Merry Christmas from the Baimas!

Merry Christmas to All! And a Happy New Year!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

The crazy days leading up to Christmas are upon us! We seem to be ready for Christmas - all presents bought, wrapped, and packed away ready for transport back to Illinois. The tree is up, the decorations are out, cookies have been made, and Santa has been visited multiple times. Here is a view into our world these past 2 weeks...

First, we lost power. The ice storm on December 11 caused a great commotion in Iowa City basically shutting down the city for a few hours. The power went off at noon, and when it had not come back on by 4, I began to look into a hotel. Olivia was not too happy about the light switches not working and I do not enjoy sitting in the dark, either. We checked into a hotel that had a 100 foot water slide and decided to have a fun night swimming. Joe and I enjoyed the slide immensely, but Olivia had to be tricked (by Joe) into going down the slide. The following picture is the aftermath. However, in all fairness to us as parents, the next day she was excitedly talking about how she went down the slide and was smiling about it.


What is Christmas without a prepackaged Gingerbread House? They are so convenient to use! As you can see from this picture, Olivia's philosophy was to put 2 candies on the house and one in her mouth. Even with her doing that, we still had a lot of candy left over at the end.

Joe and Olivia decorating the house.

Poor Ethan so badly wanted to join in on the fun. Next year!

The finished product.

We attended a Medical Partner's Christmas party and had a great time. Olivia was able to decorate cookies, make ornaments and gift bags, and play with her friends.

Even Ethan had friends to play with. Here he is with Caleb and Madelyn. Both are older than Ethan, so he was taking notes on their crawling and walking skills.

Olivia with "Gracie". Both were great about taking turns driving the game.

We received 4-5 inches of snow on December 15th, and we spent the afternoon playing fun winter games. Olivia thought that shoveling snow was a great game, and who are we to tell her otherwise?

Ethan's first experience with the snow.

As you can see, I don't think he understood much of what was happening to him. He did have a very shocked face when we exposed his hand to allow him to touch the snow.

Sledding time!

Joe and Olivia going down the "hill" in our backyard. We all took turns on the sled - even Ethan. This hill was the perfect size for Olivia, and she must have gone down 50 times before tiring out.

Kate and the kids in the backyard.

There is nothing like hot chocolate flavored marshmallows after a cold day in the snow. And, yes, that is a Viagra mug. Drug reps will put their drug names on anything and everything.

The real secret to me being able to get ready for Christmas. Keep Ethan in a cage (laundry basket).

Our last big shopping day at the mall. I had a 6 hour marathon alone with both kids. I don't recommend it. However, both had a good time playing in the park in the mall. I wish all malls had this - it is a great bribe.

The wonderful celery slide.

Breakfast with Santa

Happy December to all! We have been involved in a whirlwind of events since Thanksgiving, but I feel that we are beginning to feel somewhat ready for Christmas. Olivia has really begun to understand the meaning of Christmas, at least the material meaning of Christmas. Every time she sees a new toy commercial, she'll tell me "Santa can bring me that! I want to put it on my list!". I don't take most of that too seriously unless she mentions it more than twice, then I figure that she might actually want it as opposed to an impulse.

Since this year Olivia is very excited about Santa, compared to being a bit scared by him, we decided to go to a Breakfast with Santa event. Joe and I were expecting a huge crowd, bad food, cheesy decorations, etc. Instead we had a great time with good food and a manageable crowd. Olivia loved talking to Santa - we had to pretty much tell her it was time for another child to sit on his lap in order for her to leave him, and she thought that Mrs. Claus was great since she gave Olivia a candy cane. Plus, Miss Iowa was there with her crown on, so Olivia thought that she was a Christmas princess. Ethan was really just along for the ride this year.


Olivia enjoying the food.

While Ethan couldn't enjoy the food yet, his toys were an acceptable replacement.

Olivia enjoying one of our many, many snow/ice storms that we have had in the past month. I believe that she was attempting to throw a snowball here, but the snow kept sticking to her gloves.

Making a snow angel.

Olivia was a big help decorating the tree this year. She was a pro at putting on ornaments. In fact, her decorating has yet to stop as she continues to rearrange the ornaments on a daily (hourly!) basis. Thus far we have had 3 ornament fatalities due to this, but we were at least wise enough to put the truly valuable ones on the top of the tree.

The final touch...a Santa hat on the tree. A tradition that started when Joe and I first married and didn't have a star or angel to put on top. I put the hat on top as a temporary topper thinking that I would buy a star soon, and 9 years later the tree still has a hat on top.

Santa Olivia and Santa Ethan.

Ethan's new favorite toy - his basketball. Joe has high hopes for this. Genetics are not on Ethan's side, though. Ethan has his first tooth (bottom right tooth), he is working his way through all the fruit and veggies and will soon move on to big people food, and he is attemptimg to crawl (not yet successful, thank goodness).