9 Months Old and AJ's 1st Christmas

AJ's movin' now! He's crawling EVERYWHERE and into EVERYTHING! Brian and I can't take our eyes off of him for a minute. Once he learned how to get up on his hands and knees it only took him about a week to master crawling. He's a speed demon now and knows when to speed up when mom and dad are after him. He pulls up to stand and has learned how to let himself back down gently (a few good spills took care of that). He can go up a single step to a large landing, but is still working on mastering the entire staircase (won't be long). He also goes back down the single step face first, but has actually learned how to do it without bumping his head too bad (will have to work on going down when he masters more stairs). It's so fun to watch him learn cause and effect. He repeats actions to get a repetitive response from you. He also has this fake laugh he does now. He has mastered the "da-da" sound, but we are still working on "ma-ma." He appears to have conversations which are foreign to us, but we think his one-year cousins may understand him! AJ's other favorite thing to do now is clap. He is so cute when he does it!

We had a wonderful 1st Christmas with AJ. It was busy, but well worth it! The pictures below tell the story of the past week!

I noticed after I posted the Christmas pictures that I didn't have a single picture of the three of us on Christmas day, so here is the portrait we had taken a couple of weeks ago. I think it's so funny that AJ's skin coloring is so different from Brian and mine's.

My sister Angela and her family flew in from Houston on Dec. 21st. We all went to church together on the 23rd and of course tried to pose the two cousins (Megan and AJ) for a cute Christmas picture (easier said than done with a 1 1/2 year old and a 9 month old). This was the best we could do.

Megan had a great time learning how to make the traditional Christmas cut-out cookies with Grandma Bonnie later that afternoon.

Boys will be boys. Uncle Eric got out the old train set and AJ just couldn't resist.

Later that night, we went back to church for the children's Christmas pagent. The question here is, "What's wrong with this picture?"

Since AJ was sick when he was supposed to see Santa, and I was beginning to feel like a bad mother for not taking him to see Santa for his first Christmas, I was so excited when Santa showed up at church after the pagent. AJ loved Santa's jingle bells and happily sat on his lap! On Christmas Eve, we opened presents with Brian's immediate family. Here's AJ having fun with the paper of course!

Grandma Rose kept the kids moving with their presents.

Brian putting his first Christmas toy together. He got lucky this year - this one only took 10 minutes to assemble.

AJ appreciating Daddy's hard work. Right now he actually prefers to stand and push his push and ride toy.

Okay, so I didn't take a single picture of AJ opening any presents with just Brian and I at home on Christmas morning (we only took video), so here he is later that morning at the Glandon house in his wagon that Grandma and Grandpa got him with his new sports center that Uncle Eric got him.

Grandma and Grandpa took the Grandkids and the Granddog for a walk after we opened presents to give the parents a rest. Nuge loves taking walks with Grandpa because he gets to be on a long leash.

AJ's favorite part about Christmas was all of the bows. We should have just filled a box with them. His favorite toys were actually the small items that fit into his hands (the balls from the sports center, the little fish from his bath toys, and the little people).

AJ's other favorite part about Christmas - undecorating the Christmas tree. We then headed back over to Brian's parents' house Christmas night to celebrate with his mom's extended family. They had about 45 people in the house and a present extravaganza. Here's the cutest picture of the night - Heidi and AJ safe in Grandpa's arms.

We had one day of rest on the 26th, and then AJ and I headed to Kalahari (an indoor water park) to celebrate with the McLaughlin clan (my mom's side). AJ and Megan often had trouble sharing during Christmas, but a gift bag in the hotel room brought them together!

After torturing AJ on the baby slide (he hated it) and the lazy river (he got blasted in the head with a water spout) the first night, we simply hung out on the edge of the wave pool the second day which he loved. You can see him clapping for the water.

Megan loved playing in the water spouts that were by the wave pool.

Both kids also loved swinging with Grandpa in the kiddie area. AJ liked crawling around in the water too which came all the way up to his chin.

On Saturday the 29th, the fun continued with a reunion of neighbors from Doverwood Drive. Megan and AJ are bonding with Allison Kimmin's little girl Elianna.

Later that night we also celebrated Christmas with Brian's Dad's family. I had a picture included here, but I somehow deleted it and I don't know how to add a picture without it going to the top of the post. It was so fun seeing all of you again!

Today, my sister and Megan headed back to Houston. We were all sad to see them leave, but glad to have had so much time to spend with them. Here's Grandpa Joe getting one last Holiday hug from his two favorite Grandkids!

Thank you everyone for the absolutely fabulous week, and making AJ's 1st Christmas one well worth remembering. We love you all and wish you a wonderful new year!

Enjoy the short clips from our Christmas week!