Christmas 2010

We were lucky this year not to have to travel for the holidays. Our best presents were the family who came to see us this year. Papa Mark, Auntie Angela, Molly and Maggie came for a couple of days. And Aunt Sarah and Alek were here for a whole week. It was great fun to have a houseful of people to talk to, entertain the kids, make more coffee, tell stories with and laugh with. We loved it. Oliver was a little shell shocked when every one was gone and it was just us again. Now we're back to the routine of work and daycare and regular life. Maybe someday, we'll live close to family. I shouldn't say maybe, but rather hopefully. We miss all of them!

Sarah and Alek by the Spokane River on New Years Eve

We took the 'little kids table' literally.

Loving Papa Mark, especially Papa Mark with presents.

Getting ready for christmas

Shoveling the sidewalk so Santa can find our door.

Gotta have a snowman!

Cookies for Santa!

New and old friends

We went to Portland recently to meet a new friend and to see some old friends. Our new friend is Charlotte Gayle Orehovec, daughter of Kelly and Stefan. She is only 6 weeks old and so precious. Such a good baby. Oliver was intrigued from a distance most of the weekend. But did show some interest when she was in this swing and he wanted to give her a stuffed animal. And he tried to help Kelly with Charlotte a couple of times. They are going to be friends for a long, long time. I can see him as an older brother already. He has a nurturing side deep down beneath the wild monster that usually roams our halls.

This is his old friend Ruby. They've known each other since Oliver was a month old. They're buds and play really well together. This day she brought doughnuts for us to eat at the park. Oliver thought that was pretty cool.

There's a baby in our bellies

The big news in the Ochs household is that we're going to have another baby in June. We're all pretty excited. We were almost sure that Oliver was going be an only child and then...well, things happen. So Oliver is going to be an older brother after all. I think he's going to be a very good one too. We're both excited to watch him grow into this role.

When I'm telling Oliver about the baby growing inside of me and showing him how my belly is getting bigger, he always shows me his belly that has a baby in it too. This is the typical pose. It's way too painful and frustrating to argue with a 3 year old. So we'll see what happens in 9 months when I win this race.