Traditions... and a 5 month Update

With my return to work and the arrival of the holiday season, my time has been pulled very thin lately. So thin, that I have been unable to update the blog, as you may have noticed. Here, I have gone almost an entire month with no word, and for that, I say, sorry. But as the title says, Jamey is now 5 months old. At this point, he doesn't have monthly doctor's visits, so we had to use our own methods to measure his weight. (Mommy weighs herself and then weighs herself while holding Jamey.) Using this very scientific method, we have determined that Jamey is now 18 pounds 3 ounces. In addition, he is getting ever closer to sitting up on his own, and likes to babble. He is also very much in love with his hands and feet.

But bigger for Jamey than staring at his hands and feet, is the beginning of a new holiday season. As was mentioned in Abby's blog about her daughter, Jamey really has no idea why we are doing what we are doing. Why the tree with the many colored lights? Why the bushy green stuff all over? Why are all the boxes covered in paper?

Really, it doesn't matter to him. All things listed prove very fun for the senses, whether that means staring, pulling, or trying to taste. We have been training him, too, to open presents. It isn't hard. All we have to do is wave a stray bit of wrapping paper in front of him and out pops the hand to grab on. As his arm flails around, he tears the paper here and there.

Along the lines of presents, I have brought to him a tradition that was one of my favorites each year. It is called the 25 Days of Christmas. Growing up, every day, my mom would hide a little gift somewhere in the house, and each of us in the house would read that days clue to tell us where to find the goodies. Sometimes toothpaste, sometimes a toy. Little things. The fun wasn't in the present. The fun was in the finding. As we have 11 grandchildren in the family, my mom has taken to doing weekly gifts. But wanting Jamey to experience the full tradition, I took it on myself. Well, for this year, Glenn helps him a lot.

Now that we have Jamey, I have found that tradition means so much more. One of my favorite things about our tree at home was the homemade ornaments, such as the "colored" in wooden ones from my brothers. At a $5 store (which is conceptually an "upscale" Dollar Store), I found a Crayola ornament kit, which contained ceramic ornaments to be colored with Crayola markers. We decided that Jamey will color in one ornament each year over the next 12 years as a tradition. This year, of course, I had to show him how it is done, but he helped me choose which colors to use... or I think that is what he was doing while he held those markers for me. :)