Santa

For four years, the topic of Santa has brought about a mix of curiosity, fascination and total fear to our eldest child.

The first three years, the total fear came because the thought of actually meeting, sitting with and talking to Santa was, well...terrifying (when she was 2-almost-3 she absolutely REFUSED to go anywhere near a real Santa, so we had to settle for a fake one).

Then last year, with a little goading, the fear gave way to curiosity and fascination because of the better understanding that "Santa" brings her presents. 

Of course, we have evidence of the total fear (and Santa refusal), as well as  evidence of it turning around.

This year, somehow someway...she was psyched to visit Santa, and her sister was okay with it too as long as she got to stay on Mommy's lap.  We got the cutest picture of two smiling little girls with Santa that their ever was.

Though I may be a tad biased.

FTPDF: The Thanksgiving Week Mega Post

Happy Friday!

What a fun-filled week we have had. 

Callie is all about everything Christmas.  The girl loves winter, Christmas movies (year round) and...pretty much everything about the holiday.  She has been waiting SOOOOOO patiently for our Elves on the Shelves to come.  Last year Coo-Koo the elf quietly joined our family in December.  She found a new funny place to hide every day and Callie loved waking up every morning to find her.  She was so sad when Coo-Koo had to go back to the north pole after Christmas.  Then, in July, Maya got her own elf on a shelf from Nana and Papa!  Callie named her Baloony (very appropriate since the elf was a birthday present), Loony for short. 

I don't think it is a coincidence that our two elves' names are other words for CRAZY.

Anyway, this year Coo-Koo and Loony made their debut this morning, after Thanksgiving.  And Callie could not have been more excited.



Favorite Thing #1: Elves on the Shelves!
She found them and then proceeded to feed them cheerios for breakfast,
which I then sneakily ate so that when she  checked back awhile later,
they were gone.  SO MUCH EXCITEMENT.

As of yesterday, Maya is officially down to one nap a day.  Hooray!  We are still working out the kinks, but hopefully it will make life easier and she'll be more willing to sleep.  The past week has been a little rough in that department (i.e. an immediate FREAK OUT if we went in her room and turned out the light, signaling nap time).  So now we have to rearrange our brains for when we are able to schedule and plan things to do outside the house.   But it will give her more time to do what she does best...PLAY!



Favorite Thing #2: Play time (at Boom's house)!

And now for the rest of the week's pictures...there are many!



Favorite Thing #3: Shambles!
We have a new family member.  I have a "niece!"  Uncle Dan adopted this
little cutie, Shambles, last weekend.  She is an 8-week-old blood hound.
Kona is PSYCHED.

Favorite Thing #4: Baby Hattie!
My friend Emily had a baby in September, and we finally got over to see her
this week.  The girls had fun playing with Vera and Hattie, and Emily
and I had fun catching up and talking about all things GIRL.

Favorite Thing #5: Thanksgiving Morning!
We had a lovely Thanksgiving, starting with a yummy brunch and play time
at G-ma and G-pa's house.  Brunch even included a gluten-free cinnamon roll
for Miss Cal.  Maya was all about the ham.

Favorite Thing #6: Thanksgiving Afternoon!
We then headed over to my parents' condo for the afternoon.  We had a delicious
meal with Boom, Bops, Auntie Yoda, Craig, Auntie Mari, Bob, Barbara
and Laura.  We missed Great-Grandma Gi-Gi this year, but she was in our
hearts.

Favorite Thing #7: Christmas songs at dance class!  We went to dance this morning instead of tomorrow afternoon.  There is nothing cuter than 4-year-olds dancing to "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer."

IMG 1447 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.


IMG 1449 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

Adorable, right?  Seriously.

Favorite Thing #8: Free bananas at the new co-op by dance class! 
And shopping there on a Friday when it isn't super busy!

Favorite Thing #9: Christmas Decorations!
Callie helped get out all of our Christmas stuff, so we put it out. 
Next step is the tree.  Hopefully we'll get that done next week.

Favorite Thing #10: A Gosselin gathering!

Tonight we had a great time with the Gosselin side.

  

Chris' cousin Carlos with...Maya, then Maya and Eliana,
then Maya, Eliana, and Callie, then Maya, Eliana, Callie and Piperlee.
Lots of little girl cousins!

 

Hanging out at the bar with Uncle Gus. 
Callie ordered a virgin screwdriver, while I got a much fancier (and more adult) drink-
I believe it was called "The Big Blue Ox" or something very Minnesotan.
It was delicious.

