Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Santa Claus is everywhere! Have you noticed? As my dear friend, Ellen, pointed out, doesn't everyone remember when you used to go and see Santa one time at the mall and then you didn't see him again until the next Christmas mall line? Not anymore! Santa has even started hanging out at Whole Foods! The good news is that after about ten times of seeing Santa, he is not quite so scary to Alden anymore. Well, okay, so it also helped that Daddy crawled up in the sleigh with him...and Santa and Mrs. Claus.

I admit that the real reason we got out in the freezing cold to see Santa on his grocery store stop was to see the reindeer. Usually, these are doggies to Alden, but after our visit, he has now learned the word "deer" to use the rest of the season. Please notice that Santa brought the injured reindeer with only one antler this year. Now, which one is that in the song?

What would pre-Christmas festivities be without a little trip to the Zoolight Safari?! Alden and Helen had a date to this event. I will report that she got a little fresh with the footsie in the line for dinner, and Alden did make a move for the big hug after the carousel ride.

The llama was a very popular stop at the petting zoo. Both Alden and Helen got a little confused with this word because it is so close to their absolute favorite word, "Mamma." So, the llama was named Mamma for the night.

We spent a lot of time visiting the "Baa's." Alden was thrilled. This is currently one of his favorite animals. They are in every nativity scene, and Alden never lets you miss one. To see one in person was pretty amazing to him. The no smile in this photo is because Daddy would not let him actually crawl into the stall with the Baa's.

The best part of the zoo, when the giraffes are asleep of course, is the carousel ride. Joey forgot to get us a ticket, and I made him go all the way back to the entrance to get us one. We decided to ride the Cheetah because this is Alden's new favorite word and animal, next to giraffes of course. He loved this! He was smiling and shaking with a little uncertainty at the same time. I guess it was like a baby roller coaster.

Alden playing Santa Claus, or as Alden has nicknamed him, simply "Claus." Practicing his "Ho, Ho, Ho!"

You would think he was looking at all of the presents. But, no. He is looking at the "Baa" ornament that he tells me about everyday. Every time we pass the tree, we have to point out these five: "Baa," "Doggie," "Choo-Choo," "Fish," and "Whoo-Whoo." He loves the ornaments and the tree. He chants "tree" all day long every time we see one...anywhere!

Pointing out the "Whoo-Whoo" owl.

This photo is for the teachers. If you ever wondered if those hours with the hot glue gun every Christmas making ornaments for your students was a waste of time...Mrs. Hibbler would be proud to know that my 18 month old is still taking the first grade apple off of the tree.

Alden's new winter hat! He loves it and runs through the house asking for "hat." He talks about hat when he wakes up from his nap. It is on and off of his head all day long!

Poor Lucy the dog now lives her life most of the day in a dog crate. She is having back problems and has to be as contained as possible. This is fascinating to Alden. He loves to give her things, like ipods, through the crate and play in her water bowl. The newest fun time is to actually occupy the cage himself when she is absent. Humm...this is not such a bad idea...

Snow fell!

No matter the weather, Alden decided Mom and Dad would want to read their newspapers. Helping to save them from getting wet.

Snow is no excuse not to get up early on Saturday and cut the grass.

Checking out the snow-covered playground equipment.

And then the snow melted! :(

Happy Thanksgiving

Alden slept through Thanksgiving last year, so he was very surprised and excited to be a part of the festivities this time around. He got a little mixed up though with Thanksgiving and Christmas, I think, because he woke up very early. When I picked up Alden from Mother's Day Out last week, they asked me if he ate a lot at home because apparently he eats his food at school and then starts on everyone else's if lunch isn't over. I guess my child loves food, so this was the perfect holiday for him!

Starting off our day eating Apple Pumpkin bread. Later in the day, as his cheeks and face became redder and redder, we discovered that Alden is allergic to pumpkin. This is really not surprising since I turned red all over when I ate pumpkin while I was pregnant with him. The hairdresser told me that it meant Alden would be allergic to pumpkin. I thought she might be a bit looney on that one...maybe not.

Here is the great thing about inviting Grandpa to Thanksgiving...he cooks dinner! Here is some good advice: When you get married, make sure someone in your husband's family went to Culinary School...then, go ahead and book the maid for the following day to clean up the mess! Alden was fascinated by Grandpa cooking and wanted to help out with all the vegetables. I guess that Mom cooking everyday is not nearly as exciting, or maybe that says something about Mom's cooking.

