MANU TURNS 3!

We're going to miss Manu's birthday party next weekend (and David and Will's party, since it's a big combo event), but we were invited to go spend the evening of his birthday with him, and we're sure glad we were able to do so. The kids had a good time, and we were so happy to get to celebrate his big day! We can't believe he's 3-years-old already though...

(The balloons were, of course, a huge hit. With all the mobile kiddos, anyway. Poor Leo...)

Dinner was pizza, and I didn't want Cora's new shirt to get stained with tomato sauce. I couldn't resist teasing that I bet Sophie and Alex didn't think Manu would have a topless girl at his 3rd birthday!

His mama and daddy got him a balance bike. A RED bike - so cool!

He also got a fun Spiderman costume. Which looked adorable on little Leo.

(Muah!)

Cora was getting goofy toward the end of the evening. She barely ate any pizza (SO unlike her to miss a meal) and refused the cake. Then we figured out why - she passed out in my arms at 6:50pm. Must've been a hard day.

Sophie's cake was super yummy, and very cute. The boys loved the Skittles!

Happy Birthday Manu! We think you're one awesome kid, and we feel very lucky to have you in our lives!

CELEBRATING 8 YEARS TODAY

If you don't already know the story of how we met and fell in love and survived a bicoastal relationship (twice) and moved in and out of all the time zones in the continental United States and got married and grew our family, or you just want to reminisce with us, go check out Our Story. Or you can click the link just to see the photo timeline at the bottom of the page and remark over how much we've changed over the years...

Happy 8th Anniversary to us!

PLAYPLACE

This morning James had his first field trip with his new school. They were scheduled to go to the Christmas tree farm, but got rained out. So they ended up at the new PlayPlace at the mall. I seriously considered skipping it, since I'd heard it was mostly bounce-houses, and James refused to play in the 2 bounce-houses they had set up at Corps Day a couple months ago. But we gave it a shot, and after about 15 minutes of "playing baseball", he gave in and checked out the itty-bitty toddler bounce-house. After that, his confidence was soaring, and he played in the big bounce-house, climbing up and going down the slide by himself. I was so impressed!

He had his buddies around to play with, but preferred to play with his mama. I didn't mind.

He was even sweet enough to catch me at the bottom of the slides!

I eventually convinced him to try the obstacle course (the same one they had at Corps Day), and he ran through so quick I couldn't keep up (I don't fit through those obstacles quite like the little kids do...). But at the end slide, he got scared and I had to go down with him on my lap. After that he was good to go again, and he even went down the SUPER big slide a few times. And played his first video game (a driving game). And some air hockey.

Then we broke for lunch, played a bit more, and headed back to daycare. Luckily, he fell asleep in the car. And even luckier, I was able to sleep-transfer him to his nap mat at daycare once we arrived. He definitely had a good day, and I sure loved getting to spend a few hours of one-on-one time with him. Now, if only my knees and hips weren't so sore from all the climbing and jumping...

JUST HANGING AROUND...

(These pictures are actually from last week. It was dark and rainy and cold today, so all we did after school was head home and clean house.)

NAME THAT SONG

(We aren't sure what he's singing, but it sounds something like "La la, la la, la lots of giggles". Sound familiar to anyone, or is he just making up songs like his parents do?...)

"LITTLE CHOO-CHOO PARK"

We headed out for the day to give Jay time to complete his final, and our first stop was a new-to-us park that I had seen once a long time ago when I was headed to the Nature Center in Clinton. It's a small park (so I knew I could handle both kids by myself). An old park. But a relatively well maintained park. As soon as I got James out of the car he asked me if he could go play on the train. When I said yes, he took off running and I had to rush to get Cora out to join him! After 20 minutes or so, James declared that this was to be called the "little choo-choo park".

They both really liked the wooden train. This tunnel/car thingy was a hit too:

When James tired of the tunnel/car and wanted to explore the rest of the playground, he took off. I couldn't convince Cora to leave the tunnel/car though. By the time I gave up reasoning with her and turned around to see how far James had run, this is where he stopped:

For the past week or so, he's been climbing far more than ladders at the playgrounds... Scared me to death! I left Cora and ran to him, but he just said "I OK Mama. I OK." Then he said "I stuck." when he realized he couldn't get down by himself. That darn caterpillar thingy was so tall I had to climb it in order to reach him and get him down. Luckily, Cora came wandering over once she saw Mama climbing. Jeesh!

The playground also has a bunch of little ride-on, wiggly toys. An airplane. A bug. An elephant. And alligator. And this double-seater firetruck, which the kids LOVED:

Of course, what would a trip to the park be without some swinging. James likes to boss me around these days as I'm pushing him, saying things like "I want to go too fast! I go too higher too Mama! C'mon Mama, PUSH me! It's my turn!"

TWINKLE TOES

Thank you Grambot and Paw-paw, she LOVES her new sparkly light-up shoes! She knows that dancing and jumping makes them glow, and she had the best time showing them off for us. Especially in the dark! Poor thing cried when we took them off at bedtime...

CHRISTMAS PARADE 2011

While getting my hair cut this morning, I learned that the annual Christmas Parade of Lights was tonight. So, since Jay is in crunch mode this weekend with a homework assignment, presentation, and final to complete, I decided to take the kids solo and give him some quiet time at the house. They were pretty excited for the parade, and James wouldn't put down his Christmas board book (the first book unwrapped from their pile of Advent books).

