More sick

We're on Day 4 of Dallin being sick. I'm better now, but Dallin is still out of commission. He's really not that different from "normal Dallin," he just wants to sleep a lot and he's really whiny. I now understand why my parents disliked it so much when we whined as kids. It's really annoying! It gets worse when you ask him what he wants. He just cries out something unintelligible; I don't think even he knows what he's saying. But the worst is when he does this repetitive moan/whiny noise over and over and over. (It reminds me of Spongebob's scream after Squidward tells him about the Hash Slinging Slasher. Anyone...?) I'm sure you're dying to know what he sounds like, so here's a video.

Yes, he's playing with mini marshmallows. I will try anything to keep him from whining.

I can't wait until my sweet boy is back to normal.

Today is a sick day.

Dallin and I are both sick today. Actually, I've been sick for a while so I'm starting to feel a little better now. But it hit Dallin with full force today. He has spent his day sleeping in our bed.

Or sleeping on the couch.

This picture pretty well sums up Dallin's accomplishments for the day: sleeping, watching some tv, water, and a tiny bite of cracker.

We can't forget about Connor.

He's just sitting around watching all us sickos.

All this sleeping is doing wonders for Dallin's hair.

He'll hate me for this picture someday.

The Big 25

My birthday was this last week. I'm 25 years old now. That's halfway to 50! That a quarter of the way to 100! I don't feel older so much as I do wiser. 24 is still basically 20, and I was still just a young kid. But now I'm 25. I have a house and 2 kids. I feel so grown up.

My birthday was a quiet day, but after the busy holidays, it was nice to have a quiet day. I worked hard cleaning the day before so I could just enjoy the day. A friend of mine came over in the morning to visit. Her son and Dallin love playing together and Dallin was happy to show off his new Christmas toys. We had a hard time enforcing the "one kid on the trampoline at a time" rule.

I got a birthday package in the mail. Dallin was so excited to find out what was in it, so he tried to open it himself...

...using a Christmas ornament.

I got to try out a few new recipes for my birthday, which is always really fun for me. For dinner, we had Southwest Egg Rolls with Avocado dipping sauce.

(I kind of mixed and matched parts from both recipes, but the Egg Roll recipe was mostly here and dipping sauce here.)

Then it was time for cake.

Dallin thought the candles were the coolest thing ever.

(Cake recipe here)

I got some good presents. I got some movies, including Lord of the Rings: Two Towers Extended edition on DVD. We already have the Return of the King Extended, and we're working our way backwards through the trilogy, apparently. I also got a gift card to Jo-Anns so I can buy and make craft-y things, and a Kindle! I'm still trying to figure out exactly how to use it, (I was searching all through the box it came in for an instruction manual, then I realized, "Duh! It's an eReader. The instruction manual will be on the device itself." Silly me.) but I'm pretty excited about it.

Connor and Dallin gave me the best kinds of presents. They were good, well-behaved boys and Connor took really good naps all day. He also gave me some really good smiles.

The End of 2011

On New Years Eve, we got together with a bunch of friends for a fondue party. Part of the night's festivities included a talent show. We weren't given much advanced notice though, so we had to come up with a talent to show off in a short amount of time.

Mckay's talent was that he can fit a lot in his large mouth. He fit 23 grapes in his mouth.

I'm so proud of him.

My talent was to do a reading of "There's a Wocket in my Pocket" from memory.

I memorized it at least 10 years ago and I still remember it all.

Dallin's talent was to point to his body parts (eyes, ears, nose, etc.) on command. He can do this really well and we practiced many times beforehand. But when he got up in front of the group, he wouldn't perform. It wasn't quite stage fright (I'm not sure Dallin is capable of that), it was more like he thought it was so cool that everyone was staring at him, all he could do was smile and stare back. He did point to his belly button though.

Looking back at 2011, it was a very eventful year, full of change for our family.

January: Patrick, our faithful 20 year old car died. It gave us an excuse to buy a newer car.

February: We found out that we were having another baby!

March: Dallin turned 2. He finally learned how to eat real food and hasn't stopped since.

April: We started plans for building a new house.

May: The local news aired a story on Dallin and Williams Syndrome. We participated in the walk for WS in Indianapolis.

June: Mckay's parents came to visit us and we showed them around Lafayette. Dallin finally started walking!

July: We went to Colorado for a short visit to see family. Dallin was too old to fly for free. :(

August: We signed papers for our house and officially became homeowners.

September: Our summer was very busy, full of therapy, doctor appointments, and lots of playing outside.

October: Connor was born on the 18th. He is a very welcome addition to our family.

November: Thanksgiving dinner for 15 Eastons was hosted at our house. There were 13 people sleeping in our small house. It was a little tight, but so much fun.

December: We had a wonderful Christmas and spent a lot of time together as a family. Dallin rang in the new year with style.

I love my handsome boy and his stylin' jeans.

Our Christmas Festivities

Our Christmas this year was great. We decided to stay in Indiana for Christmas. It felt a little weird not rushing off to travel right after finals, but we had fun with just our little family.

The day before Christmas Eve (A.K.A. Christmas Adam...), we threw a Christmas Party at our house. We figured that since quite a few of our friends here were in a similar situation of not traveling for Christmas, we thought we should all get together. I made creamy chicken taquitos, deviled eggs, ham and cheese croissant rolls, fudge, banana bread, and mini pecan tarts. The food was so good. All the kids went into Dallin's room to play while the adults ate and talked. It was really fun.

On Christmas Eve, we went caroling at a nursing home with friends. In the evening, we relaxed at home. We ate more snack-y type food for dinner. Dallin was a fan of the taquitos.

