Christmas Review

Round 1 of holiday related picture posts and activities.

I was lucky to have 4 days off this year and we had mild enough weather to allow Claire and I to get outside and play a couple of days. No snowman built yet (we missed the time between the great wet snow and the wonderful rain (sarcasm here) that made everything crusty.

Saturday the 19th we had our first Christmas with the McMahon clan. Fun, fun was had by the cousins as Claire enjoyed playing around with Hazel, Ryan & Alex. But more important was her chance to cling to Grandma Joanne and eat cookies, cookies, cookies!!!

Thursday we headed to Amery to enjoy the Eve of Christmas with the Whitcombs. This year we did a traditional English plan to celebrate their English heritage. I tried to sneak in some Guinness but was banned from the house. No, I'm kidding. I played nice with the English and we learned that their family tree has a Bohemian element. Ahh... now I know why those Whitcombs are cool people.

Talking with Jordan about the crackers we opened.

Claire had a blast playing with her cousins and trying to stay the focus of Grandma Jackie's attention. (What is it with this girl and her grandmothers??) She held up pretty well for most of the day but just couldn't make it to the church without falling asleep. She and I stayed in the car for a while and headed in later. That was all it took for her to make it through the rest of the festivities (including gift opening) and all the way home.

Christmas morning she slept in a bit. We expect this will be the last year she allows us to do that until she reaches her teen years. Jordan was heading to her mom's so we just opened our stockings and had some breakfast. Claire thought it was the best that she was able to eat snack, while NOT sitting in her booster. We have learned that she simply loves Nutter Butters as they were in her stocking.

Later she opened her presents from the family and Santa. This year Claire received her very own camera. I'm going to turn her into a photographer yet.

The afternoon we headed for the short drive to Lake Elmo to one of Pete's uncles. Thanks much to Al and Donna for letting Claire tap into the wine cellar (that's where they keep their stash of toys, silly folks - I'm not gonna start her on wine yet!). It was fun to see Claire warm up to the extended Whitcomb clan. As we drove away she said she wanted to go back to 'that house'. We're not sure if it was the birds, the wine cellar or the attention she was getting that she missed the most.

Our last gathering was at one of her favorite places - Aunt Karey and Uncle Mikes. Claire and Pete are there on Fridays so she feels right at home. She had a wonderful time playing with the Dufresnes again and 'sharing' with Hazel. Me thinks those two may be more like Karey and I were than we initially thought.

Hazel is practicing her lovely smile. We're gonna save this one for her graduation party :)

Claire and Hazel with Grandma Joanne. And yes, those two really DO eat broccoli willingly.

More pictures from the other camera coming soon!!

Baby hair & Christmas songs

Claire had her first official haircut last week. It didn't go as well as I would have thought, she had a bit of a challenge listening to directions from the stylist. At least I know it's not just us she doesn't listen too... We'll be working on fixing a couple of spots if we can find the right scissors.




And her favorite thing to sing of late is Jingle Bells. She even makes up songs to the tune about her toys. Quite funny.



I was able to attend her last class at ECFE last week. It was fun to be a part of that with her. She has also been using her imagination and playing solo quite a bit more of late. She likes to take her Little People to the 'park' (read blocks we set up with 'steps' and 'slides'). Her favorite companions include Grover, Elmo and Curious George.

She surprised us last week by reciting one of the books we've been reading. Word for word. It was quite funny to hear.

We're looking forward to the upcoming holiday festivities. Claire really enjoys seeing her extended family and it will be a whole new ballgame this year as she finally gets the idea of presents.

I'm playing with my new iPod Nano testing out the video element.

Overheard

Stealing shamelessly from my friend Future Poltergeist's posts about his daughter, this is what I just heard while playing downstairs with Claire while she was in the process of taking off her socks and yanking her pants up to her knees.

"Ohhh.... I see some ew-sock. I must get it out."

And another one...

"You want a donut? You must be at church." Apparently the last time she went to mass it was Summit Sunday (our church's name for coffee & donuts) and it made quite an impression on her, eh? Unfortunately, the donut she offered me was plastic.

Green eggs & ham

Claire loves herself some Dr. Suess. One of her favorites is Green Eggs & Ham. For dinner this evening Pete dyed some scrambled eggs and ham green and we had them for dinner. They were a hit!



A friend posted about her daughter not knowing what commercials were because she has only seen DVR episodes of shows. I commented back to her if it wasn't for football and baseball Claire would be the same. It reminded me of something Claire has been doing lately. We turn on a toddler music station that we can get on our cable provider. Sometimes Rock-a-bye baby comes on. I have changed the words to the song to Rock-a-bye Claire. Whenever she hears it on the TV she asks why they aren't singing Rock-a-bye Claire. "Want Rock-a-bye Claire". I have to explain that they don't know that song. But to a two-year-old, that doesn't make sense. Ahh.... the innocence.

Dad's little helper

Little Ms. Ladybug

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!!

Eating her candy. She was pretty hopped up, even though we only let her eat two small pieces of candy. She had a great time going to a few more houses than last year and watching the other kids come and go.