Hope your day was merry

Enjoy some smiles and giggles from Gabriel...

In the days before Christmas

A look at all our recent activities:

A very merry Christmas party at playgroup. Zach didn't want to have anything to do with Santa, he only wanted to get his present. He suddenly knows what presents are and he loves them! I can't wait to see how he reacts to all the gifts on Christmas morning.


We've had some snowfall over the last week. It's been cold enough that some of it should stick around til Christmas, though it isn't as pretty as it was a week ago.

I got the crazy notion to try another photo shoot with the boys. What I'd been aiming for, a picture of the two of them sitting together, just isn't going to happen. Mostly because Gabe can't sit up yet, but also because Zach will have nothing to do with holding him or sitting close to him. He resists just because he knows we want him to do it. I did manage to get some good photos, though I had to bribe Zach with an early gift to get him to sit for as long as he did. I know we'll take lots more photos on Christmas day of them and their toys...

Just hanging out later that day...

An outing yesterday to downtown Brussels. It was a little colder and windier than I had anticipated, so I'm glad we bundled up as much as we did.

And the highlight of this lazy Christmas Eve day: croissants with egg, cheese, and bacon made by Larry.

Gabriel at 2 months

Well, we think that baby is going to be even bigger than his brother. At his check-up yesterday he weighed in at 13.6 lbs and measured 25 inches. He is getting so tall that I've started putting him in 6 month sleepers.

He really looks at me and Frank when we hold him, and he likes to smile at us. His favorite thing besides eating right now is for me to make faces and goo-goo noises at him...I'll try to get some of that on video soon.

His least favorite thing, that we can tell, is having a wet or dirty diaper. He is much more sensitive to this than Zach was/is. However, he's been okay to let it go longer at night--last night he surprised me with two 5-hour stretches between feedings and diaper changes.

He's got lots of scratches on his face and his scalp is at the flaky stage. Luckily he's still got all that hair to camouflage.

His eyes are already a deep shade of brown to match his Daddy's.

Zach has started to take more interest in him the past couple of weeks. He likes to tell us when he's "cwying, cwying" and to put the pacifier back in his mouth. He has always liked to take his own diapers to the bin, which is helpful, and he will take Gabe's too. He also gives him goodnight kisses.

Playing photo catch-up

After a few chaotic weeks, I'm feeling almost completely caught up today:

* Well, first, both boys are asleep. That is always a good feeling! Getting Gabe to nap/sleep when Zach does is actually starting to happen.
* Our gifts have been purchased, wrapped, packaged, and mailed out. I only have one more thing to order and a few to buy for Frank.
* Christmas cards are done and will go out soon.
* Travel arrangements for an upcoming trip are finally completed.
* Frank, Zach, and I have all gotten our H1N1 flu shots.
* I've completed 2 of 3 levels of my Rosetta Stone online Dutch lessons...I'm trying to get through them all before my subscription runs out at the end of this month.
* We actually made it to playgroup twice this week, after a couple weeks of not going because of rain, or fatigue, or not being able to get us all out of the house in time.
* The kitchen is no longer a total disaster area.
* I've done some creative stuff that I've wanted to do--read blogs and magazines, watch videos online, keep up with message boards, and print up some things. And I actually got around to figuring out which photos I want to post! :)

So here's catching you up on lots that happened in November:

We ate, drank, and were merry! Mom, Katie, Josh, and I (and the boys) toured a small lambic brewery in Brussels, had waffles downtown, and we all ate and drank many good things in Paris. The cheap beers in our hotel room did not fall into that category!


We walked who knows how many miles and took countless rides on trams, trains, and metros.

We saw the sights, including going inside Notre Dame and the Louvre this time.

We rested, and were pretty happy when the boys were content on their own.

Scenes from around the house:


Zachary's second birthday. What can I say? It was a long day, filled with cake, and photos and video, and Frank off work, and Skype calls, and most of all BUGS! Thanks, Emily, he just loves all these little guys!

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Abby at our house. Ah, my favorite meal of the year...everything was so good. Zach got a kick out of putting ornaments on the tree, saying "More!" after each one, though we tried to just put the least breakable ones up this year.