A visit with the bean

We had our 20 week ultrasound right before Christmas and our girl is growing like crazy. Oh, how we love ultrasounds.

With her mouth open


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Hand at her chin

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We were supposed to go in on Monday afternoon but John had been up the night before with the flu. At first he was going to try to swing it, then he called to say he just couldn't do it. I cried and was more than a little bit peeved. Thank god I can blame the hormones. Only a crazy pregnant person can justify being mad at her husband for having to move an ultrasound when he spent the entire prior night throwing up. The man should get a medal.

Santa visit #3

What do you do if you daughter has already had two traumatizing Santa experiences in the past week but you still don't have the "Sloane sitting solo on Santa's lap" photo you were looking for?  Take her back for round three of terror.

We headed downtown to meet up with Mimi and Uncle JJ.  I had planned to hit up the Nordie's Santa since we saw him last year.  But after waiting 45 minutes just to put our name on the list we elected to explore other options. I decided that maybe I'm not such a Santa snob after all, especially when the alternative is another 3 hours of waiting which lands right in the middle of nap time.  This was already going to be tough enough. There was no line at Macys and I know why.  It might be the ugliest background in all of Seattle.  Which is too bad because Santa there was awesome.  Great beard, very sweet with Sloane. 

Are you ready to see Santa Sloane?

Umm, no. 

I tried to do the sneak attack by backing up to Santa, setting her down and hightailing it out of there in hopes to get a photo before she noticed where she was.  No such luck.  She was once again screaming bloody murder while on his lap.  What's not pictured here is how much she loves Santa.  Afterwards she waved, high-fived him, blew him kisses, played with the jingle bells on his sleeve, and even reached down to give him a very nice hug - all from the safety of her mama's arms.

Happy to be with Mimi, checking out the reindeer.

The official photo.

 

You are my sunshine

I saw Sloane kissing Santa Claus

Santa visit #2

We ventured to Jon and Judy’s neighborhood on Sunday night to see Santa again since he had a scheduled visit with the neighborhood kids. Judy was there but we didn’t see Jon. Sloane was thrilled to see Mayson, Max, and Miles. Added bonus was Uncle JJ’s arrival in Seattle that afternoon. It was cold but watching the kiddos was hilarious. Max was enamored with the light up reindeer that moved.

After watching him geek out for a while Sloane decided she should check them out too and she decided they were pretty cool. They were both convinced they were dogs.

When it was time to sit on Santa’s lap all of the kids chickened out except for Miles, who sat there contently. Sloane would try to dive out of my arms in the opposite direction of Santa when we got within a couple of feet of him. Mayson cried hysterically and Max refused to get out of the pink car he had stolen out of the garage. We joke a lot about the sh*t show that is the Morell grandkids (or just kid chaos in general) and this outing was no exception. We love chaos. It was priceless.

This is a close as Sloane would get.

The Morell's - notice Max in the car at the bottom.

Uncle JJ

Mimi & Max

A few more photos from visit #1

Pre-Santa we are happy on the carousel

Post-Santa, still in zombie pose, messing with Grandma & Papa's grandkid shot

What makes it all better?  A quick spin in the Ferrari.

Santa visit #1

Sloane was lucky enough to see Santa twice on Sunday.  And if I can make a downtown excursion happen later this week she'll get to see the big guy one final time before he comes on Christmas Eve.  We met the Poort clan in the morning for the annul photos and we weren't sure how our girl would do.  Sometimes she's amazingly friendly with strangers - going table to table at restaurants, waving to strangers when we are out and about, giving high 5's to random people at Target - but other times the sight of someone other than her mom or dad has her in tears.  As she was placed on Santa's lap for this photo she immediately turned to look at the big guy, gave him a puzzled, "hi", then burst into tears and a blood curdling scream.  She was also stuck in the zombie pose for a good 10 minutes once we were done.  I don't think being slightly fond of the screaming santa photo makes me a bad parent at all.  Poor Bailey had the unfortunate luck to sit in front of Sloane for the picture.  Afterward she told me, "Sloane was screaming so loud it made my ears hurt."  Sorry, cousin.

The grandkids:

Next up it was the big kids turn.  This is the 40th Poort family santa photo.  I should note that while it looks like Adam's hand is resting gently on John's hip, it's actually on Santa's chair.