Merry Christmas!!!

We feel so blessed this year, and wish everyone a wonderful and happy Christmas!

Showing off her sparkly new party shoes

Merry Christmas!

Ho-Ho-Ho...YAWN.

 The Weekend Wrap-Up tomorrow is bound to be...EPIC.  We have been on the go and enjoying this crazy time of year! :)

Birthday Festivities

The Party People

Eating with Bops

Then eating with Pa, Nana and Papa

"Pup-Cakes!"

Callie is 2!

Somebody loves Boom's cupcakes

Time for presents!

Her loot

New slide- way more fun than the look on her face conveys

It was a fantastic day all around.  Thanks to our awesome families for their love and support tonight and the past 2 years.  Callie is one lucky 2 year old!

Happy Birthday Callie!!!!

Our beautiful little girl is 2 years old today.

I'm at a loss for what to say, besides we have been so unbelievably blessed to have such an amazing little one in our lives for the past 2 years.

If I go any farther than that I'm going to start bawling, so I will end this birthday post by saying,

Callie Joy, we love you and are so proud of you!

And now, a look back at the birthdays so far:

12/22/2009

12/22/2009

12/22/2010

12/22/2011!

 

Frosty

Nothing starts a (snow-less) winter break off right than a toddler singing her version of "Frosty the Snowman."

Weekend Wrap-Up

Christmas. Break. Is. So. Close.

This weekend was fun.  Callie spent the night with Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Cat on Friday night.  Chris and I went to my staff holiday party.  It was great...and then we got to sleep in a little bit on Saturday morning.  And then I got to clean for a couple hours before she was dropped off.  I always have the guilties when we do things like that, but really, it is necessary in order to get some stuff done.  Plus, she always has a blast with her grandparents and aunties.

Reading with the girls and Pa

Saturday was Mommy-Callie day while Daddy had to work.  Since it wasn't too cold out, and it had snowed a little bit, we went on a walk to the mailbox.

 After nap time we headed to the condo for playtime, dinner and the Holidazzle parade downtown!

Checking out the circle of friends Boom made

Choo Choo!

Watching the parade

Today was a reminder for us why we usually stay busy.  I woke up to my Google Calendar Email saying "You have no events scheduled for today."  That doesn't happen very often.  So we bummed around, made a trip to Ikea, and then spent most of the rest of the day at home.  Except during nap time, when I went Christmas shopping with Mari. The main problem was a certain toddler decided to only sleep for 1 hour and 20 minutes, and therefore was awake from her nap by 2:30ish.  That is pretty early.  And since we didn't go anywhere, Destructo-Cal came out to play. She was going going going NONSTOP.  Since it was so nice out, she got to run a little bit outside, and bask in the 40 degree December sunshine.

But that didn't last long.  Thankfully Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Dan stopped by later this afternoon to provide some distractions. And then thankfully there was a Dora Christmas special on at 6 that forced her to sit still for a little bit.

My project of the day (besides finishing up my Christmas wrapping) was to start redoing the nook in our basement.  I always tried to avoid taking pictures of it, but you can kind of get an idea of the "before" from part of a picture I cropped:

Yuck.  Waste of space.

 Today I made it look much much much much better, and a way better use of space with a toddler around.

So much better!

Crafty Mommy did a bulletin board!

 To finish off the space, we need to get a new light fixture (you can't see it in the pictures but it hangs down pretty low- Chris nailed his head on it already and I've ALMOST nailed my head on it about 14 times).  Also, Callie will be getting a train set for Christmas, so we'll set that up for her on the left side of the nook on a new Ikea table Christmas morning.

One of my goals for break is to go through all her bins of toys, put away the ones that are no longer age appropriate, and organize the ones that are.

Two more days til break.

Four more days til 2-year-old birthday.

Six more days til Christmas.

Timing is Everything

Background information:
A good teaching strategy when working with kids with short attention spans is to use a timer to let them know how long they need to be working on something.

Conversation just now:
Callie: 5 minutes.  Poopies.
Me: Are you going to have poopies in 5 minutes?
Callie: Yep.

Conclusion:
It has become apparent that I (unknowingly) apply my good teaching strategy to my short-attention-spanned toddler.

Result:
The whole basement is stinky.  I think the timing was about right.

Fast and Slow...FAST and S--L--O--W

The 2-year-old birthday is a week from tomorrow. 

And yet, how is today only Wednesday?

Say what?  WHAT?!?!?!?  Time does strange things to my head.

Callie and I met our friends Kylie and Calvin for dinner tonight.  Calvin is almost exactly a month older than Callie.

The Cal Pals

They met for the first time when Callie was just a few days old...hard to believe that was almost 2 years ago.

Itty Bitty Babies

I'll just keep being in denial about time whizzing by (except this week...it is DRAGGING) and my baby becoming less of a baby and more of a little girl.  Thank you for indulging my denial by putting up with my myriad posts about it.

On to other things that aren't changing so fast:

Ki-Ki and Elvis are still a big hit. 

Daddy still likes to look crazy in pictures.

Yes, those are wine glasses next to the Nativity Scene.  Please don't judge.  It has been a long week.

We are still messy (someday the pampers boxes full of baby clothes will actually make it to the storage closet) and our toddler is still crazy.  Crazy brilliant.



So if this week could get a move on, and then Christmas break take a REALLY L-O-N-G time that would be great.  Thanks.