More Christmas and more kids!!

Chris and I flew in to the East Coast on Saturday morning, arriving at my brother's house a couple of hours later. For the next two days, we hung out with Tom, his wife Rebekah and their son (my super-cute and fast-growing nephew) Eric!
I'd heard that Eric was a big fan of "Thomas the Train" and that wanted a new piece to his train set, but I had no idea! On Sunday, he played with his new train set for hours and hours on end. It was really adorable! And what's even funnier about Eric, is that he is so specific about how he wants things and is soooo close to being able to express it exactly to us. Right now, he's doing very well with talking and is virtually communicating with very little of the "what? what did you say" happening. However, with the trains, you'll put some of the pieces together and he'll just say "NO!!!" very suddenly and then you have to figure out what he wants you to do with them. It's typically a matter of turning them around or moving them in the other direction, but it's sometimes a guessing game. But still, it's amazing to me how much further along he is developmentally than he was three months ago at our wedding! Anyways, here are the photos we took with him...lots of the same, I know but I was trying to get the best shots!


After visiting with Tom and Rebekah, we went down to see my parents in CT for our next Christmas celebration. There, we got to go over all the wedding photos in person for the first time, as well as see their reaction to the book we put together for them and the other gifts I lugged across country. It was great to see Mom, who is having a very tough time right now, though we are all hopeful that 2009 will finally bring better health her way so that she can see us more often and do more with Eric.

Last night, we got back on the road (Chris insisted on driving since he seems to think I fall asleep at the wheel lately....I admit I was tired driving from Providence to CT, but there were no close calls or problems! I was a bit tired but I willed my eyes to stay open!) and we arrived here in Portland, ME! Mara and Matt have crazy work schedules, but we were able to spend a couple of hours with them last night and then most of today with Mara til she had to head off to the station about 3pm. It's nice and cold here and we got a bit of snow during the night. We are hoping for more tomorrow night for NYE, but we shall see. More of our trip to come later!!