In case you missed it, today is (was) Christmas, which means that this was the Big K’s first Christmas..

So, last night we went to Jan’s parent’s house to eat dinner with Grandma, Grandpa, Great-Grandma, Aunt’s, and Aunt’s Boyfriends…

After eating it was off to open the mountain of presents that were piled there for Kael. For the most part, it was a bunch of small presents, with only a few huge ones. I think his favorite present, is the handmade rocking dinosaur from Grandma and Grandpa… of course… he won’t be able to use it for awhile still, since he can’t sit up by himself, so he falls off of it. But he’ll be rockin away on it soon I’m sure.

After opening gifts, Kael fell asleep. We hung out for a bit longer, and then loaded the loot into the car and headed on home.

Once home, the Big K put out his cookies and Kool-aid for Santa and then he went to bed. After he went to sleep, we finished putting out his gifts.

This morning when he woke up, the cookies and Kool-Aid were gone, and Santa had left him some toys and a note thanking him for the cookies!. We then spent the rest of the day lounging around the house and watching TV (Finished the LOTR:Two Towers extended edition, and watched the Hulk and Bad Boys II on DVD). Look for pictures coming to the regular homepage soon.

Kale slept through the night for the first time (again)

He’d done it to us before, but he was just teasing apparently, because he did it for 2 nights, and then went back to getting up every hour or hour and a half. This time, it looks like its for real! He’s slept through the night the last 4 nights. And it doesn’t look like he’s going to change his mind! Granted, with tomorrow being Christmas eve, and us going over to Janice’s parents’ house and then home, I’m sure he’s going to wake up a couple of times tomorrow night, just to get us back for putting him in the car seat!

Friday night was the first night of Chanukah. Which of course, means that it was Kael’s first Chanukah.

We went over to my Mom’s house. Had dinner (Potato Latkes, of course) and then proceeded to open gifts.

Kael’s big interest for the night, turned out to be the wrapping paper. He loves the sound it makes (and apparently, the taste of it too, as he kept trying to eat it). He opened his gifts, with a little help from Janice. He got the full set of Baby Einstein videos, some cloths, and a Leap Frog Learning drum. Look for pictures of him playing with his presents, and possibly the video of him opening them in the next day or so on the “normal” part of the site (http://homepage.mac.com/jackofspades)

Janice, Kael, and I are exchanging our gifts to each other tonight, so I’ll update the photos, etc.. after we get done (or tomorrow.. one of the two)

We took the big K to the mall to see Santa Claus today.

We were worried that Kael might be one of those kids that started screaming when we sat him on Santa’s lap. Shouldn’t have been concerned though… since he sat there without any problems. Couldn’t get him to smile though:

Even without the smile, he’s a cute kid (if I do say so myself)

So, Kael turns 4 months old next week, but his 4 month Dr. appointment was today for scheduling reasons

And the Dr.’s exact words were:

“Developmentally Excellent”

Which is a good thing.. it being a 4 month appointment, Kael was due for some shots… so he got them… of course.. he screamed.. and he’s still overly fussy from them.. but he’ll be better by morning (or at least.. he was better by morning after his 2 month shots).

25 Inches tall, 14.4 Lbs

And even though we were looking forward to starting him on solid food after his appointment, the Dr. recommended we wait until Kael is at least 5 months old, seems that babies that start eating real food before then are at a higher risk for food allergies, so it looks like Kael’s first food may be at a Superbowl party! (Hopefully watching the Broncos)

Another big first for Kael… he rolled over tonight! (And he got to rock out on an iPod!)

At first we thought we were losing our minds. We know we put him to sleep on his back, but twice when we went to feed him overnight, he was laying on his tummy. So we spent the day trying to get him to roll over for us, and of course, he wouldn’t. So tonight while we were getting him ready for bed, he rolled over, like 3 times in a row!

As a reward for rolling over, and since he was in such a good mood, we decided to let him listen to an iPod for a little while (ok..ok… mostly it was so we could take yet another cute picture of him!)

In case you were wondering, the song he was listening to was “The Man Without Fear” by Drowning Pool featuring Rob Zombie, off of the Daredevil Soundtrack

<— If this works right, you should be able to listen to the song.

So last night, we finished decorating the tree. And then took Kael to see Zoo lights at the Zoo (as opposed to Zoo lights at the Car dealership! =) )

After decorating the tree, we decided to put the real tree topper on there (Figuring someone is bound to complain if we leave Kael attached to the tree!)… Of course, we let Kael help:

After we topped the tree, we headed out to Zoo lights, since Kael loves to see the lights flashing, and he was definitely thrilled with the light show.. his eyes were darting everywhere trying to look at all the lights! A good time was had by all..

So last night, Kael and I finished putting the tree together..

After assembling it, we thought it would be a good idea to see how the Tree Topper would look, before we started decorating the tree with lights and the rest of that Christmas stuff…

After thinking it over… we figured Kael might be a bit uncomfortable hanging from the tree for the next 6 weeks or so.. so I guess we’ll have to go get a more traditional tree topper.

So today was Kael’s first Thanksgiving, of course, being only a little over 3 months old.. he’s going through a lot of firsts. We went to Janice’s parent’s house last night for dinner with her family. Today, Janice cooked a Turkey for us, and then we went to my mom’s house for desert with my family. Kael, of course, didn’t get any turkey..since he’s not ready for solid food yet. Kael started to help me put Janice’s Christmas tree up…. and then fell asleep. So we’re waiting till tomorrow to finish assembling the tree. Hopefully, he’ll stay awake long enough to get his picture taken as he “helps” decorate the tree. As a quick, cute gift for all the relatives, we made little cards with turkeys on them, using Kael’s hand as the turkey.. So here’s Kael and Janice, wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!