December was a month filled with family and holiday fun. We continue to be blessed by children who love each other. Every time I see them asleep together I just smile.
Elsa likes being a big sister and pushing her baby brother in the stroller.
I continue to love to dress them up in matching outfits - mostly PJs.
And Elsa likes to dress Liam up in her sparkle skirts.
We have fun photo time to just capture how wonderful they are at one and three and a half years old.
And Arne is just great with both of them. They love their Daddy.
We like to have fun outings, like to the Academy of Sciences in SF.
It was a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas. The kids helped my mom trim her tree.
We hung their stockings at home. Grandma Julie hand knit the stockings for Arne, Elsa and Liam.
Elsa took a picture with Santa at school.
We had a wonderful girl's outing to the San Jose Nutcracker thanks to Julie.
Christmas morning they slept in until 8, and then opened up all the presents at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Elsa loved her doctor's kit - telling everyone she is a doctor who helps nobody.
The last weekend of the month Elsa & Liam's cousins came over to celebrate his birthday. This involved fun painting,
trips to the park,
making snowflakes at the table,
and watching movies together.
The next day we went to the Exploratorium and Ferry Building in San Francisco, where a great time was had by all.
On the way back to the parking garage, we enjoyed watching a bit of winter fun at the skating rink at the Embarcadero Center.
It has been wonderful to watch our little baby grow into such a big boy. I remember how tiny I thought he was in the hospital - less than 8 pounds - and a year later he is more than three times that initial weight - such a wonderful big boy. On his birthday morning he had fun playing with his breakfast of fruit and yogurt.
Then we had our swim lesson. Liam loves to be in the water.
That afternoon was a birthday party for Liam, with lots of great food.
And Happy Birthday cupcakes!
At the end of the day he was tired, but happy. It is hard work being a one-year-old!
In November we enjoyed the start of fall and lots of local fun, with no big travel. It was great to get to enjoy our home and all of Elsa's wonderful creative play. Elsa really enjoyed going for walks and would call a pile of leaves of the ground a "leaf forest". Below is a collection of leaves she picked up on a walk.
We continue our wonderful cooking projects, with some kind of cooking together almost every night. Her favorite thing to make is cakes, but she did do a great job making her first pumpkin pie.
Elsa went to her first birthday party at "Pump It Up" - basically a warehouse full of inflatable bouncy houses. She got to go on a rock wall - it was pretty cool.
Elsa and Liam are starting to play together. Liam constantly follows Elsa and she will include him in her imaginary play. Elsa likes to make her corner crawler area into new and exciting things, like a boat to Albania (one of her classmates at day care went to Albania recently), a car wash, a Halloween store, or a house for her imaginary friends Hala and Sala. This is Elsa and Liam sailing to Albania.
One of the new favorite games of Elsa and Liam is be a monster and crawl all over Mommy. They play this game a lot.
They also do a lot of dress up. Liam gets to be fun things, like pirate flowers and Elsa is often a Fairy Princess who likes to bike or scoot.
Elsa is also a helpful big sister, like when she helped Liam with the slide.
Liam loves climbing things and now climbs all of Elsa's stools. One night he decided to climb up the bathroom sink and eat soap.
The best is when they fall asleep together. That is something to be thankful for.
We had a great Thanksgiving in Millbrae, where I dressed Elsa, Liam and myself in matching Hanna Anderson outfits. I love matching dress up, and I am glad Elsa does too!
Elsa had a lot of fun instructing everyone at her Monster School.
It was a great first Halloween with two Trick-or-Treaters!
Elsa and Liam were all set with their sturdy Halloween bags. Elsa dressed up as a ballerina with beautiful wings and Liam was lion.
We walked a 12 block loop around the neighborhood. Elsa pointed out all the houses that had pumpkins, decorations, lights and people at home. She got lots of practice saying "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you"
As it got dark, Liam sat on my shoulders. He thought it was very funny.
