Christmas 2008

Kissing her Gingerbread house




Oohing & Aahhing over her candy creation

She really loved her Gingerbread house...can you tell?




Fascinated with "Frank"




Determined to pet him

Aunt Laura showing Berkeley how to feed Frank

Thanking Uncle Chris & Aunt Laura for Frank

Another new bike for the "Beanster"

Papa gave Berkeley a locket with mommy & daddy's pictures so that she can "always keep us close to her heart"

Grandma reading Oliver his new book

Peek!

Snuggling with daddy by the tree

My sweet Oliver Bean

My sweet girl

Chris, Laura & "The Fetus" (since she is not finding out what she is having, that is what we call the baby...sure would be nice to be able to call it by it's name...sigh...poor me :)

Lyndee, Bill (Chris' dad and stepmom), Laura, (the "unborn child") & Chris

Tom, Lisa, Berkeley, Grandma, Oliver, Papa, "Laura & Co.", and Chris

Oliver & Grandma

Berkeley & Papa

Well, I am just now getting around to posting pictures of Christmas now that we are about 3 weeks into the new year. I know...LAME of me, huh? I just haven't been in the mood to be on the computer in my spare time, but the guilt is getting to me so here goes. I am trying to end my computer sabbatical, and I am embarassed to admit that I joined facebook about 3 months ago and just yesterday finally added a picture to my profile. Kelli, Suzanne and Karena harassed me about it and once again the guilt is all consuming so I finally threw one up there. I have to admit, I'm having a real hard time even getting into the whole facebook thing and find the whole fascination with it a bit perplexing. I tend to be a bit resistant to change, but I discovered I genuinely prefer blogging to facebook. The only reason I joined it is because a couple of hotties (Kel & Suz) at a recent wedding I attended pressured me into doing it. They said that blogging was strictly for "journaling" and facebook is geared toward the more mature, suave individual. Ok, maybe they didn't quite use those exact words, but since blogger has an "Add Image" icon, I am going to continue to post pictures to go along with my journaling. Kel & Suz, I am sorry to disappoint...I have a feeling that I am going to stick with what I know and that is Blogger. I am not going to let facebook lead me down Tempation Boulevard with her fancy "wall writing." I won't be sucked in by promises of maturity & sophistacation. I am a simpleton and I'm determined to stay true to my roots :) I don't mean to be a change-hater. If I believed in making New Year's Resolutions I would probably resolve to start embracing change. However, since I don't make them, it looks as though I'll be taking my resistance to change to my grave.

Ok, on to Christmas. Christmas was a whirlwind. We spent Christmas Eve at Chris & Laura's house. Berkeley struggles BIG TIME with constipation and unfortunately she was having an awful time with it on Christmas Eve & Christmas day, which made the whole holiday extremely challenging. We had a wonderful prime rib dinner at the Arsers' house and then opened presents. Chris & Laura got Berkeley a fish which she named Frank. (her favorite movie is "Cars" and her favorite character is Frank, the red combine who chases Lightning McQueen). She came up with the name Frank since the fish was red. Aunt Laura turned out to be quite prophetic since she had been calling him Frank since the day they brought him home. Chris was calling him Jaws since he is a Beta fish (apparently Betas have to live in separate tanks since they'll fight eachother to the death and the winner eats the loser. Kind of a violent species for an Uncle to have picked out for an innocent little 3 year old girl if you ask me, but that's what he chose for her so I just put on a happy face and went with the flow). That's ok, when their baby turns 3 we are going to buy him/her an iguana. They will have to nod their heads, smile real big, ooh & aahh over it and go with the flow. Totally kidding...we wouldn't do that. An iguana would be too easy. Now, a cute little baby shark in a salt water tank is another story. Hmmmm, my wheels are spinning Chris & Laura and that means trouble :)

After the presents were over we stayed the night, got about an hour of sleep and then had breakfast in the morning. Berkeley was still stopped up and cried & clung to me most of the morning. We got home to drop all of our stuff off and pick up another load to take to the next house, but tried giving her an enema first which ended up not working. We waited about an hour and felt badly that everyone was waiting for us at Verl & Sherri's, so we headed out. The kids ended up falling asleep in the car on the way there, so we sat in the driveway for about 20 minutes until they woke up. I was bummed that I didn't get any pictures of Christmas day because I had my hands full with Berkeley clinging to me. I think Tom had the camcorder going so at least we have that. We got home around 6:30 and around 7:30 she finally went to the bathroom. It was the size of a golf ball and almost as hard. Poor thing. I don't mean to go on and on about Berkeley and her irritable bowels, but I don't know what to do for her. She eats fruit, I have tried Miralax, Benefiber, prunes, prune juice etc., but nothing seems to work. I have tried potty training her a couple of times, but it has been disastrous and she totally freaks out. I was going to try it again after the first of the year, but Tom said not to bother since she can barely go in her diaper. She certainly isn't going to go on the toilet if it is that painful and dreadful for her. I agree with him, but I am getting burned out on having 2 kids in diapers and I'd like to be done with it. If anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears.