relaxing week

It's been a pretty relaxing week around here. We've had a few get-togethers with friends and I had a couple of short days of work. But mostly, we've enjoyed spending time together. James sure looks pretty comfortable:

We had a fun day of playing today. James kept himself busy by gathering, stacking, and sorting blocks one moment and sitting quietly and looking at a book in the next moment. He is also good at being silly and getting into mischief.




James has taken a big step toward walking this past week. A few days ago, we noticed that he would stand on his own for a moment or two. He has been standing on his own more and more often now and hopefully that first step isn't too far behind!

Christmas treats

We had a tough time deciding what to make for Christmas dinner. We didn't need a large meal for just 3 people (and 2 who would actually eat it) but we also wanted to do something different and special. We finally settled on a making a ham. This is a 5-lb bone-in ham that was cooked at a low temperature for a few hours, then coated with mustard, brown sugar, bourbon, and crushed gingersnaps before baking further.

The result was delicious! Plus, leftover ham is always good and we have been snacking on this one all day. It will also make good soup and sandwiches later.

Today, we had plans to go to the Peterson family Christmas party (Aaron's stepdad's family) and of course we couldn't show up empty handed. Our krumkake iron usually makes an appearance around Christmas so we decided to make some krumkake. It's a bit of a long process but worth it in the end. First, batter is applied to a hot, buttered iron:

The iron is flipped halfway through cooking (Aaron wanted an "action shot")
Upon removal from the iron, the krumkake is rolled into a cone shape:

And then placed on a rack to cool:

The treats seemed to go over well. James certainly enjoyed them!

Merry Christmas, James!

We have been having a good Christmas so far. James dressed in his Christmas best for church last night:

After a delicious dinner of ham and scalloped potatoes, it was time to open presents:

James did the best he could to help out:

James enjoyed playing with these finger puppets... but I think Amelie enjoyed them more ;)

As we have wanted to introduce him to music and instruments, we decided to get him a little xylophone. After a brief lesson from dad, he quickly got the hang of it:

Soon he was pounding away -- taking breaks now and then to chew on the mallet

Perhaps we have a budding percussionist in our midst!

James got some other nice presents as well -- clothes, books, puppets. By the end of the evening, this tired little boy couldn't stay awake for Santa. After he went to bed, Aaron and I enjoyed our traditional Christmas grasshoppers. It was a quiet but good Christmas.

James is almost 14 months old now, and getting closer to walking and talking. He will stand on his own for a few seconds at a time, but he still uses furniture or mom and dad for support most of the time. And he has a new work -- duck. Every night during bath time, we will ask him where his duck is. He will pick it out of his assortment of bath toys, wave it around, and say "duck, duck." Of course, every bath toy is a duck, not just the actual duck. But it's a start! He certainly understands so many words now. He will crawl over to the steps if you say upstairs, he knows who George is (stuffed Curious George toy), and we'll ask where his elephants are (mobile above his changing table) and he'll look up at them.

He has been sick on and off this past month (really, all fall) with colds. So every other week or so, he has a runny nose. The first day of the cold is always the worst, and fortunately, it doesn't take too long before he is back to his busy, active self.

We are looking forward to a few days together during these Christmas holidays. Aaron doesn't have to go back to work until January and I just have a day and a half of work left this year. We'll visit with friends, do some baking and shopping, and just enjoy the vacation and snow.

Merry Christmas!

busy little boy

James loves sorting and stacking, and moving blocks and other toys from one place to another. Yesterday, he decided that the dishwasher might be a good place to put some blocks.

A kitchen drawer was another good spot.
Mom was mean and put all the toys back on the floor!

Tonight at dinner, he discovered another drawer...

.... and proceded to empty it out

This is so much more fun that eating vegetables, mom!

It's amazing how quickly even a small space can be taken over by James and his toys. I'm pretty sure I looked away from the drawer for only a moment before its entire contents were on the floor....