Is That You, Santa Claus?

 

Last year, Elizabeth and Riley went to Santaland, but Elizabeth was too afraid to get anywhere near Big Red, let alone sit on his lap.

This year she was very excited to see Santa, but when the time came, I had to lift her onto his lap and she was very shy, barely whispering her desires, and in a direction 180 degrees from Santa's face (said desires: "chocolate and Elmo"). When I went to adjust her position on Mr. Kringle's knee, she thought we were done and tried to leap up, nearly fracturing my cheekbone with her thick Larrison skull. The photographer even gasped at the sound of the impact.

Unfortunately, Barb was nursing Suzanne at the time and so missed the event. Which is why I ponied up for the print you see above.

Thank You!

Thank you, Grandpa, for the bath toys and the awesome blocks and Thidwick the Bighearted Moose!

Thank you Wendy and Aaron and Lily for In the Night Kitchen.

Merry Christmas!

Bottlefeeding

 

Although it's not recommended to give a newborn the bottle before she is three weeks old, Suzanne is a champion feeder and Daddy insisted on inculcation to the bottle because Barb wanted to continue putting Elizabeth to bed at night, leaving Daddy with a possibly-hungry infant and no milk-giving breasts with which to satisfy said infant's needs. So last night I (Daddy) fed Suzanne from a bottle of breastmilk, and she took to it like a porpoise to water. No problem at all. Just latch-and-suck. Awesome.

So tonight we decided to let Elizabeth try. This after, at church, Elizabeth said she didn't want to be a big sister and wanted Suzanne to go away. (Worth noting is that yesterday Elizabeth was describing the 'love cord' that connected her to her sister, a sort of ethereal umbilicus communicating pure love between the two.)

Anyway, Suzanne took the bottle from Elizabeth and Elizabeth tolerated it for about 15 seconds before growing uncomfortable.

I can't blame her. Babies made me uncomfortable until I had one, at 38.

Christmas Eve Mass

 

Elizabeth, but not Mommy, Daddy or Suzanne, got dressed up for mass, as you can see. She looked pretty sharp in a dress we originally bought for a Halloween costume ('Empress Elizabeth') two years ago. We went to the 5:30pm family mass and Elizabeth had a first: she sat through the entire service without Daddy having to take her out to the foyer to read books. It helped that the priest invited the children up to the front of the church to listen to him tell the story of Christmas. Her parents were crazy proud of Elizabeth for bravely running up to the front of the church with the other kids, and sitting quietly (mostly) for the story. I say (mostly), because she did at one point run back to us and then back to the priest, and she was wearing a sleighbell around her neck on a ribbon, and the priest made a joke about it which caused the entire congregation to laugh. Go Elizabeth!

After the service, we checked out the nativity scene. Barb really wants Elizabeth to get the idea that Christmas is about Jesus more than Santa Claus, and the nativity scene with the goldilocks baby Jesus helped. We should get a nativity set-up of our own.

Suzanne, meanwhile, slept through the hour-long service as serene and lovely as the baby Jesus Himself.

Quid Pro Quo

 

Elizabeth and Barb baked three batches of chocolate chip cookies this morning: some for us, some for friends, and a few for Santa. Gotta keep the big man happy.

Now the trick is to keep Elizabeth from overdosing on sugar.

Three Trains

Although we drove downtown to visit Santaland at Macy's -- and Santa, of course -- we ended up having to park so far away that we had to take the Max (Portland's light rail) from the on-street parking to the store. So Suzanne got her first train ride.


Then, at Santaland was this awesome train set and the only remaining cars from a real child-scale monorail that used to run through Macy's Santaland. Elizabeth played in the monorail and we watched the train go round and round its winter wonderland while waiting for our two 3x5" prints which cost $19.99.


Ah well, memories are priceless, right?

 

The Gift That Keeps Giving, and Giving...

 

Elizabeth has been showered with presents, lately. Come to think of it, she has always been showered with presents. Something about her winning good looks, or charming personality, or some combination thereof (it's probably not her fashion sense) cause people to want to give her toys and candy.

As mentioned in a previous post, Teresa gave Elizabeth some building blocks right after Suzanne was born. They have been a godsend. Elizabeth is endlessly fascinated by the blocks and has played with them almost exclusively for ten days.

Before getting the blocks, she was building houses out of cards, which takes a heckuva lot more manual dexterity. I was a little worried that the blocks, being so much easier to manipulate, would completely replace the cards as building material, thus stunting her development as a future cardsharp or street magician. But, as with most daddy-worries, it was for naught. Now Elizabeth uses the cards to add "secret rooms," garages, and other additions to her block towers. It's fantastic.

