Christmas Pictures

On Christmas morning, Dash woke up and added baby Jesus to his Natvity set. He now kisses him everytime he picks him up! It is sooo adorable. We hope he treats his little brother this sweetly, too!

Then Dash caught up on a rerun of the Papal midnight mass before heading to our own mass on Christmas morning.


















We had a lovely Christmas dinner with Grandparents, Godparents and hopefully more parents who will join the family soon(ish).







Dash somehow exchanged his Christmas sweater for a Cowboys jersey, lost his pants, and raided the presents. I am assuming he had some help in this. It was a wonderful day to celebrate Christ's birth!

Advent with Dash

I have enjoyed reading about so many wonderful Advent traditions around the blogosphere the past few weeks (too many to link here!). Since Dash is not really old enough to know what is going on, I am simply cataloguing and writing down the ideas rather than trying to implement them this year with a baby coming any day. But we did have an Advent wreath just for Dash, since he is a little too interested in the real candles on the other one. We also celebrated St. Nicholas Day, and colored pictures for Advent and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Dash has loved playing with his Nativity scene. In fact, we cannot go to the grocery store without a camel or a sheep in tow. To my great amazement, he has not lost a single piece. Baby Jesus is awaiting his addition to the scene tomorrow in the pack'n'play...I like to think he is keeping it warm for our new little guy. I apologize to my family for not posting too many pictures recently...I have been using the time to rest and get ready for our little baby boy to be wrapped in swaddling clothes soon!

We did let Dash open one gift today as family tradition dictates. He was very excited to stand in his learning tower and chop his fruit as Mommy prepared for Chistmas Day dinner.

8 Month Belly Shot!

I know. I'm not very big. But I assure you I feel big! I can tell when I quietly squeeze into Dash's room at night to check on him that I have to open the door *quite a bit* more than I used to!

You may also notice that our tree has no lights or breakable ornaments on the bottom third. That is thanks to this little man....

Tonight we took advantage of a very warm December evening to go on a long walk after dark to look at Christmas lights. Dash rode in the wagon clutching a lamb from his nativity scene (Thanks, AM!) and gave us a running, though unintelligible, commentary on the lights, animals, snowmen and nativity scenes that we walked past.

Dash's First Haircut

I'm not sure what's going on here, but Mommy has scissors, I'm holding a comb, and Mr. Incredible is setting up a video camera.



Now Daddy is insisting that I sit still on his lap. I can definitley tell that something is up....at least they are letting me watch a movie.









Look, Mommy! No more mullet!

Those sweet curls....

Feast of St. Nicholas 2006

Dash was surprised to wake on St. Nicholas' Feast Day to a shoe full of treats! Not being one to wait and ask questions, he promptly unloaded the shoe to his delight.

For playgroup this morning, I printed out pictures of St. Nicholas for the older kids to color from the Saint Nicholas Center, which I found through A Living Education. (I also stole the idea of the baby countdown on my sidebar!) They have many other activities and stories for older kids, too. There are also more ideas that I can count at O Night Divine, including book ideas and feast day ideas and crafts. Though I am lamenting how very quickly Dash seems to be growing up minute by minute, I am very excited to incorporate some beautiful traditions into our family.

Dash did color his own picture of St. Nicholas this afternoon! It is lovely!

Where Is My Baby?

This has been one of those weeks when Dash has just grown up way too much! I have been ahead of the game on almost all of his developmental stages...I had the exersaucer and highchair clean and ready to go before he needed them, teethers in the fridge before he cut his first tooth, clothes washed in the next size that he would need, etc., but I was totally unprepared when he decided he wanted to sit like a big boy at the kitchen table this week. There was no booster seat in sight, but the fact that his head only just cleared the table didn't deter him. And the amazing part is that he did not throw any food or his sippy cup. I am reminded of a post that I can't find right now by sixandthecity about giving her twins real cups as opposed to sippys and, as Maria Montessori predicted, they reacted beautifully to the new responsibility.

My major problem with this is that babies don't sit at the table...toddlers do! Maybe this isn't true, but it is an idea that I have in my head. And since I know Dash is still a baby, I arrive at mutually exclusive conclusions. As I explained the situation over the phone to Dash's Grandpa, he seemed to understand. He said: "It is like when your 25 year old daughter calls you to tell you that your grandson is growing up so quickly. Before you know it, he will doing the same thing to you!" Well, that about put me over the edge--Dash, having babies?!?--but I see his point that it seems like only yesterday to him that I was the one sitting in a highchair.

As a new Liturgical Year dawns and we prepare to begin Advent tomorrow it is a good time to reflect on the passage of our time here on earth and the dizzying speed with which it seems to pass. The Gospel reading from Luke for both today and tomorrow is extremely timely:

Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy
from carousing and drunkenness
and the anxieties of daily life,
and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.

As I struggled this week to clean the house after being gone for two weeks, cook for a dinner party for 16 last night, and get boxes of Christmas decorations down from the attic at 7+ months pregnant (no small task!) while Mr. Incredible was out of town, I thought about how easy it is to let the anxieties of daily life and the secular aspects of the holidays obscure the more important things. Two of my favorite Catholic mom bloggers have touched on this subject, examining the difference between entertaining and hospitality, and noting that simpler IS better this Advent season if it means more time with family and in prayer. So as we prepare to begin again the Church year with the season of Advent, and, for some of us, with growing babies in the womb, I pray that we remember to treasure every moment with our little ones as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ from the humblest of all women.