December....in a nutshell!

Beets decided she needed to explore Texas, so we traveled to Devine (close to San Antonio) to visit her's and her brother's 4 cousins and their Aunt Lala and Uncle ChaCha (December 6th and 7th). We had a great time, especially Ruggie running around and chasing his cousin Sammy. He basically kept trying to clothesline Sammy (who is 6 months his senior) and Sammy kept running to his mama screaming, "No, baby, no, baby, no, baby, no, baby!" Evidently, Ruggie was frightening to him. They had a Christmas festival close by, so we went to it and Ruggie got to climb all over a fire truck, which he LOVED!

Mama had some work training to do the following week, so we all made the trek to Austin (Dec 7th through the 10th) right after leaving San Antonio. We visited Ikea, Magnolia (our favorite restaurant in Austin), Chuy's (another favorite) and Red Robin. We had a great time, although both Ruggie and Beets got congested and mama made her first midnight phone call to the pediatrician on behalf of Beets who had her first fever! Waaaaaaaaaaaah! Luckily, it all quickly passed which was great considering it was FREEZING in Austin and there was actually a little bit of falling snow the night before we left back home.

On Friday, December 12, 2008th, Ruggie had his 2nd year party at the athletic club in town! It was SO MUCH FUN! He had 14 friends and lots of family join him in running around endlessly in the gym, laughing their way through tubes, jumping in the foam pit, hanging from the giant rope, eating delicious pepperoni pizza and cupcakes and, generally, just getting pooped out. Even though we said we wouldn't give it to him until afterwards, he wheeled his red plasma car around the gym for a good thirty minutes. We only got to open like two gifts there because the kids were too antsy to sit through it all and just wanted to get downstairs and play, but we all ended up having a blast! All in all, a very successful birthday party and we would totally have one at the athletic club again! That same night was mama's work Christmas party, so Ruggie stayed home with Grandma JoJo while Beets slept through the entire thing!

On Saturday, December 13th, Beets and Mama trekked over to church to help out with Breakfast with Santa. Ruggie is not a big fan of Santa, so he stayed home with Grandma JoJo to play with all of his new toys! Mama ate some delicious blueberry pancakes while Beets drooled over the crispy bacon (but restrained herself since she has no teeth yet and had not even begun solids, although she swears she could have gummed a bacon down). Mama and Beets (hanging from Mama in her Snugli) manned the card table and helped all the kids make Christmas cards...Beets even made one for her big brother! Later that afternoon, after waking up from his nap, Ruggie got a fever and congestion but quickly got over it by the next week, thank God!

December 17th was Beets' 4 month immunizations (she turned 4 months on December 6th) and, boy, is she packing a wallop! She weighed in at 16 pounds, 15 ounces (we'll just round up to 17, though) which puts her in the 95th percentile for weight. She is also 27.25 inches long which puts her off the charts in terms of height (she is praying she gets to be 5'9" so she can model, haha!). She cried just a little bit when she got her three shots, but then calmed down when Mama picked her up. She got feverish the next day and slept a lot, our sweet bear!

December 18th was Ruggie's Christmas party at Parent's Day Out....we made monkey munch for all his friends. He got gifts from all of his friends (Luke, McKinzy & Julia) including cookies, mini balls, play-doh, dum-dums and a stocking and stickers from Miss Tara. They also did a book exchange and he got a flip book about numbers, awwwwwwwww!

December 20th, we headed to Candy Cane Lane....all the residents of one of the streets here get together and light up their homes and bake cookies and make hot chocolate and do skits and dances for all the people who attend. It was gobs of fun and we ate TONS of cookies! Santa drove by in a fire truck which Ruggie loved, but once Santa got out of the truck, Ruggie was done with that and wanted to leave, haha!

Okay, so Beets doesn't like to brag....much, BUT of all the new babies in church, she was asked (along with another baby) to be Jesus in the church play! Haha! And Tuna and I were asked to be Joseph and Mary to which we quickly agreed! She did GREAT! During both rehearsal AND the main performance, she just sat on my lap and looked around and looked gorgeous! Everyone commented on what a great Jesus she was and most did not even know she was a little girl.....she'll let that one slide.

So, finally Christmas Eve arrives! We went to Grandma JoJo's and Grandpa Fred's house and it was so much fun. Mama made her famous four-layer pumpkin cake (which Grandpa Fred LOVED and even said was his favorite cake EVER!) and lasagna and it was all so scrumptious. Uncle ChaCha dressed up as Santa and handed out presents....even Ruggie got used to him and actually posed semi-close for a pic with Santa, ha! The kids got TONS of gifts. Then we headed over to Aunt Yvette's for a quick trip to pick up some gifts.

On Christmas Day, we all sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and ate some birthday cake for Him. Beets had oatmeal for the first time (while Ruggie watched intently) and it seemed to be a love-hate thing for her, ha! Let's just say she TOLERATED it....kind of. Ruggie also received his WONDERFUL letter from Santa....Lana and I agreed to write letters from Santa to each other's boys this year and they turned out great. "Santa" taped his letter to our front door and we didn't find it until later in the day!

On the day after Christmas, Mama and Ruggie had a TERRIFIC date to go see Mickey Mouse Playhouse at the American Bank Center! Uncle Leo scored the best seats, so we sat dead center on the first row. It was a great show and Ruggie sat through the ENTIRE thing. I could not believe what a good boy he was during the show (granted it was close to nap time, but whatever!). He got a Handy Manny hat, tool box and sippy cup and then proceeded to take an extremely juicy nap afterwards.

Some fun Ruggie stuff: Ask Ruggie if he likes Batman or Spiderman more and he quickly says, Hulk! He is talking like crazy town and repeats EVERYTHING we say with very good pronunciation so we have to monitor what we say. Our favorite phrases that he says are "Suck boogies out? (when either he or Beets is getting their nose suctioned)" and "Cars coming (when we're leaving the apartment and waiting to turn on the main road)?" Ruggie doesn't share any of his toys willingly with anybody EXCEPT for his sister! Went to look for his BFF Michael at Dillard's and as we were strolling around looking for him, he kept shouting out, "Michael!" He knows the shapes circle, heart and triangle, the numbers 1 through 15 and he loves singing "Oh, Christmas Tree!" He can go through all the Brainy Baby alphabet flash cards and just yesterday he mastered Beans for jelly beans, haha! If he doesn't know the word, but knows it's a food, it is automatically a YUMMY.

Fun Beets stuff: She likes to wake up her brother by hitting him in the arm and chest which Ruggie doesn't even mind. She ROARS with laughter when we do farting noises ESPECIALLY when her brother does them....she almost seems like she is in pain because she is laughing so hard, ha! Milla gets THREE Cabbage Patch dolls for Christmas (one from her grandma Izzy, one from Aunt Yvette and one from Aunt Lala). She LOVES her exer-saucer and is getting quite spoiled being held all the time....she is not a whiny baby, but lately she has been crying when we place her down on the sofa.......uh oh! :)