Alden sitting down for this Thanksgiving meal. Our first ever meal in our new dining room. Dad made Alden eat in his high chair over a towel so he wouldn't mess up the new rug or chairs. He looks a little overwhelmed at all the food in front of him. Either that, or he is hoping that none of us want to eat any of it!

Our Thanksgiving feast. The absolute perfect amount of food for us, Grandpa, and Uncle David

Alden with his very own baby sterling silver for the occasion. He dug right in despite the fact that it was meat and vegetables, not his favorite foods. Maybe we should get Grandpa to FedEx vegetables every week from California since Alden eats them when he cooks them. You know that he is loved, though, because Grandpa made some sweet potatoes (A-man's fave) just for him!

No matter what, though, the roll is always, always the first thing to get eaten!

Notice the food beginning to be missing from the plate in this photo. Alden was so excited that we had to have the knife and spoon in our hand at the same time! Another note, the cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, creamed corn, bread, and stuffing are starting to disappear. Note that the green bean remains untouched...as it will for the remainder of the meal until he decides to "gift it" to Mom or Dad and get it off his plate.

We went straight from the high chair to the crib. After dinner, the turkey set in quick. We asked Alden if he wanted to take a nap, and he replied, "Bye, Bye." I think that said it all. He fell asleep in record time for a long winter's nap.

We woke up on the wrong side of the crib! Fussy and crabby. Being the fabulous parents that we are, we decided he needed a few bites of apple pie to brighten his afternoon. I am not sure that was the best idea. Between that and a visit from Uncle John, Toni, and Grumps, he was wired! Uncle John is on the receiving end of an Alden tackle. I think Alden gained the upper hand here.

Alden learned some bad habits from Grandpa. I am not sure when Grandpa climbed into the oven to cook with the measuring cups, but somewhere his grandson picked it up. This is a new trick that will be very short lived...as in Never Again!

My favorite thing that has happened in a long time! All the eating from Thanksgiving wore my little buddy out. We took him out for pizza on Friday, and the poor little guy could barely stay awake to eat. However, the cheese pizza was so good that he couldn't seem to stop eating for his snooze. He would literally take a bite, chew, doze off, wake up, and take a bite and repeat the process. Okay, so maybe the preschool teachers are right about him!

Thanksgiving being over...let's move on to Christmas! The new tradition in our family is figuring out how to con Pops into coming over to help put the tree in the stand. When the Christmas tree came home on the car, we were beside our little self with excitement. For the first time, the word "tree" was used for the tree instead of "giraffe." The tree combined with the use of the step stool was just too much to resist. Alden had to help out!

Getting just a little closer.

As always, he finally gets his way and gets the stool all to himself to check out the tree

Not really sure what to think about the needles and sticky of the tree.

When the tree went up, the baby gate was moved to block off any access to the tree, presents, or decorations for baby. Alden walked up the stairs to find out he suddenly had access to the kitchen. He spent the next ten minutes running back and forth to the new gate placement fascinated that it had moved and very confused.

Ahh! The taste of freedom!

Our FIRST trip to see Santa. Santa was terrifying. Tears, screams, and many calls for "Mommy." Yes, we tried to get in the photo with him, Santa tried to give him a candy cane, but he would have none of it. This is the best of the photos. I have never seen him look like he wants to escape something so badly!

Our SECOND trip to see Santa was much more of a success. We started to cry when we saw him and clutched Mom with a major death-grip. But, this time, we spent a few minutes getting to know Santa better (an advantage to going at 10:00 on a Monday morning). Santa patted his arm and sang a couple of verses of Santa Claus is Coming to Town. The little music lover started to melt a little at the serenade and finally relented to at least sit in his lap, with our security doggie, Lucy, and get our photo made. We are still not smiling, but at least we are not running away!

I made a mistake. One day, we were trying to find things to entertain my toddler when I suggested that we look at giraffe pictures on the computer. Now, every time the computer is in the room, Alden points to the computer and says, "Giraffe, giraffe!" That is what the computer means to him. If he even spots a computer, he climbs, begs, scoots, runs to get to it to see the giraffes. When we weren't fast enough, and frankly turned our heads for thirty seconds, he went after the giraffes himself.

Just a funny: We love to get the mail everyday and play with the envelops and catalogs. While Mom was fixing snack, Alden flipped through Harry and David. This continued for the entire catalog and then he went on to the toy catalog. He talked to me about it the entire time, nonstop babble, just hanging out flipping through catalogs! He never ceases to amaze me.