Once it actually started though, James was far from impressed. He didn't like the sirens of the police cars clearing the street. He was scared of the loud motorcycles. And even the marching bands were only fun until the tubas and bass drums came by. Poor buddy...

Cora, on the other hand, loved every second of the parade. ESPECIALLY the 3 tractors that came by pulling Disney characters. She kept pointing and saying "Tac-ter! Mama! Tac-ter!"

James escaped the stroller to the comfort of Janean's arms (one of our coworkers and fellow church members). I'm pretty sure that despite his 32.5 lbs, she didn't mind holding him one bit.

Here's Miss Smiles again (she was saying "Teeeeeze!"):

Even seeing Santa and Mrs. Claus on a firetruck at the end of the show couldn't pull a smile from James. There were actually a few firetrucks that followed Santa too. It was cool!

Cora waved at them the entire time they went past!

And that was it. The parade ended and we made our way to dinner and the grocery store before heading home to see Daddy before bedtime. I was so grateful to have bumped into our friends. I know I say it often, but it's just that I realize how lucky we are, as far from family as we are, to be in a small town where it's so easy to run into people you know. It makes events more fun, and SO much easier when you're out alone with the kiddos. Thank you Janean and Fred!

WIZARDS IN WINTER

(I've always wanted to see one of these light shows in person - VERY cool!)

CANDY CALENDARS

The kids did actually get candy advent calendars (James picked the one with Santa for himself, so Cora got the snowman by default), from their Gramma, in addition to the books we wrapped. Needless to say, they were pleased with their little chocolate disks tonight. James asked for "more chocolate p'ease!", but was understanding when I told him he could have one each night until Christmas. The candy calendars are now safely displaced on the mantle.

Our Advent books started off well tonight too. We let James pick the first book, and it ended up being a board book with pictures of everything there is that is possibly related to Christmas and December and winter. They both enjoyed naming items and pointing them out. Tomorrow will be Cora's turn, and we'll just keep switching it up for the rest of the month. Family time on the couch before bed sure is nice and cozy! Now we just need a fire...

(The kids this morning, happily checking out their pile of books, wearing their new Christmas jammies from Gramma for the first time. James grabbed a random book and yelled "This is my FAVORITE present!" Then he told Cora "No, don't TOUCH!", after we had explained to him that we would be opening one present/book each night between tonight and Christmas, and that he had to wait. He sure is listening well these days! I suppose that means he already grasps the concept of good behavior = presents from Santa? Sweeeet!)

BRIBERY-SHMIBERY

It's December now, so it was time to attempt Santa photos with the kids. Year one with James was easy. He was 9.5-months-old and had zero stranger danger anxiety. The kid would go to anyone. He didn't smile at the camera, but that was only because he was too busy checking out Santa. We managed to get one shot of him glancing at us though:

Year two, neither James or Cora were subjected to the test of Santa's lap. Cora was a major mama's girl still at 6-months-old, and we'd heard that 1-going-on-2-year-old's were generally not too happy with having strange old men dressed in red pajamas holding them. So we skipped the holding, and instead kept the kids in their carriers while we stood next to Santa:

This year, we talked it up, starting this morning. James was excited to see Santa and give him a hug and tell him what he wants for Christmas ("a new train!") While hanging with Daddy after school (and before greeting Santa), he told Jay "James and Cora getting Christmas kisses" and "I love Santa". (He also told Jay that the old hospital is his "favorite castle" - the kid is very into 'favorites' this week... EVERYTHING is his favorite) But once we arrived at Santa's throne, he was suddenly shy. Santa bribed him with some candy canes though. So he sat for 2.7 seconds. Just long enough for me to snap a blurry photo:

The closest Cora got was giving Santa a high-five (after he gave her chocolate in a bribery attempt):

During our attempt to sit her on Santa's lap next to her big bro, she screamed and lunged for the floor. Since we obviously didn't want to force the issue, we rescued her immediately and let her watch from a safe distance. She sure was dressed cute for her failed photo op though:

So, forget Santa. The kids had WAY more fun playing in the big auditorium anyway (the whole Santa photo op was a free service put together by the Castle Club, which is basically the official happy hour gang at work). They watched old Christmas cartoons on the 3 big screens, danced on the stage, ran up and down the aisles with their buddies Manu and Will, and perfected the art of not letting the movie theater style seats swallow them (which gives us hope that we will be able to take James to see The Lorax for his birthday, to be his first movie theater experience)...

DADDY THE HERO

Mommy may take them to the park and out for stroller runs, but she also takes them shopping and errand-running after school. Daddy, on the other hand, always has a surprise in store! Today they went to the park, climbed on a real train, and then went "fishing". The kids had a blast, and were absolutely Daddy-centric all evening! It's nice to be a hero!

OUR ADVENT "CALENDAR"

James is old enough to understand Christmas this year, and he's already in full swing with Christmas songs and movies, nativity sets, Christmas trees and ornaments, lights, Rudolph and Santa, the whole works. So I figured he was thus old enough for us to start a tradition with an advent calendar, and I decided to do something a little different than the usual candy-a-day calendar. I found the idea on Pinterest, and quickly searched our house top to bottom, hunting down every single Christmas or winter-themed children's book we own. And we have many! I only had to buy 7 books to round out our 25 days of Christmas. Each book is now wrapped and sitting under our Christmas tree, waiting for the kids to pick one each night between now and Christmas to read as their bedtime story. And I hope this is tradition we can keep up for many years (slowly rotating in new books each year)!

The Lindsays are ready for Christmas! Happy December folks!