play dough!

Our next door neighbors always remember Deacon at Christmas -- so thoughtful!  This year they gave him play dough which was great because I've been thinking that we should have some of that on hand.  We decided to get it out a couple of weekends ago.

 

I think Mommy and Daddy had just as much fun as Deacon.  :)

 

Deacon did really great with it and it actually occupied his time for at least 30 min or so.  YAY!  The key, though, is having Mommy or Daddy there playing with him, because I tried to get it out one day while I was working from home and it didn't interest him as much because I wasn't standing there by his side, making stuff with him.

 

That's understandable, I guess.  I always liked it more when MY parents would play, too.

 

Anyway, we had a good time with it:

 

Can you tell I wasn't planning to have my photo taken, ahem??  Mommies, you should always be prepared cuz you never know when that photo opportunity with your kids is gonna hit.

 

big boy bed!

We have reached the end of an era in this Wenzel household -- the era of my sweet baby boy sleeping in his crib.  We moved Deacon into a big boy bed a week ago and it went soooo much smoother than I thought it would.

 

Jeff decided he wanted to make Deacon a toddler bed so we could use the crib for the next one to come along (ahem, no announcements in that department, just be advised).  Now WHERE that next child might sleep in this house we've yet to figure out but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.  :)

 

The bed is beautiful, as is anything my husband puts his time and talents to, with a contrasting base made up of 2 drawers and the railings for the actual bed part.  The base is stained the same color as the dresser in Deacon's room.

 

And Deacon LOVES his bed!  We have found him in his room (when all is too quiet), just laying in his bed.  Because he can.  He can get in and out of it all by himself, and I guess that's the novelty of it at this point.  It is precious.

 

We had the big "unveiling" or intro or whatever you want to call it last Sunday night (Feb 10).  Jeff was already in Deacon's room with the door closed, ready to hit "record" when I opened the door to let Deacon walk in.  And you better believe I had that camera strap around my neck!

 

 

Our boy is definitely a rule-follower (most of the time).  We gave him 2 rules for this bed: no toys in the bed and you wait to get out until Mommy & Daddy come to get you or tell you can get out.  And he has done wonderfully with both of these rules (and can recite them to you, ahem).  The first night I saw his lovey hit the floor when he rolled over with it in the one open space that it could fall out.  Our little rule-follower got up on his knees, looked over the side of the bed at his lovey on the floor, got down and picked it up, glanced toward the door and then climbed back up in bed.

 

:: fist pump :: Good boy!

 

He slept all the way through the night without incident.

 

The 2nd night didn't go quite as smoothly -- he did fall out and got a little freaked out about that.  I heard him cry out about 2am and when I looked at the monitor, he was on the floor.  I sprinted across the house to desperate shouts of "Moooooommy, I fall OUT!  Mooooommy, mooommy, I fall OUT!"  When I got to his room, he was standing there with his lovey in one hand and his blanket in the other, reiterating that he fell OUT.  I told him, "That's okay, buddy, we just get right back in bed if that happens," and I scooped him up and put him back in.

 

That's the only time that's happened to date.  And things have gone as smoothly as they ever could since then.  I am so proud of him for how he's transitioned to his big boy bed.  Truthfully, he was probably ready for this way before mama was.  But then, that's the been the case with most things the last 2 years, since I can't seem to get him to slow down growing up.

random Christmas-ness // part IV

Okay, here's the last of the photos I'm going to post from our time in IL over the Christmas holidays.  Seriously.  I'm ready to move on so I'm sure y'all are.  But I just couldn't resist posting some of these random shots of our time with family...

 

This was one of Jeff's favorite games growing up.  Deacon seemed to like it pretty well, too.

 

 

Tickles from Uncle Tim...guess you can tell he and Jeff are brothers, huh?  :)

 

 

We kept that fire going all day, every day.  I LOVED IT!

 

random Christmas-ness // part III

A sweet post for you today (and I promise, I'm almost done with this Christmas photo business).  :)

 

Deacon got to spend a fair amount of time with his great-grandparents while we were in IL so we caught some of that in photos...

[warming their hands by the fire  |  horsey ride! (Great Grandpa Wenzel is 87!)]

 

[they had the best time playing with trucks...and each other :)]

 

 [Great Grandma Buss]

 

And not that she's a great grandma, but she IS a great Grandma Sherry to our Deacon...

 



random Christmas-ness // part II

Next up: SLEDDING. 

 

I mean, for REAL.

 

This ain't no joke up in IL.  They have a "sledding hill", y'all.  With an official sign and everything.  So when you say you're going sledding, THIS is what you mean.

