Christmas Top Ten

I've always loved Christmastime. I started enjoying it even more when we had Grace and began passing down our family traditions to her. However, this year is first year that she has really gotten into "the spirit" herself. We are having so much fun watching her enjoy this month. In honor of her new love of all things Christmas, I present my first ever top ten list.

The Top Ten Ways you Know your Toddler is in the Christmas Spirit:

10. Your toddler marches around the house singing Christmas songs and proclaiming, "I'm a Christmas Carol!"

9. No matter how many times a day you turn off the Christmas tree lights, they always seem to be back on within minutes.

8. The new favorite game is pretending to be Santa and asking everyone want they want for Christmas. (By the way, according to our little Santa, we're all out of cute little redheads for this year!)

7. Your child has learned that whenever they ring a bell they should say, "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings." If your tree is covered in bells like ours is, you can expect to hear this many, many times everyday.

6. On any given day you can expect your toddler to either not sleep at all because they are so wound up from the excitement and/or sugar OR take the longest naps they've taken in a year because they've finally given in to the exhaustion.

5. At bedtime, instead of wanting to hear the usual goodnight songs, your toddler insists on hearing a Christmas song. More precisely, "One I never heard before."

4. The ornaments that were once hung on your tree are now littered throughout your entire house.

3. Whenever you drive through the neighborhood in the dark, you are expected to give an explanation of why not all of the house have decorated for Christmas. (Luckily your toddler has not yet realized that their house is one of those not yet decorated. That would take A LOT of explaining!)

2. Baby Jesus has become a new favorite playmate. He is taken to "the doctor's office" (aka behind the couch), given cheerios to eat, and has been introduced to Boots the monkey who is standing in for a shepherd in the nativity set along with Noah and an extra Joseph.

1. You find your child naked behind the Christmas tree. When you ask what they're doing, they reply, "I'm just getting cozy in the Christmas tree."

The Things She Says

Grace is one funny girl. She has said so many funny and sweet things lately. I should write them down sooner because I often forget them amidst our busyness. Here are a few that have managed to stay in my tired mommy brain.

Grace's lesson at Sunday School last week was about Jonah. She must have really paid attention because a couple days later when I asked her to do something and she ignored me, I said, "Are you going to choose to obey?" She thought for a moment then replied, "Yes. I don't want to get eaten by a fish."

She has a long history of problems with separation anxiety. Many of you know that from the time we started leaving her in the church nursery at 3 months old she has cried and cried. (And we have missed a lot of church!) This fall, determined to make it to my Mops meetings, I discovered the book The Kissing Hand. It's the story of a little raccoon scared about going to school for the first time. His mom kisses his palm and explains that he now has a magical kissing hand, and anytime he feels lonely he should just press it to his cheek. Grace loves the book. We make kissing hands all the time now and she's doing great in the nursery! Last week, Grace was going to be spending the night with Jeff's parents. Before he left for work he told her how much he would miss her. Without missing a beat, she grabbed his hand, kissed his palm, and said, "There you go Daddy."

During a car ride last week, Grace started telling us a story. "Once upon a time there was a Daddy, Mommy, Grace, and Charlie..." and on and on and on it went. I wish I could tell you what the story was about, but when she gets going that fast, she's hard to understand. At one point she yelled, "Robots!?!?", and at the end she said, "Wasn't that amazing?" I told her that yes, it was amazing, to which she replied, "Amazing Grace!"

Yesterday morning Jeff had said his good-byes and gone into the garage to leave for work. Grace opened up the door and yelled, "I'll miss you! Don't forgot your lunch! Drive carefully!"

Funny, funny girl.

Grace and Charlie playing in their "boat".

Dr. Grace seeing all of her patients for the day. (More to come on this!)

Pizza Night

Another long standing tradition in my family is pizza night. (Basically we eat well ALL weekend long!) My uncle Brooks makes the most amazing pizza, and we have been enjoying it during Thanksgiving weekend for as long as I can remember. Grace loves getting to help Uncle Brooks in the kitchen. She even got to help plan the menu this year...no salad, no Nancy's cottage cheese and homemade vanilla ice cream!

Grace learns how to pat out the dough.She gets the "yauce" on just right.
Mmmmmmm!
Both Grace and Charlie had a great time getting to know their family a little more. My cousin's daughters, Emily and Katie, loved holding Charlie and playing with Grace. We only see them once or twice a year, which is a shame because they get along so well! I don't know how I ended up without a picture of Grace and Katie together because they were playing together non-stop. It probably had something to do with the fact that they were constantly on the go!

Charlie and his Great-Aunt Skipp

Charlie, Emily, and Katie

Oodles of Noodles

I'm not sure when the tradition of Noodle Night began, but for as long as I can remember, my family has enjoyed my Mom's homemade noodles the day after Thanksgiving. This year we had over 25 family members join in...that's A LOT of noodles! My mom roasted several turkeys using the carcass to make broth and saving the meat for the soup. Grace, Charlie, and their cousin Jacob got to help Grandma and Momo (my sister Megan) make the noodles. It was quite the production!

The entire island as well as the counter behind it are covered in rolled out noodle dough!

Charlie wasn't too interested in the noodles this year. =)

A Musical Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving day with Jeff's family. We enjoyed a relaxed afternoon of spending time together, a delicious feast, and watching Grace in her greatest musical performance to date. About halfway through dinner, Grace decided to sing instead of talk. She started by singing, "What are you eattttttting?" to guests around the table who responded in a similar operatic style. I wish I had a video of it because I honestly cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard, but it's hard to describe it in words. My favorite part of our "opera" was when Grammy sang, "Did you like your turkey" to which Grace responded with a resounding "NO!" in true finale form.

A Day at the Zoo

We couldn't let the beautiful weather slip by this weekend without doing something outside to enjoy it. We decided to head to one of Grace's favorite spots...the zoo.

We adjusted the stroller so that Gracie could stand on the back and easily hop in and out to see the animals. She enjoyed her new form of transportation, but still opted to walk most of the way around the zoo.

She was especially interested in this fox. As soon as we told her it was a fox she said, "Swiper, no swiping!" Swiper, Dora the Explorer's archenemy, is one of Gracie's all time favorite characters.

Charlie, in his normal laid back style, enjoyed the ride through the zoo.

Grace wasn't too sure about these animal statues at first. She kept asking, "Are they real?" Eventually she posed for a few pictures with them.

If You're Happy and You Know It...

Jeff and I both agree that this little toy is some of the best money we've ever spent. Charlie LOVES this thing. I haven't seen him react this way to any other toy. Who can blame him? He gets to watch himself in the mirror, shake a microphone, and listen to some pretty good music. (I'm serious. As far as kid toy music goes, this is pretty groovy!) He squeals with delight when he's playing with it. And he's learned a new trick!

One of the songs it plays is "If you're happy and you know it". After seeing us clap with the music, he joined in! Now every time he hears any music he starts clapping. Not only does he clap, but he gets this huge, proud grin on his face as if he's saying, "Check me out! I can clap like you!" It is seriously, seriously cute.