1+1 = 11 (Months!)

It's nearly Christmas time again and I think back to how we spent the holiday season last year. Me with my huge belly full of babies, family visiting our house, relaxing while playing Xbox with my husband and enjoying every kick and movement that our babies made. I have great memories from last Christmas that's for certain. I am sure that this holiday season will be just as magical. I look forward to spending it with more family and watching our babies in the midst of it all.

The past month was a fairly big one for us regarding milestones. Hayden took his first steps on November 23rd and hasn't stopped since. He's now almost running around the house! When he falls down, which he does quite frequently, he just gets back up and tries again like it's no big deal to him. He also loves to carry around an object in each hand while he walks, which is adorable. It's usually two small toys, books or blocks, but sometimes it's baking spoons or socks, anything he finds interesting. He also got a third tooth on the bottom, which I noticed on December 13th.

Claire stood on her own once so far, on November 30th, but hasn't attempted it yet again. We think she can do it, but just doesn't realize that she can. If I try to stand her up she just sits down right away. It seems she prefers to crawl, and she has gotten really fast! I look forward to her learning to walk and toddling around the house after her brother, but I also love that she's a crawler. It makes her seem like a baby still. She has been working on her top four, yes four teeth, for a couple of weeks and her two front teethe came through on December 5th & 7th. Now she has a bunny smile, which is just simply precious. Her other two top teeth seem to be close to poking through, so we'll see in the next couple of weeks if they do.

We celebrated St. Nicolas Day on December the 6th and the babies opened up small gifts of Weeble toys. They carried them around for days. I think they are a hit. Claire was pretty good at opening the presents once I got the paper started for her.

St. Nicolas Day!

On the Weekend of December 7-9th we celebrated a very early Christmas at my parents place at the lake. They had set up a beautiful tree and we opened all of the presents underneath, most of which were toys for the babies. Claire got a Disney Princess Little People castle, two adorable dolls which sleep with her in her crib, some clothes and bibs. Hayden got a Mega Blocks ride-on fire truck, a Mega Blocks tractor, a Little People firetruck, clothes and bibs. Also they received three Christmas board books, which we're taking along to Manitoba to read to them while we're gone over the holidays.

We are looking forward to our trip to Manitoba, to celebrate Christmas with Phil's family, stopping along the way to see a few friends. We plan to travel there in two days, depending on how the babies are doing in the truck. We also get to use our new Peg Perego convertible car seats. The next stage up from the infant buckets we are currently using. I guess from now on we'll be carrying the babies into stores or using the stroller/shopping carts more. We've always just carried the babies around in their buckets, but they're just about at the limit now and it's time to move up. Another milestone crossed.

Wishing everyone a very Happy Holiday Season!
Love The Smeltz Family

Merry Christmas from The Smeltz Family

Claire & Hayden 11 Months 

Christmas Cookies!

Claire 11 Months 

Hayden 11 Months