Christmas 2009 (Finally) and on...

We had a great Christmas 2009! Allie and AJ were as cute as could be all through the Christmas season. They are still asking for Santa to bring presents. They both loved listening to Christmas music, watching Santa shows and "helping" to bake and decorate Christmas cookies.
This year we went to my parents house for Christmas Eve and then had Christmas morning at our house. At first the kids didn't know what to think so we took our time and had a big breakfast before opening presents. Once we began opening presents, I quickly felt overwhelmed, but the kids loved it. Alberto being the great dad that he is, took the time to open each gift and show Allie and AJ how it worked. AJ's got a diesel like "Papa's Big Truck" and once he got that, he was done. That was all he needed. Allie being the girl that she is acted like every little thing was a million dollars. It was so fun. Later that evening, we went to my parents house for dinner where Santa had left a slide for the kids. Needless to say, they love it. Alberto's mom and Stepdad came into town that evening also. The next day, Glauco, Camila and Diogo got into town and we had another round of presents. The kids just love their grandparents, all their Uncles and Aunt Camila so the rest of the weekend was like a dream come true.
Through out the weekend we ate, played with toys and jammed out to Rock Band Beatles. Ever since that weekend the kids have a new love for The Beatles so pretty much every evening now we have dancing time to Beatles music. It is pretty fun. Allie learned on Seasame Street that Tutu's are for dancing so she has to wear her tutu when we dance.



On New Year's Eve, Alberto had to work so the kids and I just hung out around the house. By the time Alberto was getting off work, we were pretty bored and I was feeling sorry for us that we weren't doing something more fun. Alberto decided to try and brighten our night and brought home some party hats, blowers and noise makers along with some sparkling juice. The kids just loved the hats and blowers! Thanks for making our night special Daddy.


In addition to the holidays, we decided it was time to move Allie and AJ into big kid beds and into the same room so we can begin to make space for a new brother or sister. Lucky for us, they have LOVED their new beds and being in the same room at night. Night time has been just perfect, unfortunately, naptime has been a wreck. For some reason as soon as I lay them down and shut the door, they act as if they haven't been together for years, let alone all day everyday and begin to tear up the room and run a muck. I have to admit, the past month with little to no napping has really tested my patience. I am hoping we will figure out some way to get a good nap in before too long. I need nap time.



To wrap up this massive post, a mini up date:This has been such a fun/hard time with 2 two year olds. I swear everyday their vocabulary grows by leaps and bounds. It is so fun to listen to them chat with eachother and tell you exactly what they do and don't want. I am glad to say that overall, Allie and AJ are best friends. Lately they will grab hands and walk all around looking at things and telling eachother silly stuff. There are times, alot of times these days, where they are not so kind to each other. There has been more than once when they will be playing and when I go to check on them they each have scratch marks or AJ has a handful of Allie's hair. They can be brutal. How do kids learn these things?? I am just praying that comes and goes quickly. AJ is Mr. Independent lately. He is always saying, "I do it by myself". He has also started to learn the joy of spitting things out and saying "I no like it". The best AJ news is that he is finally Binkie free! It was easy too! One day it cracked into 2 peices while he was sucking it and he thought he ate it. Now if he asks for it, we tell him "Remember, you ate it" he says, "Yeah I ate it" and he is fine. Allie has been turning into my little encyclopedia. I swear she remembers everything she hears and will bring it up at random times. It is a good reminder to be careful what we say in front of them. She also has picked up all the phrases we commonly use and she will say them before we can. For example, when I finish doing her hair, I always say, "look at mommy" and then I will say, "How Cute!" As soon as I say, "look at mommy", Allie says, "How Cute". Both Allie and AJ are also learning to tease, just like daddy. They love to tease eachother and lately they like to tickle everyone and sneak up and try to scare you. We sure love our babies and we are looking forward to this New Year and all the changes to come.