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.

Babies

Almost a year ago Callie received two baby dolls as either birthday or Christmas gifts. 

It took almost a year, but they are the IT toys these days.

Tonight, she gave them names.  All on her own.   I'll let her tell them to you.



I have no idea where Ki-Ki came from, but I can explain Elvis.  Elvis is a blue cow at my parents' Lunds store.  She loves visiting Elvis, and therefore named a baby after him.

Weekend Wrap-Up

I love this time of year.  And I love weekends.

So here's what we did:

Yesterday was low key and lovely.  Callie and I went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a couple of hours in the morning, and then hung out at home for nap time and the rest of the afternoon.  We got busy...doing things like making Oreo Balls.  I found a great way to get the Oreo's crushed:

It did take a little convincing for her to not open the bag and actually eat an Oreo, but I managed to hold her off.  During snack time, Baby had to make an appearance.  So did a goofy face.

 We went to a delicious Italian restaurant for dinner with Josh and Alison. We may have high standards, but, to us, Callie was all over the place (in and out of the high chair, wandering around the table, etc.). The couple behind me told me as we were leaving that they had 3 boys, and wouldn't imagine bringing any of them to dinner.  They were very impressed by Callie and said the difference between girls and boys is huge.  So I guess we need to be thankful that when she is out of her high chair she isn't crawling around the floor or running all over the restaurant.  We were able to keep her fairly occupied with books.

Today was BUSY and also lovely.  While I had a coffee date with my friend Adrea, Chris and Callie went to hang out with the Wicks clan.

Lots of toys!

Crazy Dave!

I was also able to stop by and see my friend Casey's 3-week-old little guy Gianni.  He is adorable!!!

This afternoon the fam and I went to the TCGMC Christmas concert (amazing!) and saw my former piano teacher, who is the accompanist.  Then we had Mari's birthday dinner back at the condo.  Delicious!!!

Callie, Mari, and Josh

Checking out the tree with Bops!

"Helping" with the presents

 

Too interested in looking at the cake to pose for a picture with Mommy

I feel like I say this every week, but I can't believe it is December...I can't believe we have a 2-year-old birthday coming up...I can't believe it is almost 2012.  We are all looking forward to enjoying the holidays with all the family, friends and fun it brings!

Happy Birthday Auntie Wadi!

It is Mari's birthday today!  Happy Birthday!  We love you!

I thought for the picture I'd dig way back and find one of my favorite pics of Mari and Callie together...from April of 2010!

Santa Visit

If you remember our Santa visit from last year, you will remember it did not go so well...

Year #1--> Fail

 This year, I thought we MAY have a chance (a very small chance) of having better success.  We read books about Santa.  She has a little choo-choo with Santa in it.  We talked up Santa when we were on our way there.  She saw kids ahead of her in line sit on Santa's lap and then get a candy cane.

Alas, none of the preparation or background knowledge building was successful.

Year #2--> Fail

If you can't tell from the picture, she spent the whole 10 seconds trying to get as far away from Santa as possible.  But, boy did she love the candy cane after we were far away from the man with the scary white beard.

Maybe next year, third time will be a charm.

Or is it three strikes and you're out?

We'll find out in a year I guess.