When it got dark, we went for a drive around town to look at Christmas lights. We drove around for over an hour and I was kind of disappointed at the lack of decorated houses. There would be a few houses here and there with lights up, but most were dark and very few people went all out with decorating. We were ready to give up and started to head home, but decided to turn into one more neighborhood. I'm glad we did because it was one of the most beautiful light displays I've even seen. The streets were lined with luminaries and most of the houses had lights as well. I hope they do it every year because this will definitely become part of our Christmas festivities while we live here.

On Christmas morning, we opened our stockings.

I made Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast.

I referred to this batch as "Grinch" cinnamon rolls. There was an error with the yeast while making the dough and after letting the rolls sit out to rise for 3 hours, they hadn't grown at all. I put them in the oven hoping something would happen, and those small Grinchy rolls grew 3 sizes that day! It was a Christmas miracle!

We went to church and then came home to open presents.

But first, we changed back into our pajamas.

Somehow, it just doesn't seem right to open presents if you're not wearing pajamas.

Dallin was very spoiled this year. He's at an age where it's very easy to buy gifts for him, so he got a lot of stuff.

One of his favorite presents was a trampoline. Not only is it so much fun to jump on, but it's good for him to practice jumping for physical therapy.

I got a whoopee cushion in my stocking (Thank you, Santa Mckay.) Dallin thought it was so funny. He was bringing it to us all day long so we could blow it up for him to sit on.

Mckay got me the best present: a glider rocking chair.

I've wanted one for a long time, but I thought it would be a while before we had one. This definitely was not on my Christmas list, but I love it.

We made a Gingerbread house.

We bought a kit from Target, and I think it turned out well.

I like the gingerbread man I put on the back.

I made a delicious traditional Ham dinner.

For the next week, we pretty much chilled at home, playing with our Christmas toys.

After getting Dallin dressed one day and seeing he looked like a construction worker with his flannel shirt and carpenter jeans, I thought it was a perfect time to play with his new tool set.

We all caught up on sleep, especially Connor.

Mckay got a puzzle (an Easton Christmas tradition) that we've been working pretty hard on.

It'll be a tricky puzzle, but we like a challenge.

Merry December

We're coming to the end of December and I've only done one blog post this month. That's probably because I haven't taken many pictures of the boys, which I know is a cardinal sin with boys so young and cute as mine. We've been pretty busy this month. Here are a few things we've been doing:

The number one thing that keeps me busy is taking care of 2 boys. Between taking care of them and basic housework, it's a miracle I get anything else done at all. But they're so cute, it's worth it. I spend a lot of time with them like this, changing their diapers:

Dallin usually hold's Connor's hand when they're laying next to each other.

I plan to take side by side pictures like this occasionally to compare Connor's growth to Dallin's. We'll see how long it takes Connor to catch up.

We decorated our house for Christmas.

Dallin loved helping his Dad.

My brother Neil and his family stopped by to see us a week ago. They brought some presents for us to open and it felt like Christmas morning.

Dallin was so excited to open his presents. He was happy to help open (and play with) Connor's presents too. It helped him get in present opening mode for tomorrow.
More than the presents, Dallin loved playing with his cousins and aunt and uncle. Neil was very tired after a long drive from Arizona, so he was trying to take a nap on the floor. But the kids thought it would be more fun to climb on him.

The month has been full of doctor's appointments. New foot orthotics for Dallin (3 appointments), Fluid in Dallin's ears and a round of antibiotics (2 appts), and a 2 month check-up for Connor. Connor is growing so quickly. He's getting so chubby and already growing out of some 0-3 month clothes, like this awesome shirt:

And the matching shoes don't feet his big feet anymore. Sorry Julie.

At 2 months old, he now weighs 13 lbs, 4 oz (a weight Dallin didn't reach til well after 6 months), putting him around 80th percentile. Having gone through what I have with Dallin's weight, I don't really put much importance on percentile numbers. But's it's kinda nice to have a big baby for a change and to not have people freaking out about his weight. At his appointments, we get to talk about little things like his dry skin and weird toe nail, rather than weight gain and heart problems.

Connor has started smiling and it is one of the cutest things I've ever seen, tied for first place with Dallin's first smile. I'm having a hard time capturing photographic evidence.

This is the best I've gotten.

Dallin's vocabulary is growing daily. He picks up new words so well. They're not perfectly formed, clear words yet, but we can usually tell what he wants. He's now mastering 2 syllable words like Connor and cracker (which sound very similar is Dallin-ese.) He has quickly learned the word and sign for "asleep" because he's always trying to cuddle Connor while he's asleep, and the last thing I want is a baby who was woken up early. Similarly, he's learning "hurt" in an attempt to help him understand that laying on top of Connor will hurt him.

I'm not sure where he learned this sign since we weren't practicing this one with him, but he picked it up somewhere and pulled it out when we were saying bye to his Grandma Crapo on the phone.

Of course, after trying to make him perform for 5 minutes, his talking and signing quality was diminishing for the video, but you get the idea.

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas tomorrow. I promise to take lots of pictures so I'll have something to post about.

Connor's Blessing

Part of the reason that we had family come visit for Thanksgiving is so that they could see Connor be blessed in church the following Sunday.

Connor did his part well. He stayed asleep and didn't cry at all through the blessing. He also did a good job of not spitting up all over his clothes or the beautiful blanket his Aunt Sarah made him. We're so grateful for the family who came to be with us. We're really glad that my parents were able to fly here for the weekend to attend the blessing.

We're happy that Connor is part of our family.

We love him a lot.

And I think he loves us too.

I love hearing the words of the blessing because it reminds me that Connor won't be a baby forever. Some day he'll grow up and be making his own choices and even have a family of his own. I just hope I can do the best I can to help him along the way, to teach him about life and how much Heavenly Father loves him.