Just 2 months late...

Hi friends.

I know those of you that check this blog have probably followed our family's story on Caring Bridge for the last 2 months. So, I don't suppose you are surprised that there have been no recent postings of Gboo's bday party or any of the aftermath. Well, I'm here 2 months later to give some updates and try and get back on track.

I have to tell you...looking at the pictures from Greta's birthday party bring me more pain than joy right now. It just sends me to that scary place and reminds me of how strange Greta's illness progression was (from her party to life support in 24 hours). But I'm trying...and our idea for her party was cute...so here's the scoop. We threw Greta a storybook party and asked some of Gboo's friends (playdates within the last year) to come dressed as a favorite storybook character. We had a dress up station (if someone wanted to change personas), a bookmark making section (which was largely ignored in the hubub), a reading area with G's favorite books, and of course the play area. We served pizza then had a cupcake for each child...a bookworm of course! The kiddos were darling...Madelines, the Cat in the Hat, Princesses, Bob the Builder, Little Red Riding hood, and our own little WonderPet (yes I know, only loosely literary but that's the only costume she'd consider!). It was a fun little party...enjoy the footage of our first "friends included" birthday party!

Christmas part 2...Bamalama time

Well, our threesome finally made it to Alabama....a bit later than schedule thanks to the snow, but we made it! We were greeted by Bama Gramps & Granny and Uncle Dan, Aunt Maureen, and cousins Evelyn (2 1/2) and Amelia (6 mo). How fun! We figured it would be a good year for Gboo and Evey to play together but that they might need a little "warm up" time. Um, no. Peas and carrots from the moment they laid eyes on each other. Those two ran up and down Granny & Gramps' halls giggling and playing all week long. With those two sillies entertaining themselves, that gave the proud aunt & uncle a chance to get to know our newest niece Amelia. It's amazing how quickly you forget how tiny they are.... We didn't schedule too many activities but still had too much fun. Here are some pics that testify to how fun Bamalama was!

Fun to come....Gboo's 3rd bday is coming up and she has a party this weekend to celebrate! We'll share some stories and fun with you as soon as we recover...

a few Christmas funnies...

Our Christmas plans were altered this year due to Old Man Winter...we'll be heading south in a few days all together, which won't be so bad. We missed seeing gramps and granny today but we're looking forward to being together with them SOON.

While you wait for Flotown footage, I'll give you a couple of funny Gboo outtakes from the last few days. She's been wired...what kiddo isn't at Christmas time I suppose...though we've jokingly said that her Christmas experience has been more like Hanukah than Christmas this year!

* Christmas Eve we have a no-practice Christmas pageant. Greta decided to dress as an angel this year...swerving from her all-day plan to be a sheep once she saw all the girlies dressing in white sparkly things. So...they started to call the groups of kids up front and she was convinced it was her turn. Grandpa told her she had to wait for the angel part, so she went out in the narthex where some fellow angel buddies were gathering and announced, "GRETA IS HERE!" Oh. My. So when they called the THRONGS of angels forward I went up on the stage and sat on the sidelines to try and bring a little stability to the situation. Greta was fine with this for about 2 minutes before she announced to me, "Mommy, I don't want to sit on the side over here. I want to sit out there...." pointing to center stage (of course). She promptly rose and went to stand in the middle of the group- front and center- where she smiled and waved and even did a lovely twirl for the congregation. It's official...this child is bound for the stage.

*Kylie the horse has been a hit but there have been 2 big concerns about him. 1) Where he would sleep. Thank God the preacher thought up the concept of the "stable" for him to rest in or else I think she'd still be begging to sleep with him. 2) Greta very seriously informed me that Kylie was different because Kylie had no legs. I tried to convince her that this was quite normal for pretend horses. Let's just say her expression made it clear that she was unconvinced.

*Rudolf has been a fav show here for the last 2 weeks. And with Rudolf comes the character of the Bumble. Gboo is now quite obsessed with the Bumble (is it a good Bumble or bad Bumble) and we "spy" Bumbles almost every time we get into the car right now.

*In the bath tonight, Greta spontaneously broke into Away in the Manger. Coupled with Jingle Bells and We Wish You A Merry Christmas, which she sang earlier, we've been delighted to hear her Christmas repertoire. At bedtime we read the little Drummer Boy together and she is chiming in with "pla rum pa plum plum."

* Tonight at bedtime while we were reading stories, Greta interrupted the story to say, "Jeez, daddy....you're breath is really smelly. It is awful." She hasn't quite figured out the difference in gas and halitosis. It was still quite hysterical.

* Recently when asked what we should name her little brother, her reply was "Jersey." When we reminded her that that name was already taken by our dog she said, "oh, ok....how about New Jersey." You can take the girl outta Jersey, but you can't take the Jersey outta the girl!

We hope your celebrations have been happy too! More soon!

Christmas in the 'Sota...aka the pre-Christmas Christmas celebration

Merry Christmas friends and family!

It has been an interesting December. We found out the Cubby is a boy, have been up to our ears in Advent work, Gboo's mommy hurt her back and has been laid up for 1 1/2 weeks (on the mend now), and now the Christmas festivities have begun! Here are some pics and stories from our fun.

