Cookies and Crayons

The wrapping paper is away and most of the presents have been put into their proper homes. The Christmas decorations are even coming down tomorrow. What a wonderful holiday we had.

We starting things off with stockings, as we always do. Dougie was excited to use his new personalized one.

Oooh, Santa brought Puffs

And… socks? (I hope you’re noticing the matching jammies)

And of course, a clementine

Playing with a car while he waits for everyone else to finish opening their stockings.

Then it was time to open presents

Dougie is still working on his present opening skills but he got on top of the problem

After the presents were opened, we went to IHOP to breakfast and then settled in for a calm day. We bought a “family gift” of a new TV and a Wii for Christmas so that provided plenty of entertainment. We had a small turkey breast and the usual Christmas sides.

It was a great holiday!

Through the bustle of Christmas, I never got around to posting part 2 of the cookie-making activity… so here it is. We did these on Christmas Eve afternoon, just in time for Santa’s imminent arrival.

Going in for a pig…

Mummy gets into the cookie spirit

“Daddy, when I said lots of sprinkles, I meant LOTS!!!”

Dad’s final cookies — including the massive Snoopy doghouse cookie and a plain pig

Mum’s final cookies — with a heavy transportation theme

Texas has many sports passions — football, NASCAR, football, tobacco chewing and football — but hockey is not one of them. There is essentially no national TV coverage available here (don’t even ask about getting Don Cherry — though through the wonders of the Internet, even Texans can get access to the wisdom of Coach’s Corner). We do get pretty decent coverage of the Dallas Stars on local TV but the NHL schedule makes it pretty rare to see either Montreal or Toronto — which is a potential hurdle to the proper cultural development of our little man.

However, the hockey gods smiled on us yesterday — Montreal came to Dallas for the first time in 2 years. We figured that Dougie was still a bit little to enjoy the game in person (especially for the price!) but we settled in at home to watch a bit of the game. (Our official “first sporting event” in HDTV!) We gave up after the first period as Dougie was starting to wane, but we had a good time all the same.

A couple of pictures of the two hockey fans:

Laying out the jerseys before the games (thanks to Auntie Suz for the extra-extra-extra small!)

What’s the old Rocket Richard commercial… “Two minutes for looking so good!”

The newest Habs fan (gives new meaning to the term ‘short-handed’!)

Dougie takes his first dive

An important part of the Sharabura family Christmas tradition (along with the infamous clementine-in-the-stocking) is the making of Christmas cookies. Ever since I can remember, each of the kids has received a chunk of dough that we mixed up, rolled out, cut the cookies, decorated and baked them. This also includes various sub-traditions..

• Fighting over who got the bigger chunk of dough (we didn’t have a kitchen scale)
• Arguments over the optimum thickness of cookie (Mike always seemed to make them thick enough to have just 2 or 3 cookies)
• In a related debate, is it better to make many small cookies vs. investing all your dough into the big Snoopy doghouse
• Amazement at the various colors that Steve would use for frosting (I seem to remember orange, purple and green… no, not all in the same year, although I wouldn’t put that out of the realm of possibility)
• What was the best canned good to use to prevent the pastry sheets from rolling up — apple juice and soup were always a popular choice
• What the retail folks refer to as “shrinkage” — the inevitable loss of raw cookie dough due to cutout scraps and random tasting
• ALWAYS a request from Dad for a thick, unsprinkled pig

Since Dougie missed out last year (contrary to popular belief, 10-day-old babies are not the most skilled cookie makers around) we figured that it was our duty to get things going this year. Yesterday, we made the dough — apparently 12-month-old toddlers are still not that helpful but we’re hoping that Dougie will have some fun with the cookie cutting later today.

Some pictures of the dough making…

Dougie and Daddy in the kitchen — only a bit of flour on the nose!

Dougie is ready to start cutting cookies (yes, that is the infamous pig mold)

We got Dougie’s blood test results back. His liver function test showed no issues and his lead level had actually decreased a point. In truth, that could just be a different lab running the test but I feel pretty certain that it isn’t getting worse so I’m just going to hold on to that. All in all, a great report!

On Monday, we brought Dougie in for his 12 Month check-up. Poor little guy wasn’t feeling too well anyway so the trip was well timed.

Stats:

• Weight – 20lbs 5oz (17%)
• Height – 29″ (25%)
• Head – 18.5″ (69%)

As you can see, he’s still a little guy though he is creeping above his standard growth line. The doctor is still pretty convinced that Dougie will end up being about 5’11″ (despite my insisting that Sharabura’s are tall), so, we’ll see.

We got Dougie a Hep A shot while we were there. We’ll need to go back in a month or so to get the MMR vaccine and we’re going to hold off on the chicken pox vaccine for a while. It just isn’t as good as actually getting chicken pox so we want to give Dougie a bit of time to see if he catches it.

They also took a ton of blood for various testing. We’re expecting the results of that this morning. They tested Dougie’s liver function as well as another lead level test. Both those results were a bit off in his last round of testing. The doctor felt the liver count was off because of the iron therapy and wasn’t concerned but just wants to be sure it isn’t something serious. The lead level we’re just ensuring hasn’t gotten worse. Once we know more about those tests, we’ll let you know.

The doctor said that Dougie was doing really well though. He’s well on target with his development.

We decided to just have a very small party for Dougie this year. We considered trying to throw a bigger shindig but we thought for his first year a party with just us would be nice. So, that’s what we did. I didn’t want him to miss out on anything though, so we made the party we did have a big deal.

We decorated the playroom

We even had party hats

Then Dougie started into his presents

Through whatever means necessary

This one was Daddy’s favourite (thanks Auntie Suz!!)

Dougie eventually learned how to rip the paper

Dougie loved his wooden bench

And then proceeded to try to open all the other presents with his mallet

Mum helped open some too

Then it was time for cake

(it’s supposed to be a hippo)

We all had a great time. Dougie seemed to understand that it was a special day, even if he didn’t understand why.

It’s so hard to believe it’s been a year already. Dougie has changed so much.

Dougie this time last year

Dougie today

A very happy birthday to our little guy!

Grandma Sharabura sent Dougie down his “Sharabura Stocking” for this Christmas. All the Sharaburas have one. We put it up over Thanksgiving weekend when we decorated but we were missing a stocking hanger so mine didn’t make it up until today. Now that we have the full compliment of stockings, I thought we should get a picture.

I took Dougie to get his picture taken with Santa today… it didn’t go well. He hated Santa. He screamed and cried and generally made sure everyone in the mall knew he was undergoing some sort of baby torture. They even tried to give him a lollipop which he promptly threw. We only got one picture where he wasn’t crying and he clearly isn’t “happy”.

Perhaps we’ll have better luck next year.