A Christmas Story

Preface

I attempted to follow Reader's Digest's lead and condense the last month into one concise package, with a neatly-tied bow. Turns out that woman-of-few-words is not the moniker for me. At least I didn't post every photo - for the non-abridged version, refer to my full holiday album, which I made public on Facebook. I hoped to not get into this habit, but the travel, illnesses, and craziness of December seemed to warrant it this time.

Chapter One: Advent

For those of you not indoctrinated by "The Church", Advent is a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. It's only supposed to last 4 weeks, but I could have used 4 years this time! Miles and I were both sick (me twice - once with bronchitis and again with mystery stomach bug), so that made getting things ready for the big day difficult. Throw in chaos at work for both me and Jason, plus out-of-state traveling, and that made total preparation next to impossible. I was definitely thanking Jesus though...for Amazon.com Super Saver Shipping and Z-Pack antibiotics!

Miles went to the doc during this time as a totally healthy boy for his 18-month appointment. The best pre-Christmas present he could get - no shots! His stats were 27 pounds (75%) and 32 inches (50%). According to their records, he didn't grow taller from last time, but we're pretty sure they just measured wrong last visit...especially since the official Sharpie tick marks in his closet wall show a growth of a couple inches!

We did manage to find time for a couple fun things. Miles had fun with Granny while we parents went to the Colts-Titans game with Grandpa and Aunt Ashley:



Of course, we had to make time to put up the tree and break out the other Christmas decorations. Miles was happy about his reunion with his talking Christmas bear:



Chapter Two: Christmas Eve

We started the day by visiting Great Uncle Billy and Cathy. Miles was overjoyed to receive his first gift of the season...a ball! It's amazing how he can still be so excited after receiving his 47th ball.

We continued our "traditions" for the day as well...two years in a row makes it a tradition, right? Miles wasn't exactly the most well-behaved child at church, but he fit right in with the gaggle of kids at the early service. We were slightly miffed when Miles told his dad "Beep beep" (translation: get out of my way) in the middle of one of the prayers - but that was nothing compared to the kid a couple rows up who announced to his entire family that he had gas. Our pickins were slim for Christmas Eve dinner, so we stopped off at the Ponderosa. We then headed home to open up one gift a piece, put out cookies for Santa, and finally to go to sleep before Santa came.




Chapter Three: The Fat Man Cometh

Some call him Santa - Miles prefers to call him HoHo. It took us a little while to realize Santa had come at first. Miles decided to give us parents the best Christmas present of all - sleeping in! He woke at his normal time - around 6:00 - murmuring undecipherably, which is different than his normal scream of "Mimi! Daddy! Pup!". Just as I noted to Jason that he was singing Christmas carols, the tunes stopped and he went back to sleep for almost another two hours!

When Miles finally woke up, he insisted on eating breakfast with his present from the day before - talking Elmo. We eventually wandered into the family room when Miles noticed some goodies sticking out of his stocking. It was hard to pull him away from the excitement of the fruit snacks and plastic vegetables he received, but we finally got him started on the stash from Santa.



Miles had so much fun ripping the paper off his loot, especially the giant box his wagon came in. He liked most of his gifts but was especially smitten with the pint-sized Colts folding chair. Who woulda thunk it? He got to continue tearing through gifts when Grammy and Grandpa and Nana and Papa arrived that afternoon. He even helped Mommy and Daddy open their presents and was confused why he couldn't open all the gifts under the tree. The seven of us finished off the day with a true "Christmas Story" meal - Chinese! Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra! I think Grammy brought enough Chinese food to feed most of China, so we were stuffed the whole night.


Chapter Four: Two Turtle Doves

The next round of Christmas came when the aunts and uncles descended upon our house for Family Christmas Part 2. Baby Lyla spent her first Christmas a sick girl, but we were fortunate enough that she was able to drag her parents up from Lexington to be with us. Aunt Kat, and the Uncles Vinny, Craig, and Dean all came from Ohio. It was a crazy day but so much fun to have everyone in one place...and even better that we didn't have to travel ourselves!




Chapter Five: Three French Hens

We got to keep the Kolbs for an extra day thanks to the bad roads. Miles spent lots and lots of time commenting on the "SSSSSSSSnow".

We also got a visit from the Kahls for a few hours that day. On his fourth day in a row of opening gifts, Miles had it down pat. No pics yet, but Miles loves his giant school bus...from the outside. He still needs to work up the courage to actually get in it yet.



Chapter Six: Auld Lang Syne

We loaded up the ol' Ford with four adults, a toddler, and two dogs to head down to the Kentucky Kahls for the New Year's holiday. Miles had a fantastic time hanging out with Granny and Aunt Ashley at the WKU basketball game while the rest of us headed to Nashville for New Year's Eve. Apparently, AA also worked with Miles all night long on this dance routine:

We spent all day on New Year's Day eating sauerkraut and watching football...most notably a win by the Buckeyes! We even converted Aunt Ashley for the day:



Epilogue

For those of you that actually made it this far...thank you! We are so blessed to have so much family and fun times to fill such a long post. Happy 2010!

