Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our Big Boy Bo!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all (a little late)!  We celebrated Jesus' birthday in Frisco this year with Blake's family.  Then we left Boston behind for a couple days and came back to Austin to work on little Elise's nursery (thanks to Blake's parents for keeping the little toot for us).  It is crazy how much longer it takes you to get ready for a baby when you have a toddler to chase around.  We got a ton of stuff done, so it was a great two days.  Blake was a work horse (although he was begging for a nap each day).  We then spent New Years in Houston and all the Bern's gathered there for the Aggie Bowl game.  I'll share some pics below of our trip to Frisco and Boston's 2nd Christmas.  It was fun this year to see him open his presents.  I told Blake we should have gotten him 1 present instead of 5, as he doesn't know what's what or what's from who at this point, but he did have a blast opening everything up! And I have one funny Christmas story to share.  Boston has one of those 'Little People' nativity scenes from Jo Jo and Norby.  I had it set up at his level as part of my Christmas decor, so he could play with it.  I showed him who baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph were and he was pretty good at going and picking out baby Jesus.  So, one evening I told him to go give Baby Jesus a kiss.  He promptly walked over to his Dad and gave him a kiss.  We died laughing. Clearly we need to work one that a little more!!

In the midst of all the holiday buzz we have been busy with lots of big boy changes for Boston.  Before baby sister gets here, we really wanted to get rid of his Pacifier and transition him to a big boy bed.  That way Elise can use his crib and we don't have to buy another one for just a few months.  I feel like he is close to ready for these changes, so we decided to push it a little early.  They (the people on the internets) also say it is good to make changes in advance of the baby being born, so the existing child doesn't feel like the baby is taking their stuff or replacing them, yadda yadda!  I was really nervous about both of these things.  Boston is a strong-willed, paci-loving, wild child to say the least.  On a separate note, he has successfully chipped both front teeth before the age of 2.  See snaggled tooth pic above :)

So, let's talk Paci first.  Boston really had it mostly at nap and night time.  I did some research (again, on the internets) and we decided to go with the Bye Bye Binky method, www.bye-bye-binky.com.  I didn't feel like Boston was quite mature enough to understand the paci fairy or giving the paci's to another baby.  This method seemed a little mean, but kind of gets the parents of the hook for being the bad guy and is supposed to train them to not want the paci because it is not desirable anymore.  Here's the short version of the week long process. 1) Poke holes in paci's the first couple nights 2) next night you cut the tip 3) next night cut the tip more 4) and then you cut a slit down it long way.  You are supposed to keep the paci's where they always are and then play dumb..."I don't know, it must be broken".  And you have to try really hard not to laugh when they find it for the first time and wonder what in the heck has happened to their beloved paci.  So, the hole poking didn't even phase Bo, he just kept sucking away.  The first night we cut the tip, Blake was gone at a dinner event and the kid cried for an hour.  It. Was. The. Worst.  I don't care how old your 'little baby' gets, listening to them cry is just awful.  I could see him in the monitor with one each hand.  He would try one and then look at it and cry and then try the other and same thing over and over again.  It kind of broke my heart, but I knew we needed to forge ahead.  I had one friend remind me that most changes like this result in 3 nights of hell and then it usually gets better.  I was praying this was the case.  So, Night 2...we cut the time in half.  He cried for about 25 minutes and went to sleep. Then Night 3, it was a miracle...he cried about 5 minutes and then was out like a light.  Thank you, Lord, it was only 3 nights!  I think we've dealt with a little fussiness here and there that we would usually fix by popping the paci in, but all and all he is doing great.  So, long story short, I totally recommend the Bye Bye Binky method!

Now, let's move on to the toddler bed.  Our plan was to first transition to the toddler bed and then assuming that is going well, move him to a Queen bed with a rail...oh boy!  I asked Blake before we put the new railing on the crib what percentage he thought there was that Boston would actually stay in the bed.  He gave a big fat ZERO! Well, I am proud to report that a true miracle has happened.  This kid has not tried to escape once.  When we put him to bed, he lays there and talks himself to sleep and then even more amazing, he is doing the same thing in the morning.  He will lay there and jibber jabber for 30-45 minutes and wait for one of us to come get him before he gets out.  My Mom and I prayed about this one on the phone together on the afternoon of Day 1 and I really believe this is one of those times that God answered our prayers and quick!  PTL!

We have Big Boy Bo in the house! Whoop Whoop.  He even transitioned to the next room at daycare this week!  Despite the fact that he has officially hit the terrible two's and throwing quite the tantrums these days, he is doing pretty great with all these changes.

Sorry for the really long blog post.  This is what happens when you don't blog for a month.  Thanks to anyone that is even still reading :)  Enjoy some Christmas pics below and a few from Bo's' friend, Coley's 2nd birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese (Camie and Dallas' daughter).

Boston, Blake and Charlsie

Santa, I mean, Chris

 Sistahs - Jo Jo and Sassy

 Blake and me - did you notice the annual holiday mustache he is sporting? As Boston would say "Ewww, Yuck, Yuck, Yuck"

 Norbz

 Sassy and Nissy

 This pic makes me realize how fortunate we are!  Look at all those presents!!

 Hiding behind the blinds

Boston opening his presents from the fam on Christmas Eve!

He got a fancy pants glittery Toy Story suitcase from his Great Aunt Sassy! 

Trying to open presents like a puppy!

Yay, Yo Gabba Gabba bath toys!

He LOVES Elmo!

Kissing/Hugging his new Woody doll

Love's him some Woody!

Boston doing some serious Yo Gabba Gabba-ing.  He is surround by his Yo friends and watching it on the DVD player.

 Happy 2nd birthday to Coley!  Here the kids are in awe of Chuck E.!

 Kiddo's with their Daddy's

 Bern Fam Pic

 LaRose Fam Pic

 Happy Birthday, sweet Coley, we had fun!