Merry Christmas!

Nana and Papa Charlie came to our house to share Christmas with us this year. Their visit was made extra special with some additional visitors, Chris and Michelle and Auntie Nikki.

On Christmas Eve Oliver dawned his red and green Mickey pajamas and helped Daddy put milk and cookies out for Santa and some nuts for the reindeer. I am not sure how he really felt about the idea of Santa coming down the chimney and leaving him presents while he was sleeping when we explained that to him. But Ollie did seem pleased in the morning to see the milk was drank and was happy to help Santa eat the rest of the cookie he left behind.

It was fun to watch Oliver dig into the presents that he has been anxiously waiting to open since they were first put under the tree. Although it was tough for him to stay motivated to open the rest once he discovered one or two toys that were too exciting to not open up and play with right away.

The next day we went to the San Diego Zoo. It was the busiest I have ever seen it. But we did get some great views of the hippos and tigers. At one point Oliver made himself at home in front of the tiger's window. I don't know if the other Zoo guests got a bigger kick out of the tigers or the two year stretched out in front of the glass growling right along with the animals.

Legoland

Last week I took the week off work and spent some quality time with Oliver and Joe. It was nice to have a couple days with them to relax and enjoy each other's company. We went to Legoland over the weekend and Oliver had a blast palying with his little bud Emily. Considering no naps were taken that day by either, it was a pretty successful day with happy children and lots of rides for each of them.

The Parla version of a small party...

So what was supposed to be a small party turned out much larger than anticipated. All our neighbors were kind enough to come celebrate Oliver's birthday with us. Here are some pictures.

Jolly Old St. Nicholas

This weekend we made an impromptu visit to Santa Claus. We were shopping at the outlet mall and Joe took Oliver by just to say hi to Santa while I was shopping. Well, simply saying hi was not enough for Oliver so when they came back to find me, Oliver kept asking for Santa and when we asked if he would like to take his picture with Santa, he nodded yes with enthusiasm. So we went back to the store to take a picture with Santa.

All the other children in the room were wearing beautiful dresses and appropriate holiday attire. Not my little monkey - he had on jeans and green t-shirt with a monster that said feed me and his hair was a mess. The photographer shared a tip that some other parents has used hand sanitizer as a substitute for hair gel. So being desperate for the picture to turn out nicely if we were going to fork over the money for the picture, Joe began work on Oliver’s head with the hand sanitizer and some bottled water. We also turned around Ollie’s shirt so that it was at least just a solid green tee.

Oliver was so excited to go sit on Santa’s lap. I was actually surprised at how comfortable he was with Santa. He told Santa his name and nodded yes to Santa’s questions. And when we was done he got a candy cane and a coloring book. This is the end result – Oliver was quite the little ham.

Halloween - New Years for Kids

This Halloween was a wonderful time. Oliver had a blast and ate more junk food in one night than he has probably eaten in his whole life. Joe and I joked with some friends that Halloween is like New Years for kids - you get to eat bad food, go out and get candy from your neighbors and stay up late.

I wasn't sure how Oliver would feel about wearing a puffy dinosaur costume, but he seemed to enjoy being in character. He went around roaring at people and had no reservations about going up to homes asking for candy. At one point he tried to take the hood off but our friend Danielle let Ollie know if he takes it off people won't give him candy, so he quickly put it back on.

At one home he went up the sweet old lady sitting on the porch three times for more candy. I tried to tell him no, just once, but the neighbor was so sweet and said to let him come and generously shared her supply of sweets with him.

As suspected though, we made it down one street and then he started wanting to be held. His costume was too puffy for me to carry him a long distance. So we went back home after hitting a few more houses and handed out candy to the rest of the trick or treaters.

Henry

While I don't have any new pictures of Henry to post sadly, I do have good news. The ultrasound tech said everything looked good and she was able to get the photos of the heart that they needed. She said the doctor still needs to review the pictures, but that things appeared normal and healthy.

It was fun seeing our little man in there today. I think seeing Henry seems all the more real after having Oliver and knowing what that little thing on the screen turns out to be. I can't wait to meet him and experience his little personality. We got some good close up looks at his face but I am not able to really tell if he looks like Oliver or not. It will be interesting to see.

I don't know that Oliver quite understands what Joe and I are saying when we tell him there is a baby in my tummy. He will call my tummy baby and touch it but I am positive that the fact that the baby we speak of is coming out some day and going to be a part of our family is still foreign to Oliver at this point. But I think when the time comes Oliver will be a great big brother... after some adjustment - hehe!

