Pre-Christmas Festivities

Matching outfits from American Girl Store. Grandma and Natalie both love that place so much. She used birthday money to get the doll's ears pierced (they seriously do that in the doll salon, along with giving them fancy hairstyles), and then they picked out matching outfits. I really couldn't tell if she wanted the matching outfits or not, so I was a little hesitant, but oh my goodness, once we were home! She wore it for two days straight (and would have longer I imagine if I hadn't put it in the wash), and was on cloud nine the whole time. I wonder if having a matching outfit with me would make her that giddy?
Did I mention that Grandma and Grandpa came in town? Staying home might not be as much fun as Christmas in Canada, but we do love it when we have grandparent visitors. Grandma Helen lent us her expertise with gingerbread house making. It turned out quite nicely.

Just today I caught Owen breaking off a piece and eating it when he was not allowed to have a snack because he didn't eat much lunch. Hmmm....it's been at least a week since we made that house now...doesn't sound tasty to me, but I guess if you're desperate it will do.
Natalie had a little holiday dance show for her dance class. She was very excited about it, and the song was very peppy. Unfortunately, they weren't on a stage and there were so many people that I couldn't see even the slightest bit of Natalie during the dance. I tried to get her to dance it for us at home, but she got super frustrated when she forgot the moves (or my version of the song wasn't quite the same as the one they used, perhaps). Then Owen tried dancing to it, and that made her super annoyed. Oh well, I think she had a good time during the show.

More Christmas stories soon to follow...

Christmas Card Pictures

Christmas card Spoiler Alert: The new header picture on the blog is the same as the Christmas card photo. I think it's cute. It's not perfect, and it's not professional, so I don't think I'll be making too many people jealous with it's utter perfection. But let me tell you one thing that should, if you have any envy in you at all, make you jealous. It took a total of about 7 minutes to get. Start to finish. Including getting the kids dressed and ready. The boys aren't wearing socks. Natalie's hair was a mess, with old syrup stuck in it still from breakfast, and looking like a rat's nest. I grabbed whatever we had red left over from last year (except Owen's shirt, which I just bought at Target). They sat and complained for a minute, I snapped about 3 pictures, and we were done. 1-Hour photo cards at CVS done online and picked up the next day. Whew. It's the express train to Christmas preparation.

Side note: Ooooh, to be young enough again that I could run a brush through my ratty hair, throw on a dress or a sweater and look beautiful. Well, maybe I couldn't even do that when I was young. I'm not sure how they do it. And I'll leave you with one more photo from the shoot. I liked it a lot, except for the fact that it makes Liam look a lot smaller than Natalie because he's bending down. She's looks like a mother tending to her two boys.

Santa

Wow, what a Christmas already! This marks the first Christmas EVER that any of my children came within 10 yards of the Big Guy without crying or running away. Not entirely true. Owen has been fine in past years with shouting to him from a safe distance, but being on his lap was a different matter. And okay, Liam I guilted into sitting on Santa's lap, saying that it would make Owen feel better. Turns out, this year Owen was not afraid of Santa. I think he overcame his mistrust of the hairy beast in order to lobby hard for presents. He was quite the chatty chatterbox (which is not unusual, except in regards to Santa).

O: Santa, my name's Owen. Are you going to bring me presents?

Santa: Have you been a good boy?

O: Ye-ess (with only a slight hesitation). Yes. I've been good (feeling more positive about that now.)

Santa: What would you like?

O: Hmmm. A dinosaur. And a playdate. I want to have a playdate with you. I have boy toys. (Maybe if I share my toys with you, you'll bring me more...)

Santa: Well, those are my favorite kinds of toys!

O: Santa, I love you (hug).

That wasn't the whole conversation, but I couldn't hear it all. Owen also "crashed" other people's pictures about 3 times, trying to go back and talk to Santa a bit more. It never hurts to cover all the bases, I suppose, when it comes to making an impression on an important person.

Natalie was hiding around a large post the entire time.

The Trail They Leave

I talk a lot about the trail of notes, pictures, and random oddities that Natalie leaves behind, but trust me when I say that she is not the only one.

I noticed that Owen was playing with our nativity scene before preschool the other day. And that's fine. It isn't a fancy one - it is very kid friendly - and they all love to play with it. Later I noticed that he had pulled a fire engine and an ice cream truck up to the scene. Apparently the angel needed an ice cream break. The fire truck...well, that manger does look like a fire hazard, doesn't it?

The other picture is an origami Yoda that Liam simply HAD to make as soon as he got home from school. He kept telling me it was a very quick way to do an origami Yoda (as opposed to a longer, more complicated version...). "It's an Emergency Mode origami Yoda, Mom."

Happy 4th Owen!

On Nov. 29th Owen turned 4! Wow, he had been waiting for that day for a year. Even his preschool teacher told me the day before his birthday, "He has been asking us every single week all year if it was his birthday yet, every Monday when we go over the week's birthdays." He pretty much walked around saying, "My name is Owen, and my birthday is November 29th." I found it kind of funny that he was so matter-0f-fact about it the day AFTER his birthday. Now whenever anyone mentions his birthday he tells them very seriously, "My birthday is over now." I suppose he has another entire year of anticipation ahead now.

I swear I usually limit the sugar intake for the boy, for fear of dire consequences, but on his special day I took him for his free Kids Club cupcake at Barnes & Noble. It was extremely rich, and he only ate a small part (and the rest of it was on his face and coat), and then made a face like he might be sick. We spent some time at the train table and Lego table in the store. He likes to build very tall towers. There was a little girl building too, and she built a very stable, low to the ground structure. Owen looked at hers and said, "Mine is taller." I thought that perhaps that is a good study in gender differences. His was definitely taller, but hers was built to last. Not to worry, when his fell over, he liked it even more.

And the Little Man finally fulfilled his year-long dream of going to Chuck E. Cheese. It had been many years since I had set foot in a CEC. I have some bad memories of them. But the commercials sucked him in, and it was all he wanted to do (OK, he probably mentioned a dozen other ideas too, but he always came back to CEC). We decided to make it low-key, however, and so we just kept it a family party. I was feeling some guilt about that, as Owen is so social and so aware of the whole party scene. Even the day before his party he was counting off all his preschool friends on his fingers and telling me they would all be at his party. guilt...guilt...guilt... That said, it ended up a wonderful idea to limit the party, I think. It was a Tuesday night, the place was virtually empty, and all 3 of the kids had a great time having the run of the place. They played every game with no wait, and even the noise level was completely acceptable - even for me. They had pizza and played, and had a great time. Then it was done. No mess, no completely-fried-from-too-much-stimulation boy. Wonderful. At least for me. Owen probably still wishes his friends had come.

Then we came home and had a little Superhero cake. A little! Don't even ask why we have a 1/2 sheet cake for a party of 5. Let's just say that I was a little scattered when I ordered it. Wow, that was a big cake. It sits here still.

And what can I say about my big 4 year old. He's a wonderful boy, still so full of life and love and energy. He's still a mover and a shaker, and is always out to make friends. Even when Aunt Amy arrived at the airport for her visit, he ran up to her and said, "Hi, my name's Owen, what's yours?" even though he knew who she was. He still makes me laugh and smile every day. I still get lost in those beautiful down-turned eyes that are the most magical color - blue in pictures, but in the sunlight you can see so many different colors - golden flecks, greenish flecks. Is that called hazel? I'm not sure. Just like the boy, the eyes have so many beautiful layers. Just perfect.