Also, the last month of my baby's first year. You know we love to kick off each month with these pictures. I do love them for the memories, but I don't think I will miss taking these each month. All she ever wants to do is rip them off and destroy!
The first weekend of the month was the Winter Festival with Colin's school. Each family brought a gingerbread house to put together, and there were some arts & crafts opportunities as well. The events through the school are never super or over the top, and I appreciate the sense of community they instill in the kids and families.
What December is worthwhile without a trip to go see Santa? I took the kids on a Sunday to see Santa and they both did great! Santa on the other hand...he started at noon and our turn was around 12:20pm and he was already over it. It sure makes the case to pay a Santa rather than have a volunteer.
Colin had a birthday party this month for a preschool friend. They went to a local studio and danced their butts off, then had some snacks. Sis came too and really liked the ballet barres!
In the beginning of the month, we wrote a letter to Santa, and let him know what Colin was hoping for this Christmas. I wrote on the back of Colin's letter as "Santa" and inserted it into a envelope. Then I put it in a larger envelope and sent it off. The USPS will open the bigger envelope and send back the "Santa" one so the kids feel like it is really from the jolly man up North! Such a cute idea; and Colin loved it!
I kept Colin pretty busy this month too with crafts & cooking. We made some salt dough ornaments and sent them friends and loved ones. You know we also made some sugar cookies! I definitely did the leg work with baking, but when it came to decorating, Colin was in charge. I forced myself to turn off my anxiety when I saw him dump the sprinkles onto one cookie and just let him have fun. It was not easy, but I want Colin to have great memories of baking like I do around the holidays. *side note: check out that hand on the hip!*
Our library has a great walking path and they always set up cute holiday lights, so I decided to take the kids over. Colin and I drove around different neighborhoods quite a bit looking at holiday decorations, but I thought this would be a great opportunity for Blair to participate too. At first Colin was a grump, saying "This is dumb, why are we doing this?" but after a bit he caught some holiday cheer and wanted to get pictures with some of the figures. "Just me mom, not saucy."
On the last day of school before break, Colin had a holiday workshop. They strongly encouraged this be a parent/preschooler only event, so Chris took the day off so he could go spend time with Colin and his pals. I had no idea what to expect but was overwhelmed when Colin came home and showed me all the crafts he made! I cherish those so much and it warms my heart the amount of time & effort the teachers put into making this so special for the families.
Christmas Eve; so much anticipation! I got some cute pictures of the kids in front of the tree. I am unsure if this will get easier as times goes on? Big personalities in little bodies, there's no doubt about that.
We made sure to set out some cookies and carrots for Santa & his reindeer.
I finally understood why my parents never wanted anything for Christmas; their presents were the looks on our faces Christmas morning when we saw that Santa had come, and the excitement to rip open those presents to find out what was inside. Colin went first, and we tried to have Blair open up some presents but she wasn't overly interested; rest assured Colin had no issue helping open her presents. We are so grateful for all the family who took time out to send our kids gifts to help make this holiday so extra special.
A few days after Christmas we headed to Cleveland to have another mini Christmas and celebrate Blair's birthday. My parents got us a membership to the Children's Museum for Christmas, so we absolutely had to go check it out; this time with Blair too! I love going to the museum, because it wears the kids out mentally and physically. There's a lot to do without being too overwhelming, and they even have an area to eat a packed lunch. I had the cutest little lunch dates!
And then Blair's party. I felt some pressure to make it as good as Colin's first birthday party, but I also learned some lessons after Colin's (hint: keep it simple). She had a Winter One-derland theme, and with the help of my mom & sister, it turned out amazing and so much cuter than I imagined.
Blair usually never hesitates to chow down on whatever I put on her high chair, so I was surprised when she was slow to smash into her cake (and never really did). Neither of my kids ever had cake (or sweets for that matter) prior to their first birthday, and I think that is what makes the biggest difference. She liked it once she had little bites, but it was somewhat anti-climactic!
Now onto the kiddos...
COLIN! Jeez, the kid makes me laugh all the time. Colin plays by himself so well, and is so creative. He also really likes to experiment with cause & effect (most days I blame this on all our science projects) which again, is a lesson in tempering that anxiety. I recently read an article about letting GROW instead of letting go, and I am trying hard to remember to foster that independence, while also teaching him the importance of cleaning up his mess!
Some funny stories from Colin:
He really enjoys building; he loves the big duplos we have had for awhile, but for Christmas he got a marble run set. To say that he is obsessed is an understatement. I never imagined a kid would get so excited to watch a small ball roll down a track, but he practically begs us to go downstairs and play marbles with him. We'll say "What would you like to do?" and he'll say "Well, we could go downstairs and play with my marbles!"
He had some bug stickers from our visit to see Santa, and he decided to hide them all over the house for me to find. I give the kid some credit; some were obvious and some I had a real chuckle when I finally found them!
Colin has discovered the camera on my phone, and loves taking selfies. I usually let him go and just remind myself to delete afterwards - especially the burst photos that take like 30+ pictures at once! Here are some of my favorites that he's taken.
I introduced brown paper bag puppets to Colin this month. He loved it so much he couldn't stop and made a huge pile of them! He was out of control. I was actually pretty surprised when I saw that he was actually drawing faces on the bags instead of just squiggles. Pretty accurate too!
One day he asked me for pancakes & celery for breakfast.
Look at that smile; it is going to break some hearts someday.
He has an imaginary friend named Johnson, and while I am unsure of the dynamic of their relationship, it does seem like Colin is often unhappy with him. He pretends to have conversations with him on a play phone, and it usually always ends with "Ughhh, forget it!"
And BLAIR! My baby. I look at her now and think back on how she was as a newborn and it is almost night and day. She had darker skin and hair; now she's pale with light hair. One thing remains the same; she's still as cute and happy as can be!
Look at this face and tell me that's not ornery.
Little full on walker. She prefers to walk rather than crawl now, and will start off as such when she's heading somewhere. Everyday Blair walks farther and farther and it is only a matter of time before she's cruising around the house with her brother.
She is starting to learn more spacial reasoning; she can stack a few things on top of each other, and can drop an object (ball/block) into a toy to see the effect.
Girl is ORNERY! You can see is on her face! I swear Blair's favorite past time is to destroy and abandon; she leaves a mess in her wake! I can't tell you how many times she's pulled out the diaper wipes, emptied her dresser drawers, the laundry basket, my wallet, the toy box. She especially loves dropping clean silverware on the floor and laughing maniacally afterwards.
No surprise; she still loves Carlo (and the feeling is mutual). We hid one of Carlo's toys on the back of the couch, and she stumble-walked over to it, grabbed it, and threw it back to him. When he's behind the gate, she will bang on it like she's planning an escape for him. She reaches for him when we're on walks and he's next to her on the leash, and he let's her hold it without pulling. Such a sweet bond they have!
Cute Blair stories:
If you shake your head at her and say "No no!" she just stares back and shakes her head at you!
Blair has perfected the slow, pitiful, fake cry. And she knows when to use it. She just hasn't figured out it only works on Dad.
She often eats more than Colin.
She LOVES to scream. Loves it. High pitched, loud. And her face is so intent on punishing your eardrums (see below).
As always, a pleasure to read. Good job Julie.
ReplyDelete