The Meyers

For tonight’s advent calendar experience, it was Elliott’s turn to pull out the box and retrieve the paper. He was very excited.

Upon finding out that it was a Christmas caroling and light hunt adventure night, Joshua became the excited one!

Tonight was another cold but very clear night. Perfect for this type of thing! Everyone enjoyed the time wandering around the neighborhoods near house, taking in the pretty decorations all the while belting out all the Christmas songs that came to mind for us.

Kristen made the boys elf pajamas to kick off this year’s advent calendar fun!

The pajama shirts say “Meyers Elf Squad”

Back in mid-November, we did a day trip out to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. It was a very fun time, and it was definitely a unique experience viewing all of the various attractions that are available at the aquarium at the speed of a pre-schooler. I think that we “saw” everything in about 90 minutes!

The tunnel with the big fish tanks was definitely a highlight. Not only did we spend some time there, but we did that part twice! Another highlight was the touch-friendly tidal pools. Everybody got into that, and as a bonus nobody fell into the water!

The weather was chilly but good. November was the month of reciprocal benefits allowing people with Oregon Zoo memberships to get in to the aquarium for free. That was the reason we chose this timing for the visit, and we certainly were joined by multitudes of other Portland area people who were there for the same reason!

After we were finished at the aquarium, we spent a little time at a park, then at the beach, and them we wrapped up the day getting some ice cream before making our way back home.

Isaac continues to be the cutest little guy ever, even as he’s getting bigger and bigger! He’s still so very happy nearly all the time, although he does make his opinions known too when he has them.

This month, he has finally started to engage with food. We’ve been trying food since he turned six months old, but his face’s reaction upon tasting the food was that we clearly trying to poison him, regardless of what we gave him. That went on for quite a long time! Puffs have been acceptable for a few weeks now, and then just in the last couple of weeks he has started to like other things. The biggest winners so far are squash and yams. Now, we see some of his strongest expression of opinion ever when we’re too slow at giving him the next spoonful of squash!

He is continuing to use rolling as his sole means of self-driven transportation, which is something our other two boys never did. A couple of times now he has started to perch up on hands and knees and rock a little, so crawling is probably coming soon. He doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to make that happen though.

A new skill he developed this month is really fun for interaction: clapping! He started out doing it when he saw us doing it, but he can now do it on his own when he hears just the voice cue. He also verbally mimics the sound of the word clap as he is doing it if he hears us continue to say it. Perhaps he will be a more verbal kid? Having had two prior little people on different sides of that particular spectrum, we’d certainly welcome that… the chatter may never stop but it’s at least understandable and can minimize communication frustration for everyone.

Isaac we sure love you and are so happy that you are a part of our family!

Today we got our Christmas tree! It was an absolutely gorgeous day with sun shining, although it was a little cold with the clear skies. We’ve gone to the same Christmas tree farm several times now. It’s a smaller, family-run farm and the people are really nice! They had hot chocolate, candy canes, and even had a craft for the kiddos to do!

As a bonus of having nice weather, we got to set and decorate the tree the same day! That never happens! Isaac definitely got into the spirit of the moment!