Simple Pleasures

Ugh, this Christmas season has been a little more stressful than usual.  How about you?  As most of you know, your Christmas presents will be arriving late.  I do apologize for that; it’s certainly not that I wasn’t thinking of you.  I just couldn’t get it together to think of each of you in an organized and timely fashion.  Similarly, Christmas cards will be New Year’s greetings this year.  Because, at this point, if I’m going to enjoy the holiday at all then I need to step back on some things.  I’m relying on your good will that when you wish me “Merry Christmas”, you actually mean it and are willing to extend me the grace to do what I need to do to HAVE a merry Christmas.  And I will gladly extend the same grace to you this year and in future years—if you need to not send me a card or gift some year in order to enjoy your own holiday then please HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS and forget about me.  Because when I wish you a merry Christmas, I really do mean it.  I hope you enjoy the season and life in general to the fullest and take joy in every day!  So, in that spirit, I bring you the following rather random bits of everyday joy:

Tiny gecko—I love the perfectly curled tail.

Logan has begun contributing to his favorite stories before bed.
Heidi: Katy was a beautiful . . .
Logan: red track-toe!
H:  She was very . . .
L: big!
H: and very . . .
L: stong!
H: and she could do . . .
L: watts fings! (a lot of things)

We continue this way through the entire book.  Other key words include: buzzer (bulldozer), no-plow (snow plow), Highway Pumpit (Department),  and Jopliss (Geoppolis).

One of the best things so far about having two kids is how intently Naomi watches Logan and how much he enjoys making her smile and laugh.  She’s just starting to get a really good baby giggle!

They really have a lot of fun together already.

Naomi, of course, is unbelievably adorable and getting bigger every day.  She responds very strongly to music and is quite good with her fine motor skills, reaching for and grabbing things fairly well for her age.  She also rolls front-to-back and has come close to going back-to-front as well, but hasn’t quite made that one yet.

Like Logan, she’s generally pretty happy, good-natured, and easy-going.  She’s very social and, according to the pediatric nurse that lives across the street, her cooing is advanced for her age.  In short, she’s pretty cool and we like her :)

 
I don’t quite understand how or why we’ve been blessed with the two most wonderful, cutest kids in the universe, but there they are.

We scored a live tree again this year.  “Oh the lights on my tree I wish you could see . . .”

 
Not having much in the way of winter weather, I created a little of my own.

This is my favorite; I’m pretty proud of it!

More cuteness!  (And a thanks to Aunt Chica for the blanket!)

 

I actually took this picture so that you guys could laugh at me.  I usually wear a tank-top underneath because of the low V, but forgot about that when I first put it on.  Being both too lazy to take it off again and find the tank-top, and an ever-resourceful mom, I grabbed a nearby diaper insert/burp cloth, tucked one end into each side of my bra and called it good!  Wore it all day including out to run errands.  Somewhere in the middle of the day, snapped this self-portrait and thought it was a pretty good picture of me, despite the burp cloth “tank-top”, and decided to use it as a new FB profile.  And now you know the truth . . .  Go ahead and laugh at me; I did!

  
I made fudge to share with all the neighbors and took the kids with me to deliver it.  It was great to get Logan involved in the giving and he really had fun with it!  (On a somewhat related note: Logan pedals his tricycle really well all by himself now!)

Flowers in the neighborhood on our Christmas fudge tour. 

 

Perhaps I may have mentioned this before, but I have an amazing husband.  Definitely an everyday joy!!!

Trying to get a good shot of the kids . . .   

                                    is MUCH more difficult . . .
 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                         when there are two!

Individually I can get great shots of them.  Not that the above are awful, but you should see how many pictures I deleted just to get those! 

By the way, I gave you a detailed update on Naomi, so I owe you one on Logan as well.  Potty training has gone shockingly well; there have been a few accidents of course but overall it’s been exceptionally smooth.  But the real surprise is that he’s been consistently waking up dry!!!  We started to notice this after a couple weeks and have been actively tracking it since December 1st.   He’s 2 and a half and it looks like we might be COMPLETELY done with diapers for him!!!  I was NOT expecting this; it was not supposed to be this easy or this quick!  

  My home for this holiday.  It’s a good place to be.

You may have noticed that our adventure pace has slowed considerably.  This is partially a result of having an infant to tote around and tend to, but it is also partly a function of the time we’ve spent on the island.  We’ve covered a good portion of the local stuff and are now looking towards exploring a little further out.  The Tokashiki trip at Thanksgiving was part of that.  Our next big adventure is scheduled to be Kyoto in mid-January.  So we are looking at—and hence what you’ll be seeing here is—bigger trips spread further apart.  And more of the quiet, everyday joys in between. 

I’ll be back in a couple of days with pictures from our Christmas to share with you.  Until then, I wish you all a very merry, peaceful and joyous Christmas season and safe travels (for those who are making them)!