By the way, the yellow shirt she's wearing in the picture is the gift Lily & Co. brought back from Mexico. Another gift!

Twelve days of Christmas, indeed.

Super Blog Crossover!

 

Jen, Joshi, and Billi (of Family Colors fame) came over this morning to exchange Christmas gifts (baby Elmo for Elizabeth! Woot!) and everyone took turns holding baby Suzanne. At first, Elizabeth was jealous of Joshi and Billi -- she wanted to be the only kid able to hold the baby. But she got over it, as she is wont to do, and a good time was had by all.

A Thousand Words

 

Daddy and His Girls

 

I like this picture Barb snapped of me and the girls. Elizabeth looks so engaged with Suzanne! She (Elizabeth) said today that she doesn't want to be a big sister and that she wants to be two forever and ever.

But she doesn't, really.

Grandma is Awesome

 

The other day Grandma did that most grandmotherly activity: baked cookies with her granddaughter. The solemn girl pictured here was utterly thrilled to go over to Grandma's for the afternoon, gorge on sugar, and come home with the product of her efforts: Christmas cookies to share.

This effort on my mom's part was particularly noteworth because Grandma is not, traditionally, the cookie-baking type. But she stepped up, brought her A-game, and delivered the goods: a Christmas experience that Elizabeth loved.

And cookies!

Friends are Awesome

 

Our friends have been really supportive in this demanding time. Aaron and Wendy and Lily (pictured) came over this morning with coffee cake and beer (?). Then later they provided us with two dinners worth of soup and salad -- delicious! They were followed by Kurt and Erin, with turkey chili and cornbread. Yesterday and the day before Teresa and Brian provided lasagna and soup. Dave and Snark brought beer (at night this time: more appropriate) and cheetos (hey, they're bachelors).

The parental units have also been savvy enough to know that Elizabeth needs a lot of attention during this time when her parents' attention is, for the first time since her birth, divided. Teresa gave Elizabeth a package of toddler-sized Legos (by which she is absolutely enchanted). Aaron and Wendy gave her a cool novelty T-shirt from Mexico (it's a fish with a flapping mouth).

And I haven't even mentioned Grandma!

Reindeer Games

 

A local nursery had live reindeer a couple of weeks ago, and the family (at the time: Mom, Dad, Elizabeth, and Joey the Monkey) went to check them out. We were all (with the possible exception of the chimp), struck by how small and un-deer-like the reindeer were. Elizabeth thought they kind of looked like dogs. Except for the magnificent rack on the papa reindeer, I have to agree.

Edit: I know that technically a chimpanzee is an ape, not a monkey. Monkey is a funnier word, and Joey's point is humor, therefore he remains Joey the Monkey.

Searching for Sunlight

 

As with most newborns, Suzanne is a bit jaundiced. The solution is sunlight, which is hard to come by in the Pacific Northwest at this time of year. Lucky for us, it dawned clear and cold today, so we took advantage of the light by placing baby in the little patch that fell through our bedroom window. It also made for some nice photos.

Elizabeth as Big Sister, Pt. I

 

Elizabeth likes holding Suzanne, and is pretty good at it (the nursing pillow helps), but can only tolerate the strangeness and excitement for a minute or less.

I'm glad she wants to, though.

Other Suzanne news: her umbilical stump fell off today; she likes being awake at night; she sleeps really well when she does sleep; she is done passing meconium and is producing real poop.

Things are good!

Happy Birthday, Suzanne!

Suzanne Hovey was born last night. Eight pounds, nine ounces; twenty one inches in length. Elizabeth spent the night at Lily's -- her first sleepover, and she did so well! She fell asleep very late, but slept through the night.

The whole family is well, and this writer has little time for words, so to the pictures!

Elizabeth and Grandma

Last Thursday Barb and I went on a date. When we got back to Grandma's, Elizabeth was still picking at her dinner and we all four had a nice conversation. Elizabeth's articulateness continues to astound me, but perhaps I don't have enough points of comparison. Also, as Barb points out, Larrisons are talkers. Sometimes it's hard to get us to shut up.

Grandma and I have both quit drinking alcohol as we are on high alert for the imminent baby. Grandma is #3 on the go-to list for Elizabethsitters while Barb labors (and #2 until 12/12, when Wendy returns from Mexico). So she needs to be ready to spring into action at any time of the day or night. Same with me, for obvious reasons.

A technical note: I shot this video on the Droid X using it's normal-TV resolution, in the hopes that it would fit on the blog better. I will see shortly after I hit the Publish Post button.

Update: Well, a sliver of the right side of the video is cut off. It's a lot better than the widescreen 720p video posted below, but still not perfect. Hmm.