Cut...it...out

First of all...no, I did not suddenly become SuperMom and make time to blog every day. Jason was at the Butler game Wednesday night, so I spent the whole evening catching up on my blogging. I hate being one of those people that writes a novel for each post (even though I know I am), so I figured I'd break it up...save some excitement!

Did you notice Miles' new haircut in the previous posts? Yikes. We took him back to the kids' barbershop, thinking he could handle it. Well, this round was worse than his very first cut...screaming, squirming, spitting, you name it. I asked the lady to keep it longer on top, but can you really blame her for even being able to cut anything in that situation? Looks like we're back to sitting on Mommy's lap at SportClips for another year or so...



The funny thing is that I kept lamenting about how cute it was long, how we shouldn't have cut it, blahbetty, blahbetty, blahbetty. Jason kept reminding me how shaggy it was, but I just kept holding on to the memory of my beautiful long-locked son.

Then, I got his school pictures back. Eek. Good riddance, tresses!



I would like to add the disclaimer that his hair didn't look quite like this when I took him in to day care that morning. I think the photographer must have spit on a comb and run it through his hair seconds before the shot. Either that, or that bacon grease made a repeat visit.

The funniest part about this picture is that it was the very best shot! And I thought we had issues with his Christmas pictures. He actually had two rounds of pictures. The day care director told me it was because they took the pictures, then realized I had brought clothes for him to change into, so they took them again. FALSE. These are from two different days...I think they saw the first round, decided they were a dud, and wanted to try again to at least get a decent shot for the composite.

I originally had all of the pictures uploaded here, poised to make snarky comments. I decided to delete them instead. Figured there was a chance I might not go to hell for making illegal scans of the pictures...wouldn't want to jinx it by completely humiliating my poor son as well.

So, instead here is the best of the first round. Use your imagination for the other two poses:



I also find it interesting that I was just blogging about the 70s picture flashbacks in Wednesday's post, and we have all these fantastic poses to go along with that theme. Add a shag carpet square and feathery mullet, and we'll be all set to do the Time Warp again!




Photogenic or not, I sure do love that boy!!

Happy Birthday, Nana!

So, remember last year when we had all kinds of issues with our Christmas pictures? Looks like Christmas picture disasters might turn into an annual occurrence.

You might be wondering, "Um, that's great and all, but what does that have to do with 'Happy Birthday, Nana!'?" Well, this year we did Christmas pictures on the sly as a surprise birthday gift from Miles and his cousin Lyla. The plan was to make the trek down to Lexington the day after Thanksgiving to have a joint session at Portrait Innovations.

Before making the trip, we gave Miles his bath. Approximately 37 minutes after his hair dried, Miles decided to rub his breakfast plate - complete with bacon grease - on his head. Within the next 15 minutes, he puked all over himself and Mommy. Now - we're definitely not dumb enough to dress him in his picture clothes beforehand - but it did set a bit of an ominous tone for the rest of the day.

Miles and I both were at the start of a cold (still working on getting rid of it), but we decided to pack up the car and drive to KY anyway. Sure, we were super happy to see the Kolb family, to check out their new house, and to help a little bit where we could...but the main purpose of the trip was for the joint photo shoot.

At first, it looked like things were going according to plan. Miles and Lyla both had their naps, seemed to be in good spirits, and managed to keep their clothes in good shape. We arrived a little early to find - not surprisingly - a zoo at the picture place. Despite the craziness, they were able to get us into the studio right on time for our appointment. (Insert plug for Portrait Innovations here...love 'em!)

The problem was - Miles didn't really have much time to adjust the chaos. When I set him down next to Lyla in their matching Christmas jammies, he immediately freaked out, clinging to me like a baby monkey. Throughout all of this, Lyla was cheesing for the camera. After many songs and goofy faces, we decided to ditch the cute jammies look and try again with the dress clothes.

I thought maybe having me disappear for the next shot would help Miles not be so clingy, so I moved as far away as I could and kept peeking in, trying to adjust myself in a spot where Miles couldn't see me. I just couldn't stand not being a part of it, so when Kari peeked her head out, I asked, "Do you think it would make things worse if I went back in there?" I knew it was bad when she replied, "I don't think it can get any worse..."

We were having no luck, so I finally asked the photographer what she could do with me holding him. We got all of two smiling shots - one goofy maniacal smile that didn't look like Miles at all, and this one:



Sure, he has a tear in his eye, a blip of snot bubble, and a Christmas tree ornament behind him that makes him look like he's wearing a crown. And forget the fact that you couldn't see his entire outfit - including the perfect shade of grey pants to match his sweater...the ones I searched every kids' department in Indy for. For all the drama, we got at least got one good shot!!

