Christmas Fun

So now our Noah is crawling like he's been doing it for 15 years. If you put him in the living room, he'll crawl all the way into the kitchen. He pulls himself up to a standing position on everything in the house - chairs, coffee tables, me... He can even stand unaided for a few seconds. Tonight he pulled himself up to a standing position next to Mike without our help, holding onto only the mouse to Evan's computer that Mima gave him. It's amazing, but it has become very difficult to bathe him, put him to bed and dress him. He keeps flipping around and pulling himself up so you're trying to get him ready while he's standing. I try to put him to bed and I come back and he's standing there staring at me in his crib. I lay him back down and he's instantly up again. Very frustrating. Sometimes at night I wish he would just lay there and go to sleep, but he hates laying down and now he hates sitting too. Although he enjoys sitting in the wagon on our little walks to and from Evan's school. Even when it's bitter cold, I bundle the kids up and we take the wagon. When I'm walking back with just Noah after dropping Evan off, he usually falls asleep because it's his morning naptime, slumped over the seat. Poor baby. Also, he likes sucking on orange slices. His little 2 teethies are perfect little white caps. They look very smooth, but they're sharp and bumpy when you run your fingers over them.




Also, Evan's school is having a Christmas pageant. The kids were assigned parts like animals, angels, etc.. There's Mary and Joseph, which are 2 very good parts, but guess who was given the very best part - Evan! He was chosen to be the little drummer boy! The kids parts were on a piece of paper in each of their mailboxes at school. The director told me to check Evan's and gave me a wink. I knew instantly that it had to be a good part. I kept holding off reading it until we got home and Evan was on his swing set. And there it was! Yayyy!

So we Cronins went to the Christmas tree farm this weekend and got a tree! Aunt Brittany came with us. Unfortunately, I locked us out of the house first so Mike had to crawl into a window to get the car keys. Then we got to the farm and they didn't accept cards, so I had to run to WaWa. But there were baby piggies there! So cute! (at the farm, not the WaWa). We decorated the tree that night. Poor little Noah conked out before the lights were even on, so he didn't get to participate.

The weekend before we had Thanksgiving at Aunt Genie's. Jeff taught Evan how to ride a skateboard and everyone played Rock Band. At the end of the night Evan had his shirt off and was running around on a sugar high. Unfortunately the turkey did not make him tired. I have a picture of the night that you may find disturbing that I have to get off my mom's camera. It's of Noah who was asleep in Jessica's room (since we left at 10pm!) Someone had draped police tape that was left over from Jessica's Halloween costume over him while he was sleeping. The photo is awful and look like a crime scene. I still don't know who put the police tape over my darling Noah... No one confessed yet.

The next night Mike and I had a late anniversary date. Noah and Evan stayed with my parents, sister and Josh and we went to the city. I cried for the kids! My heart ached especially for Noah who's still so little and had a little cold and I knew Evan was having a blast. I called them 3 times and we weren't even gone for 24 hours. At one point during my first phone call 2 hours into the trip, my sister said, "Whatever. See you in a few hours." Then I saw the pictures on my mom's camera and saw that the kids did not miss us one bit. I'll post those when I get them.

Mike and I did have a great night. We shopped during the day and visited the Christmas village at city hall. We ate dinner at Alma de Cuba, which used to be our Valentines Day spot. We drank on the rooftop of Continental Midtown, then at some dive bar that was on our walk back to the hotel. We were drunk as skunks. At least I was. And full of yummy food. It was great to be back in the city. I miss it so much!

I did keep thinking we'd have to bring the kids back. Little kids were everywhere and it made my heart ache. I remembered this time last year when I was pregnant, Evan and I took Septa downtown and walked through the Christmas Village together. There was a drunk guy on the bus giving us trouble on the way down. Then the buses were running late on the way home and we waited at the stop for an hour. Ah memories... but it was definitely nice this time being alone with my hubby and being able to do anything we wanted!