has LOVED all the foods he tried! Luke also has two teeth now (both on the bottom) so he is enjoying "chewing" more items now!

Other special memories from this month include celebrating Luke's first Thanksgiving, visiting Santa and having no tears, chopping down and decorating a Christmas Tree. We can't wait to celebrate Luke's first Christmas and see what next month holds!

All done!

Luke LOVES to eat everything we give him. Sometimes we are not sure when he is full! We started to teach him to hold up both hands for when he is "All done!" and ready to get down. Here he is showing off his new skill:

Luke VS Stairs 2.0

Luke has been making many attempts to crawl all the way up the stairs by himself but quits about half way up. Here he is making the entire climb. It took him awhile but he did it, all by himself!

Decorating the Tree

We got the tree in the house and decided to decorate it with the kids. Caitlynn loved helping with the lights and putting on ornaments even though all of them ended up on the lower branches! Ryan did help her put some up on the higher branches. Luke didn't care about the tree until the ornaments went on. He thought they made better toys for him and they ended up in his mouth quite quickly! We had to rearrange some of the breakable ornaments so that Luke could "help us" with the decorating. Looks like we will be spending lots of time putting them back on the tree this year!