Merry Christmas!

It’s that time of year again, Christmas Eve.. The Kiddo and I are maintaining cheer even though a very important part of our family is missing. We are spending some time each day talking about the meaning of the day and focusing on the things that we do have, rather then the things we do not.

Before the Man left on his trip we went and saw some reindeer, the Kiddo read the ‘info’ signs to the Man.

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After that we went and saw Santa, The kiddo did the usual stuff getting a candy cane and telling him what he wanted (no idea what he said). He even had the opportunity to ask him questions (like why he uses Reindeer to pull his sleigh and not a different animal). Once that was done we had his Santa pictures taken in a very unique way.

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The experience is one of the best memories I have for this year. When the Man gets home from training we will be going back to the same studio to have family pictures taken, they were very creative and great at getting the kiddo to smile and laugh.

Can you figure out who the man in the beard is?

My ending thought is this, from my heart to yours:

May you celebrate this beautiful season with joy in your home, peace in your world, and love in your heart!

May the New Year bring you everything you wish for....prosperity, happiness, joy and good health.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Oh Christmas tree

The other week we took the Kiddo to the Festival of Trees, it is pretty much a tradition to go every year now and he really enjoys it. I took a few pictures of his favorites.

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When we got home we spent some time decorating his cardboard tree for school..

A few days later we even got around to decorating our own Christmas tree…

The Kiddo and I are both looking forward to Christmas. The Man wont be here but we are planning to set up Skype video chat so that he can still be part of the day.

And for those of you checking your mail boxes... Christmas cards are going to be late this year. I haven't had the motivation and rather then stressing about it I've decided to do New Years cards instead.

Ghost Man

Anybody: What are you going to be for Halloween this year?

Kiddo: I’m going to be my very own superhero, one that I made up… Ghost Man. I have a cape and a utility belt, and my superpower is that I can turn invisible so that the bad guys can’t get me.

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What he forgets to tell people is that he also has his very own superhero team. The members include the Man and myself plus most of his aunts and uncles. He’s named us the Naturals and the way he sees it if anything bad happens or he needs help figuring something out all he has to do is call one of us and we’ll help him solve his problem.

His back story to go with his costume character made this years Halloween so much fun. I love that it was unique to him and that he was the ONLY ghost man walking around.

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(Ready to go trick or treating)

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(We started by going around the nearby shopping center with his friend T)

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(After that we hit Grandma’s neighborhood)

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(He said this was his favorite, he loves walking house to house. He was so funny, as soon as he said thank you and turned around he’d run back to us shouting “I got another TREAT!! Lets go to the next house!”

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(Mean as we are we made him wait till he got home to go through his candy. We were nice enough to let him pick one piece to eat before bed though. He picked the sweet tarts.

I loved this Halloween. The weather was great and he was happy the entire time. I think for him it ranks as one of the best days ever this year. I can’t wait until next year, I really get a kick out of making his costume and I love watching his joy in the holiday.

oooo pumpkin!

In preparation for Halloween last week on Thursday we went and picked up a couple pumpkins.

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Usually I’m far to lazy to do this type of stuff but the thing is the Kiddo’s best friend T and his brother go every year to get a couple and carve them. Of course that means T’s mom asked us to go and voila, jack-o-lantern motivation :)

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I have to admit it was a really good time. The kids ran around like hooligans, I took a dozen great pictures and we came home with two big pumpkins to carve up. The kiddo helped draw the pattern on them and then I did the carving.

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The Kiddo is really proud of the finished product, he thinks they are the funniest scary pumpkins because they are “eating eyeballs”. Yeah, that’d be my kiddo.

Easter 2011

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I abandoned the Kiddo’s normal fruit and nuts basket this year. We did still have a few things of dried fruit, and crackers, but most of the basket was candy. The Bunny also brought him a couple books. Personally I think the bunny is a genius, the Kiddo has first thing in the morning medication which means he has to wait an hour before breakfast, and there’s no Easter treats until after that… it’s a long wait. A new book is the perfect way to help him pass the time.

The Mans niece had her birthday party on the Saturday before so as part of the event we colored eggs. The kids used a white crayon and he really had a good time drawing designs. My favorite (everybody's favorite) was a blue egg with an airplane doing loops. The story is that he can’t really hold the egg and see what he’s drawing, so he draws by touch (looking at a wall). His Aunt Jo did realize that’s what he was doing, she asked him what the picture was going to be and he cheerfully said an airplane, she thought oooookay. We died the egg, pulled it out, and yep there was a plane on it! She was shocked, I was a little impressed myself (and I’m USED to his antics by now).

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On Easter morning the Kiddo slept in. I was up when the man left for work at 7:45, I took the dog out for a long walk and then put her back in her crate (no egg eating allowed!). I then sat around waiting and waiting for the Kiddo to wake up. Finally at 9:30 I couldn’t wait anymore (his medication time was slipping past) so I went in to wake him up. He was so funny, he tried to hide under his covers and go back to sleep. I said that if he really wanted to go back to sleep that was okay but he needed his pill first, the time it took to take the pill was enough for his brain to start working because as soon as he’d swallowed it he said “did the bunny come??!!” and started crawling out of bed.

He had forgotten all about the egg hunt. He found his basket and that was all he cared about. But once he got started he was more enthusiastic about it.

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He found all the eggs, mostly crawling but he did have to walk a bit, that crafty bunny hid a few of them to high to reach without standing. By the time he found was done with that he only had about half an hour to kill before he could eat. This is about when he discovered the Bunny had brought him books. He read me one and then sat down to look through the other.

