The Havens Family: January 2012

2011 was an amazing year for our family. We really got to watch our child grow and change and learn new things each and every day! It is hard to believe that Noah is a little over 16 months old now, and until this weekend I would have told you his morning naps aren't going anywhere anytime soon...however, both days this weekend he has refused the nap and stayed up until it was time for afternoon nap. I'm a little bit sad to lose my personal time in the morning that I spend cleaning and showering without a wild toddler under foot, but it's an adjustment I can handle! :) So goodbye to the morning nap! You will be missed, my friend!

We hit another milestone last week: The Dreaded First Ear Infection! He woke up with pink eye, so I took him in to the pediatrician and sure enough, the pink eye was secondary to a double ear infection! The kid is a complete trooper, though! He never let us know he wasn't feeling well, and aside from a little bit of a daily struggle taking his antibiotic, the whole thing has been pretty easy. For a child that has been in day care since he was 4 months old, I would say we did pretty well to keep him healthy enough that he didn't receive his first antibiotic until he was over 16 months old! Another hip-hip-HOORAY for breast milk :) :) :)

I thought I would just share some pictures from December and January that didn't qualify for the category of a "Christmas post!"

He loves climbing on anything - even his basketball goal!

The boy loves to dance! He will stop whatever he is doing to get his groove on.

He loves his bus/slide from Grandma and Grandpa Havens! He did NOT love that he couldn't play with it for several hours while mommy and daddy had to put it together! Let me tell you - those things are not easy to put together quickly!

Who doesn't love a little post bath vacuuming before putting on PJs?!

I wish I could show him how pathetic he looks when he is having a temper tantrum! Do you see how hard it is to resist that face and keep myself from giving in to whatever he wants?!?!

This has been such a wonderful holiday season! We have been so blessed to be able to spend lots of time with our family, and Noah loves every minute of the craziness!

It has become a family tradition to celebrate "Schmithmas" every year on the Sunday before Christmas. So we all pitched in on the food and fun and headed to the Phares household for our annual tradition! We aren't your typical family...Our fun day included everything from a visit with Santa Clause and decorating sunglasses (you'll see in a moment), to a beer tasting contest for the men! It is always a great day, and this year was no different (except maybe that we have such an amazingly active child to share the excitement with)!

Noah wasn't a fan of Santa...We appreciated his visit, though!

Our annual family picture...It just wouldn't be us if we didn't do something goofy!

Because of my new position, the next week consisted of a 3 and half day work week, and I got to be with my family the entire holiday weekend! There are definitely trade-offs to working 5 days a week and being on call pretty much 24/7! So I was very grateful to get to spend this time with my family - even Ben had a vacation from his clerkship rotation! We had another visit from Santa that was filled with lots of songs and a few more presents!

This was as close as Noah was willing to get to Santa. He loved the songs, though!

Bryce and Ty were so excited to have Santa visit :)

Reese is hanging out with the fake singing Santa, which was really the preference for most of the little ones!

On Christmas Eve, we went with Nana & Papaw Schmith and the Phares family to Christmas Eve Mass at OLMC. We actually went to the service being held in the gym, which was quite perfect with 5 little monkeys! After Mass, Noah went with Nana and Papaw over to the Uncle Tim and Aunt Renee's house for some play time and to celebrate Uncle Tim's birthday! Ben and I got to go to dinner at Kazaan with the Havens side of the family, which is a tradition that we love and have only missed one year! We knew it would be too much for Noah to handle, so we were very appreciative that Nana and Papaw wanted to watch him. I'm betting that next year he might really enjoy the fire on the table and the time with his cousins!

Christmas day was busy, but we all loved it! The entire season takes on a whole new meaning when there are children involved. The holiday is completely about them and how much they enjoy it, and seeing them happy is what makes is such a wonderful time for the rest of us! We spent a quiet morning at home together, and I guess Noah wasn't aware how important the day was, because we had to wake him up at 8! After presents and a failed attempt at a morning nap, we headed to Ben's grandparents house for their annual Christmas brunch with the whole Kirkhoff family. Around 12:30 we headed to my parents' house where Noah slept for a few hours and we spent the rest of the afternoon.