The Schafer Family: Christmas

The rest of December and the first part of January were very busy, but very fun....

You can't resist kids in party hats--at Huckleberry's 3rd Birthday Party:

Hanging out with Denae and Sage:

Lennon had just opened his glove-mittens from Auntie Em and Jordan and wore them the entire party, though, thankfully, he reluctantly took them off to eat.

Tesla playing with her daddy--she kept her hat on the entire party...and started eating it when we got home!

Christmas Cookies

I tortured Lennon the whole month of December by making him wait for Christmas cookies until Christmas Eve. He took his decorating seriously, as he does with everything!

Lennon was most excited for making the gingerbread house--he would almost ask daily if we could make the house (usually at night at the most inconvenient time)--I would tell him that we had to make the dough and then bake the house before we could decorate it, and his response was always, "okay, let's go!" He was very proud of it!

Putting cookies out for Santa and a carrot out for the reindeer. On Christmas morning he was surprised that Santa ate all his cookies!

Christmas!

I think this is one of the last years that we will be able to take our time Christmas morning. Lennon came downstairs and walked right past the tree and stocking and asked for his cereal. Adam and I looked at each other, shrugged, laughed and said, "okay." Lennon had 24 advent boxes that he loved opening each morning, and it was only when he remembered there were no more boxes that his expression changed as he realized that it was Christmas morning. We still took our time with opening presents--he would open one and then play with it and then slowly decide that he wanted to open another--very fun!

Tesla, of course, had fun with all the bows and wrapping paper...

Lennon felt like he had a ton of presents just because he got to open double by helping Tesla. He was sometimes more excited about her presents over his--I guess the grass is always greener...

Grandma Marilyn with Tesla:

We went to Grandma and Papa's house for dinner on Christmas and Lennon had a special present waiting in the basement--in true Lennon form, he was a tad apprehensive about actually getting on it:

He's still getting the hang of the bike--because it's peddle-less he just likes to walk while on it, but then his butt isn't on the seat. It's only a matter of time before he's cruising on it!

Reading with Papa:

Tesla having fun at Aunt Beka and Uncle Jared's for Christmas a couple days later:

Tesla is definitely in the stranger- and separation-anxiety phase--she's also hot-and-cold and will change her mood at a flip of a coin...

Watching the final, regular season Packers game with Papa:

Christmas..Round 2...

Grandma & Grandpa's Visit

Grandma & Grandpa made the roadtrip from Wisconsin and arrived on Friday, January 4th. Then on Saturday, we did Christmas all over again (I'm glad Lennon hasn't gotten used to having "Christmas" every few days!)

We told Lennon to go wake up Grandma & Grandpa before he came downstairs so we could have Christmas. However, he didn't want to do it until he came down and saw all the presents--he immediately ran back upstairs to wake them up!

Lennon was not able to miss the presents "under" the tree this time!

Lennon trying to wait patiently for Grandma & Grandpa to come down:

Tesla taste-testing her puzzle from Great Aunt Diane...it passed with high reviews!

Tesla is opening her baby doll from Grandma & Grandpa--I was shocked at how taken she was with it--it immediately became a favorite of hers...until Lennon decided that the baby doll wanted to sleep in his bed (for now, we told him)!

"Oooh!" was his response with pretty much every present he opened--here he's opening his gifts from his Great Grandma Ackatz:

Riding to the park with Grandpa--still trying to get the hang of it!

Bonding with Grandpa...

...and Grandma!

In other news....
Our little girl turned 6 months before Christmas--where is the time going! I took her for her 6-month check-up and she weighed 15 pounds and was just shy of 27" long. She is in the 40% for weight and 90% for height, exactly the same as her 4-month visit. Isn't she beautiful!

Tesla's crawling! She's been trying to for the past 4-6 weeks, rocking on her hands and knees. She would cruise backwards and then she realized that she can move forward with an army crawl. Her instinct is still to get up on her hands and knees and she still gets frustrated. One of these days she get the coordination to crawl how she wants to.

I thought that her crawling would make her a little more independent from me, but that doesn't seem to be the case--when she wants me, she'll just keep following me and fussing until I pick her up!

Tesla started solid foods and she's not thrilled about it. At first, she just didn't know what to do, but as weeks have passed she's just irritated about it most of the time. It doesn't matter what food it is, when she sees that spoon of food, she will clamp her mouth tight. I was able to coerce her mouth open by tickling her, but then she just let the food sit in her mouth until she is forced to swallow. However, she has gotten wise to that strategy and just now does her tickle laugh while keeping her mouth closed! She seems to clamp shut most with bananas, prune and sweet potatoes (maybe she doesn't have a sweet tooth).

Her first food was avocado, just like her brother--she was very confused about what was happening...

But then once mom has her, all is well with the world!

We got to watch the two playoff Packer's games while my parents were out. It was a sad night when they lost to San Francisco. Lennon's favorite piece of clothing is his Packers jersey--as soon as it's clean from the dryer he almost always puts it on. The other day, when he was putting it on he asked when they were going to play next....so sad.