Bundled Up!

someone is ready for the cold!

Jingle Bells

Merry Christmas from Benjamin!

Merry Christmas 2013!!

What a fun Christmas we've been having! Julia and Benjamin were super excited for the holiday this year and their enthusiasm is definitely contagious! 

The excitement began before Thanksgiving during our Florida trip. Julia and I spied Santa at the mall there and she needed to have a chat with him and get her picture taken. She went right up to and had a long conversation about how she wanted cars, pom-poms, and a firetruck (this stayed fairly consistent throughout the next month) and took this adorable picture.

Then the week before Christmas we made another visit to see Santa because Benjamin had not yet seen him. He wasn't as sure about talking to Santa but did sit and have his picture taken and only needed a reassuring hand hold from me. 

We spent Christmas Eve at Grandpa Rick and Gramma Lesley's house. It was an evening of anticipation with Grandpa Rick and Julia carefully tracking Santa's every move via NORAD's website. After the traditional readings of Santa Mouse and The Night Before Christmas we headed home for bed. Even though both kids seemed pretty wired they were asleep quickly so Santa could come.

Riding the carousel when we went to visit Santa

All dressed up!

the annual reading of The Night Before Christmas

Christmas morning dawned bright and early with Julia jumping on our bed at 4:45am! We did wait until 5:15 (when Benj woke up) to go downstairs. She already knew that Santa had come because he left two packages upstairs -- a book for each of them. Poems to Know by Heart for Julia and The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh for Benjamine. 

And what to our wondering eyes did we spy downstairs? 

… cookie bits leftover from Santa's snack

… a racetrack for hot wheels

… filled stockings

… presents!

It was a big year for motor vehicles in our house, among the presents received were a huge firetruck, a large jeep with trailer, hot wheels, and a couple of other race cars. Julia also received a real guitar and Benjamin loved his new shopping cart. Santa also remembered to bring some new pom-poms for Julia.

Firetruck!

Benj's ball pit from Auntie Merrill

Christmas morning was spent playing and visiting with Grandpa Rick, Gramma Les, Great-Grandpa Carl, and Great-Grandma Beverly. Then after a good nap for Benjamin we headed to the Geary's for Christmas dinner and antipasto.

The following day we had another Christmas celebration with Grandma Laurie, Grandpa Boo, Auntie Lyndsay, Derrick, Auntie Merrill, and Alex. 

teeter-tottering

On Friday, the kids were definitely a little disappointed that Christmas was over but I think they have enough to occupy them for quite awhile! And as a nice surprise, Andrew took the day off and in the afternoon we all went bowling!

Heard Around Our House

Benjamin: "eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fiveteen…"
Me: "fifteen"
Benjamin: "thirteen, fourteen, fiveteen"
Me:"fifteen"
Benjamin: "NO, NO, NO FIVEteen"
Me: silence

time - 4:55am
place - my bed, Julia has just woken up (she slept with me for half the night when Andrew was away)
Me: asleep
Julia: "Mom, Mom"
Me: "what?"
Julia: "where do the crocodiles live?"
Me: "not here"
Julia: "but they live in Florida?"
Me: "yes" (it was way too early to get into a discussion of alligators vs crocodiles -- I do know that alligators are what mostly live in FL)
Julia: "Where do they live in FL?"
Me: "in the swamp"
Julia: "where are the swamps?"
Me: "all over, there are lots of swamps in Florida"
Julia: "lots of swamps?"
Me: "yes, in fact, there's a huge swamp called the Everglades… we'll have to read about it"
Julia: "Ohhh, there must be 191 crocodiles there"
Me: "yes, go back to sleep"
Julia: silence
(Note: I really do wonder what she dreams about when she wakes me up with conversations like this one!)

Heard Around our House - Christmas Edition

Benjamin: Chris-tree! Chris-tree!
                 Chris-lights! Chris-lights!
(he seems to think the "mas" in Christmas is unnecessary!)

Julia: "Is Santa Claus coming tonight?"
(this is asked every day, usually right after she has gotten the treats out of the advent calendar and been told how many days until Christmas Eve! Someone is very excited this year!!)