The picture people were able to take that shot and do a 70s-ish floating-head montage with Lyla for Nana's present. Nana reports that she loves it. Then again, she also said she started crying before she even opened the package, so I'm sure she would have loved the screaming version of the Miles picture too. The little collage do-hicky probably worked out for the best, because the chances of getting Lyla and Miles both smiling in the same shot were slim to none.

The great part of all this hubbub? We found Supermodel of the Year for 2029...Lyla Anne Kolb! Just check out this face:



I accidentally mailed my copy of the other cute smiley one to Nana...I want that one back, Nana!

Because we didn't want the matching cute jammies to go to waste, we recreated the scene at Casa Kolb the next morning. Yes, there are DVDs in the background, our fancy set includes a sheet on the ground, and we had to bribe Miles with Cheerios. I think it's cuter this way - the bedhead is authentic!

November in a Flash

Has another month really flown by? No more marching band on which to blame my delinquency - I'll blame it on painting and tiling the kitchen instead. Here are November highlights:

Playing in the dirt during another warm November day:

As the weather has gotten cooler, Miles doesn't understand why he can't play outside. He'll grab his coat and his shoes and look longingly out the door. Thankfully he hasn't quite figured out how to open the doors...yet.

Hanging out at Hinkle Fieldhouse after a Butler basketball game:

Miles seemed to have just as much fun wandering our way back to the car as he did watching the game. He thought it was great fun to pick up and throw the landscaping gravel under the trees. I'm not sure how many times that day we heard "rock" and "leaf"...yep, he made sure to tidy up the area around the carillon by clearing the pathways of leaves as well.

Munching pumpkin biscuits with Grammy on Thanksgiving:

We had a lovely low-key Thanksgiving this year with Grammy and Grandpa Ron and Uncle David and Aunt Hilary. Miles didn't get his full nap and was therefore pretty cranky when it was time to sit down to eat. He would not eat a bite of anything...and Mommy didn't get too many bites either since he didn't want to sit in his high chair. Luckily, Happy Miles returned at dinner time, and he was able to enjoy Round 2 of the turkey with the rest of us.

And the Grand Finale...O-H-I-O! It took a little bit of time to get Miles to say "Go Bucks!" (ok...so it really just sounds like "Guh! Guh!"). So, I decided to start working ahead of time to get the O-H-I-O ready for the Rose Bowl. Much to my surprise, he picked it up on the first try.

Simian Scenes

This Halloween was nothin' but monkey business (buh-dump-bump).

A trial run of the Halloween costume gave us little hope that Trick-or-Treating would be a success:



We had to find a few ways to stop a complete meltdown on Halloween. Of course, there was always the option of taking the boy out of the monkey...



But what would Halloween be without a costume?! So, we tricked him into the costume and set out into the neighborhood, keeping our fingers crossed and hoping to adapt along the way. We soon figured out how to keep him from throwing a fit.

Step One: Keep Miles' head free and clear.



Step Two: Shove candy in his face.



Step Three: Provide free transportation from door to door.



Once we made it home, Miles was much happier out of the suit. He even decided to recreate the Thriller dance for Halloween. Guess seeing it twice at the Butler football game that day really moved him. Enjoy!

Five Little Pumpkins

Miles has been really getting into the Halloween spirit lately! His favorite new song is "Five Little Pumpkins". I know everyone does it differently, but here's how we like to sing it...

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate...


(At Waterman's Orchard)


The first one said, "Oh my, it's getting late!"


(Goofing off before bedtime)


The second one said, "There's a chill in the air..."


(At Daddy's semi-state contest last weekend...brrr!)


The third one said, "Well, I don't care!"


(Displaying apathy for the hay ride)


The fourth one said, "Let's have a little fun!"


(Going down the slide all by himself at Morristown Elementary!)


The fifth one said, "Let's run, run, run!"

(He runs with the ball, he "hikes" the ball, he throws the ball, and he kicks the ball!)


So "whoosh" went the wind and out went the lights,
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.



(Picking and rolling pumpkins at the pumpkin patch)

Ketchup

Just because it's marching band season and we don't have time to write doesn't mean we haven't been having fun! We've been busy:

Exploring IKEA with Janelle and Will:



Fishing with Papa:



Watching Daddy's band...of course!




Trying new foods - black beans are a favorite!




Filling Daddy's shoes:




Attending Miles' first wedding and dancing to polka bands (thanks Kellie and Tim!):




Discovering he could reach the water dispenser on the fridge (the shirt) and hanging out with Grammy on Wednesdays (the old-man Steve Urkel pants hiked up to his armpits):



Miles is also learning lots of new things! He loves singing "Five Little Monkeys" and now has a full-on obsession with sports or anything having to do with a ball. He's also getting really good a shaking his head "no"...oh man. Miles says new words every day - some of the latest are "star", "brick", and "Elmo". "Amen" is also a new favorite...we thought it was a fluke when he said it last week for the whole church to hear (and laugh at), but Daddy heard it again after his evening prayers. Should we convert to the Baptist church? ;-)