The Whitley Takes Over

So, this weekend I followed my beloved Cats down to Nashville only to see them lose to the Dores. Thankfully, I was able to ignore this humiliating loss and spend some time with my favorite Baby Lucas. Oh, and I saw Matt and Steph, too.

This weekend has been spent reading dino books (Aunt Whitley brought him a new one and so it was only fair she read it to him 20 times in a row), eating, making tunnels out of legos, sleeping until 6 AM, putting dinos in our pockets, watching the "Elmo ABC" video, finding dinos in Costco and avoiding nap time. I have also discovered that Matt and Steph have been buying Lucas all the presents I ask them if I can get for him. If they steal anymore of my ideas, I have threatened to send Lucas his very own drum set.

I think the highlight of the weekend was this morning when I got to eat with all Israels (minus Dan. Sorry, Dan!) including Lucas, who insisted on sitting next to me, and the new baby Graham! Jealous?

Below are just a few of the exploits we got into this weekend. There are not more pictures because every time I got out my phone to take it, Lucas would insist on watching "Me-Me" or Elmo. As I am clearly a pushover, less pictures were taken.

This is the very large cupcake I bought Lucas at Bread & Co. The man in front of us in line let us go first. He thought Lucas was going to make himself sick because he was freaking out and yelling "CUPCAKE!!!!"

Where's Lucas?

There he is!!

Lucas tried to convince Matt to lift him up so he could play on the playground.

Lucas helps us shop for dangerous chemicals.

Pa-Pa and Lucas reading the Hippo book.

It was such a fun weekend!!! Thank you for all of the Israels who were so kind in putting up with me and buying me food and letting me play with their children. I can't wait for my next visit!!!

Zoolight Safari

Birmingham's Zoo has a yearly Christmas light tradition. At night the whole zoo is lit up beautifully. Lucas was just old enough to really enjoy it this year. He was fascinated by the all the lights especially the ones in the shapes of animals. He also loved the dancing and moving lights. What a sight to see his face light up! Made me see the wonder and beauty of the lights in a whole new way.

Waiting to get in

Three Silly Snowmen

A Dragon in the Lake

On the "Up-Down"

This was Lucas first time on a "big" animal on the Merry-Go-Round. He has wanted to theoretically ride the carousels at the mall and zoo for quite some time now but has gotten scared whenever it was actually time to get on. Jenny convinced him this time and he loved it! See the video:

Visiting the Llama

Jenny really is an animal friend. Kisses for the llama (see below).

Me and my favorite Sis

Christmas "Day"

We finally got our long anticipated holiday break on December 28th! We drove to Huntsville to spend some Christmas time with Matt's family. Luckily for us Mike and Beverly came the same time we did and Dan and Matt's parents were willing to wait for us with celebrating Christmas so we were able to have a Christmas Day a few days late.

Here are some pics from our second Christmas:

The cousins playing

Unwrapping

Graham had fun with the wrapping paper and bows

Lucas' favorite present: the Dinosaur Train (train + dinosaurs = two favorite things combined; what could be better?). Thank you Uncle Mike and Aunt Bev!

Approved for all ages

Lucas insisted on wearing his new jacket around the house.

New ski goggles!

Dan got a lounger... what a perfect present.

Christmas Eve

I am still way behind on my blogging. I'm going to have to catch up so I can actually write about present day things like all the snow we're still getting in Nashville. My brother-in-law emailed that in Arkansas they're calling it Snow-Plosion 2011 (they called the last snow storm a few weeks ago Snow-Mageddon). I almost didn't make it in to work last night (I finally did thanks to my sweet husband shoveling the driveway for half an hour and then driving me in). It was a traffic mess! One of my co-workers took 3 hours to make it to her house one mile away and it was taking people >1 hour to get out of our parking garage. Oof. I guess that day it was good I was working nights and wasn't making the rush hour trip home. Nashville drivers do not know how to handle snow!

Now to the actual post. My family came up to Nashville to celebrate Christmas Eve with us (as they have been sweet enough to do every year since we started residency). Matt and I both had to work Christmas this year but were both home on the afternoon/eve of Christmas Eve giving us just enough time to have a little Christmas celebration.

Here are some pics:

Decorating the tree. Lucas did surprisingly good with the tree in part probably because he didn't know that I had chocolate ornaments (non-breakable) on the bottom part of the tree this year.

Hanging out before the celebration.

Puzzles with Aunt Jenny

Cuddles for Oma & Opa

Being silly with Aunt Jenny

The necessary in-front of the tree family picture.

And another...

Somehow he got "Lulu" (his paci) out of bed. Sneaky kid.

Christmas Eve music

Helping dad put together the new tricycle after unwrapping presents

It takes lots of help!

Finally done!

Christmas morning, Matt and I headed in to take call and Lucas headed out with my parents.

A snowy Christmas day!

Our Christmas meal at the hospital. Not bad for an on-call potluck.

Lucas Turns Two

I'm finally getting a chance to get Lucas' birthday pictures on here. So sorry it took me a while. The holiday schedule was crazy and I really enjoyed several days of laziness for our New Years break!

Lucas had a blast for his second birthday! I can't believe he's already two. Where does the time go? He's turned into such a big boy. He can even tell you he's two now when you ask him! We opened presents in the morning and had a birthday party with lots of kiddos in the afternoon. We had a blast but I think next year we're taking the party out of the house. :) Here are some pictures to help explain our wonderful day.

The present table -- and yes he got very good at opening presents very quickly!

Some of his new toys: road rug, lego bus

Helping Nana bake cookies for the party. Nana made chocolate chip cookies and mommy made zucchini cupcakes (i'm a pediatrician i can't help it).

Cute little guests:

Olivia

Our favorite twins: Ella and "more Ella" (Anna)

Max

Olivia, Charity, Jess, and Finn

Christy with Anna

Dayna with Max

Digging into his birthday cupcake. Dad making silly faces (as always)

Group shot

Lucas with his best daycare buddy Emma (see videos below for how much fun they were having!)

Ahhh! (also see video.. they crack me up)

Lucas and David sporting the twin look. David braved the kiddo birthday party all without Kathleen. Kudos.

Anna wants to play with the big kids

And here are some videos:

1. Presents

2. Happy Birthday to You

3. Two Cupcakes Later...

4. To young to have a girl in bed?

First Steps

So this video is obviously old (more than a year which is really old in baby years) but I just found it and thought it was so cute. I can't believe he was so little just a year ago; it seems like forever ago.