Just Dance

We found Tennyson’s favorite thing to do.

He likes to Just Dance.

My sister Amanda got Just Dance 3 for Christmas and as soon as she popped it in, Tennyson got bright eyed and ready to dance. Needless to say, they played it together almost non-stop over the duration of the next week, and Tennyson became quite the pro. Eventually he even realized he needed a wii-mote to play the game right and he’d wave it around in the air and shake his tail feathers.

He’s a natural. I’ll be pulling out our old Just Dance game to play with him more often. That is until I’m too large to dance around (which seems to be approaching quickly). Then I’ll probably just turn it on and let him play.

Favorite Spaces, Smiley Faces

This is part one in my blogging real life series. I’ve decided I do very well blogging big trips and fun outings, but I get very little recorded of what daily life is like. So I’m going to try to be better at doing that. Because in this upcoming year, our daily life is going to change drastically. I want to remember what life was like when there were only three of us. And then I know I’ll want to remember what life was like when there was a new baby in the house. Things like that.

Tennyson has a favorite place. It is nestled in the pillows on our bed with an i-something (phone or pod, he isn’t picky). Usually he’ll watch Toy Story 3. Sometimes he’ll call people (so if you ever get a call from either of us and there is no one on the other end, politely say hi to Tennyson and then hang up).

I actually thought to take this picture because I went over to pick him up to take him downstairs and he very seriously looked at me, shook his head no, and scooted further away from me on the bed so I couldn’t reach him. It really is his favorite space.

He also has a new super cheesy grin he loves to make for pictures. And if pictures could record sound, you’d be able to hear a wonderful fake giggle that goes along with this smile every time.

He’s my favorite. Him and his wonderful contagious smiles.

Christmas (Eve and Day)

As usual, I’ve taken far too many pictures of Tennyson during our week in Chicago. So I’m going to split the visit into a few posts. And since Christmas was kind of the most exciting part of the visit (not to mention the whole reason for the visit), I thought it’d be appropriate to tell you about our Christmas activities first.
Christmas Eve:
Christmas Eve was unseasonably warm. We actually spent the afternoon on a walk and at the park. It was strange for Christmas Eve, but it was kind of nice.
Then for dinner, we went to a family in my parent’s ward. We ate Mexican food and discovered Tennyson has a love for taquitos. We realized this when he finished the ones I had gotten for him and proceeded to steal them off of my sister’s plate.
Then we played the chimes. Tennyson’s note played through pretty much the whole song. Until he started stabbing people with the nail we were using as a stick to chime with. That’s when his chime career ended.

We finished the night with a pinata. Well, that’s not entirely true. We actually finished the night by driving around looking at Christmas lights and listening to a 1930s radio recording of A Christmas Carol but I don’t have any pictures of that. So, for all you know, we finished the night with a pinata.
Tennyson was very selective in his loot picking. He only picked up the kit kat bars. Baby girl appreciated this. I think they’ll get along.

Christmas Morning:
I won’t lie, I was a little bummed when I found out we’d be going to church at 9am on Christmas morning. Sometimes I feel like 10am is too early. But then Christmas morning was so excited that I ended up waking up early anyway, so we actually did a lot before our 9am church.
Like stockings.
And Tennyson had a few unwrapped presents under the tree. Because Santa wanted him to have a few to play with while others were doing gifts (and because the elves never did figure out how to wrap a hat, a grocery cart, and a ball).
 
Church ended up being really nice.
And then it was time for presents.
Tennyson really made out well this year. And he had a lot more fun with the wrapping paper this year than last year. He’s got the whole unwrapping thing down.
Mike and I had a good Christmas, too. I surprised Mike with a kindle and he got me some boots that I absolutely love. Also, I got the last three seasons of Friends that I needed. I’ve been working for five black Fridays now to get all ten seasons of the show, and this year, my collection was completed. Yay!

My mom made some prime rib for dinner which was awesome. And Mike brought his tradition of Christmas poppers to the table. We all got to wear our hats during dinner and play with our prizes afterwards.

I really love Christmas. I think having a little kid around makes Christmas just that much more magical.
And I’ll post more about our visit with family later.

