Christmas Day

Christmas Day was a fairly relaxed day for us. We spent part of the morning at home opening our gifts and then headed to Nate's parents house for brunch. For the rest of the day we just hung out with Nate's parents and kept everything low key. Layla was sick, but did pretty good despite feeling so bad. She was quite grumpy on Christmas Eve and I wasn't sure how well Christmas Day would go. She had a bad cold and was very congested. You could tell she was tired but couldn't sleep very well with such a stuffy nose. Today Layla is doing much better.

Sanaa pulling out her stocking gifts.

Layla with her stocking.

We just gave Sanaa her final gift last night. It was a dollhouse. She's enjoyed it so far, but there have been a few times she's stood up to get her tools to fix something on the house.

This picture is for uncle Caleb. Sanaa's new request is carrots and peanut butter.

Some family pictures

The best family picture taken of the four of us. It only took uncle Caleb one shot!

The Pond family. This took about 3 takes.

A good shot of Layla and me.

I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNT AND NATE IS GOING TO BE AN UNCLE!

Caleb and Sarah are expecting twins! She is due April 22. Just before Thanksgiving they found out they are having a boy and a girl. For Christmas I made a name train for my niece and nephew.

Isaac Thomas and Natalie Grace coming soon!

Christmas on the 22nd

On Wednesday we celebrated Christmas early with Nate's family. Nate had that day off (he then had to work the 23rd and 24th) so it was the best day for all of us to get together. Caleb and Sarah were down here from Arkansas and planned to head back to Arkansas on the 23rd.

Tuesday evening after we looked at the trains we watched the Polar Express. Sanaa enjoyed the moving and spent most of the time sitting on my lap.

Wednesday morning we headed over to Nate's parents for breakfast and then opened gifts. Sanaa didn't care about opening the gifts. She preferred to make a fort with all the gift bags. In fact, as the gifts around the tree began to dwindle she began walking around the room collecting everyone's gifts to put back around the tree.

Sanaa showing Layla how to use her new toy.

Layla checking out all the boxes and gift bags.

Nate's mom had these letters made for me to hang in the girls room. Her former assistant made letters for both girls. I was able to hold up Layla's name (with a really cheesy smile). Sanaa was too busy playing with her letters and wouldn't let me hold them.

Sanaa attempting to put all the letters together as a puzzle. She got really mad when the Y wouldn't fit where she wanted.

Coloring on her giant Dora coloring sheets with some fun new crayons.

Layla with another new toy.

This outfit was given to Sanaa when she was a baby and I figured Layla should wear it as well.

The back of her onesie says, "Good things come in small packages."

Sanaa's top 3 gifts

We had a good Christmas. We spread it out over a few days (which I'll share about later). Spreading it out was good for the girls and they didn't seem to get too overwhelmed. In fact, we still have one more gift for Sanaa to open. But since she's been having so much fun with the gifts she opened so far we figured we would save the last gift for today.

Below are Sanaa's top 3 gifts that she plays with first thing in the morning.

#1: A tool set.

I don't know another 2 1/2 year old girl who has been so excited about tools! It was hilarious. The tools were from Rosa's parents. Sanaa didn't just get a simple hammer and screw driver, but a drill, saw, bolts, nuts, pliers, etc. It's a complete tool set!

She immediately got to work "fixing" Layla's exersaucer.

I think the funniest thing was the fact that Sanaa knew exactly what to do with each tool and didn't have to be shown how to use it.

#2: Lady Bug pet pillow.

This is so soft and goes everywhere with her. We now have to make sure she has her tiger, water, and lady bug at bed time.

#3: Fishing pole.

For stocking stuffers I went to the dollar store and picked out 5 items for each girl. I found a small fishing pole with a crab, sea horse, and octopus for Sanaa. She loves it.

The gift that she still has yet to open is a dollhouse and now I'm wondering whether she'll like it! She doesn't seem to be all that interested in your typical girl toys. Oh, well. I guess if she doesn't end up playing with the dollhouse much maybe Layla will. :-)

Trains!

At the NorthPark mall in Dallas they have a large train exhibit. On Tuesday we visited the exhibit with Nate's family. It was a lot of fun to look at and the attention to detail was amazing. Both Sanaa and Layla enjoyed watching the various trains drive around. Here is just a small bit of what we got to see. (Pictures were taken by Nate's parents and his brother and sister-in-law. I left my camera at home since I knew the others would get plenty of pictures.)

The Pond family minus Caleb who was busy taking the picture. I love how both girls aren't looking. Watching the trains was way more exciting than getting a picture taken.

