California Visitors

We had a post-Christmas present in the form of a visit from our friends from California! Amelia and Charlie are only a few months apart, and they had a great time together. I love this age . . . it took them about 5 minutes to become fast friends!

At the park


Skipping home


Making gingerbread cookies


Watching the Charlie Brown Christmas special

Christmas

We had a lovely Christmas in our "new" house this year. Evan's folks and grandpa came up to celebrate with us and we had a great weekend together. We also made use of Skype to get Evan's sister and brother-in-law and my family in on the Christmas action - not quite the same, but better than just the phone!

The highlight of Christmas, for me anyway, was this exclamation from Charlie after pulling new underwear out of his stocking: "New underwear! How lucky am I!"

Getting milk and cookies ready for Santa (who definitely would have preferred a beer)


Christmas morning


Santa came through with the Argentinosaurus cookies


Singing in the rain with his new dinosaur umbrella


Merry Christmas!

Pretend

Charlie's been having a lot of fun with pretend lately. Today he and Isabel played pirates, which involved using her quilt as a boat, and wearing her dresses as their costumes - I love it! They also had treasure maps, and Charlie was quite fond of the fishing net.




* * *
In the bathtub the other night . . .

"Mama, I have a baby inside of me! But she is in a shell that is green. [He rubs his belly.] Ooh, I think my baby is ready to come out! [He schootches his butt up off the bottom of the tub.] There she is mama! And look, she is such a good swimmer!"

* * *
While playing with Evan the other day, Charlie pretended he was little Grandpa [what he calls Evan's dad, because he also has a great-Grandpa on this side of the family]. This included using a deep throaty voice and telling Evan he was his son!

SNOW!

We had a weeny bit of snow today . . . only for about an hour and it didn't stick, but it was lovely while it lasted. I was off today, baking cookies and getting Christmas packages ready, and the weather made me feel all the more elfin.

In the Spirit

Despite continued shenanigans with getting moved in, it's - pardon the blatant Bing Crosby reference - beginning to look a lot like Christmas at our house. Charlie has been very excited about Santa this year, and asking the usual questions: "Does Santa get burned in the chimney?" "Is tomorrow Christmas?" Thank goodness for the Advent calendars, as they're keeping him some what straight in terms of when Christmas day will arrive. His one and only Christmas wish? A dinosaur cookie, preferably an Argentinosaurus large enough to give him, mommy and daddy a tummy ache.

Opening up the Lego Advent calendar (which was as much a gift for me as it was for him)


Headed downtown for Winterfest - ice sculptures, Christmas tree cupcakes . . . what more could you ask for?








The boys wait patiently for the tree lighting . . .




Signing his letter to St. Nikolaus (his first dino cookie request, from which he has not wavered)


We actually went to see Santa this year at the Pullen Park Holiday Express. Charlie wouldn't sit in his lap, but got close enough to make a second impassioned plea for the dino cookie.


A bit of Christmas boating


After a LONG wait, we are finally aboard the train




Our favorite scene from the light show


Getting the house spruced up

And So it Begins . . .

Baby #2 is already suffering from being photographed less than his/her big brother, and hasn't even made it out of the womb! I remember painstakingly documenting belly girth from week to week with Charlie, and last Friday we finally got our act together with this one - 30 weeks into the pregnancy! Sigh. Sorry kiddo!