He spent a long time looking through his starwars book, it’s got every lego starwars set they ever made and he loves window shopping through it.

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And when he finally got to eat his candy the first thing he picked was the chocolate bunny… he’s been asking for one of those ever since Target put up it’s Easter decorations (of which there are two giant cardboard ‘chocolate bunnies’).

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**I spent three days trying to get a couple more videos to upload for this blog. I have one of him searching for eggs and another with him reading one of his books. Blogger apparently doesn't like either and I'm officially giving up because I feel like a slacker not having posted anything for so long. I hope everybody had a great relaxing Easter and that you manage to have a little more restraint then I did with your holiday related goodies. (mmmm)

New Years Eve

Apparently the Kiddo’s vacation week (no school) equals a vacation week for me (no posting)… sorry, I should have realized that would happen and warned you (just in case you were checking in daily). Monday we should be back to a more normal posting schedule.

I should introduce you to the Kiddos newest pet. His name is Tear (as in, and I quote, “there are no tears, not even tiny ones”). Tear is a bumblebee pillow pet, and the Kiddo loves him. He lugs him around everywhere.

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And he flattens him out so he can sleep with him every night, bringing him out with him in the morning to keep him company during his pre breakfast resting (on the couch or in my lap)

He saw them in Target a few months back when we went shopping for a mattress pad for his bed. Then, of course, there were the commercials and ads in toy magazines... Suffice to say he’s been asking for one for awhile, and I kept telling him no because the last thing he needed was another stuffed anything on his bed. But then the Man blabbed about it and so his sister and her husband got one for the Kiddo... and I will admit to being okay with it, he really does love the silly thing, and it IS a bit cute.

As for the rest of life. Well there’s not much going on besides the snow storm, (8.5 inches when I stuck a ruler in it to measure yesterday afternoon). The Kiddo and the Dog are going crazy being cooped up inside but I can’t handle less then 17 degrees and am not willing to take them out more then I have too. I'm debating making the Kiddo come with me to the grocery store today just so he gets OUT and gets a little exercise.

Tonight is New Years Eve. I think I’ll plan dinner early and that I will buy a box of crackers and some ez cheese for him for our after dinner party snacks. If I plan it right he can still go to bed by 10 (or earlier!!) but get the feel of a special evening. We’ll see if I can pull it off.

I hope whatever you all have planned to celebrate tonight that it’s a little more exciting, or equally relaxing.

Christmas AAR*

After giving him his shot the kiddo and I snuggled up on the couch Christmas evening taking one last look at all his presents under the tree.

I asked him, “Kiddo what is your favorite present?” He said “um I don’t have one, I like them all” I thought maybe it was just so late he couldn’t remember so I said “well you really liked the tramp, and the dragon, or maybe the noisy drawing table thing..”. He said “I DO like the tramp, it’s so cool… but I also like all of them, I don’t have a favorite because I love them all!!”

I wonder what he’d say if I asked him today (two days later). Anyway, now that it IS two days later I better get off my butt and post a blog with a few videos and pictures…

Santa filled the Kiddos stocking full of goodies, an apple, clementine, animal crackers, candy cane, box of fruit....

He also gave him the Astro Boy movie he asked Santa for along with an Astro Boy action figure. (under the tree was another gift from Santa with the Astro Boy playstation game and another action figure).

He really loves the mini trampoline. I haven’t talked to my folks yet so I don’t know if they like that they bought it for him but I do!! Every time he starts to get antsy I send him to jump, there’s a game on there that is like freeze jump (jump till the voice tell you to freeze, then wait till it tells you to go again) and that’s his favorite. There’s another that counts how many times you jump, I challenge him every time to get at least a hundred, he usually gets about 60 before pausing.

You can tell by the video of him unwrapping Auntie D’s gift how much he loves it. I hope she makes her husband watch the video (since she said it was HIS idea to give it to him) because the Kiddo adores the thing.

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He lugged it around all day on Christmas, to the point of taking it to the inlaws and flying it outside while he played tag with his cousins. I kind of wish I’d taken the video camera for that, it was really funny.

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Note the shirt he’s wearing. Uncle T sent that to us from Korea (along with a few other fun things, toys etc). The Kiddo really likes it, granted it’s about two sizes to big for him but to him that’s part of what makes it cool!! It’ll be awhile before he outgrows it.

Uncle P sent him a Crayola sound studio. You put a paper on the top and color it, and you can set certain sounds to play when you press different parts of the screen.

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I don’t think he knew what it all did when he first opened it, he thought it was really cool that it was for art projects (he really loves doing art stuff) and he had a tiny idea that it made sounds but he didn’t’ realize he could make the sounds go WITH the picture.

Anyway it was fun, and hectic, and the Kiddo made out like a bandit. A little birdie told me that there's a gift on it's way from Auntie Ph so the Kiddo gets a little extension on the gifting excitement. There was even something under the tree for the whole family...

I cannot WAIT to use it... I remember when I was younger, on birthday, helping to turn the crank on my moms ice cream maker... I remember sitting on the porch step licking ice cream off the paddle too. I can now share that with the Kiddo, and I'm really happy about it.

I hope you all had a great Christmas, and that the Christmas wind down is going well... only a few more days and we'll be past New Years and done with the major holiday stuff. Next up, Kiddos Birthday!!