Halfway There

I’m 20 weeks pregnant today. That’s the halfway mark. I might even be more than halfway, if the doctors insist on making me schedule my c-section for 39 weeks. I’ll spare you all my woes about when this baby is due to arrive. Speaking of the which, we schedule the c-section at the next appointment, so we are currently taking birthday requests for anytime between April 28th and May 10th. (Preferably not April 28th, because that one is already taken in this family.) I know a lot of people have preferences during these weeks, because the suggestions were just rolling in when I was pregnant with Tennyson.

In other pregnancy news, we had our ultrasound last week! And we now know which platform we’ll be using for 2.0. But you all are going to have to wait until we release the information, which, if you are just dying to know, will probably be sometime on Wednesday night. It all depends on how long it takes my family to find which cupcake has the coloring inside. I’m guessing it won’t take them long.

But I can tell you about the rest of the ultrasound. 2.0 is measuring right on time and everything is measuring right (which makes me very happy). 2.0 also has a super cute button nose and even cuter yawns (we got to see a few of those). Unfortunately, ultrasounds cannot tell us if we have another ginger on the way.



(and you can stare at those pictures as long as you want and read all the words on the side, but it will not get you any closer to knowing the gender of 2.0)

I’ve been feeling 2.0 a lot more lately, which makes me happy. It makes the pregnancy seem a lot more real. Right now, 2.0 is super active at night, which I like because I can sit down after Tennyson is asleep and watch TV and enjoy feeling the flutters, but I think in another month when I have feet in my ribs and arms in my hips, I’m not going to be so happy that nighttime is playtime. So I’m trying to enjoy it while I can.
I’ve also been growing a lot more lately. I don’t notice it until I try to put on a non-maternity shirt. Then, when the shirt only covers half my belly, it becomes obvious to me that I’m growing. And then I get depressed for a little while that none of my clothes fit me. But I get over it. I consider myself lucky because all my maternity clothes from last pregnancy match up perfectly season-wise. A lot of people are not so fortunate.

So far, it seems I will get just as big with 2.0 as I ever did with Tennyson. Sorry, stomach. That’s just the way I carry babies.

 

Stay tuned. As soon as my family eats the right cupcake, we will share it with the world. And don’t bother re-reading this post again and again. I didn’t slip up one time. I’ve checked like 500 times to make sure there is nothing about gender anywhere. Sorry I’m so thorough (but I’m not really that sorry).

The Nutcracker and a Gingerbread House

We are really enjoying Christmas here at the Fiske house. It’s been a goal of mine to do as much Christmas-ing as we possibly can this year. I always find that by Christmas day, I wish I had done more celebrating and living up the season. So this year I am.
So we’ve been playing a lot of Christmas music. It’s pretty much all the time. And Tennyson has found a real love for one rendition of The Nutcracker that we own. It’s a seven minute long song and he will dance for all seven minutes of it.
We have this cute little video, and I apologize that it is just from a phone. I also apologize that it is a little long and slow in parts, so if you really want to just see the cutest part, fast forward to about a minute and half in. Although I highly recommend watching the long version.

My parents have actually made general Christmas-ing easier. They’ve done this wonderful 25 days of Christmas gift thing for Tennyson this year. It’s been a blast! They are enjoying it because it forces us to skype with them every night. And we are enjoying it because we’ve gotten all sorts of fun Christmas goodies.
Like an elf of the shelf. Which we’ve actually been coveting for a while now, but never willing to shell out 30 dollars on.
And a gingerbread house kit. With 1/2 pound of candy. We thought it’d make for a fun Sunday afternoon activity. And it did, although it didn’t last long.
I’ve mentioned before that Tennyson borders on OCD with his need to be clean. Needless to say, this was not a very clean activity. He was very eager to start putting on candies until he put on his first one and realized that the frosting was quite sticky and very hard to get off his hands. (Also, I’m apologizing for the fact that our pictures aren’t the best. Our camera was a little freaked out by the yellow shirt, close to yellow table, and yellow walls.)

But after much coaxing, we got him to stick on a few candies. In general, he was much happier just choosing out the candy for mom or dad to stick on.

Mom was really good at listening to Tennyson and putting the candies where he wanted them. Dad, not so much.

And our house turned out as a masterpiece, if I do say so myself.

Okay, maybe not so much. But we’ve got plenty of years ahead of us to work on our gingerbread skillz.