Visiting Santa

Last Saturday we got together with friends. It was perfect timing because they were interested in going to get pictures taken with Santa and that just happened to be my Activity Advent calendar item for the day! (We would have rearranged if it hadn't been.)

So we all went over to the mall and got in line. We walked over and got a peek when the girls started getting a little antsy. I'm sure the Santa we saw was a lovely man, but he was a little sub-par in my opinion. 

Luckily for us Santa One went on a break and Santa Two came on out, and this guy was the real deal.

When we got to the front of the line, we got a little family photo taken. I hope you'll excuse these poor pictures since they are actually screenshots from the photo company website.

I was a little nervous going into it. The last time we got June to sit on Santa's lap was here:

I feel like this Santa (at a town festival) wasn't even trying.

Since then attempts have been entirely unsuccessful with emotions such as suspicion, uneasiness and outright terror.

We didn't actually force her to sit on Santa's lap that time and we haven't forced her since, so I was hoping we might get her to sit on Santa's lap this year for us to have our first really great Santa photo with Bennett in tow!

Well, it was a success!

June sat on his lap a little reluctantly at first, but seemed encouraged that Bennett sat there without a fuss. Bennett seemed mildly interested in him and just stared for a while which was a big surprise to me!

We even got both kids to look and appear not terrified!

But I think my favorite moment was after the picture was taken and Santa asked June what she wanted for Christmas. She hesitated so I crouched down near her thinking I might step in to reassure her, but just before I said anything, I heard her little voice over the sounds of the mall. She spoke deliberately about her wish and Michael made a little motion for me to step away so June could have her time with Santa. It was just such a cute, perfect kid moment.

Then it was over, I breathed a sigh of relief, then we all went back to our friends' house to eat curry and watch Christmas movies. In other words, a top December night. 

Activity Advent - Week One Recap

Day one found me already rearranging the activities I had planned. I originally had 'Decorate the Christmas tree" as the first day activity, but we couldn't wait to decorate the tree on the day we'd gotten it (the day before). So we bumped up "Candlelit bubble bath with Christmas music!" to the top of the list!

Believe it or not, this was June's first ever bubble bath. Not sure why, except that she doesn't really take baths anymore. So she was so excited for the bubbles and even more excited that she and Bennett would be in the bath together. Bennett splashed, kicked and excitedly gurgled the whole time. He was so happy that I had to keep my hands on him at every moment because he kept trying to just...do everything. Stand up! Get on knees! Crawl over June!

(Don't mind my awkward holiday message censor)

This ended up being such a cool kick off activity. The kids LOVED it, it was so new and exciting and June keeps asking to do it again. Which is nice, because we have had plenty of other re-arrangements so having a solid backup is nice.

Day two was "New Christmas books." I wanted to have this one early in the month so we'd have plenty of time to read them before packing them away for next year. 

It was originally just two but I found a collector's edition of Twas the Night Before Christmas in my decorations and included it. 

We did "Roasting Marshmallows!" one of the nights. June decided she didn't like any char on her mallows and mostly ate some non-roasted ones until we cut her off. We also learned that we absolutely rely on those starter logs and aren't dependable to start "real" fires on our own. Since the starter logs have chemicals in them, they are not recommended for roasting food. So we tried making a fire the old-fashioned way and...well, we did get to roast some, and that's all that matters.

On the day we would have done the bubble bath, we did a filler activity of putting up the Christmas village. 

Try as I might to put everything 'just so,' there was no point. June's favorite part of the village is the ice skating pond, so now every human in the village (and the car?) is ice skating.

On a night when Michael was working, June and I watched Charlie Brown's Christmas movie. Not pictured due to June cuddling on me the whole time and not wanting to spoil the moment (have to take advantage when  you can, right?). I guess I never really gave much thought to just how mean Lucy is to Charlie Brown but now that June looks at me with a scandalized surprise and says "Ooh!" whenever Lucy says, "stupid" it's really clear.

On Saturday June and I went to Toys 'R Us and bought some gifts for Toys for Tots. (And June picked out a gift for Bennett.)

Now every morning June wakes up and wants to do her "activity tree."

Tannenbaum

Although we would have loved to have had one more day in Arizona, it was also kind of nice getting back to Sacramento on Saturday since it meant we had a full day before needing to get back into the ol' schedule. 