 

[just trying to get to the top (without spilling the kid), for cryin' out loud]

Obviously, Deacon had never been sledding up to this point in his short life, and if THIS is what true sledding is, then neither had I.  A new experience for us both.

Neither one of us a big fan, after the fact.

 

 

[yeah, I am NOT laughing here.  That is not laughter on my face.]

 

I mean, I guess if you grew up here and you had all the GEAR to go out and spend the day in sub-zero temps sliding down a hill made up of 4-5 inches of really packed down snow (and when I say "gear", I don't mean the sled), then sure.  I guess that would be fun.

 

Not so much for us born-n-bred NC folk.

 

 

Nonetheless, word on the street is you haven't experienced winter in Freeport unless you've gone sledding at Krape Park.  So we did (the total time we were out there doesn't really matter, right??), and we can now say we're in that club.    The I'm-bored-let's-go-freeze-our-behinds-off-at-Krape-and-try-not-to-hit-any-trees club.

 

 

[one of the 2 other times Deacon went down; Grandpa Duane flipped him (purely by accident) and we were NOT getting him back on that sled after that.]

 

random Christmas-ness // part I

Oh, wow...I'm still carrying on with these Christmas adventures??  Well, yeah.  That's what happens when you take a week and a half off from work to spend with family you don't see often.  You cram A.BUNCH. of stuff into one week.

So we had all the Christmas celebrations, but then we had other stuff (festivities, fun activities, etc.) going on, too.  So stayed tuned, cuz I do have a few more posts to share on our time in IL.

This post will be on Christmas Eve.  We arrived in IL on Christmas Eve around lunchtime.  Jeff's brother, Scott, picked us up from the airport and we hung out with them in Palatine (a few hours from where Jeff's parents live) until their Christmas Eve started at their church, Willow Creek Community.

Awesome service, by the way.

So these photos are from our time with them on Christmas Eve...

 

Can you see the residual chocolate around his mouth?  That Uncle Scott...

 

 

 

Aunt Jill was brave to let Deacon mess around with her presents.  :)

 

 

Walking out to the car for the service -- it was pretty slick on the sidewalk.

 

On the 4th day of Christmas...

...we were in Lexington, NC!

 

We got together with my family in Lexington the weekend after we got back from IL, so we celebrated Christmas with them -- there were 11 of us -- on Jan 4.

 

We did actually eat breakfast first, which doesn't usually happen (we usually tear into those gifts as soon as we can get everyone gathered :). But my mom made a scrumptious meal and we enjoyed sitting around the table eating good food and catching up.

 

Next came the gifts.  We've always done stockings in my family until this year.  The young kids -- Cora Beth, Bear and Deacon -- still had them but the adults didn't.  Kind of a bummer but it was fun to watch the kids open theirs, and because we didn't have any to open, we were able to see their reactions to a lot of the stuff they found in their stocking.  They did pretty well finding everything and figuring out what it all was, but things began to get mixed up due to the "one-for-each-of-them" thing + everything ending up on the floor instead of back in the bag -- er, I mean, stocking.  (I can't even tell you the last time we had an actual stocking w/gifts in it -- those just don't hold much.)

 

Anyway, we got everything sorted out with some "hey, is that yours, buddy, or does that belong to Bear?" and that was that.  And with the exception of a very cranky ready-but-not-ready-to-take-a-nap-Deacon (who got put down for a nap shortly thereafter), we had a nice time opening the regular gifts, seeing what everyone got.  That's how we roll in the McAfee house -- we usually go around and everyone opens their gifts one at a time, so we can see what they get, their reaction, etc.  It takes us a while, but it's fun.

 

I live fairly close to my family, considering how far Jeff is from him, so we do get to see them much more.  However, everyone is so busy with their own lives that we really don't get to see as much of each other as you would think, given the 4 hour distance that separates us.  So time with my family is precious when we're able to gather for a special occasion, not the least of which is Jesus' birthday.  :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

...from Gram & Buppa (Deacon's great-grandparents)... 

 

 

...Bear & Deacon both got one!

[Bear, 23 mos  |  Deacon, 26 mos]

 

...so precious -- I missed Deacon's hug for Gram, but captured this tender-hearted moment of thanks for Gram from Bear...

 

 

Whew!  So yeah, 4 days of Christmas celebrating, over the span of 2 weeks.  We so enjoyed being able to spend time with both of our families this year.  I hope y'all had an equally wonderful Christmas season.  Here's to a new year in 2013 -- be blessed!