Holiday shopping reveals a bad hair cut

So I've known for a while that I should probably cut Gunnar's hair again, but today definitely confirmed my suspicions! We did some holiday shopping today, much to Gunnar's horror. He's not too keen on being confined to a shopping cart or Mommy's hip while shopping. He would much rather be down, running around like the mad-man that he is. But... the one battle that Mommy wins, is whether Gunnar will wear a hat. There is velcro on the hat, so Gunnar can't rip it off like all other hats we try to make him wear! When we got home from shopping today, I took his hat off to find this, the crazy hair I would expect from an 80-year-old... but not so much from Gunnar. We will be cutting his hair tomorrow (if not only for the fact that many photos will be taken between now and New Year's Day!).

Maybe a headband will help? Nope... still sticks straight out and up!

Some pre-holiday fun for Gunnar...

Gunnar has really gotten into the holidays, even though he really has no idea what it's all about, or how exciting it's about to become! Ali and Jeromy were nice enough to invite us to Ali's parents' house for an early Christmas dinner, and we had such a great time! Here are some photos of Gunnar at various times throughout the visit. I'm shocked that we didn't get any photos of Gunnar and Ali though, since she's definitely his favorite. :o) Jeromy spent some time practicing his baby-entertaining though, and he shows promise.

Gunnar watched intently as Maddie put tiny ornaments on the tree.

Daddy and Gunnar enjoying a delicious cracker...
Gunnar trying to share the wealth... nobody seems to want the slobber-softened cracker?!
Gunnar and Beer?! Ok, so he took a swig, but it was an accident, right?!
Maddie was actually really excited about putting the decorations up!
Gunnar did SO well at turning around and getting on all fours to climb down the stairs all afternoon.

A look back at the Dec. '07 flood...

The first weekend in December, we started getting some rain, and by Monday morning, there was a cop at our door at 6 a.m. asking if there was any water coming into our house. We woke up to mass chaos that morning. Both routes into our neighborhood were closed, and I had to get out of the truck in my waders and move cones in order for us to get to the location we found sandbags. The water in the street was knee-deep, and the creek behind our house was overflowing about 30' into our neighbor's sloped yard. Luckily, our house sits pretty high up from the street, and Charlie, who lived here before us, leveled the yard with fill dirt. Had our yard been sloped as before, we would have had most of that creek coming up into our yard. I took the photos below mid-morning, when the waters were at about the mid-point. The water rose a bit after I took these, but by evening, it was receding. We had some fairly minor clean-up to do, especially compared to some other unlucky homeowners in our town. Justin said there was 5' of water in some of the houses in lower places than ours. Not too far from us was the Vernonia tragedy, and local businesses are still collecting $ to help the people recover. An OSP trooper friend of Justin's was dispatched to Vernonia, but couldn't even get there because of the water levels and damage to the road.

About noon that day, I mentioned to Justin that the lights had been flickering, and maybe we should get some emergency supplies just in case, so we headed to WalMart for water, candles, and some canned food. Along the way, we also found out where to get sandbags just in case, so we headed over and loaded up the truck bed with sandbags. When we got home, we noticed that the neighbor (in a brand new development) was having problems with water washing into/under his foundation. The husband had gone to work, so just the wife and kid were home, and neither of them spoke much English, so Justin and a couple other neighbors went over and just started sandbagging their foundation. We're pretty sure their crawl space must have been flooded, so we'll see how they fare in the coming months with drying out. We knew there must have been a reason they didn't initially build on that wetland, but eventually they got permits, and now all 4 of those new houses have water damage (3 of them are still un-occupied). Gunnar had a fun day with both of us home, and we baked cookies and Justin and I had hot buttered rum by the fire. The dogs were glad for an excuse to be in all day as well. Here are some photos of the flooding. Enjoy!

Gunnar watching me take photos of the water!

The creek over our back fence...

Notice the street full of water in the distance... that is usually the only way into our neighborhood.



Knee-high water in front of our house. This was just a bit before the peak of the water levels near our house.

The sidewalk was completely submerged, and it only got worse.



We survived, and didn't need the provisions or candles after all, but we're glad we were there to help save our neighbor's house.

Gunnar the Birthday Boy

Going back a ways... Gunnar turned 1 year old on November 13th. I can't believe what a big boy he is! On Gunnar's actual Birthday, we spent the day at home working on projects. Adam came out to help Daddy finish the railing on the deck, and Gunnar and I sort of hung out and had a fun day playing. Gunnar also got some gifts that day. Mommy and Daddy got Gunnar a "Tickle Me Elmo Extreme," and a set of Brio blocks. Nana and Papa, and Grandma and Grandpa, both remembered how much Gunnar loves balloons, and each sent him a bouquet of balloons! Nana thought a singing balloon would be fun (for Gunnar anyway), so we listened to that every hour or so for about a week. :o) Mommy made a fun dinner for Gunnar (spaghetti), and a cake just for Gunnar. Here are a couple photos of Gunnar's birthday.

A couple days later, Nana and Papa came to visit for the big party. They brought a pickup truck for Gunnar, which he of course loved. It came complete with a hardhat and toolbox for the back. Gunnar LOVES his pickup, and I actually find him spending a lot of time in it. He takes snacks along to sit in the truck, he takes his bears to sit in the truck, he loads up the bed of the truck to haul stuff to the couch, and anything else he can think to do with the truck. It's quite the useful vehicle. Back in July, when we were in Montana to visit Nana and Papa, they had gotten a stick horse for Gunnar, complete with galloping sounds, and they thought he was finally big enough to play with it, so they brought it out to him. He's still working on learning to ride it properly, but really enjoys the sounds it makes. It's almost as if he understands the motion that would go with the galloping sound, because he bobs his head and shoulders with the beat of the "hooves" as he listens. Here are a few photos of the night Nana and Papa got here.

This was too funny, and I wish I had thought to take video instead of photos, but one morning while Nana and Papa were here, Gunnar had to get in on the dog's begging routine. He and Foxi were both standing at Papa's feet, begging for sausage. Once Gunnar realized how it was supposed to go, he began sharing his "ration" with the dog also. If only our dogs were so lucky to get food from the table... :o) Ok, if we did that, we would just walk around covered in drool all day every day.

The Saturday after Gunnar's actual Birthday, we had a big party with lots of our friends (and Gunnar's friends) over for some snacks and birthday cupcakes. Gunnar had so much fun playing with all the kids (I think there were around 10 kids under 5 years old - chaos!), and he loved sharing his toys with the bigger kids, who showed him how to actually use them. He was such a good boy - like always - and partied and socialized like the little butterfly he is. It's hard to believe sometimes, that he's so good with people, considering what a homebody his Mommy is. We really don't get him out and about with other kids as much as we should, but he still plays and shares with the best of them. Just goes to show that many of his personality traits are unique to his natural personality, instead of learned. Interesting.... Anyway, here are some photos from the big bash.

Gunnar also loves his tractor from his Great Grandma and Grandpa Newman. He's resorted to "drive-by snacking" during the day, and while I know I'm probably supposed to make him sit in his chair for meals, this is pretty cute.

And a BIG kiss for Mama...