For all those who couldn’t attend Julia’s dance recital here is the virtual version.
The first number, Forever Young, showing off their ballet moves:
The second number, The Hotdog Dance, from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. This is Julia’s absolute favorite dance and she actually taught it to the rest of the class. She led this part of the recital!
While I’ve been counting down on here we have also been counting down with our advent calendar at home. A few years ago I made these felt stockings.
Originally, they were to hold a little trinket or candy for each day but last year I read (most likely on Pinterest!) about someone’s idea to wrap Christmas books and/or dvds for advent “presents.” This sounded perfect for us. We love reading and have a lot of Christmas books. I liked the idea of a book a day – that way we got a chance to read and enjoy each one. So this is what we’ve done for the past two years. I take out all the books and a few dvds at the end of November, wrap them simply, number them, and make a pile. We don’t have quite enough yet to fill the entire 24 days but I’ve added a few each year and next year we might. Julia counts down on the stockings and if there is nothing in it she looks for the right number in the pile of wrapped books but occasionally there is a surprise piece of chocolate! (Well maybe not such a surprise anymore since after she got the second one she felt each stocking to determine exactly where the candy was!)
We were all finally feeling well enough yesterday to get outside for a little while. Benj decided that just crawling and pushing his shopping cart around wasn’t enough for him – he needed to try Julia’s scooter and tricycle too. The scary part was that once he got onto the scooter he kept trying to put one foot down on the ground like he knew exactly how to ride it! Thankfully, he’s a little too short to be able to touch the ground and hold the handles at the same time!
Julia had a holiday party at school yesterday and got to see Santa again! She also had a gift exchange with her class and brought home all her Christmas crafts that they’ve been working on for a couple of weeks. They have been busy creating candy canes and Christmas trees!
Over the weekend we went to visit Santa. Julia told him that she wanted Christmas pom-poms and a ball pump (for her big red ball that is deflated). She didn’t want to have a picture taken by herself or with just Ben so we all got in the photo! Ben wasn’t so sure about Santa and was happy that Daddy was there to hold him!
Merrill and I took the girls to LaSalette Shrine to see the lights. It was a fun night with lots of lights, meeting Clopper the Christmas Donkey, riding the carousel, and ending up with ice cream sundaes!
I’m sure we’ll get lots of fun out of this one over the next couple of weeks – we made Christmas playdoh. Benjamin got to play too and had a lot of fun smashing all the balls of dough!
We’ve also done more decorating! Julia decorated our windows this week with window stickers.
Last night Andrew and Julia were playing (not sure what exactly) and Andrew ended up hiding under a blanket. He stayed under for a few minutes but then came out saying “it’s getting kind of stuffy under there.” Julia’s response: “Don’t worry Daddy – I’ll get you a tissue!”
We’ve been doing lots of fun activities to get in the holiday spirit. Over the next few days I’ll share some of what we’ve been up to. First up – gingerbread house decorating!
We are all recovering from colds around here but a sure sign Benj is feeling better is when he starts eating again. Julia kind of nibbles all day long and while Benjamin will have a couple of small snacks, when he sits down to a meal he really eats! We haven’t found anything that he won’t at least try and usually will take several bites even if he doesn’t appear to like it (this happened with green olives and a pickle). This week he has been polishing off sausage, apple and carrot yogurt, some cheerios and a good portion of my oatmeal for breakfast, crackers, cheese, black beans, and grapes for lunch, and assorted meals for dinner. Last night he ate some of the mushroom stew and gorgonzola polenta that I had made for Andrew and I and the other night he didn’t bat an eye at pasta with a spicy tomato sauce and polished off what we put on his tray. I’m sure he will go through phases just like Julia has but for now I’m enjoying a child who eats what’s put in front of him and likes it!
…does not belong! But it did make me smile when I opened the cupboard to get things for lunch yesterday. Thanks Julia!
Julia’s latest obsession is filling bags with objects she finds around the house and carrying them around. In case you’re curious here is the inventory of two of the bags in the photo above.
In the little black and gold bag are:
In the large black and white bag she has:
Andrew and I have taken to joking that they are like black holes – everything ends up in one of her bags. If we’re missing anything or need something it’s the first place we look!
A couple of our recent more amusing moments…
This morning at the grocery store:
Julia: do we need anything else?
Me: Just some rolls
Julia: For dad?
Me: yes
Julia: Because Daddy loves his sandwiches!!
At lunchtime today – Julia was going potty:
Julia: Can you stay in here with me?
Me: If you’re quick; I have to finish giving Benj lunch
Julia: Don’t worry – you have a fast daughter!
(not sure I agree with that self-assessment!)
Here are the 10 month photos of our squirmy boy (it took quite a bit of effort to get them)!
His birthday will be here before I know it but right now I can’t believe that Benjamin is 10 months old! Its been a little while since I’ve posted an update on what he has been doing so here we go:
He loves:
He dislikes:
He tolerates:
He continues to be a very easy-going, laid back (although very active) little guy. He pretty much goes with flow and is only really fussy when he’s sick or teething or over-tired. He is working on pushing through his 8th tooth and on walking without any assistance. He can take several steps between people or from one thing to another and I’m sure will be chasing his sister very soon!
Benj is also saying a couple of things – mostly mama and baba (bottle); but once in awhile I hear dada. He can sign that he’s done with a meal and he’s good at waving and clapping (not that he’ll ever do them when I ask him to!) and pointing. He’s starting to make his wants known in ways other than fussing which is a nice step for all of us!
Another of this favorite activities these days (shown in the picture below) is taking things out of a container and putting them back in. This morning he was putting blocks in and taking them out of the mailbox on his play house. And then he decided a better idea was to store the blocks in the hood of his sweatshirt! He got them in by throwing them over his shoulder. very cute.
Yesterday, at breakfast, Julia was explaining to me how to make chocolate granola bars and I thought I should share:
And here’s further clarification on a couple of the details:
The second part of our Florida vacation was spent in Vero Beach, FL visiting Andrew’s parents. While we were also visited by rain and lots of wind from Hurricane Sandy we kept busy and the kids ended up having a great time!
Julia and Benj created their own choo-choo train!
We picked out and carved pumpkins:
We fed giraffes and met lorakeets at the zoo:
We watched the sand cranes in Grandma and Grandpa’s backyard:
We even got in some putting (Julia actually golfed 3 days in a row!) and a walk on the beach!
And, of course, there was plenty of ice cream (because it’s not really a vacation until there is ice cream)!
We spent the last week in October in Florida, enjoying a couple of days in Orlando and then a visit with Andrew’s parents in Vero Beach. It was a great trip and while the weather wasn’t exactly what we had hoped for, we managed to pack in a lot of fun.
We started in Orlando at a great Marriott hotel that was right across the street from Sea World. We had not originally planned on staying there but fate was on our side because the hotel was fabulous. It had a great pool area complete with a little water park for the kids! Julia and Benjamin spent most of two afternoons splashing around.
While in Orlando we also visited Downtown Disney and Sea World. We were amazed at the Lego store in Downtown Disney – just incredible sculptures made entirely from Legos, like this one of Woody and Buzz Lightyear:
We also had a special treat because there is a Babycakes bakery there. Babycakes makes only vegan (so egg-free) and gluten-free baked goods. It made me so happy to be able to go in somewhere and tell Julia that she could chose whatever treat she wanted. And she thoroughly enjoyed her brownie cupcake with orange icing!
Sea World was also a hit. We all loved the dolphin show (Julia and Benjamin both sat mesmerized the entire time), walking through the shark tunnel, and seeing sting rays up close. It was a busy couple of days but a really nice break and a great way to start our vacation!
