Mobile Man

How did you spend your New Year?

We made a duplo neighborhood. Maeli liked my house better than Jeremy's house. But she really loved the park.

Teeth!

Working on # 6 & 7

"Dance with me Daddy."

Brame Family Bowling

This marked the first annual day-after Christmas Brame-Family Bowling Extravaganza! It was pretty fun to have all of my siblings together to bowl, although in the end, I was the biggest looser. Even Maeli beat me. I'm blaming it on the fact that my center of gravity is all messed up, but even the "launcher" and bumpers didn't really improve my score...there's always next year, right?
The boys didn't get to play this time, but I think they still had fun watching.

Maeli and Olivia had to be distracted with star bursts while the grown-ups finished our game, but they didn't mind too much.

Our Christmas

Traditionally, we spend Christmas Eve with the McLain side of our family. Jeremy has 5 older sisters, and as many as can make it head to his parents' house with their families. This year everyone was there but his sister from Utah. It was pretty crazy, lots of cousins, lots of presents, and lots of fun!
The McLain Tree
Aunt Dannell and her boys bought for our family (we draw names) and she got Tucker a computer so he can practice being like Daddy. He totally loves it!
Maeli loved all the attention from all the family!

By the end of the afternoon we were all pretty "Tuckered" out.
We tried something different this year. Normally we're back and forth a lot between our parents' houses (its about 45min) and its always stressful and tense. We divided our days up and did McLain pre-Christmas and Brame post-Christmas. It was much nicer and felt a little like vacation. So after the McLain festivities were wrapped up and we said our good byes, we headed to my parents' house.
We had to get our stockings organized before we could go to bed. Jeremy and I only stuff each other's stockings, although the gifts seem to ooze out of them every year.
Maeli got to help G'ma Terry do the cinnamon for the pull-a-parts we always have for Christmas breakfast. Notice how gussied up she is thanks to the dress-up stuff from Aunt Dannell.
Tucker could hardly wait for Maeli to wake up so that we could start the party.
Tucker also thought that everything cousin Roy got was way more exciting than anything Tucker got.
Dad and Maeli both so excited to start unwrapping!
And we still all ended up pretty Tuckered out.

Meeting Grandma Vi

After 2 failed attempts, Tucker finally got to meet his paternal great grandma!

Santa-Take 2

Santa comes to the hospital every year to visit the kids that are being treated, employees' children are invited to come and see him and get a present (provided by the parents). We didn't go last year because Maeli really wasn't into Santa, but we thought we should give it a shot this year. Tucker was very intrigued. Maeli still wouldn't go to him. They both thought the presents were fine, but the CANDY CANES made the whole thing worth while.

I'm Your Girl

Maeli is all about Dad right now (except for bed time, Jeremy has to be the bad cop because I can't really pick her up and drag her back to bed.) She waits all afternoon for his arrival, any kind of sharp wind through the car port and she thinks Dad is home, she runs to the door (which she can easily open) and anxiously awaits him. She usually greats him with "I'm your girl, I'm your girl Daddy." Which i think is just so sweet...it gets funny though because Tucker is "your boy." ie-"your boy is awake" or "your boy made a mess" or (my favorite) "your boy is going to get your girl." But only for Jeremy. For me, she's Maeli, he's Tucker, and apparently I have no claim on either of them. She wants to dance with Daddy and wrestle with Daddy and heaven forbid Tucker or Mom try to get in on it. Now, I do realize that I have become way less interesting since the "baby in my tummy" has prevented certain activities--for example, I could not play in her and Dad's fort tonight without crawling under the crib to get in...hmmm. And truth be told, I hope Dad is the favorite for years to come...the things she says are just so funny right now! I wish I could just record her all the time. We were at an indoor play-place on Saturday and Tucker spit up a little on the floor, I was cleaning it up, and talking to this other mom and Maeli walked over and told this stranger-mom "we don't lick puke." This is not a conversation we've ever had to have at my house, but I can only wonder what that mom was thinking.

Smile if you Love Pizza!

I just loved how happy he was to be eating pizza with us the other night. And I realized that I totally forgot to post his 9-month check up stuff. He's 19.5 pounds, and i can't remember exactly how tall, but it was in like the 12th percentile. Turns out that he had bronchitis so we had to do some breathing treatments for him (albuterol in a nebulizer). Its so hard to tell when that kid is really sick because he's ALWAYS happy. We think he has a little sniffle, and it turns out to be bronchitis...it'll be so nice when he's big enough to tell us he's sick. Other than that he's doing great, and is now the proud owner of 4-that's right-4 teeth, all on the bottom, and all crooked.