Other Pictures of Titus at Christmas

The Monday after Christmas we went to the cabin, but I have no pictures of it. We stayed the week, but spent the last night at Aaron's Aunt Lynette's house. It put us an hour closer to home and helped us to escape back roads with an incoming snow storm. We took some family photos of Titus with his Sjostrand grandparents, Titus with his great-grandma 'Re, and a 4-generations picture. Titus looks tired, because he is after being up late. He doesn't sleep good when he is outside of his own crib. Although, it was more complicated to get the adults to look at the camera than it was to keep Titus happy.

Titus' Christmas 2011

The tradition at the Sjostrand household is to open gifts on Christmas Eve and have stockings on Christmas morning. The youngest, which has been Annie (Aaron's sister) for the longest time, passes the gifts out to everyone else. This year it fell to Titus, but Annie and I helped him out since he was new to the program. From the oldest to the youngest, one gift at a time is opened. When everyone has opened a gift, then it starts over again with the oldest until all the gifts are opened. I requested that Titus go last and open his gifts all at once, so I could enjoy him.

Titus passing out gifts

Titus being distracted

Mommy refocusing Titus back in for his job

Ahhh, forget it!

Titus opening his gifts

Titus playing with his gifts

We have Ken and Karin, Aaron's cousins, to thank for letting us borrow their house for Christmas. It made the drive shorter than going up to North Dakota. I didn't get pictures, but Titus mastered the stairs while we were there. Up and down, up and down, up and down. He had a blast!

It's Snow Cold!

Titus experienced his first snowfall as a toddler. We took him outside as a baby for a quick shot with snow, but in so many ways toddlers are much more fun when it comes to snow. His curiosity turned to wonder and his wonder turned to tears.

The Curiosity

The Wonder

About right here is where he was done with the cold and he starts crawling toward Ma Ma and Da Da.

The Tears
(but Ma Ma wanted to teach him about Snow Angels)

One last shot with the snow.

Ma Ma finally came to the rescue.

What a difference a year can make!

Cookie Decorating

Shortly before Christmas, I made some sugar cookies to take over to Titus' friend Weston's house for the two to decorate cookies together. Titus loved his first experience with cookie eating, I mean decorating. I sat the cookie on the table and he grabbed it before I had a chance to get any icing on it for him.

He let me help him decorate the second cookie, but he ate that too.

Mommy decorated some of her own cookies and probably had more fun than the boys.

I love this picture. It is like he is daring me to take his cookie from him.

Both boys got a little messy, but I am glad they had fun doing it.

Next year, I may let Titus loose with the cookie decorating. We will see... :)

After they were all cleaned up, we took a couple shots of the boys together. They are such handsome little dudes!

The Love

One of the things I love about Titus right now is how loving he is toward pretty much everything and everyone. I took him to a "Tastefully Simple" party Tuesday night and he just made himself at home, even though he has never been to this house before. He just crawled around and eventually found the playroom. Of course, he enjoyed the food and all the women smiling at him.

He got a compliment at Wal-Mart today. I was told that he is very personable.

We met my friend Ashley and her son Weston at McDonald's today for lunch. I sat Titus down in the booth while I took my coat off. Ashley came over to the table and Titus just looks up at her and says, "Hi."

He is also very affectionate. There isn't a day that goes by that he does give me a hug and make an "awwww" sound when he does it. He gives many things hugs also. I don't get very many kisses, but he does like to kiss books and other objects.

Aaron and I went to Casey's Gas Station and ended up ordering a pizza for dinner Saturday night. While we waited on the pizza we went across the street to the library, so Titus could play and I could pick out some books to read to him. At the Cortland Library they have this huge tiger on top of a bookshelf. I sat Titus up there to see what he thought. He petted the tiger, gave it hugs and kisses, and lots of big smiles. I love my sweet little boy.

Sweetness

For Titus' birthday, his Aunt Annie bought him a puppy we have named Brownie. One night Aaron and I went to check on Titus before going to bed and he was completely covered up by his blanket from head to toe. We took the blanket off to situate it off of his head and this is what we found. He has become really attached to his blanket and puppy. Most nights I find both wrapped up underneath him. I keep another blanket outside the crib to put over him once he is sleeping. He is such a precious little boy.

Sea Ya Later (but soon) Mark

Tuesday and Wednesday were hard days for me, to see our little bud Mark and know that he wouldn't be with us full-time anymore. Even as I took pictures to capture a couple of moments of Titus and Mark playing together, I was sad to even be taking pictures. We will definitely be setting up play time soon, so the boys don't go through too much withdrawal from each other. Here are a few pictures of the last two days. Enjoy!

Often times they greet each other by crawling directly to one another and bumping heads. What else do you do when you can't shake hands, since they are being used to crawl?
I thought this was cute. It looks like they are trying to figure out the kid's chair together. They oftentimes conspired on how to get into things together. At least that is my thinking.Taking two objects and banging them together is quite popular among babies apparently.Pardon the mom who dressed her son fashionably for the occasion, but they created an opportune moment for me to capture them playing together. I took Titus out of his PJ's and left him to play while I went to get his clothes and came back to this moment.
This picture was very hard to capture and it was the best they would let me do. The boys can't seem to sit still, nowadays. What a pair!

We miss you so much already, little bud. Here is a picture from their very first day together. It would take all my energy to get them to lay like that today.

They have grown so much in just 9 months!