We Need Your Help!...

HELP! As you can see, our second little man is growing bigger and bigger...as is his mother. He will be here before we know it, and we are STILL confused on his name! We are ready to announce that officially Alden's little brother will be named Spencer. However, poor Spencer is lacking a middle name. We are so grateful to his Uncle Tommy for helping us come up with a great list of possibilities and to his Cousin Katie for spending an evening going through the list...BUT, we are still not sure what we think. What do most people do when they name their kids? Send out a poll on blogger of course! PLEASE help us by voting for your favorite choice. We admit that we may or may not actually listen to the results, but we are also ready to admit that we cannot make a decision on our own. The poll is over to the right of the blog...go for it! If you think you have a better suggestion, click on add a comment after the blog and let us have it.

It is no wonder that we are having trouble sitting down and thinking of baby names. We are going to have an 18 month old toddling around this week! Can you believe it? Where has a year and a half gone?!

We have been very busy going on various trips to the doctor. Alden has spent much of the last two months sick with congestion, fever, cough, stomach virus, etc. that he has picked up from Mother's Day Out. The pediatricians are starting to give me dirty looks when we go in...about every week! Some of the days, we just make it through with a cup of clear liquids, Nick Jr. cartoons, and our favorite dog, Lucy. No, not the real one, the stuffed one.

Alden in his "old man pajamas" cuddling with Lucy and looking for the moon. Thanks to Pops, who introduced the concept, we now have to go and see the "noon" every night before bed. For three nights, we woke up at 2:00 a.m. crying for the "noon" and pointing to the window. He is spoiled, but that is where we drew the line!

Speaking of Lucy's, Joey and I decided that we better find a spare Lucy or two...just in case. After calling every single Pottery Barn outlet in the country and the catalog number and checking ebay with no luck, I decided to simply call the local Pottery Barn store right up the street. Guess what? How many do you want? They have several. We bought them while Alden was asleep in the car, but Daddy slipped and let him spot them when we got home. It was a whole litter of Lucy Dogs.

A new favorite: Turning on and off the light switch. This is the only one in the house that is low enough for him to reach on his own. This is also something we love to do at the doctor's office. At our visit yesterday, the doctor turned on the light on her instrument (the on they use to look in ears) so that we could finish our conversation in the dark. Even she admitted that if it kept him happy, let him do it.

"Mommy!Mommy" is now shouted frequently at our house. This is a favorite in the middle of the night when he wants to be retrieved, but pretty much a standard when the attention is not focused on him, i.e. trying to cook dinner. This mess is way better than engaging in his two newest kitchen tricks: taking things out of the trash can and bringing them back to you and opening and closing the oven door.

We are trying to get ready for baby Spencer, but Alden pretty much just thinks we are going down baby Alden memory lane. Yep, never liked the pacifiers before now, but when they are going to someone else...

Alden had a great time when he had a visit from Toni and Uncle John and Grumps. He gave Grumps a big and very long hug, played ball with Uncle John, and read a book with Toni. Of course, he also showed them every single kitchen utensil that we own and every item off of every shelf in our family room. But he did accomplish one thing none of us seem to be able to do: He actually made Grumps smile for a photo!

In his spare time, Alden helped out Mom and Dad with a bit of pre-Thanksgiving housework.

The weather has been so wonderful that we have spent a few days at the park. Alden is still terrified of swings, so we were happy to find the "little kid" area where he can slide and crawl through tunnels. He only stays on one thing for about 10 seconds before running somewhere else. I am never sure who is actually worn out the most when we leave.

It is always fun to get a ride on Daddy's shoulders.

This might be a sign of negative example on behalf of his parents. Alden loves to drive the bouncy car at the park. When Daddy's phone rang, which is very, very common, Alden decided that he, too, would have a conversation on his "phone" while driving the car. Guess who has started to pick up the bad habits from us? And we thought we still had time to change our ways!Finally, Alden reminding us that summer can last all year long. It is all in the attitude and accessories!

5 Months

5 Months Pregnant! Baby Boy is getting bigger weighing somewhere around 1 pound and about 10.9 inches long. Which begs the question, how come Mom has gained 12 pounds! They say that he is about as big as a spaghetti squash, so I guess I better figure out what a spaghetti squash looks like.