Christmas and new years

This year for Christmas, we did both families on Christmas eve and spent christmas day at home with just us at home.

Needless to say, Christmas eve was hectic but good. We started the day by spending it with Joy's mom and brother. We had lunch over there. This year, the boys weren't too into opening presents but they loved playing with the toys and taking stuff off the tree. After opening presents we put fantastic mr fox on but the boys weren't too into it. We then put on how to train your dragon which they did. Jacob fell asleep on Joy's brother.

Jasper took a nap on the way to my parents' house. The boys loved playing with their cousins and running around my parents house. Their cousin Aidan had a star wars lightsaber, which the boys took and loved. The next day, they pretended a wrappng paper roll was a lightsaber.

My parents got the boys big cat trucks which make a lot of noise and move. So aside from running around and lightsabering, they loved playing with the trucks.


On Christmas morning we headed upstairs for the big unveiling of their playroom! The boys quickly ran for the bed and the drums. They also loved the car, that we already had for them. I don't think they understood the greatness of the playhouse yet but I showed them the basketball hoop which they love. Joy played with the megablocks which they loved to


destroy.

On Christmas the boys seemed a little beat from the previous day, so we did some movie time.

Great Christmas.

I had the rest of the week off because I took a vacation. We had plenty of time upstairs. Just yesterday, they seemed to really love the playhouse. Joy and I both took turns going in the house. Jasper loves climbing through the windows and Jacob loves playing peekaboo.

Tonight, we're planing on going to first night for new years eve.

-- that was written dec 31, 2011.

Last night, we headed to Akron's first night. We all had a blast seeing lot of bands play. The boys enjoyed clapping with the music. We saw a Yiddish band that was a lot of fun. Lots of dancing which we all enjoyed watching. We then headed out to watch the fireworks at nine. The boys perked up during the fireworks.

We headed home after the fireworks and we had fries and ravioli. Our plan was going to let them stay up to watch the ball drop but Jasper fell asleep on Joy before. Jacob almost fell asleep on me but then took off to play. After the ball drop he fell asleep easily in his bed.

-- that was written on jan 1st.



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Feeling better and getting ready for xmas

The boys are finally feeling better. They had a rough few days but they both seem to be feeling better. Jacob still has his moments where he just wants to be held. Jasper seems like he back to normal.

With them being sick, they barely slept in their cribs. We all thought they would have a hard time going to their cribs but apparently we are wrong. They have been going to their cribs for both nap and bedtime with barely any issue.

Jacob had been waking up in the middle of the night and I had just been taking him to bed with Joy and I. However last night he slept all night in his crib.

Last night, Jasper woke up crying a couple times. I was able to rub his back till he laid back down and went to sleep. This morning, he woke up again crying and Joy brought him to bed with her. She said he held on to her so tight and went back to sleep.


Last night, Joy and I worked on their Christmas presents. We set up their lego-like block and made a castle. To be honest it was a lot of fun. Almost want to go up there and make a new one, I guess the kid in me came out. I bet the boys will get much enjoyment out of them. I also set the boys toy drum set. Joy did such a great job upstairs! It looks amazing! The boys are gonna get such enjoyment out of their new playroom!



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First Christmas

Christmas went pretty darn good. The boys made out with a lot of new toys and they are eager to play! The boys did a great job at opening their presents. At the time they were more interested in tearing off the paper and eating it. This made it somewhat stressful on Joy and I at my family's gift exchange. It seemed there was a lot going on and hard to pay attention to everything, most importantly our boys not eating wrapping paper. But it was a major success.

The boys got to meet their 4 y/o cousin from out of state. He had been eager to meet them. He treated the boys with much respect and wanted to share his toys with them. At one point, Jacob was unhappy and so my dad took him into the other room to help him calm him down. Their cousin helped by rubbing his back. Later on he played on the floor with Jasper with his truck that he got. It was really cute to watch.

On Christmas morning, we moved the coffee table aside so we can set the boys on the rub to open their toys. Again, they really enjoyed opening the presents and trying to eat the paper. Joy and I took a bunch of pictures and video. After awhile the boys got a bit cranky so we quickly finished opening presents and then put the boys down for a nap.

Later on we had lunch and presents to open at Joy's mom house with her mom and brother. Joy's mom made apple sauce for the boys to eat. At first first they were none-too-happy because the apples were granny smith apples. However after a few more tries Jacob really enjoyed them as did Jasper. We opened presents and they got a whole bunch more toys and clothes.

After we got home around 6, we had enough of Christmas. Joy was ready to take the tree down. She started as I unpacked all the new presents we got from Joy's mom house. After words I helped and not long after all the Christmas decorations and tree were down. After that we rearranged the living room so that our rug was out from the coffee table. This is so we can let the boys play on the ground.

We noticed during the last few days that boys are really good at sitting up by themselves and they are still very determined to crawl especially since how there are toys they NEED to get to.

Helping Others

With the health care reform passing this week and the amount of people that are against it, I think it's important to teach kids values in helping others. I think there is something wrong with a society who are against helping those who are disadvantaged and don't teach equality.

Joy and I were talking about ways we can teach our kids values in helping others. Early in our relationship, we went to Denny's and they displayed a Christmas giving tree. On that tree, needy children posted a Christmas wish list. Joy picked one child's list and one item was a bike. That night we went to Wal Mart and she bought a bike. We went back and put it under the tree. Joy mentioned last night that she wants our kids to pick something from from the giving tree to give a needy child a present. I couldn't agree more. Even if it's a trip to the dollar store to get a present.

I was listening to a parenting podcast yesterday at work and one guy on the show mentioned that he makes his kids give up a few old toys to charity after Christmas. I also think that's a good idea.

I also want to teach our kids equality. I read an article about a group that's against health care reform that a protest that turned
racist and homophobic. I want teach our kids that racism, homophobia, and sexism is not a value that we support. Luckily, we live in a very diverse area. So I think values in equality will come mostly naturally. But a good talk with boys when the time is ready would a good thing.