Such a happy little guy!

Mathias is at such a fun age right now.  His reflux meds are really working, and unless he's overtired, he's SUCH a happy little guy!  We are loving it and taking advantage of every minute.  He talks, squeals, and giggles all the time, and he's loud!  He laughs and loves it when we do strange things.  For example, he loves it when I do squats with him laying in my arms.  He opens his mouth really wide and giggles and giggles, every time we squat down towards the floor.  He also loves it when I lift him up in the air like an airplane, when Mario chases/bounces towards him across the room, and he loves his sister.  He loves it when I pretend to eat his stomach...he giggles like crazy.  (Actually, giggle isn't quite the right word for it - he kind of does a loud repeated squeal/snort/shriek that passes as his laugh most of the time.)  He always has huge smiles for Mario and Miriam and gets a big grin on his face if they even just walk into the room.

We've tried to capture as many of his smiles on camera as we could; here are some of those pictures, along with a couple others from recent days.

Exhausted in his carseat

Practicing "sitting up" by himself

Joining us at the dinner table

Asleep in Daddy's arms

Fall/winter memories

It is amazing to me that Miriam is a month away from being 3.  How have the past 3 years gone that quickly?  I went back and looked at my "spring/summer memories" post from last July, and Miriam's already changed so much since that time, I thought I'd do another one.  And, of course, now we've got precious memories of Mathias as well.  :)

Here are some things that make me smile, laugh, and/or tear up when I think about my sweet kids:

-Miriam sleeping with 4 blankets and 5 stuffed animals (we call it her "entourage") every night, each one with a specific place

-Miriam's constant singing around the house, and the way she mixes up words to the songs (Today on the way home from preschool, she was singing "Icky Sticky Bubble Gum", except she was saying "Inky Stinky Gubble Bum", over and over)

-Miriam's mothering instinct that has kicked in since we've had Mathias...she mothers her teddy.  She wraps teddy up, makes sure teddy is warm, feeds teddy, gives teddy medicine, etc.  She's very sweet to her teddy (and to Mathias!)

-Mathias' sweet, gummy smiles when you smile at him, or play (slow) peek-a-boo

-Mathias' little giggles, where he opens his mouth really wide and kind of inhales as he laughs

-Miriam's new-found love of her household responsibilities.  She's in charge of keeping the napkin holder stocked, putting away her clean pajamas, matching her socks, and helping Mario unload the dishwasher.  She takes them very seriously and has been known to exclaim "Oh no!  There are no more napkins!  I need to put more in there!"

-Miriam asking "Where are my friends?" when we are waiting outside her preschool classroom waiting for her classmates to arrive, and her interest in staying after preschool and playing with them on the playground

-The way Miriam plays pretend with her stuffed animals, play food and Magna Tiles to create elaborate houses, beach parties (like tea parties) and food dishes

-The way Mathias snuggles his little head into my neck (tucks it between my chin and shoulder) and sleeps there...I cherish those moments

-Miriam's knowledge of the zoo...where all the animals are located, the route that we take around the zoo, the names of almost all of the animals, and how she says (if we don't see a certain animal on that trip) "Oh well...maybe next time.", accompanied by a shrug.

-The way she shouts "Love you Mama!" "Love you Mathias!" "Love you Daddy!" every night before bed

-Miriam's new love of photography, and how she (very seriously) holds the camera, points it carefully and then takes a picture

And lastly, the thing that makes us laugh every day....what we call Miriam's "elephant" memory.  It seems like she never forgets anything....either things she's done, or things we've told her we will be doing.
*We pass a parking garage on the way to preschool....she said it was like the one at the airport from when we picked up Grandma.
*I told her in the morning we could visit the ice cream shop as a treat when Mario got home...and he walks in the door and she yells with excitement "We get to go to the ice cream shop!"

Our cute little guy

This post is really just an excuse to share more pictures of our cute (and ever growing) little guy.  He's still sleeping terribly but smiling lots, and has started sitting up on the couch and in the Bumbo while supported by pillows and blankets. He loves to people watch and know what's going on, and really loves to watch Miriam doing ... anything she's doing.  He always gives her huge grins.

And of course, as you all know, the Seahawks won the Super Bowl!!  We had a great time watching the game, eating great snacks and cheering loudly for the Seahawks.  Mario held Mathias during most of the game and Miriam held her Teddy, mimicking Mario.  See the cute photo below. :)

Here are the pictures from the last couple weeks:

Watching the Seahawks

SNOW!!

The title says it all - we got some snow!  I know for most of you in other parts of the country, you've been getting snow for months.  But we've only had one dusting so far this winter, until yesterday.  It started snowing about 7 pm on Saturday night - Miri and I had a chance to go out and play in the snow before her bedtime.  There was only a dusting on the ground at that point, so Miri wasn't extremely interested in playing.  But then when we woke up, there was 2-3 inches of snow on the ground and everything was covered.  Miriam asked to go outside right away, so after a warm breakfast we bundled up and headed outside.  Luckily, because of our trips to Germany and the mountains, Miri is well equipped for snow and was dressed very warmly.  She and I spent about 2 hours outside playing - we built a small mountain in our front yard, she moved snow around with her snow shovel, she scraped snow off Mario's car, and she even joined some neighborhood kids in a friendly snowball fight.  She's the youngest of the group and mostly stayed on the periphery, but she did grab some snow and throw it around.  She seemed to have fun!  Mario brought Mathias outside in his snowsuit so we could take pictures, and he seemed to enjoy looking around at the snow.  Then we came back to our house and built a snow slide that she enjoyed.  After a bit, Mario came outside to play with her while I spent time with Mathias inside.  Mario and Miriam went over to the playground and play field at the elementary school just a block away.  She enjoyed running around in the snow and going down the slide into a pile of snow.

Here are pictures from our snow day; sadly, it has been raining for a while now and all the snow is gone, which makes me happy that we enjoyed it while it was here!

Nighttime snow:

Daytime snow: