McClane Meets Santa!

Last weekend we decided to take McClane to visit Santa.  We thought we would beat the long lines if we went before Thanksgiving and we did pretty good.  We waited in line maybe 30 minutes so it wasn't bad at all.  We went to the Natick Mall which is the nicest mall around Boston in hopes that they would have the best looking Santa.  When we got there, I was pleasantly surprised at Jolly Old St. Nick - he looked pretty good to me!  However, I became a little nervous as I watched all of the children cry, no scream, the moment they were placed in Santa's lap.  Grant and I just kind of looked at each other, and thought maybe this wasn't the greatest idea.  We both really thought McClane would do okay though because he doesn't have stranger anxiety yet so we proceeded through the line.  When it was our turn, I gingerly placed McClane on Santa's knee and waited to see what would happen.  McClane was MESMERIZED by Santa.  He couldn't take his eyes off of him.  He just laid back on Santa's chest and stared.  We were ringing bells and squeezing toys and calling his name but he just wasn't interested in us at all - he was too busy trying to figure out what was going on with Santa.  It was pretty funny.  He'd look at us for a second and then turn right back around and look at Santa.  The first round of pictures didn't turn out b/c there wasn't one of him looking at the camera.  The second round, Santa decided to kind of prop McClane on his knee so that he couldn't turn around as easily and it worked!  We finally got the pose!  As we were ordering the pictures, the lady manning the counter said that we "sounded" like Santa.  Guess where Santa was from...the North Pole of course!! But he has a home base in Conyers Georgia!  We went back to talk to him for a minute and he said this is the fifth year that he has come all the way to Boston just to be the Santa at the Natick Mall.  While we were standing in line, Grant had commented that Santa sounded like he had a southern accent and he was right!  Here's the picture!

More Soon!

Grant, Lacey, & McClane

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! We have so much to be thankful for this year!! We have a sweet healthy baby boy and wonderful friends and family! 2009 has been GREAT! I can't believe it's almost over though. It seems like once Thanksgiving gets here, the rest of the year just flies by. It will be Christmas in no time!

McClane turned 6 months a couple of weeks ago. I swear he just woke up one morning so much bigger and grew up overnight! We had a great 6 months doctor's visit (except for the shots which seem to make me cry more than McClane - I can't help it - I just hate it when they stick him!) and he is doing fantastic. He is 28 inches long and in the 93rd percentile for length (here's hoping he got the Starr gene for height!) and weighed 16.4 pounds which was in the 31st percentile for weight. We have started him on solids and so far he loves everything we give him. He will eat anything I throw at him and cries when it's all gone. I think he's going to be a very good eater!

Here are some pictures from this week. He had to sport all of his Thanksgiving outfits to school this week! We are going to a friend's house for a Thanksgiving feast in a couple of hours so we'll try to take some good pictures and post them later. Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Love,

Grant, Lacey, and McClane

Catching Up

Okay - so I know I am WAAAAAAYYYYY behind on keeping this blog up to date. Since starting back to work in September, I haven't found the time to do much besides go to work, come home, spend time with my hubby and sweet baby, and go to bed. It has been an adjustment to say the least. But we are doing just that...adjusting, and hopefully I can start blogging more often because it is important for us to keep a record of this special time and to have a way for our family and friends to know what's going on in our lives.

McClane will be 6 months old next week!!! I can hardly believe it. He is such an amazing baby. He is pure joy - the happiest little thing around and his smile melts our hearts. He is learning new things every day and it has been so wonderful watching him grow and develop. He is rolling all over the place (this just happened in the past few days) and we are working on getting him to sit up. He is also teething right now - he will chew on anything he can get in his mouth. He is a sweet sweet baby and he has totally spoiled us. I told Grant that I hope the rest of our children are as good as McClane because if they are, I will just keep having them!

Last week, our good friends Adam, Brooke, and their adorable son Brody came to visit us. We had such a good time visiting with them and I was so excited to have a friend for McClane to go trick-or-treating with on his first Halloween. Brody was a blue monster and McClane was a monkey.

The daycare McClane goes to had a Halloween parade. This is a picture from the parade. One of the parents also took a very cute video. Here's the link:

http://duffys.smugmug.com/Children/Spooky-Da/10131432_ntWwC.

The password is Spooky Day and you have to capitalize the S and D and put a space between the two words. McClane is the second baby you see. He looks absolutely thrilled :)

This is at the Belkin Lookout Farm in Natick. We picked apples and pears and the farm had tons of fun stuff for kids - a petting zoo, playground, Mike the Music Man playing songs. We had a great day!

Saturday night, we went trick-or-treating in the North End, the Italian district in Boston. We had dinner first at my favorite restaurant in Boston - Dolce Vita - and then dressed the babies up and took them out on Hanover Street where all of the businesses passed out candy (and in some cases, Italian pastries!) to the kids. We even happened upon a Halloween party at the Paul Revere Park, behind the Old North Church, where there were tons of kids running around and playing in their costumes. It was a lot of fun. Here's some trick-or-treating pics.

Our Lil' Monkey!

Brody loved playing with the "bebe" - he always wanted to know where McClane was. Brody will be a big brother in March so it was fun watching him practice on McClane. He'll be a great big brother!!

Trick-or-treating really wore McClane out. He passed out on the way home! We had too much fun!

Until next time,

Grant, Lacey and McClane