Oliver is growing so much and learning new things each day. I guess it's probably too bad that we can't always say that about ourselves as adults. Right now he is really into hiding under blankets, dinosaurs and Mickey Mouse. I suppose his love for dinosaurs came at just the right timing - he may be more willing to wear his costume this weekend now that he can relate it to something he enjoys.

I'll post some pictures of the Halloween festivities after this weekend.

From one year to the next...

I thought this would be fun to compare - the first picture is from last year. The second is this year's photo. That sweet little baby face has turned into the face of a little boy.

Bates Nut Farm

Once again, thank goodness for friends who come more prepared than Joe and I do. The Tansley's were kind enough to capture these memories for our family.

Oliver does not like getting his feet dirty and as you can see he had on crocs with no socks. So about every five minutes we had to stop and dust off his feet. Finally Joe just picked him up and carried him around.

Happy Anniversary - Seven years and still not itching!

Today is Joe and my seventh wedding anniversary. I was driving to work this morning thinking, was I up at this time seven years ago getting ready for a wedding... It's amazing how fast the time goes by! My thoughts then led to how thankful I am for my husband. I don't say it enough so I am posting it for the world to see - God has blessed me with a wonderful husband. He is so patient (especially lately with my crazy hormones and emotions) and always puts our family first. He keeps me sane when I just want to be erratic and illogical and of course he keeps me (and everyone else) laughing and appreciating the small things in life that we sometimes miss that are just too funny to ignore - even if it is at 11:00 at night when I need to get up early for work the next day. So thank you Joe for being so amazing and I can't wait to see what the years ahead have in store for us!

22 weeks!

So my camera and computer have been out of commission (both are on our Christmas wish list this year) so I am at the mercy of my kind friends to take pictures and send them to me when we do something fun. For instance, Niki was kind enough to take pictures at the pumpkin patch and Jennifer sent me the Disneyland photos. Basically, this blog might not exist without the help of my wonderful, prepared friends.

Anyway, all that to say here are two photos of my 22 week belly. I think this is what I looked like closer to 35 weeks when I was pregnant with Oliver, but oh well...

Pumpkin Patch

Here a couple photos from the Peltzer Family Fun Night hosted by our lovely city of Temecula. Oliver had a little fever so he didn't join in the festivities as we had anticipated. But it was a nice night out together with our friends.

It's a Henry!

It turns out we're having another little boy! As you can guess Joe is ecstatic and of course I am excited too. I was really shocked though because everything in me thought it was a girl and I was sad to realize I won't get to buy very many new things for the baby.

The ultrasound technician was funny - she scrolled over to his legs and pointed out both of them and the "third leg" as she called it. The moment I saw it, before she even said something, I thought to myself - that doesn't look like a girl. But I waited for her to confirm it before saying anything out loud. I did realize however when we got to the car that she didn't give us a picture of the magic spot. So I have will have to find other creative ways to embarrass my child when he becomes a teenager - hehe!

First Baby Picture

Here is the first picture of baby numero dos. This was taken at 10 weeks. We'll have another picture to post on Thursday!!

A Couple Disneyland Photos

This is Oliver's wearing sunglasses face. These just happen to be the 3-D glasses on the Toy Story ride.


I don't think Oliver has any idea who these characters are but they were there and available, so why not...


Mickey Mouse's house was the coolest place in the whole park I think. I guess you get an air conditioned house if you are the main character of a theme park.


So I think we should stick with just watching Manny on TV. They're not ready to hang out just yet.

Let's Try This Again

Okay so we weren't so successful in keeping up with ParlaFamily.com so I'm going to try to keep everyone updated with this site. This definitely seems to be a more manageable format for us to keep our family and friends informed of what's going on in our lives.

We had a nice family trip to Disneyland yesterday with our dear friends the Johnsons. Emily and Oliver have so much fun playing together and it's so neat to see him get excited about going on rides and seeing the characters. Sadly, our passes expire next weekend so this will be our last trip for quite a while probably.

As most of you know we have a little one on the way - due February 7th. It will be interesting to see how this changes our family dynamic. But at the same time I am excited to have another little person to love and can't wait to see Oliver in action as a big brother. We'll hopefully be finding out this Thursday if this one will be a brother or a sister.