I had plans for this day. Plans of the Christmas variety.

It was raining lightly, but we went out any way, so dedicated were we to finding a Christmas tree.  

Bennett and I hung out under an umbrella and I tried to keep June under it with us, but she was having too much fun splashing in puddles and hugging trees.

We picked one and took her home with us. That night we decorated while a fire was burning in the fireplace.

We only had one ornament casualty, and it wasn't even June's doing - it was mine! 

Since decorating, the bottom third of the tree has become pretty bare since Bennett keeps going for the tree and we keep having to move ornaments out of his reach.

And now I have an awesome addition to the view from my workstation!

Now if only I could find the time to sew Bennett's name onto our tree skirt...

Thanksgiving 2014

Unfortunately our Thanksgiving started at 6:00 AM, which felt like 5:00 AM to us Californians. 

But things turned around after the sun came up and some coffee was consumed.

We had a really great meal...though I guess I shouldn't be the reviewer of the meal considering that I was a little congested and therefore didn't taste much. Somehow that didn't stop me from having seconds.

After lunch and some naps, we headed outside for an activity. The first step of which was to get the guys in shower caps. Playing football optional.

We then covered the shower caps with shaving cream:

Then all of the girls lined up with their partner (June and Kai were partners) and threw cheese balls at them which they had to 'catch' on their heads. Just like our forefathers used to do.

JP and Alison won by a few, so I naturally assume they've been practicing or are currently on steroids. June and Kai got in last because June didn't want to throw a single one of her cheese balls because she wanted to eat them. Eat them all. So we all dumped some on Kai's head so he didn't feel entirely shafted by his partner.

Christmas leggings made their appearance!

Then we all got in the hot tub! Well, Bennett didn't. And the kids just went in the (freezing) pool, but you know what I mean.

We have a lot to be thankful for this year, and one of those things was getting to be together for Thanksgiving! It was a great holiday!

amAZing trip back

Last week we went back to Arizona to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. The first full day we were in town (Wednesday) the boys went golfing, so my mom, the kids and I had a little outing. We went to the McCormick Railroad Park which I actually have never been to when one of the summer concerts wasn't going on. 

June was so excited to go on the carousel, train and playground.

We also went to the Fountain Hills park twice...once just with the family and once with my friend Lyndsey and her son Matteo. It was so warm, even by Arizona's standards (I heard we almost set the record high)!

We also had a little party over at my parents' house on Friday evening. I got the chance to catch up with Lyndsey, a friend I've known for over 12 years! June and Matteo were born on the same day - quite the coincidence considering they were due almost a month apart.

Lyndsey and her family have been living in Abu Dhabi for the past two years so it was so good to see her after so long - and to see how the kids have grown!

Poor June's lips got so dry (actually, all of ours did) and she kept licking them and sucking on them. As a result, she got this bad redness all around them, giving her kind of a clown-mouth appearance. I think she's going to look like she got into my lipstick in my parents' Christmas card this year!

One of my favorite memories was eating breakfast on the patio on Friday and Saturday mornings. It was chilly and quiet and felt wonderful with a robe on and a cup of coffee in my hand.

Bennett at Nine Months

Bennett made some big changes in the past month. The biggest one is that he started pulling himself up on things consistently and even steps around holding onto furniture for support. That's now all he wants to do...move from one place to hold onto while standing to another place to hold onto while standing. 

He's still nursing and eating solids a few times a day. His solids are mostly purees but also puffs and little bits of food we're eating. 

He says "Dada" a lot. I know Michael is sweet and insists that his first word was "Mama," but his muttering "mamamama" only happens when he's sad, and his "Dada" is in reaction to us cueing him to say it. I feel like "Dada" is his first real word. He knows he's saying it and will repeat it if you ask him to.

He also continues to have his clucking conversations, which are adorable.

He has four teeth - the top middle two and bottom middle two. The next inner two on the top are coming in, we think.

He's so active that our monthly photo shoot was really challenging for the first time. I got a lot of these:

He can give high-fives and he does a little back-and-forth wobble dance to music sometimes. If we shake our head side to side, he'll do it too. 

His best friend is June, who he loves and smiles at even though she's constantly climbing over him, poking him, squeezing him and excitedly shouting things at him. 

Love the little guy!