Snackin' with Daddy

I snapped these pics of Arlo eating grapes on Daddy's lap the other evening.  How cute are they?

 

-Katie

Baller

Balls are a big hit around our house.  Especially this giant one from our friend, Eileen. It makes him very thirsty.

Walkin' round the house

Arlo took his sweet time with this walking thing.  For how many months now have I been saying, "any day now!"  Well, the day has come.  Actually ever since New Year's weekend, he's been taking one or two or three steps at a time from the couch to the chair or the ottoman to the crib.  Then for the past week or so, it's been 5 or 10 steps in a row and then back to crawling once he lost his balance.  But now!  Check it out!

We had our 15-month doctor visit on Wednesday and she confirmed that taller/bigger/bigger-headed babies tend to take longer finding that balance needed to let go of the couch or the hand or the coffee table.  Indeed, Arlo is 93% for weight (~28 pounds!), 95% for height (~33 inches!), and a whopping 99% for head circumference.  They will probably have to special order his football helmet.  :)

New Year's

We spent New Year's with wonderful friends in Linville this year.  We had the best time!  Lots of puzzles, food and bev, laughter, games, lounging around, catching up, and winding down.  I took hardly any pictures (dangit!) but here a few from one afternoon.

Emily and Joseph and family came up from Asheville to join us for an afternoon.  She and I took Phoebe and Vann for a ride in (on?) the golfcart.

Vann did most of the driving.  

We headed up to Camp Land Harbor - a fun little neighborhood area by the lake and the dam.  They have tent platforms for camping, fire pits, ladder golf, a few regular size disc golf baskets, and a bunch of mini disc golf baskets.  The four dogs had the best time running around, chasing each other up and down the hills, in and out of the creek. Zoe was acting like a youngster, it was so cute!

Arlo and Zoe and I enjoyed watching some of the action from the treehouse platform.  I promised Arlo we would camp down here sometime soon...but not in the winter. It was cold!

As usual, we enjoyed every second of being in Linville for the New Year.  And as usual, it went waaay too fast!  (And now here it is, 2/3 through January - crazy!)

Hope you had a wonderful New Year celebration, too!

-Katie

The backwards moonwalk crawl...

Arlo has been doing this move for months but I finally caught it on camera a couple weeks ago:

A lesson in self-feeding

Aunt Allie helped with dinner while she was here visiting over Christmas. 

In addition to helping feed dinner, she also helped eat dinner.  ;)

I look away for one second and she's got Arlo eating mashed potatoes with a spoon!  He was a little distracted by the time I got there with the video camera and was very much interested in smushing the potatoes with his fingers (can you blame him?) - but really, he did quite well!

He'll be a pro before long!  Just has to figure out which end of the spoon to use.

You lookin' at me?

 

Thanks for the lesson, Aunt Allie!

-Katie

It's Slinky, it's Slinky, It's fun, it's a wonderful toy!

My family stayed at our house on Christmas Eve and it was SO nice to have them there when we woke up!  Arlo played a game of fetch with Grandma and this new Slinky.  This had gone on for a while before I ran to get my camera - he couldn't get enough!

After a leisurely morning, a lovely breakfast, and a baby nap, we finally got around to the truckload of gifts under the tree.  Again, I was not on the ball with the camera for most of the day, but I did snap just a few of Arlo opening gifts.

 Arlo got many cool things.  Here he's opening his first train set from Grandma.  And in the background you can see his cute new Carolina blue table and chairs (from Grandpa, including the custom paint job!). 

 He was thrilled to play with the bows and ribbons, of course.

 He also loved the new wind chimes that we got for my dad.

 After a while, Grandaddy and Grandeda came from Hickory and we all got to hang out for a bit.

Unfortunately, I had to work on Christmas, so I had to excuse myself from the merriment.  But it was a wonderful morning and we enjoyed every second!

-Katie

Christmas Eve is here!

After a fun Christmas Eve morning in Hickory, we headed back to Durham to spend some time with the Young side of the fam.  We took advantage of the crisp cool weather by cranking up the fire pit in the backyard!  My dad brought several bins of wood scraps from his dad's old woodshop, so we had lots of fuel. 

It took Arlo about 5 seconds to climb into the wood bins.  Shocker!  He enjoyed pulling out pieces and handing them to the fire tenders.  

Aunt Allie and Grandpa chilling by the fire.

 Grandma and Arlo in his box of toys, aka wood scraps.  (Everything is a toy to this child.)

 The rascals.

 We sat outside catching up for a long time til it got dark and cold!

 The only thing we were missing was some marshmallows!

 After we went inside and got all warmed up, Grandpa was in charge of bedtime stories.

 

The book of choice on Christmas Eve?  The classic read, "Can You Make Santa Giggle?"  A big hit at our house.   :)

 

And in case you're wondering, YES, he can make Santa giggle.  Often!  And loudly!  

I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas Eves as much as we did. We are so looking forward to years of setting out cookies for Santa and carrots for his reindeer, then popping a bottle of bubbly (a Helms family tradition!) and wrapping presents all night long!  

-Katie

A video supplement to the last post!

Couldn't resist - check out this cuteness.  We can't wait to embarass the kids during their teenage years with this video!

 

Makes me laugh every time!!!

-Katie

Kissin' cousins :)

The Starnes and Holcombs came over for brunch on Christmas Eve morning.  It was great, as always, to see them and let the cousins continue to get to know one another.  Hallie is just 6 weeks older than Arlo and we're so happy they'll have each other as playmates at family get-togethers!

It took Hallie a few minutes to warm up to her cousin.  

 

But he finally won her over with his cool new toys.

And he even gave her a present to open.   

This photo cracks me up. 

 This one, too.  What a happy guy!

 

Look how CUTE he is!!!

Once Hallie warmed up to Arlo, they were pals.  Both kids are learning how to give kisses and like to show off their skills.  How's this for a sloppy wet smacker?

 And all three of their faces in this one right after "the kiss" are so hilarious!

After all the smooching, we took a few pictures of the grandmas and grandbabies.  

 The tree is in memory of Aunt Liz and it turned out so beautiful!

 

It was a great morning with family in Hickory! Then we had to dash back to Durham to spend Christmas Eve at home so Santa could find us that night!

-Katie

Christmas Eve morning

When we woke up in Hickory on Saturday morning, Arlo had MORE gifts to open (it's not even Christmas yet!).  Roscoe helped, too...

 

The backpack is for taking to big boy school (daycare! eek!) which starts in a couple weeks.  Mama is nervous.  Baby will be fine.

 

Arlo loves all of his awesome new gifts and really loved spending time in Hickory with Grandeda and Grandaddy! 

-Katie