New Year's Eve, Part II

Monday, December 31:  New Year's Eve ... later in the evening. Dylan and Kelly were invited to a small party to bring in the new year, and I was invited to take care of this little doll baby while they were out!

 So from about 8:00 until 12:30 or so, Erin was ALL MINE!

 We had a very delightful first two hours together. Doesn't she have a darling smile? And those EYES of hers! Oh my!

 And her sweet little heart! Look at her expressions and just melt ...

 The expression below looks like she has encountered a real shock--don't worry, I didn't put on a scary mask or anything ... !!

 Erin has two tiny teeth on the bottom now ... and she is cutting her top two!

 See how super sweet she is? I just love these pictures of her.

By about 10:00 Erin had enough of me and wasn't sure exactly what she wanted, so she fussed and cried and growled at me for an entire hour before she finally gave it up and fell asleep on my lap. I had changed her, fed her, walked her, given her a little body rub ... nothing was calming her down. I turned on some beautiful music and began to sing to her -- she turned her head to look at me and she squinted her little eyes like she wasn't quite sure she appreciated my singing voice (it's not beautiful or anything), but then she settled right into my arms (as I walked her) and listened to the music and FINALLY fell asleep. I sat back down, very softly, on the recliner and held her close. She snuggled deeper and then was truly "out". I caressed her soft face, gazed upon this sweet little person, thanked the Lord for such a gift and fell asleep too.  

New Year's Eve, Part I

Monday, December 31:  New Year's Eve! Happy New Year! My wee boys came over to spend the day with me today. We had so much fun.

At their house, they had been playing so nicely that Dylan did not interrupt their play with breakfast ... so they ate when they arrived over at my house. Aidan eats a bunch of different gluten-egg-dairy-peanut-free snacks. He even ate TWO pieces of cinnamon bread at my house today! 

 I think Aidan will be a very good builder of track layouts in very short order! He loves to play trains and he especially likes putting the track together for me.

 Look at his sweet little face! Oh my.

 Brendan jumped right in and had his OWN ideas about the layout ... so it was quite easy to let him take over while Aidan and I added on to a different area.

 Brendan decided he wanted the track to go ALL THE WAY to the playroom!

 So, we had to modify our layout a little bit and then we were able to accomplish it. I'm not sure about this picture below ... but it sure does look like these two little ones are having a bit of a conflict ...

 Dear Aidan with a toy in each hand ...

 Voila! The track made it all the way to the playroom. Brendan was super pleased.

 Little Aidan just had a blast today with all of the toys ...

 He was building small block towers for a little while and then he would clap as I counted HOW MANY blocks he was able to stack before they came tumbling d-o-w-n!

 Look at this child! I could just eat him up.

 We had our usual food for lunch ... I figure that since Brendan LOVES pasta, we'll just go with that until he tells me he hates it or something.

 We spent a long time at the table today. Which was intentional on my part because it keeps our little imp of a baby contained for 30 minutes instead of ... exploring every single bin, crate, cupboard and shelf that I have. It gives me a breather from following his little person around making sure he is OK.

 I love you, Brendan!

 Aidan took ZERO naps during his day with me ... but he did manage to crawl up and lay down on my window seat for a split second ... he did this about a half dozen times before he decided NOT to sleep.

And I love this picture of you, dear Brendan. There is not a sweeter boy in the world.

 These two did very well together today. Sometimes it is frustrating to Brendan when Aidan is here because he takes apart everything that Brendan sets up. But I think Brendan is getting used to it.

 I love this picture (below) of Aidan ...

 And this one, too, of Brendan.

Near the end of our day, Aidan was pretty tuckered out. The boys did some drawing together. Aren't they darling together?!