Our Holidays

sorry about the order these are backwards...
Xmas in Harrisburg: We went to Harrisburg on Saturday to open presents and celebrate. C felt like she needed to open every present. It was a great day!

Xmas Morning: Grandma and Great Grandma came and we opened lots of great toys from Santa! This pic is a toy from Grandma that C and G both love and have to play with everyday!

Xmas Eve: C and G had a ball with their cousins. C was waited on like a princess by her sweet cousins while G took turns being happy and sad over being held by someone other than mommy. Chris and I had such a nice time!

Muffin Tin Monday

So I found out we're supposed to be following themes. Today I tried a holiday theme. The kixx are for ornaments, soybean butter is like snow, pretzels are shaped like trees, bananas are tree toppers. chicken is hmmm...something I need C to eat and the raisins can be reindeer food!

Gavin can sit up

Look: Gavin can sit up!!! Yippppeeeee!!! He falls down after a while but is doing really well. So after naps today we spread out a big comfy quilt and played. We got out some of the toys that C doesn't really play with anymore. Gavin loved it...it was like Xmas came early. He did such a niced job sitting, even C took notice. She sat down with us and played for a bit too. She liked handing him toys and then taking them from him. I can't believe my little baby boy is going to be six months and is already sitting up.

Learn: Rediscovering toys with a new child can be fun. It can also cause some jealousy...but its fun nonetheless. G being able to sit up opens up a whole new bunch of challenges and things to enjoy for him.

Love: Its like the children are growing right in front of my eyes and I love every minute of it.

Being a Librarian

Look: Today we needed to clean up the family room and move some of the toys and books. On Wednesday 3 of my brothers and their families will be here to celebrate. I'm so excited because its G's first Xmas! Anyhow we have books placed all over the house. C is a huge book fanatic and will stop dozens of times a day to check out a book. Well today we had the job of collecting them all and putting them in her armoir. After the holidays we'll redistrubute them and put new ones out. We had a big basket and I'd ask C to get books and put them in. She loved being a helper. Several times she had to stop to read the book and got sidetracked (but I didn't mind). We coralled all the books upstairs for this week.

Learn: I usually play librarian by myself and rotate her books from spot to spot. But it was so much more fun with my little librarian. Santa is bringing her a few books, so I know getting the books back out will be even more fun!

Love: C found some old favorites and was walking all over the second floor (while I changed G's diaper) hugging them. She is so funny!

Early Morning shopping

Look: The holidays are here, they really snuck up on me. Even though I thought I was rather prepared, there were a ton of last minute little things I needed. G woke up around 5 am on Sunday and was definitely ready to party the day away. So I scooped him up and went to Kohls for the 6 am opening. I talked to him the entire way as we walked around the store. He smiled tons at the funny things I was saying. He helped me pick some gifts and even held one of the presents in his car seat (which he promptly started to chew..yuck...so it went in the cart). At the checkout lanes lots of ladies gooed over how cute he is and he just smiled away at them.
Learn: I learned that when things are stressful bring a happy baby along. I dislike trying to tie up all the loose ends, but it was rather fun with Gavin by my side. Also this shopping trip was an example of making lemonade with lemons. Even though I'd rather be sleeping I made the best of it and missed all the crowds!
Love: I love showing of my little boy. People love to look at babies and their faces light up wehn G gives them a smile. It really can melt anyone's heart.

Making decorations

Look: We've been busy, busy, busy getting ready for the holidays. So we took some time to enjoy making some of the decorations. I used contact paper and the red/green pieces we'd ripped up before to make placemats. Chelsea had a ball putting the little pieces on the mats. I think she liked spilling them all over the floor more though. She was very attentive and interested through making 2 placemats. She helped with placing the papers and smoothing out the mats. But once the third placemat started she was off to play. Besides giving me a few pieces of paper and helping pat the contact paper together, she wasn't too interested.

Learn: In the optimal situation, I would have done one placemat at a time with breaks in between. Next time we do big crafts, I'm going to designate a spot and go back to it several time over a day or two so she doesn't get bored.

Love: I am really looking forward to seeing her reaction when we use the placemats. I wonder if she'll remember making them?

Holiday Story Hour

Look: Thursday we went to the library for the holiday story hour. We we early so C played on the rocking horse and looked at books. In the story hour we learned lots of new songs and read some holiday books. C danced and swayed to the music. She has since already learned the guestures to one of the songs and tries to sing it on her own. G. enjoyed every minute of it too and smiled at the librarian who sang in front of us the whole time.

Learn: C can learn songs really quickly, she loves music. G is getting big enough to enjoy the things we go to. Usually I just think of them as for C, but now they are for both of them.

Love: I love story hours, its great to see other moms and kids we see each time. Its also fun to watch both of my kids get into it.