Life has been busy but we do still have time to take pictures (just not the time to post them). Evidence to how many picture we take, here is bennett pretending to take a picture of Caroline. "Cheese!" he says as he holds his imaginary camera. 

Yes literally every time Caroline is laying on the rug he pulls the chair over, so they he can stand in it. 

I think he also tried to make hand gestures like we do to get their attention. Ah, the life of a mimicking toddler. I took these pictures on Wednesday. 

Here is Bennett giving Caroline a kiss. Yes he does this unprovoked by us. I catch him doing it at least once a day. He definitely loves his baby sister. 

But she finds him a little curious. 

Here he is posing with his puppy. He insisted on having the blanket and puppy in the chair with him, then put his arm around the puppy. We do ask him to pose cute but it never goes well, yet he is naturally so sweet, we probably don't need to coax him to be sweet. 

Christmas Eve was hectic. We ran errands in the morning and left to go to New London. We were both dreading the car ride and Caroline was sure to make it difficult. We had to stop a few times due to the screaming baby. It was a LONG trip out. Bennett had a great time opening gifts though. He knows what presents are and that they need to be unwrapped but he's not the anxious type that tears through the gifts. He usually needs to be coaxed to open more, and if he gets a toy he wants to play with, then he loses interests in presents altogether. 

We left New London late, around 10:30. Bennett was riding an overtired high and didn't fall asleep until around 11 on he ride home. It was probably pretty hard to sleep since Caroline was screaming bloody murder. Again we had to stop a few times and Joel ended up sitting in the back and holding her. Forget about road safety. Hours in a car with a screaming baby is just too much sometimes... But at least Joel was buckled up while he was holding her... When we got home Bennett half woke up screaming when we put him to bed. Then Joel and I set up the gifts for Christmas morning. By the time we were finished it was nearly 2. I went to check on Bennett one last time and found him like this:

He woke up crying around 6 Christmas morning which is a sign he was sleep deprived so I brought him into our bed and he fell back asleep. When I woke up at 8:30 our need looked like this:

We had the living room set up for bennett, with his gifts and a foam Christmas train. His expression when he saw the room was of awe and excitement. It totally made staying up until 2 am worth it. We had breakfast and then had time for Bennett to open his biggest gift. 

He was actually frightened of the gift and wouldn't open it so we had to help but when he saw it, he was super happy. 

Then we went to Grandma and Grandpas to open gifts. 

He actually wasn't too into opening presents and just wanted to play with toys from the first few gifts he had opened. We went to a party in the evening and again, Bennett went to bed way past his bedtime. 

Friday we had the intentions of opening gifts in the morning but bennett didn't care to and I was all presented out so we didn't do it. We stayed inside all day and got cabin fever. Bennett had a hard time going to sleep since he was used to staying up late. Caroline didn't have a problem sleeping with me on the couch as I watched tv. 

Saturday was a normal Saturday. We ran errands and bennett woke up from his nap with horrible bed head. 

Then we opened gifts and went to another party. Again bennett didn't go to bed until after 10. This is a horrible habit we're getting into. 

Sunday Caroline wore a cute outfit she received for Christmas. 

Today we were back to normal and trying to get back into our routine. We went to the gym and bennett screamed as I dropped him off. We got home and had lunch. Bennett and I read books in his room, as is our routine for his afternoon nap. He screamed when I left him to sleep on his own at 12:30 pm. By 2 he was still awake and throwing things around but was asleep when I checked on him at 2:15 (his afternoon naps had been pushed back for the holidays as well...). 

Caroline actually slept in the swing while bennett and I were having lunch, and through his nap routine. This makes it so much easier for me when I can concentrate on bennett. Then after bennett fell asleep she insisted on being held nonstop. 

She hadn't slept much in the morning and seems to have a little bit of a cold. When bennett woke up from his nap around 3:45 I had two crabby kids on my hands. 

They both wanted to be held and they both wanted to be fussy. The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. We're working on getting bennett back into his nighttime routine of going to bed by 8 but it isn't going well. He didn't fall asleep until 9:30 or so. Although the benefit of him falling asleep late is he sleeps in until 7 or 7:30 which really works well for me because I'm still sleeping at that time also. I guess we'll have to see what becomes of bedtime over this week. Maybe pushing it later than 8 isn't a bad idea because then he'll sleep in later... We shall see!