Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Hannah is starting to understand the Santa concept (and was in fact a bit freaked out by the thought of him coming into our house while she slept and had to make sure he was gone before she came downstairs Christmas morning) and had such fun Christmas morning opening her presents and playing with all her new toys.

We were lucky enough that everyone came to us - having a baby 12 days before Christmas has its benefits! The Owens clan brought us Christmas Eve dinner and the Lowe clan came up for the afternoon on Christmas Day with a second delicious meal. It was heavenly to stay in one place - and we thank everyone for traveling to us this year (and for leaving behind all the leftovers!).

Santa was good to us all - Hannah got a new toy house that is currently in the basement (ultimately it will end up in the backyard) and her first reaction was to run into it, grab the toy phone and call Santa to say thank you. Classic. She also loves her Wally doll from her Daddy and the plastic cell phone and keys that aunt Sarah gave to her!

Will continues to do wonderfully and is proving to be a very easy baby so far. He started sleeping in longer stretches (2-3 hours at one time!) on Christmas Eve so we are feeling a bit more like ourselves these days - although still sneaking in naps whenever we can! And his big sister is continuing to love him for the most part!

Opening a present from Nana and Grandy on Xmas Eve....

Trying out my new trike on Xmas morning (thanks Nana and Grandy for the trike and Elmo t-shirt!)....

Calling Santa to thank him for her new house!

Loving her Wally doll from Daddy....

Aunt Allie got lots of snuggling time in with Will. She stayed with us Christmas night and was a rock star aunt Saturday morning playing with Hannah (a very BOSSY Hannah) and emptying our dishwasher while I caught up on some much needed zzz's....

Lounging with Papi and Wally Christmas night -

This is one tired kid! Saturday we had our Davis family Christmas at my aunt and uncles (all 24 of us!) and Hannah was only a little tired - as clearly evidenced by this picture!

Master of the instruction manuals - showing off his latest masterpiece - Hannah's new baby highchair (Wally is sitting in it)....

Week 2

Things are going well here as we enter week 2! Will is eating like a champ and so far proving to be a VERY easy baby (I'm sure I just jinxed myself) with the exception of sleeping at night. He prefers cuddling with Mom and Dad at 3 am to sleeping but - he's so cute it's hard to get annoyed at him even at those wee hours! He did get to make his first sick visit to the pediatrician today as, at the ripe age of 9 days, he appears to have picked up conjunctivitis! Hopefully we'll get that all cleared up before Christmas and avoid passing it around to the rest of the family!

Hannah has been having a great time with lots of visitors and special attention. My Mom has been with us this week (which has been a godsend and allowed me to catch up on some much needed sleep!) and brought some special projects for Hannah including decorating this giant gingerbread cookie this afternoon. Hannah thought she'd died and gone to heaven when she got to lick the beaters covered in frosting. The cookie itself wasn't bad either!

One week birthday! And snow!

Today is Will's one week birthday - time flies!

For comparison here is a picture of Hannah on her one week birthday:

And here's Mr. Will. They're definitely related but Will clearly has a bit more 'chunk' in his cheeks. They both have those long chicken legs though.... we'll see if Will's legs fill out quite as much as his sisters did!

We, like most of New England, woke up to a winter wonderland today. Hannah couldn't want to get out and play in the snow - she waited patiently at the door for Daddy to finish snow blowing and then he took her outside for a while. It was a bit too chilly for Will but we had fun watching from the window!

Xmas Preparations...

Even four day olds need a little festive clothing this time of year!

Hannah meets her baby brother

Hannah got to meet Will on Monday. After some initial hesitation (mostly because Mom was wearing a hospital gown and Hannah wasn't sure what she thought of that), she decided her brother was a keeper and has immediately taken to helping out with him. She helped give him a bath earlier today and is always happy to turn on the music on his bouncy seat when he's sitting in it. And tonight we took him for a car ride to see some Christmas lights and she loved having him in the back seat with her - sang him several renditions of Twinkle Twinkle and kept us posted on his status throughout the ride - "he sleeping" was basically all we needed to know.

William Pearce Owens

William made his debut on Sunday 12-13 at 6:47 p.m. He was 8 pounds, 5 ounces and 21 inches long at birth. He has GIANT feet and hands so we're hopeful that means he's going to get some of the Owens family height genes. He had lots of visitors in the hospital including Mimi, Nana and Papi (and he'll meet Grandy Saturday when he gets back from Hawaii!) and Aunt Sarah, Aunt Allie and Uncle Eben (Aunt Kate will meet him this weekend when she arrives from Michigan). His big sister came to visit him too - but we're saving those pictures for a separate post!

Two out of three aunts....

His uncle!

Nana and Daddy....

3/4ths of our family!

Will and I came home around lunchtime yesterday and are settling in. He's not much of a sleeper at night so far but we're hoping that tide will turn quickly!

'Tis the season

It's been a busy start to December trying to cram all our pre Christmas activities into the time before Hannah's baby brother makes his arrival. We started right after Thanksgiving with a trip to see the trains at Snow's in Cape Cod. Much to our surprise, Santa was also there. Hannah wasn't sure what she thought about Santa and didn't want to sit on his lap or get too close to him but checking him out from a distance while safely in Dad's arms was okay.

This weekend we started by heading into Boston Friday afternoon and checking out the Christmas tree in the Commons. We met up with Daddy and had a great time seeing the tree, watching the people ice skating on the frog pond and then having dinner afterwards ... the joys of having only one kid. We're trying to enjoy it while we can!

Yesterday we went to get our Christmas tree. The weather was less than cooperative so we didn't pose for any "tree getting" pictures but Hannah thought this Santa on a tractor was pretty cool and happily posed with him.

This morning we woke up to blanket of white snow - and subsequently discovered that Hannah's snow pants are officially way too short. That and a lack of boots made for a tricky first snowfall for a two year old but frog rain boots and extra socks did the trick and we managed to have fun outside for a while. Our neighbors had their sleds out and happily gave Hannah rides around their backyard which she thought was pretty fun!

And tonight we met up with cousins to visit Edaville railroad. Faithful blog followers will remember that we visited Edaville back around Labor Day to see Thomas the Train. This time of year they have hundreds of lights that you can see from the train ride around the cranberry bog. Hannah once again loved it and had fun seeing the lights, riding the merry go round and visiting with her cousins.

The tree is up (although not yet decorated), the house is decorated, we're 90% done with our Christmas shopping and most of it is even wrapped... now we just need our brother to make his debut! We'll keep you posted.....