Uncle Caleb and Sanaa

A busy month

December always gets so busy! I remember thinking as a kid that December felt like the longest month ever and it took forever for Christmas to come. But now I'm wishing December had 60 days instead of just 31. I've been making a lot of our Christmas presents this year since money is even tighter than it was last year. I've finished up the gifts for my family and mailed those packages yesterday. The gifts for the great grandparents are finished as well, but need to be mailed. Now I need to focus on Nate's family.

Sanaa has been helping out with making some of the gifts and that's been great as I've been able to entertain her while getting Christmas gifts made. I always intend to start making gifts earlier, but never do and suddenly I'm pressed for time. Oh, well. After this week everything will be finished and I can enjoy Christmas!

Here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks that I've intended to post and never did.

Layla wearing a hair clip for the first time. She was "talking" when I took her picture.

Yummy banana! Sanaa never liked using the mesh safe feeder, but Layla loves it! She will sit in her highchair for a good 20 minutes chomping away at whatever I put in it. So far I've just done banana and bread (separately, not together).

Sanaa helping feed the cats. Now that she can open any door in our house, I often find her into something she shouldn't be.

Nate took this shot. While I was upstairs getting ready, Sanaa decided to help set the table for breakfast. She used every single item from her little kitchen set.

An earlier Christmas gift for me! A double stroller! I found it on craigslist for $65! I've been trying to get Sanaa to walk while I push Layla in the stroller, but whenever we go to church or the mall she will flat out refuse to walk. My back can't handle carrying a 28lb toddler while pushing a stroller anymore. So when I found this one only 10 minutes away from us I was super excited. Sanaa has been really excited about it as well and spent most of yesterday afternoon just sitting in it.

My Sunday School craft

In the adult Sunday school class this morning we got to do a craft! Isn't that cool? Our teacher asked each family to take one glass ornament that we could decorate. On ours I just wrote "2010" on one side and "Blessings" on the other. You can make your ornament as simple or as elaborate as you want. Then you and your spouse (and kids) write down blessings and things you were thankful for from the past year on small strips of paper. You can also write down things that you are looking forward to in the upcoming year. Fold the strips of paper up and stick them inside the ornament. Hang it on your tree and enjoy. Then the next Christmas (2011) you break the ornament (keeping small children away from the broken pieces) and read through the blessings you wrote.

Nate had to work this morning so he didn't get to go to church, but I thought this was such a fun idea and think it's something I'd love to do with our family each year. As our girls get older they can write down what they are thankful for and help decorate the ornament.

On a completely different note. As a parent of young children I find Sundays to be the most tiring and difficult day of the week (especially if Nate has to work). Nap time didn't go so well today, meaning that I tried for 2 hours to get the girls to nap and neither would go to sleep. When I finally went upstairs to get Sanaa (because I heard a lot of banging) I found her like this.

Moving backwards

Layla is on the move. She is trying really hard to pull herself forward but ends up moving backwards. When we lay her on the floor she doesn't stay put. She will roll half way across the living room or push herself backwards on the kitchen floor. This morning while Nate and I were getting breakfast ready Layla ended up under one of our chairs. She started out on the caterpillar play mat but didn't stay there for very long.

Never trust a toddler......

......that says she'll be right back. Sanaa disappeared and when I finished feeding Layla I discovered this.

6 months old

I hope you enjoyed reading Nate's post below about our visit to the pediatrician this morning. The doctor did say a couple of times that Layla is probably, "just that kind of baby." I'm really starting to discover how different each child is. Sanaa took a bottle just fine, but Layla won't use one at all. Sanaa LOVED all the new foods we introduced and Layla doesn't like anything. She has even begun spitting out the oatmeal. The doctor said not to force her to eat (which I haven't been doing) but to just continue to introduce new foods.

With the whole bottle issue, the doctor also said that Layla may just cry and scream the entire time she's with a sitter and not eat for 6 hours (if I'm gone that long). But I'm not to worry because when I return Layla will probably just nurse every hour to make up for it. This just means that Layla is very attached to me (and you can almost say that literally).

With Sanaa, I didn't get to nurse her as long as I wanted because she weaned herself. But I'm thinking that weaning Layla is going to be a hard job and I'll probably be nursing her up to her first birthday.

Layla is growing quite well. She is 14.5 lbs (25%), 25 1/2 inches (50%), and has a head circumference of 16 1/4 inches (25%).

"Hey kitty!"

"Whoa! What's that white thing?"

"Yikes! What are you doing to me?"

Sister hugs.

A typical morning shot. Sanaa seeks out Layla first thing in the morning and will sit with her.