Benjamin: jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle bells
(apparently his favorite chris-carol)

Julia: "I miss Daddy" (Andrew was away for a couple of days this week)
Me: "Me too but he's coming home tonight after you're asleep. He'll be here in the morning."
Julia: "So, if we don't go to sleep then he won't come home?!?"
(I think there's been a few too many Santa conversations around here!)

and as a special treat here's Julia and Alex performing Santa Claus is Coming to Town at Grandma Les and Grandpa Rick's chris-party last weekend:

Swim Progress

Julia has been making great strides (or should it be strokes??) in her swimming progress lately. I took these videos over the last couple of weeks.

Julia the Builder

Julia attended her first Build and Grow session at Lowe's this month where she built a holiday train. She had a fantastic time using a real hammer and creating her own special train engine!

I think there will plenty more of these workshops in our future!

Julia Gallery: Julia & Benjamin

Julia has been working on drawing people at school lately and last week she drew her first portrait of Benjamin and herself! She is on the left, Benj is on the right, and the sun is shining down on them!

Benjamin Milestone - Speaking in Sentences

Benjamin has turned into quite a talkative child! His vocabulary is very impressive and he amazes us everyday by his ability to imitate and repeat words and phrases. I can definitely see him picking up a language or two - he just seems to have a natural ability for it.

Over the past couple of weeks he has made another cognitive leap and is putting together proper sentences and questions. They are usually pretty short like "why, mama?" or "I do it" but some longer ones are starting to be heard as well.

This morning he told me "I came upstairs, Mama" and yesterday, after we dropped Julia off at school he told me "I washed my hands with kids at school."

He's turning into a little kid right before our eyes!!

Christmas Tree - the decorating

Our fragile ornaments and decorations stayed in their boxes for another year but our Christmas tree is perfectly decorated!

Christmas Tree - the hunt

The day after Thanksgiving we braved the very cold weather and headed out to find a Christmas tree. We went to what has become our usual tree farm in Connecticut and managed to find our tree in under 40 minutes (I think that's a Nadeau family record!).

the perfect tree 

look - our tree has legs!

As it didn't take that long to find the tree Andrew decided he needed more exercise and carried it up the hill!

We did have the customary pizza strips for our picnic lunch (which took place in the back of our van because it was so chilly!).

Julia Milestone: first written sentence

Before Thanksgiving Julia had a pretty big accomplishment - she wrote her first sentence! She has been writing letters and words for quite awhile but this was the first time that she wrote a whole sentence to describe her picture. It says "This is the Indian's turkey, Gobble, Gobble."

Thanksgiving 2013

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We started the day with the Thanksgiving Day parade (which Julia loved and ended up watching twice), continued with dinner at Grandma Laurie and Grandpa Boo's and then a second dinner later in day at Aunt Katherine's house with Grandpa Rick, Grandma Les, and Uncle Jon's family. 

Posing with Grandpa Boo's turkey

Checking out the goings-on in Auntie Katie's kitchen

two little indians!

Smashing Pumpkins

When we got home from our trip we spent a morning getting our yard ready for winter. We had already done a lot but had a few last things to bring in, clean up, and get sorted out. As I moved some wood and raked a few last leaves I gave Julia and Benjamin the job of leaving a treat for some of the woodland animals.

They did a good job of smashing the pumpkins to smithereens eventually!

As heard on vacation

On the monorail approaching the Magic Kingdom:
Andrew: There's the castle!
Julia: And there are ducks! (in the lake below us - nice to have somewhat grounded kids!)

Benj: Mommy, what's this? What's this Mommy? (a very frequent question these days)
Me: We're on the monorail, Benj.
Benj: Choo choo rail? choo choo rail!! (This name for the monorail has stuck)

When we were leaving on Monday both kids were very upset to be going home and not back to Disney.
Benj's refrain was: "castle? where's castle?"

On the plane when they announced the flight was continuing on the Birmingham:
Julia: Burning ham?!? do they burn ham there? why?

Florida - Orlando

After a few days in Gainesville we headed to Orlando to relax for a couple of days. Originally, we had not made any plans other than to hang out by the pool but in the end we decided to spend one day at the Magic Kingdom. 

Julia had actually asked if we could go, the weather Sunday was not supposed to be that warm, and both Julia and Benjamin have been very into the Disney characters lately so we thought we take advantage of the opportunity and just see how it went…. It ended up being amazing!!!! Absolutely, the best decision we could have made!