Saturday we celebrated with Grandpa Jay & Kelly's side of the family. Great Grandma Dagny and Great Grandpa Holger had us over for a day of bowling (mommy and Greta sat that one out), singing (a BIG tradition in this family complete with caroling books), eating and, of course, presents. Greta spent most of the day chasing after her great-grandparents' kitty Louis who seemed equally interested, albeit quite distrustful of this new toddler. She was into the presents, particularly the first 3 or so, but after that Gboo entered the Christmas zone. We had to do a fair amount of coaxing to get her to open the rest of her presents (hard to do when there are fun new things to play with right in front of us). Such a good lesson for us as parents (and I mean no disrespect to the gparents, as I know it is their job to spoil...) that at least for now less can really be more with our girl. As you can see from the pics, Grandpa and Kelly did not disappoint and Greta was thrilled with her games, books, and copious amounts of wonderpets toys!

Yesterday we celebrated Christmas with Grandma & Papa Bruce's side of the family. A restful, game-filled, food-filled, present-filled day was similarly fun for all of us. Gboo definitely had the queen's share of gifts at the opening and showed the most interest in the first 3 gifts opened...the cowboy hat & horse (named Kylie, if you are curious) from Grandma, the toolbelt (to help daddy in the basement) from Aunt Kebbie and Uncle Peter, and the wonderpets cape from Jayne...ALL BIG HITS. There were more gifts, but these took the day and Greta was the coolest "handy caped cowgirl" you've ever seen. We heard "neeeeiiiighhhhhh, Merry Christmas!" all afternoon. Here's a video...that will give you some idea of the hilarity.

We have our church celebrations to come this week and then- weather allowing- we are hoping to fly down to AL for a long week with Granny, Gramps, Uncle Dan, Aunt Maureen and cousins Evelyn & Amelia (our first time to meet Amelia since her birth in May!). So we still have so much fun to look forward to! We'll post some pics of our adventures there soon.

Beyond all the gifts and excitement, the preacher and preacher's wife talked last night and felt so utterly grateful to be surrounded by (both near and far) so many people who love us and love our child. I can't imagine a luckier girl than our daughter. We hope your Christmas celebrations are also filled with love and peace.

Cubby is a.......

BOY! Just found out this morning that our newest Christiansen is a little guy. The 2 pictures on top are of his profile. You just gotta go back and compare that profile to Greta's! I haven't put them side by side yet, but to my eye they look ALOT ALIKE. The nose! The forehead! At least we know she turned out pretty well, so we won't be as concerned this time around (last time we thought she looked alot like Homer Simpson. We were worried.). The bottom two pictures are of, well, the "identifying marker of a boy." If you need a little orientation in the pictures...look for the arrow. It points to the goods. The arrow makes us giggle. He (still getting used to saying that!) was measuring TALL...a full week ahead in the leg department. So yes, it appears that once again I have simply been the incubator for the Christiansen gene pool.

Of course the biggest source of joy is that everything in the scan looked great. We had to get a level 2 ultrasound since I'm officially considered "of advanced maternal age" and because we waived genetic testing. So we spent alot of time looking at all the parts and for any potential things to watch. We are grateful that we got a clean bill of health and we pray that little Cubby keeps up the good growing work. 13 oz so far...so just needs another 7 lbs or so to be perfect like his sister!

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. Please keep up the good work!

Happy Advent,

the Preacher, the author, Peanut and Cubby

Who's a turkey?

I think you probably know the answer to that question! Gboo hammed it up all day long. We had a great Thanksgiving celebration. We dined at Grandma's house and had lots of fun...here are a few pics of our happy day. PS...no comments needed on how enormo I am. I know. Huge. Not twins, no need to ask.

Today we had the whole family over and they worked their buns off helping us gut our basement. Here's a sampling of their handiwork.... Can I get a yay Christiansens!

And FINALLY.....FINALLY....another piece of exciting news. Tonight as Gboo started to get into the bathtub and insisted she needed to use the potty. Now, some of you may know, this potty business has been a rather slow start at our house, despite our pediatrician's hunch that she'd be an "early potty trainer" at 18 months. Well. Here we are looking January in the eye, marking 3 years of Gboos life (yes thats 2 x 18 months thank you very much) and our potty progress has been pretty minimal. UNTIL TONIGHT. She did it. On her own, even despite our willingness to give up after waiting for her to potty for 15 minutes. We went nuts of course. I think it surprised her. She got to open the first of her potty presents which was her much anticipated Dora the Explorer Umbrella. Hey-o. So here's a pic of her "relaxing" under her newly acquired potty present as she watches Wonder Pets. Cross your fingers that tomorrow we have more lluck!!

One more note: Tuesday we find out if CUBBY is a boy or girl...keep your fingers crossed that Cubby cooperates and we get to answer that question and we'll post pictures and news after our appointment!

Hope your Thanksgiving was happy and memorable.

Once a Jersey girl, always a Jersey girl....

The clan just returned from a whirlwind trip to NJ. We enjoyed participating in a fabulous wedding in the mountains of Jersey then had a night of fun back in our former home in PPB. Greta took to the beach like a local... She picked up every shell and piece of driftwood in sight and loved making "tracks" in the sand. We had hoped she'd have lots of hugs and smiles for our former parishoners in town. Well, let's just say her favorite refrain from the weekend was "shy!" and she was rather hit or miss with smiles. Maybe she was just a little unsure with many new friends and many new places. Grandma went with us to be Greta's constant companion and helped ease some of her anxieties. All in all, the family had a great visit back and Greta declared that she never wanted to leave New Jersey. That should make her Jersey family proud!