Christmas lights and candy canes

I finally got done putting up lights around the house. I have an extra string left and might decide to put that up around the entertainment center. I put up my little gee-gaws today and added some ornaments to the tree. I thought I was going to have to worry about Cole getting into the tree but Steel and Reilly are proving equally ingenious at getting things off the tree. I let them put candy canes on the tree because I knew they couldn't hurt those. Matt helped them and they did a great job. Only now, they want to eat them all--right now.

I was doing something upstairs this afternoon and Reilly was the only one awake--downstairs on his own. I came down and he looked perfectly angelic sitting there on the couch all snuggled in the pillows. He asked me if he could have a candy. I said no, not until Christmas. Then, call it Mother's instinct, I moved one of the pillows on his lap and he had a candy cane all unwrapped. I decided it wasn't worth getting mad over and told him to go ahead. Mom got the last laugh. He came over a few minutes later with his candy cane in pieces and wrapped in a paper towel. He looked at me with a disgusted look on his face and said, "Mommy. This is bad candy." My sweet little Reilly does not like peppermint! He'd sucked on each piece trying to see if it was going to taste better. He had me throw the whole thing away. LOL

Cole is now eight months old and he just cut two more teeth. He already has as many teeth as cousin Keilei and she's one this week! He is so fun. He is a loud little bugger but I guess that is to be expected when he has four older brothers yelling away all the time. He has to be heard somehow. He and Reilly will get into little shouting matches now. It is so funny to watch. Reilly will start yelling at something he's not happy about, and Cole will yell right after him, thinking it is a fun game. Reilly gets mad at Cole and yells louder and Cole yells back with a big smile on his face. Which just makes Reilly more upset and around and around it goes. I LOVE my boys!

(I know he looks like he's in pain, but he's actually laughing)

Next week, Peter will have been gone three months. We are already a quarter-way through this! Which means only about three more months until I get to see him for R&R! I miss my husband so much and it is so hard to cuddle my baby and now that when Pete sees him again, he'll probably be walking. It just makes me hold him as much as I can, for both of us. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that he'll land March for his leave. We have our anniversary, Reilly's birthday, and Pete's birthday all in that month. But the first of April would be good too, 'cause that is Cole's first birthday. We'll see!