Almost Christmas

Here is Ella lovin' on her brother, she is so great with him it is unbelievable.  She's also been incredibly helpful, pretty much folding all of our laundry now, and earning a handsome allowance for her work ($2).   Desmond is a fairly good baby, he sleeps a lot and only gets us up at 1am and 4am for feedings.  Last night he ate himself silly at 11pm and didn't wake up until 4am to eat, so I am feeling like a million dollars today.  That is a good thing because we have a crazy day ahead of us, for all you who didn't know, my sister in law was pregnant also and she had her baby on the 17th.  Peyton Joye Copley was 7lbs 10oz and 19 in. long. We went to go visit them at the hospital and Ella and Cody had a sleep over his house that night with grandma.  They had fun but didn't get to bed till late but thankfully she got a nap in the next day.

     We picked a great time to have a baby, and have thus fallen behind on our Christmas preparations.  Luckily we got our tree the night before Desmond was born, but otherwise it's been a mad dash to get everything done.  I hope everyone is okay with Martin Luther King day cards.  This year all Ella asked Santa for was nesting dolls, which she calls 'Open and close dollies.' (Don't let the kids read from here on because it will wreck there lives from here until they are 14.)  So of course there isn't one shop anywhere near us that has them.  Fortunately Nancy knew somebody who knows somebody who is Russian, and told us about a Russian store in West Hollywood.  So we had to drive down in awful rain and find this place, but we got her some great dolls, so it was worth it.  Much better than driving an hour in the snow in Chicago last year for her present.

We've put more pictures of Desmond up on the picasa page, and I have to say I have put a decree (decree valid no further than the confines of Shelley's head) on the nickname spelling saga.  Desmond will forever be spelled out in writing as Desmond or Desi, he can be called Des(Dez), but from here on out will never have that nickname written again, or at least until he is old enough to decide for himself (I figure he will be 18 when we will give him the option).  We just can't come to a decision and both Nate and I are very stubborn about it and won't give it up, so to prevent a tramatizing life where each parent spells his name different, I have made this crazy decree (see above).

     In last two days, Des has rolled over 3 times!  Twice yesterday and once today.  He gets mad about being on his tummy and then throws his leg over and the rest of him follows.  We'll put up videos of him crawling next week.

Merry Christmas everybody!

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Everybody is home and happy and healthy.  Shelley has been up and around, and we even all took Ella to preschool as a family, and visited all our friends at Shooting Stars. Ella held Desmond for about an hour today, just hugging him and kissing him.  It's pretty hilarious though, because I was telling her to talk to him, to tell him what's going on, but the only things she says to him are "I love you," "I'm your big Sister," and "Hi Desi."

In lieu of a coherent post with actual events and such described, we will instead ask your opinion on a matter of some import.  Shelley and I have had an argument about which is the correct short form of Desmond: "Des" or "Dez."  If you feel inclined, we would appreciate your reasoning as well.  Thanks in advance; The very tired Pyles.  Oh, many more pictures on the picasa page.

Desmond Floyd Pyle

Thanksgiving Week

We started off Thanksgiving week in the best way possible, with my Birthday! I'm now 27!  We had 3 nights of celebration starting with a visit to Chuck-e Cheese for the wee ones, who enjoyed it very much.  The next day, Shelley and I met up with Tom, Cici, Nick and Paul and saw Slumdog Millionaire, which is an incredible movie.  We saw it at the ArcLight in Hollywood, which is a great place for seeing movies.  You get to pick out your seats if you buy them on line, and the chairs are super comfortable.  After that we went to a Thai/Chinese restaurant where we got a ton of really really good food, and stuffed ourselves.  On Sunday, my actual birthday, I got a great card from Ella

That's a picture of our family, including the baby in Shelley's tummy, on the far right,

 and a bunch of great presents as well, including a salad spinner that I've wanted forever, and a great vest, too.  That night we went to our Indian restaurant, and had a great big meal there.

We spent all of Wednesday night cooking and getting ready for Thanksgiving.  Ella helped Nancy make oreo turkeys, which were really cool, and we made fake chicken noodle soup, party potatoes and Nuts and Bolts.  I had to work in the morning on Thursday, but we were at Tom and Cici's by 3 where we saw Katie and Tebben for the first time in a long time, and had lots of fun playing games and helping cook everything for dinner.  After dinner Tom, Tebben and I played pool while everybody else talked.  Ella was full of energy, so I would give her our camera and have her go on photo-treasure hunts, which she did quite well at.  She also took a lot of pictures of us playing pool, and goofy other stuff.

Shelley and I both took Friday off to hang out with Katie and Tebben, and despite it being a crazy shopping day, we went to two different shopping centers.  The weren't actually that crowded though, so we got to walk along and look at some different stores, and eat some good food.  In between the Grove and the 3rd St. Promenade, we went to Nick and Paul's house and ate some more food and talked with them for a while.  Lot's of eating that week.  

These last few days we've been doing lot's of baby stuff, washing clothes and getting the room together.  The baby's room is almost done, Ella's room is now looking pretty good, we got her a new dresser and changed a few things around.  Our room is still a royal mess however, because anything that didn't have a place in Ella's room or the baby's room ended up in our room.  But we've got the day off today, so maybe we'll actually get it clean.  Or else we'll just go and get a Christmas tree, and create a whole new mess.  Who knows?

There's a bunch of new picture on our picasa site, including a video of Ella's proto-cartwheel.  It's pretty good for a four year old.  And the picture of her in bed with dolls and such is what she actually sleeps with every night.