The Vanderwalls: 20 Months!

Noah T.,

Merry Christmas! Our house has been buzzing with all the holiday excitement all month long! I feel like I need to write a novella just to fit everything in. I'll try to keep it a little shorter than that :)

Let's see...I better do this chronologically or I'm sure to leave something out. At the beginning of the month, and again in the middle, we had some decent snowfall. We spent one Saturday afternoon and evening at Grandpa and Grandma Larson's playing in the snow. You were like the little kid off of A Christmas Story. Once you were all bundled up you couldn't even put your arms down and it took quite awhile for you to figure out how to walk without help. Daddy and I were simply thankful that you still wear diapers, otherwise I'm sure we would have heard the kid classic: "I have to go potty."

When we got home that night you were climbing the stairs in the garage to come in the house. Your foot slipped and I caught you by your wrist and hoisted you up the rest of the stairs. In doing so I dislocated your radius. :( You didn't use your left arm that evening and weren't using it the next morning so we decided to go to Quick Care. It was an easy, and I wish I could say painless, fix. The doctor even showed Daddy how to pop it back in should it happen again. I felt so bad! Your arm was as good as new as soon as the doctor popped your radius back into place though.

Nana's birthday was the 17th. We spent the day together as a family watching some of The Singoff episodes, playing games, doing puzzles, and that night we went to Kyoto's for dinner. We tried to go to the Botanical Gardens to see the lights, but they raised the price for admittance exponentially so we decided to drive through Hidden Springs instead. It was a really special day and it was so nice to be able to spend the whole day with Nana and Papa instead of waiting until 7 or 8 pm to do something.

Keith, Auntie Kristi's boyfriend, was here for a week this month. While he was here we had a family game night with Papa's family, played volleyball, and went out for frozen yogurt. It was nice to have him here around the holidays.

You got to be in your very first Christmas program this year. Calvary needed a Jesus and you were elected to played the part of 2-year old Jesus. You weren't too keen on going on to stage so Mommy had to be with you the whole time, but you got the job done and you looked so adorable, or as you corrected me this morning, handsome, while doing it!

We spent Christmas Eve at our house with Nana, Papa, and Auntie Kristi. It was a pretty quiet day filled with yummy food, fun activities, games, and lots of good laughs!

Christmas day we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Uncle Dave and Aunt Joanna and Hayden and Cameron where all here. It was a wonderful Christmas and we were all thankful to be in the company of each other. You had the greatest time playing with the girls and it is clear to me that you need some little cousins :)

We did our Christmas with our all traditions with Mommy's family on the 26th. We also got to go bowling with the Larson family earlier in the day that day.

Yesterday, we made the trek to Emmett to have our Gibson Christmas. It was nice to have everyone together and to spend some time playing games and just catching up. You and Kimberly spent most of the day playing together.

In other random news you now have quite the vocabulary: shoes, oh cute, achoo, Noah, hi, bye, dada, papa, nana (aka na-da), auntie kristi, merry christmas, ball, hat, pants, all your animal sounds, yes, no, yeah, oh, wow, eye, socks, and I'm sure there are some I'm forgetting.

I think all of your grandparents now have different names, hopefully this will dissolve some of the confusion.

Larsons = Grandma & Grandpa

Littles = Nana & Papa

Vanderwalls = Nona & Papaw

You have all your teeth except for 4. You still love tubbies. You get very upset if we take your shoes off at any point in the day other than when it is time for pj's. Your picky eating phase seems to have come to an end. You are now this miniature bottomless pit and we are loving it! You are all about Curious George! You decorated the lower half of our Christmas tree and rearrange your decorations on a daily basis. You are a neat freak! You don't like to have messy hands and you always put your toys or anything your're playing with back where they belong and rarely do we have to ask you to do so. Helping around the house is something you love: unloading the dishwasher, "folding" laundry, putting laundry away, cleaning, moving laundry from the washer to the dryer and the dryer to the couch, etc. You're going to make an AMAZING husband someday!

Gifts were aplenty for you this year. You got a play phone, Curious George book, puzzle, and George-in-a-box from Grandpa and Grandma, a fishing pole with magnetic fish, some clothes, tubby crayons, a basket for tubby toys, slippers, Curious George book, and a coloring book and crayons from Nana, Papa, and Auntie Kristi, you got some money from Great Grandpa and Grandma Gibson, and you got legos, a leapfrog Junior and some books from Papaw, Nona, Auntie Erin, and Auntie Morgan. Mommy and Daddy got you a fischer price rotary phone, (one we both had when we were little), some snacks, a book, a cup with a crazy straw, and one of those magnetic drawing boards with the animal magnets. You certainly made a haul!

These days it has become clearly evident that you are no longer a baby. You are all boy and quite the little toddler you are. Your personality is larger than life and you have Daddy and I laughing constantly. We were just talking the other day noting that we must have been the most boring people ever before you were born. We don't know what we did for entertainment! I know I say this every time I write, but it is true that you are such a blessing to us and we want to raise you to love Jesus and be a blessing to others. We love you little buddy! Keep being you!

Love,
Mommy & Daddy