Merry Christmas to All!!

So, besides our little medical setback, we had an amazing Christmas with family :)  Here’s a recap of what I can remember…there’s been so much that has happened over the last month I hope I can do it justice.

Collin & I left Jacksonville the Monday before Christmas, and spent a few wonderful days with my sister (Becca) & her husband (Warren) in McKinney.  Becca is a teacher, so she was off the whole week.  She was nice enough to help me start my baby registries at Target & Babies R Us.  I know Son would have gone if I begged him, but that’s not really his thing, and I couldn’t have done it on my own.  It is sooooo different registering for your 2nd child.  We have so much already that I was able to pick out more of the “wants” rather than focusing on the “needs”.  Yes, we will need plenty of diapers and lots of pink, but there were some really fun things that I found too. 

Like this cool tent for the beach / pool.  Collin just loves being outside at the pool/beach/or even by the baby pool in the back yard, so I am sure Grace will want to be outside with us also.  This way I can take her without risking putting her in the sun.

Anyways, we also had Collin’s pictures taken with Santa. I won’t say they are what I was hoping for, but he did much better than he did when I took him at home.  He is not screaming or putting his arms up in front of his face, but that’s probably because his mommy was the one actually sitting on Santa’s lap :)

Collin LOVES his Aunt Becca!  Instead of waking up in the morning yelling “mama mama mama!” he was calling “ah-be-da” & “uh-wa-wa” to come and get him out of the crib - it was sooo cute!

We joked that this was the best picture we got of Collin with Santa all year…too bad it’s a wooden Santa at Becca’s house!

We left McKinney & headed to Tyler a few days before Christmas, and as soon as we got there the gift opening began…with a ROLLER COASTER!!  Thankfully, it is a toy to stay at Dede & Jimbo’s house.  Even though Collin absolutely LOVED his “car” there is no way we could fit that thing in our house!

He also got to open his fire truck on Christmas Eve morning…this was all before he started feeling bad.  That night is when he got sick, so all the rest of the presents had to wait until he felt like playing again.

There were so many cute things that he loved at my parent’s house…I wish I could remember them all.  But, on the top of the list was watching the squirrels in the backyard.  He would go and stand at the window looking for them & start yelling “squirrel” when one would come up to the feeder.  Jimbo even let him get all bundled up and help him go out and refill the feeder with sunflower seeds.

Collin was also fascinated with the cat which he called “meow-meow”.  He would run around throwing his arms up in the air saying, “meow-meow, are you?”  (aka: where are you?) until he found her or someone showed him where she was hiding. 

Then of course we had our annual Hartung Girls matching Christmas PJ’s.

And here is another picture of the poor baby’s swollen neck.  He really doesn’t even look like himself in this picture.

Unfortunately just as Collin was starting to feel a little better we had to leave and start our first family road trip back to Florida.  My parents let us borrow their portable DVD player, and Collin did amazingly well on the 10-hour drive considering how he must have felt.  However, I thought if I ever had to watch another episode of Elmo’s World after that trip I would be sick!

We made it to Pensacola after a brief visit with our friends Dave & Paula in Baton Rouge.  They were nice enough to feed us dinner and let Collin run around & play for a few hours.  I think that break in the trip made a huge difference for Collin.

Collin was still not 100%, but feeling well enough to play around with his cousins.  He loved playing basketball with his older cousin, Gavin.  We were so happy that Son’s older brother, Hao, and his family were able to be there at the same time we were since we don’t see them as often.

Jaeden & my sis-in-law, Tram, opening gifts.  Jaeden was old enough to really get into it & it was so cute to watch him :)  Isn’t he adorable!

I absolutely LOVE this picture!!  Three generations of Vuong men :)  And Collin is giving his Ong Noi a high-5.

And we can’t forget sweet cousin Lilo!  She was wishing everyone a Happy New Year & helping Son’s parents open their presents.

We finally made it home on Sunday night, and had a few hours to open our own family gifts before bedtime.  The next day was our follow-up with Collin’s doctor that started the hospital admission.

I know I said this in the previous post, but I really think Collin was the happiest baby in the hospital…after he had a few hours to recover from the anesthesia he was goofing around like his normal self.