Saturday, December 24, 2011
The Great Santa Debate
We have been debating all December about what we want Santa to look like at our house, and if we even want to DO the whole Santa thing. In the end we decided to go for a toned down version of Santa with Santa bringing stockings, but keeping our focus on the birth of Jesus and reading lots of stories with Trey about baby Jesus. I knew Trey would get so excited about the idea of Santa and the magic of presents on Christmas morning.
So tonight we told Trey that Santa was going to come and bring presents tonight to his house. He knows who Santa is because of some stickers he had and he kept asking, "Who's that?" when he would pull off a Santa sticker.
Tonight Trey pointed out his stocking and we told him Santa would put toys in his stocking. He was very excited. About 10 minutes later he had some more questions about it.
Trey: Santa's car is coming to our house? Sidenote: We don't have a lot of cars come up our driveway to our house so it kinda a big deal to him to see a car come to our house. Hence the car question.
Jay: No, Santa is rides in a sleigh, so you won't see his car.
Trey: A sleigh, wow!
Then later on right before bed Trey informed us it was "breakfast time!" Apparently he thought if it was breakfast time then it was morning and could open his presents!
So tonight we told Trey that Santa was going to come and bring presents tonight to his house. He knows who Santa is because of some stickers he had and he kept asking, "Who's that?" when he would pull off a Santa sticker.
Tonight Trey pointed out his stocking and we told him Santa would put toys in his stocking. He was very excited. About 10 minutes later he had some more questions about it.
Trey: Santa's car is coming to our house? Sidenote: We don't have a lot of cars come up our driveway to our house so it kinda a big deal to him to see a car come to our house. Hence the car question.
Jay: No, Santa is rides in a sleigh, so you won't see his car.
Trey: A sleigh, wow!
Then later on right before bed Trey informed us it was "breakfast time!" Apparently he thought if it was breakfast time then it was morning and could open his presents!
Monday, December 19, 2011
Adoration
Charlotte adores her big brother. Literally, I cannot keep her away from him and whatever he is doing. In the evenings Jay tries to take Trey outside to run around and get some energy out while I fix dinner. Charlotte is stuck inside with me. She does not like this. She wants to be with her brother. We would let her go outside except she eats every stinking stick, leaf, twig, leaf, bug, dirt, piece of grass ........
So for now she just stares out the window until he comes back in. Or waves at her.
We are having to work a lot more on sharing these days because Trey usually wants what she is playing with and vice versa. They do love to share food though. Apparently a snack is no good unless it shared among both of them.
Charlotte somehow got a bit of Trey's play doh in her hand yesterday evening and she ate it. We don't think it was too much, but her tongue did turn blue. Luckily it was homemade so I know exactly what she ate and we can rule out any food allergies for blue food coloring! She threw it up about an hour later so I guess all that salt didn't agree with her system. Today I had a long talk with Trey about keeping the playdoh on his table and not on the floor so Charlotte didn't eat it and get sick. So while playing Trey informs her, "Charlotte, don't come over here, you can't eat my playdoh because I keeping it on the table."
Charlotte decided to go for the Christmas tree lights instead...
So for now she just stares out the window until he comes back in. Or waves at her.
We are having to work a lot more on sharing these days because Trey usually wants what she is playing with and vice versa. They do love to share food though. Apparently a snack is no good unless it shared among both of them.
Charlotte somehow got a bit of Trey's play doh in her hand yesterday evening and she ate it. We don't think it was too much, but her tongue did turn blue. Luckily it was homemade so I know exactly what she ate and we can rule out any food allergies for blue food coloring! She threw it up about an hour later so I guess all that salt didn't agree with her system. Today I had a long talk with Trey about keeping the playdoh on his table and not on the floor so Charlotte didn't eat it and get sick. So while playing Trey informs her, "Charlotte, don't come over here, you can't eat my playdoh because I keeping it on the table."
Charlotte decided to go for the Christmas tree lights instead...
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Holiday Cheer
I mentioned in the last post that we hosted our Sunday School Christmas Party at our house last weekend. We spent most of the day on Saturday cleaning and getting ready for the party. The first thing we did at the party was wrap all the presents for our class' angel tree child. Jay went down to the basement and got all wrapping stuff out so we could organize what we needed.
Charlotte wanted to help.
Before everyone arrived I asked Jay to go around downstairs and take pictures. I figured out house would never look as clean and as put together as it did then. I was hoping for some more creative shots, but he did what I asked :)
We did the wrapping on the kitchen island so everything is laid out on the island for wrapping. We also put out a card table in between the kitchen and play area for more seating.
We spent every night last week figuring out how to hang up this wreath over the fireplace. After 3 unsuccessful attempts we used the ribbon with wire in it woven through the back of the wreath and then tied to 3M strips on the inside of the bookshelves. I am not a huge fan of the ribbon on the sides of the wreath, but after all the work putting the wreath together we wanted it to stay up!
The dining room table has the leaf in it which leads to more seating, but less room to maneuver around the table.
Charlotte wanted to help.
