A wonderful Christmas!

We just returned from a weeklong whirlwind trip to Palatine, northern Wisconsin, back to Palatine (with a short trip downtown) and back to NY again. We had a great time with family and Ty had a ball playing with his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Some highlights and memories (to view more photos and videos, visit our new Picasa site: http://picasaweb.google.com/teri.schmidt/Christmas2007 )

1. Our new nephew, Andrew Ryan Shripka, Jr. (Drew) was born on 12/26/2007. We got to visit him on 12/29 and Tyler LOVED him. Surprisingly, he was very gentle and did not get too jealous when mommy and daddy were holding Drew. The next morning the first thing Ty said when he woke up was "I want to see baby Drew!" Granny gave him a picture of Drew to take home and Ty carried it all the way to the airplane.

2. The fun we had putting out Christmas cookies and milk for Santa and water for the reindeer and telling Tyler that Santa would come down the chimney backfired as he was too scared to go to bed alone and ended up sleeping with mommy and daddy.

3. Santa brought Tyler a wooden pop gun. Ty had fun sneaking around the house looking for deer with Daddy, but the best part was probably when he decided to turn it into a fishing pole, catch a fish, pretend to eat it, and shout out (after some education from Uncle Andy)"Mmm, soo-chi."

4. Tyler loved playing in the snow at the Chernesky cottage in northern Wisconsin and, as usual, took some coercing to leave the outdoors and come back inside. He liked to grab snow, throw it up in the air, and say "It's snowing!"

5. Tyler's communication skills are improving everyday and he continues to suprise us. Mommy's favorite new skill that he's learned: saying "thanks" at the appropriate times without prompting (it happens about 50% of the time).