Christmas Eve we continued a Zayac family tradition (at least from when I was a kid) of going to the children's mass. We had to get there over 45 minutes early to get a seat, but both kids were very well-behaved and had a lot of admirers by the time we headed home.
Afterwards, Chase was awed by the nativity...
And how cool is this picture?
Our attempt at a family photo was moderately successful...at least we are all looking?
Another tradition is to have dinner at my parents' house on Christmas Eve. When I was growing up we'd often get a few Italian heros and trays of lasagna. This year we got sushi and Chinese food!
Once again, Chase and Addy had so much fun together. It is completely accurate that the pictures of them dancing are blurry because these two kiddos were movin' and groovin!
After the O'burg Zayacs headed home, we tried to settled Chase. He put out cookies and milk for Santa, and of course carrots for the reindeer!
Then it was time to continue a Lamont family tradition and read 'Twas the night before Christmas. Since both Stephen and I know it by heart (it's not just a Christmas time book in our house), we let Pop do the honors.
A soft snow started to fall before Chase went to sleep and continued well into the night while Santa made his deliveries. The next morning we awoke to:
Brice was soon awake and almost as excited for the day as his big brother. Maybe it was contagious...
It was finally time to go downstairs and see if Santa had come.
"Seriously!!!!?!?!"
(yeah, Santa and his elves went a little bit overboard)
The rest of the morning was spent opening the countless presents and playing with them! It was beautiful, happy chaos.
Santa couldn't fit their big presents down the chimney (or really, in his Honda sled), so he left them at our house. Luckily the boys got a note and a picture of what they could expect when we got home!
We spent the rest of the morning having a leisurely breakfast, enjoying each others company, and playing with all of our new presents. We were all so blessed with wonderful gifts. And that was just our (first) Christmas morning. Next up, Christmas Day, followed by Christmas in Concord!
-Crawling fast! He is really on the go. While Brice showed some separation anxiety during our holiday travel, he now happily races out of the room and around the corner without a parent in sight....but turns back to make sure you're watching him and squeals with delight.
-Pulling up to standing like a pro. He especially loves to pull himself up to the train table in the play room so he can watch (and swipe) whatever Chase is playing with. He can hold on one-handed, allowing him to wave or grab whatever he wants. Luckily he's not cruising yet so hopefully we have *some* time until he walks.
-Getting into everything. Brice especially loves wires. He is going to be trouble!
-Saying "ma ma" and "ba ba." Wahoo!
-Waving, clapping (which is so cute), putting his arms up for "so big" and playing with his lips to do "buboo buboo buboo". Hard to describe, so watch this:
-Teething. Brice got his first tooth right before the first of the year.
His second tooth came in last Saturday (1/12)....that's 6 weeks earlier than his brother got teeth. Brice tests them out by biting onto our shoulders (ouch!) and other places....the good news is that his new teeth make it easier for him to do the following:
-Eating more and more finger foods. In addition to cheerios and puffs, Brice loves sliced banana, avocado, spaghetti, toast, and sliced blueberries. He makes quite a mess, but is so happy to be feeding himself.
-Eating so much baby food too! Typically he has 1 jar of fruit with oatmeal and yogurt for breakfast, and 2 jars of veggies (or one veg, one fruit) with oatmeal for lunch and dinner.
-Drinking ~30oz of breastmilk or formula per day. This varies greatly as some days he has like 16oz and other days it's closer to 35oz.
-Even with all of this eating, he gained less than a pound in the last monthly, putting him under the 50th percentile. But once Stephen said that Brice had started crawling, the doctor said it was totally normal.
-Had his first bout of sickness. On NYE he had a moderate fever (100.8) for about 12 hours. Since then he's had a persistently runny nose and a cough. A quick trip to the doctor on Friday 1/11 could not provide a definitive answer on an ear infection, so he's been on precautionary Amoxicilian which helped. We just really wish the runny nose and accompanying congestion would go away!
-Sleeping through the night, pretty consistently. Things got bad after we got back from NY (our return trip got us home at 11pm) for a few nights, and then again when Brice's coughing would wake him up. This past week he woke up at 5:45 a few days too. Overally, however, he sleeps from 8pm to 6:15am. Brice naps from about 9:30am to 11am and then from 1:30pm to 4pm.
-Still using a binkie (or pacifier), which we are more than fine with. It helps Brice get to sleep and calms him down. Unfortunately, the only pacifier he'll use was discontinued and we only have 5 of them. ***Just in case anyone knows where I can get more, it's a Playtex, Most like Mom pacifier (not ortho) for 6+ months with a brown nipple (not clear plastic)*** Silly Bricey turns it sideways to suck on it.
-Sitting up alone in the bathtub. Brice was climbing out of his little bathtub too much. Now he sits in the big bath tub with Chase.....and he still tries to climb out! Luckily Chase has been entertaining Brice by teaching him how to splash.
Brice, we love you so much. You are silly, and funny, and such a sweetheart. You love your big brother so much and he always has you laughing. We cannot wait to see what you get into in your 9th month!
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