Before everyone arrived I asked Jay to go around downstairs and take pictures. I figured out house would never look as clean and as put together as it did then. I was hoping for some more creative shots, but he did what I asked :)
We did the wrapping on the kitchen island so everything is laid out on the island for wrapping. We also put out a card table in between the kitchen and play area for more seating.
We spent every night last week figuring out how to hang up this wreath over the fireplace. After 3 unsuccessful attempts we used the ribbon with wire in it woven through the back of the wreath and then tied to 3M strips on the inside of the bookshelves. I am not a huge fan of the ribbon on the sides of the wreath, but after all the work putting the wreath together we wanted it to stay up!
The dining room table has the leaf in it which leads to more seating, but less room to maneuver around the table.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Weekend Recap
We had such a great weekend! It was filled with holiday activities and time together.
- On Friday Trey had his last speech session. He started speech at 24 months old because he was only speaking about 15 words and now his vocabulary is over 400 words. He is 32 months old and met or exceeded all the 36 month old speech milestones, as well as placing 36 months old in gross motor, fine motor, and social/ emotional developmental areas. Once again he showed us he likes to do things in his own time :) We are so proud of him and love hearing all he has to say.... even if it seems like we can't get him to STOP talking now.
- Saturday morning we put the finishing touches on our Christmas decorations. Including figuring out how to hang the enormous wreath on our fireplace (where hopefully one day a flat screen tv will rest).
- Trey helped Jay find sticks to put into the fireplace wreath to add a more rustic feel to the ribbon, pine cones, and berries already adorning it. Tonight he asked me "What's that?" pointing to a wreath in the kitchen. When I told him it was a wreath his next question was, "Where's the sticks?"
- Trey has started calling Charlotte "my baby." On Saturday morning I put Charlotte in his bed with him and he said, "Thank you for bringing me my baby, Mommy." and then when Charlotte was trying to crawl out of his bed to go play he said, "Go take care of my baby now Mommy."
- Charlotte spent most of the weekend chasing Trey around the house. He likes to crawl on the floor with her and she is a fast mover and will get to wherever he is.
- We hosted our Sunday School Christmas party at our house on Saturday evening. We had 14 adults and 8 kids come. The party included wrapping all the presents for the angel tree child our class adopted, a yummy BBQ dinner and the annual dirty santa ornament exchange. We ended up with the lovely ornaments of cheese with the label "I love stinky cheese" and a clay Santa.
- Charlotte wore her Christmas dress to church on Sunday complete with a matching hair bow. She looked so adorable! We forgot to get pictures today, but I am sure we will take more.
- Charlotte is the happiest baby ever! She spent the whole Christmas party watching people, crawling to get to presents or toys, and being passed from person to person. She entertained the dining room by buzzing her lips for 15 minutes and then laughing hysterically like she was the funniest kid ever.
- We spent Sunday afternoon with the kids napping and Jay and I relaxing downstairs. It was the first time in a long time that I can remember just reading and relaxing and not worrying about laundry or housework.
- Sunday evening Jay went to church to help with the children's choir program because he helps teach children's choir on Wednesday night. I was flying solo with bedtime duty. I introduced Trey to The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and he loved it. We read it 3 times before bed. Later when I told him I would come back to read to him after I put Charlotte to bed I could hear him saying in his room, "Want Apples? And the tree was happy."
- During Trey's nighttime prayer he got a little distracted. It went something like this, "Dear God, Thank you for Mommy and Daddy. (pauses to think about this) Daddy is at church. (looks at me) Daddy is at church with my church bus. Thank you for my church bus. Amen." Seriously I don't know if any kid has ever prayed for the church bus as much as Trey has.
- I was so refreshed from relaxing in the evening I made peanut butter balls, a loaf of bread, pizza dough, and a hashbrown casserole after the kids went to bed. It felt so good to be productive and now all my dinners are prepped for the week!
Thursday, December 8, 2011
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
We have been in Christmas decorating mode this past week. We got our tree last Friday and spent Friday and Saturday putting it up and decorating it. It has been a fun challenge to see how we want to decorate this house. We are still working on our fireplace/bookshelf area in the living room but the outside was finished today.
Jay and I had many discussions about the best way to hang the wreaths from the windows, but we ended up just taking the screens out of the windows and then hanging the wreaths from ribbon stuck in the top of the window.
Trey helped decorate the Christmas tree on Saturday evening. Every afternoon when we get home he wants to turn the lights on, but otherwise he leaves it alone for the most part. Charlotte has had a few instances of trying to pull the branches or eat the needles that have fallen on the floor, but she doesn't gravitate toward it as much as I thought she would. She is too busy chasing her active brother around to pay attention to the tree.
Jay and I had many discussions about the best way to hang the wreaths from the windows, but we ended up just taking the screens out of the windows and then hanging the wreaths from ribbon stuck in the top of the window.
Trey helped decorate the Christmas tree on Saturday evening. Every afternoon when we get home he wants to turn the lights on, but otherwise he leaves it alone for the most part. Charlotte has had a few instances of trying to pull the branches or eat the needles that have fallen on the floor, but she doesn't gravitate toward it as much as I thought she would. She is too busy chasing her active brother around to pay attention to the tree.
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