Merry Christmas!!!

Another picture post!! It continued to be busy around here, so I'll just share more photos!


Stephen and I made Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies for his teachers at school.
These are the ornaments that he made at school this month...

We went out to Breakfast one morning this week, and Stephen was being quite the goof.

In the interest of sanity, we had decided to spread out the present-opening over several days this year. Stephen got this from his Daddy.

And our Christmas Eve was spent inside the house... This is the largest one-day snowfall on record in Oklahoma City - 14.1"!!!

Stephen got rather bored with being inside all day (it was super windy, as well, which is why it was classified as a blizzard).

This was the view out our dining room window after Stephen went to bed.

But we enjoyed opening presents...

(yes, these were taken on different days, but you get the idea)

Sorry these are out of order, but before the weather got bad, we also spent some time outside playing on the slide, and just having a fun time!

So, good times were had by all. Mom and Dad DID make it to the airport today, although I haven't heard if their flight was going to really go or not. Merry Christmas!!!

We've been busy!

My parents got here a bit before Stephen's birthday, so we have been very busy!

We spent some time opening birthday presents a few days before his birthday...

And then we went to a tree farm to pick out a Christmas tree!!!

On his birthday, Stephen went to OU Children's Outpatient Surgery to have a small, dermoid cyst removed from in front of his right ear. A dermoid cyst is just matter that hasn't been sloughed off naturally. This type of cyst can often grow when someone sweats a lot, which explains why it kept growing whenever he was sick and ran a fever. It was a very simple procedure, and our surgeon was awesome (I actually knew her and her family from when I was working, and trusted her implicitly!). Stephen didn't shed a tear afterwards, and even RAN out of the Outpatient surgery center, and pounded on the elevator doors until we left. He managed with only Ibuprofen for that day, and nothing since then. Now, you can hardly see the wound at all!

Grandma and Stephen had some fun with a big box!

Last Friday, Stephen's Children's Day Out program had a Christmas Program. Stephen's class did really well - they sang "I'm a little pinecone" and danced to "Rock Around the Christmas Tree." While Stephen did not sing or dance, he also did not pick his nose, scream, cry, push anyone off the stage, or in any way misbehave. He stood up there very nicely, and even smiled a bit (but we could tell he was a bit nervous about it all). Only about 4 kids out of 20 in his class ended up singing or dancing, but I thought they all did well, especially considering that none of them napped!!!

The photo below is Stephen again at his program. They gave him a little bow-tie to dress up - some of the kids had bows, and some wore Christmas Trees around their necks. He also brought home 3 ornaments that he made at school, which are now hanging proudly on our tree!

Sleep is elusive these days...

So, once again, we are having some sleep issues here at the Heine house! Stephen is going to bed pretty well now, so that's not the issue. We have taken to sitting with him in the dark a few times to help him settle down before bedtime, and that generally seems to work, and he isn't taking 60-90 minutes to fall asleep any more. We kind of have to FORCE him to just settle down, otherwise he would just keep running around in his room, looking out his blinds, trying to open the closet, dresser drawers, bedroom door, rocking himself in his glider... you can see the issue.

The problem lately has been occurring around 4 am. Yep. There is one of those in the morning, too. Stephen has been waking up to potty at this time for about a week now, and getting him to go back to sleep has just been a nightmare. If I thought I could stand to just let him stay awake then, I would, but then he would want to nap at 9 am, and our whole day would just be ruined. But once he is awake, we have to go through the routine of getting him settled back down again, which most times can take up to 2 hours. Yes, TWO HOURS! So he is just falling back asleep when it is time for our alarm to go off. I attribute this to either the fact that we are having so much fun during the day that he wants to spend more time with us, or he is getting excited about the holidays. We HAVE been talking a lot about Santa and how he brings presents to good boys, and his grandparents are coming today... Regardless of the cause, it's just miserable for the parents. Hopefully this phase will pass soon, but if anyone has any advice, we are more than happy to give it a go!

Speaking of Christmas, we have a Little People Nativity that Stephen likes to play with. He is particularly fond of Baby Jesus, and enjoys that the Manger plays music. He understands that the "baby" goes in the "barn" (we figured Barn is an easier concept than Manger), but he finds it a bit humorous. Oh well. He at least kind of understands a bit of it!

Whew, we've been busy!

We've had an action packed couple of weeks here! We really enjoyed having Erik home for 5 days over Thanksgiving, and celebrating his birthday as well. We had a couple of friends over for Thanksgiving dinner. Over that weekend, Stephen discovered the somersault. In the beginning, he needed a bit of assistance, but by the end of this past week, he just needed a little help steering so that he didn't run in to anything. As soon as we ask him if he wants to do a somersault, he runs over, puts his hands on the ground, tucks his head, and pushes off with his feet! These pictures were from last weekend, when he was just learning.

As you can see, he REALLY enjoys this particular activity! Now, he has added running to the mix, and does his somersault, runs around a bit, and then comes back to do another. It's really no wonder why he eats as much as he does, given his activity level!

This past Friday, Stephen was evaluated for preschool! As usual, he was stubborn and a bit uncooperative, but we are pleased that he WILL be getting to go to preschool starting in January. He really hit it off with the speech therapist who will be working with him as well, which was a relief, as he never really clicked with the one he used to see (those services stopped since he is almost 3). It wasn't really her fault, or his. I think she just happened to start working with him right when his sleep apnea started to get bad, and he was just cranky, and hard to get along with. They seemed to do better with each other these last couple of months though. Anyways, he will be going to preschool at the "Big Kid School" 4 mornings each week, and then will continue at Children's Day Out on Fridays, so that he doesn't have to leave his friends. We are all very excited about preschool! The school has been recently renovated, so the facilities are top-notch, and his teacher was very nice. There will only be a few other people in his class, too, so he will get a lot of one-on-one attention. We never wanted Stephen to NEED extra help with his speech, but we are so grateful that these services are out there so that we can take advantage of them!

The biggest thing coming up right now is our Big Boy's birthday!!! Even though it isn't until next Monday, we are going to celebrate it on Saturday. We aren't having a party this year, but Stephen's Grandma Janet and Grandaddy will be here, so we are going to open presents on Saturday and have cake after we got to the tree farm for our Christmas tree! Unfortunately, on his birthday, Stephen will be having a minor medical procedure done to remove a small, benign cyst from in front of his right ear. That was the best date we could get to have it done, unfortunately, but we don't figure that a 3 year old really cares about the actual DATE of his birthday - just the presents and the CAKE!!! I'm making him a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting this year - a favorite on my side of the family!!