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Saturday we headed out of Gainesville and there was definitely some sadness to be leaving Grandma and Grandpa behind. But as we got closer and closer to Orlando the excitement built. Benj took a nap in the car and woke up in a good mood. He was goofing around in the car - he started piling his blankets up on his head (in imitation of one his favorite books - Ten Apples Up on Top) and when I turned to take a picture he kept saying "no picture, no picture" with a huge smile on face. Of course, I took a picture!

We needed to buy Disney tickets and were still kind of trying to gauge the interest in actually going to the park so we decided to spend lunchtime at the Downtown Disney shopping area. We had lunch, looked in a few shops, took a train ride, played in the Mickey fountain, and got very very excited about seeing Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Daisy and Pluto. So to the ticket booth we went!

Benj rocking his Monkey "leash" - he loved it!

Minnie was a theme for Benjamin!

There has to be ice cream if we're on vacation!

why, mint chip! of course!

From there we found out hotel which both kids loved - especially the pool which we spent most of afternoon in it. And then had a great dinner at one of the restaurants on Disney's Boardwalk. 

We were awake bright and early Sunday morning (not unusual for us!) and were the fifth car in the Magic Kingdom parking lot!

The kids loved riding the monorail to the park and we didn't have to wait too long when we got there for the opening show. The look on Julia and Benjamin's faces when they saw Mickey and his friends get off the train and start dancing around was priceless. They were beyond thrilled and that alone would have made the day worthwhile. 

Our first ride in the park was the Tomorrowland Speedway where Benjamin and Julia raced around the track successfully making both Andrew and I queasy! 

Next up was the teacups for Julia and myself. Spinning rides do not agree with Andrew and Benjamin did not want to go. But I think I paid Julia back for the bumpy car ride by getting her as dizzy as possible! And Benj apparently regretted not going because for days after the park he kept saying to me "cups, Mommy?", "I ride cups, Mommy?", "cups, Mommy?" It's so bad that I now cringe every time I hear the word cup, expecting this conversation to be restarted!

 Then, after a couple of other rides (Winnie the Pooh - ok - and it's a Small World - mesmerizing) we found our way to our first character meetings. First up, Goofy, Donald, Minnie, and Daisy. We had so much fun! The kids were so into it and loved seeing their pals up close. They went right up to all of them, goofed around and gave hugs and kisses. It was absolutely adorable to see.

The Goof!

Goofy didn't want to let Benj go!

Huge hugs for Minnie!

Benj's first girlfriend! He's playing it cool!

 From there we saw a Mickey stage show, a parade, and then headed out of the park for lunch and a nap before returning for the big event - meeting Mickey!!! Julia and Benjamin really seemed to be in awe that they were standing there and talking with Mickey. It was great to watch!

It was a little chilly so we stopped for some hot chocolate which happened to be the most delicious hot chocolate we've ever had! And Julia looked so grownup drinking out of the Starbucks cup!

Some Magic Kingdom ducks kept us entertained during our hot chocolate break!

We spent the afternoon mostly just taking in the sights of the park, doing some shopping for souvenirs, and riding a couple last rides. We knew there was no way that we were making it until the nighttime parade, let alone the fireworks, but we had a fantastic day and could not have asked for a better experience. And as the topping on the cake we did get to see the castle lit up for Christmas before we left! Magical!

Florida - Gainesville

The first stop on our Florida adventure was in Gainesville to visit Grandma Su-Su and Grandpa Herb. We spent three days visiting with them and exploring the town.

The highlight of our explorations was a butterfly exhibit at the Natural History museum. Once we convinced her, Julia was excited to see it and turned out to love it! We went through the butterfly habitat - a huge rainforest enclosure - twice and spent a long time looking at cocoons, butterflies in various stages of hatching, and hundreds of different butterfly specimens.

An amusing story about this - Julia insists on calling it the "butterfly conservatory." We have no idea where she came up with that word - we didn't use it and that's not what the exhibit was called but for whatever reason she associated it and now she corrects us every time we talk about it! It's pretty funny to hear her say "butterfly conservatory."She has such a great vocabulary!

Also at the top of the kids' list was getting to go swimming. Even though the water was pretty chilly they were both enthusiastic swimmers and had to be practically dragged out both times even though they were shivering and had lips the color of smurfs.

Over the few days we also had time to visit with Grandma and Grandpa, Julia got her first manicure (and visited with a certain special Christmas VIP at the mall - details later!), avoided the alligator trail at a local nature preserve, found a great playground, and just enjoyed spending time together.