We met up with some friends got parked/situated and the first thing down the street was some jazzed up motorcycle club adorned in their Christmas garb and right behind them the fire trucks with their horns/sirens blaring. Not loud and exciting to Berik, rather loud and scary to the point of tears. We figured they were killing his ears as they could be sensitive due to the ear tubes. I put my hands over his ears and held them tightly waiting for all to pass and wouldn't you know they stopped right in front of us. Still blaring the sirens and throwing Christmas candy Berik was not thrilled. Finally, it started moving again and Berik settled down, enjoying the school marching band, the acrobats, the colorful floats and finally got the hang of telling daddy where the candy was that he wanted by yelling and pointing to it on the ground, while he hung out safely in the bed of the truck. Finally Santa came and Berik waved because Santa was but really could have not cared less. His friend Matthew (4) liked it though and was thrilled to get extra candy from Berik. We took the rest home and let Berik rummage through it and then tossed it. Gratefully he doesn't understand candy yet!!! We did plenty of shopping with Berik but finally left him with a babysitter and for the first time we went out of the city limits together, Jaimie and I, without him. I probably called the babysitter enough to drive her crazy because I was just worried. Everything turned out fine and he was only up about l hour before he went to bed so really we just paid her to watch him sleep, yet I still worried. Silly me, I have my parents right here in town and plenty of friends in case something happened but still, now I am trying to decide whether it is more stressful to shop with him or without?
Berik is so easy to put to bed it is ridiculous!
He lets you know by grabbing up his elephant, Mr. Blue, and then he comes and pulls you to his room and throws his arms up in the air for you to put him in the crib. He gets in, you say nite nite and that usually it.
On the sad side he doesn't much liked to be rocked once you get to his room. He is growing up so fast :) and :( .We continue to have the best Friday nights with Berik. After dinner everyone that is in our house, friend or family, falls victim to or gets in on whatever we decide to do, whether its playing blocks, trucks, or kicking the balls all over the house, as we usually don't watch any TV which is great!!, but during the week we do have it on and by the time you slide in a bath and bedtime story etc and trying to get ready for the next day there is usually no time for 100% play!
He continues to like this particular set of stacking toys and had the best time putting them on daddy's head. His fine motor skills and getting better and better in a hurry! He can now put my car key all the way into the door lock, can almost get the lock turned and then open the car door. He can climb up in his car seat and almost buckle himself in, as he still has a hard time with the 5 point harness. His talking is still mostly babble but has called my mother, Nana, Mimi and now Mammy. Her name that we call her, to him, is Grammy but he usually just calls her whatever he wants.Because I have Berik I now "QUALIFY" to go to children's church Christmas eve service starting at 5:30pm, yeah!! This is the service that I like the most with the little kids performing the Christmas skits etc.. This years was about stars in heaven and the kids did really good except one little girl started crying when she fell off her step after she was elbowed by another star who didn't have enough room..lol! It was quite funny really. I can just see Berik now, pushing someone down or yelling over the music! Only time will tell. We had Christmas with my parents at my house, in the morning and in the afternoon at their house. My brother and his family came in the next day and we had Christmas all over again! The best thing besides the obvious, Berik, was that we were not FREEZING COLD like we were last year!
Berik loved that Santa brought him a big tonka truck and exclaimed , " WOWWWWW" when he saw it in front of the tree. He was pretty good about opening his presents but by day two he wanted to open all of his and all of everyone else's too. 
He did not mess with the tree except once, when he took off one of my shiny ornaments and proceeded to smash it beyond repair and that's why my favorites were at the top of the tree.He is getting better with the cats as you can see here, he is "petting the kitty nicely" while the Sam thinks he has found a new bed inside of a wreath meant for outside.
Jessi (16), my stepdaughter, came for a week. We had a good time with her, shopping, going to the movies and to a friends house on New Years eve to play a few games and eat!
Berik is all about Jessi and she is good with him, as well she should be used to it because she has 3 siblings at home, all under the age of 5. She got everything she wanted for Christmas and then some and we just enjoy her so much it is always sad to send her home to Alabama.
The only other significant thing is this month marks the end of the bottle. We had decided to keep him on it for one year from the day we got him into our custody and we pretty much kept that promise. It was absolutely no problem, quick and easy. One day we just put them all up the cabinet and stopped cold turkey and he didn't care at all. These photos are from a visit with a special friend Bob. He gave Berik a remote control car and B had such a good time he was whooped on the way home and crashed out in the car seat. So sweetly sleeping! That's all for December.
I am sure there was something more or at least a tad exciting but as it is March that's the best I could do. I am really trying to catch up as this is serving as my journal and hopefully when he gets older he will enjoying reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it! Until Jan post you'll take care! Gena