 

We tried to get the 4 girls together and the top picture was the best I got.
Then there was a cousins picture and a picture with Nana and Papa.

 Thanks to Karen and Gus for a great night!

 

Today ended by Chris coming home after a long day of work, bringing home a great Black Friday purchase.

 

Favorite Thing #11: No more gas station coffee for me!

My heart is filled with so much love and gratitude after this fabulous week.  Hope you all had a wonderful week as well.  Have a great weekend!

TBT- Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  We hope everyone had a wonderful day celebrating with family and friends.

Ours was lovely, and I'll write about it tomorrow.

My throwbacks today are all Thanksgiving related, obviously!



On the left: Newly pregnant and probably sick,
On the right: NOT pregnant and feeling good!

Callie: Almost 2, Maya: 16 months

Sisters (some happy, some not so happy)

Weekend Wrap-Up: The 16-Months-Old Edition!

I can't even describe how much I love this age of baby/toddlerhood.  It is perfect.  She hasn't started with the terrible two nonsense yet, she is still a little cuddler, but she is active and loves to play and is ridiculously entertaining to watch.  Golden.  It is the golden age.

I'd like to reiterate my statement about playing.  SHE LOVES TO PLAY.  I took a series of videos of her yesterday about the time that she was supposed to be going down for her 2nd nap (which is something that may be changing now as she is getting into toddlerhood- I think we are close to moving from 2 naps a day to 1).  Usually when I take videos, I take a few of them and then decide which one is the cutest to share on the blog, so as to not bore you with too much baby cuteness (though is that really possible?).  Today, I couldn't even decide.  So, since it is my blog (and if you are taking the time to read all this you will probably enjoy ALL the videos), I chose 3 of them.


IMG 1257 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

IMG 1259 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

IMG 1261 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

Ever since the day she was born, I have been more than a little captivated by her sweet face. 

Let me just make that last picture bigger.  Because THAT FACE.

Okay I'm done.  I love 16-moth-old toddlers.  Especially my own.

On to our weekend...

Saturday

We had lunch with Boom and Bops.

We played at home and went for a snowy walk.

And then...Callie waiting in anticipation for her preschool crush Henrick to come over.

You may notice Callie is wearing a different outfit in the two pictures.
She was wearing her leotard and tights under her yellow dress before he arrived.
Then, once he got here, she took off her yellow dress and hung out in her leotard.
Then she got cold, and put on the red dress.  Before he left, she had changed
into her pajamas.  And I wonder why I have ridiculous amounts of laundry
every week.

Sunday

We had  super low key day.  Lots of play time at home.  That's about it.

Bath time, cuddle time, jumping time, play time, bottle time,
and hot dog octopus time

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

59-Months-Old!!!

ONE month until 5! It is unbelievable.

There is something so fascinating about this age. So many emotions...so many expressions...

So much curiosity...and so much attitude.

Four has been somewhat of a challenge and I'll be ready to embrace 5...but not for another month. 5 just sounds SO old.

FTPDF

Happy Friday!

We had a pretty chill week, so there weren't too many pictures.  As usual, I couldn't help but take pictures of the little one.  Especially in her high chair.

Favorite Thing #1: This one

And the older one doesn't stand still long enough for me to get many good pictures, but one night she did stay still long enough so she could make funny faces.

Favorite Thing #2: This one

My favorite time of day is between 6:00 and 7:00pm.  We are all usually upstairs in the play area, and the girls play and wrestle and giggle and it is so fun.

Favorite Thing #3: Family play time

I had the day off today, and my friend Amanda and I took our girls to an indoor play area close to our house (that I had a groupon for).  We had never been there before and it was AWESOME.


 

Favorite Thing #4: A new (to us) play area
(just in time for the LOOOONG winter)

 

Have a great weekend!

TBT #200

When I save my Throwback pictures, I label them with numbers, and today's first throwback picture is number 200!  I can't believe it!

Girls and dogs enjoy looking out the window at the world.

Callie's first pony, Maya's 1000th pony

And I have throwback video today of toddler sign language.  Callie learned "drink" around this time.


Drink from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

Poor 2nd baby has only been taught "more."


IMG 1081 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

Also, poor 2nd baby has not really been exposed to the wonder of juice.  Rookie mistake with baby #1 (even though we always watered down, and still do).