Christmas Eve Tradition

This is the third year in a row that we've had Chinese food for dinner on Christmas Eve. Well, technically the first year it wasn't Christmas Eve, but we were stranded in a hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina and we ordered Chinese and then last year we were in a hotel at the airport in Boston and thought we might as well make it a tradition. This year we branched out a bit and got Japanese, but it's close enough and so fun to have a little tradition.

Our day was so great. We spent the morning lazing about, watching Dora's Christmas Carol Adventure and doing Christmas crafts including decorating some bags to put cookies in that we delivered to neighbors. After Lennon's nap we played out in the snow and followed some animal tracks through the woods in the snow. After dinner we bundled up and went to sprinkle the Reindeer food we made on our front lawn so Santa wouldn't miss our house then we hopped in the car with our hot chocolate to go look at Christmas lights. Mia and I did this last year while Shelby stayed home with sleeping Lennon. The kids both had a blast, especially Lennon. Once home, the kids put out cookies, milk and water for Santa and carrots for his reindeer. Mia also left him a nice home made glittery card then we read The Night Before Christmas and the kids went to sleep - both in Lennon's room. They were very excited to sleep in the same room and to get to sleep as soon as possible so that Santa could come.

Lennon usually makes some kind of demand as we're leaving his room at night for another animal or something. Tonight this was how it went.

"Mommy? ARe you going to bed too?"

"Yes."

"Close my door."

Super easy. Super fun. I am sooo excited that Santa is coming!!!

Love and Marriage

Mia and Mateus are often discussing their possible nuptials, but never as in depth as they did yesterday. They decided that when Mateus turns 16 (Mia will be 18) he will move down to Texas, where she will already live obviously. Once they are both in Texas and married they will go to The Great Wolf Lodge all the time, and possibly get jobs there. They also settled the whole children topic.

Mia: "We've decided we're not going to have our own children, we're going to adopt."

Me: "Well that's interesting. Why did you decide on that?"

Mia: "I just don't really want to be in pain for a whole day like that.

Me: "And what about Mateus?"

Mateus: " I just don't really want to listen to Mia being in pain all day."

Spoken like a true man, uh, er...friend.

Elf Killa

We just overhead a piece of a conversation between Mia and Mateus in the kitchen:

MIA: If you kill one of Santa's elves, you're definitely not going to get any presents.

On Elf

If you are familiar with the Will Farrell movie Elf, you will appreciate this tid bit. We were watching Elf with the Lima kids last night and when it showed Will Farrell looking at the lingerie with the sign that said, "for that special someone," Lennon said "Oh my gosh! He's gonna buy that for his dad?!!"

At The Lima's Christmas party Friday, Lennon insisted that it must be a birthday party. Being the indulgent parents we are, we found some candles, stuck them in a meatball and let him go to town singing and blowing them out a couple of times.

"Lennon, whose birthday is it?"

"Mine."

"Isn't it Jesus' birthday, Lennon?" asked Mia

"NO! It's mine birthday!"

A Horsey Named Gonna...

We have this little rocking horse that both kids really like. Lennon gets more use riding him and Mia uses him more as a location for her polly pockets to play on and such. Lennon has decided that his name is Gonna, while Mia insists that she already named him Patches, just like the horse she rode with Gaga a couple of years ago in Texas.

"Lennon, his name is already Patches."

"No, no, his name not Pates, his name Gonna! Come on Gonna."

It's Christmas Already

Ever since people started decorating for Christmas, Lennon has asked occasionally, "It's Christmas already?" "Not yet, almost, it's just the holiday season." I say. "It's Christmas at the zoo." He informs me. There is a holiday event at the zoo every night between thanksgiving and Christmas called Zoo Lights and everything is decked out for Christmas.

Anytime a present is placed under the tree he of course, wants to open it right away. He just doesn't understand waiting yet. Mia has wrapped a few of her toys to give to him and let him open them up early, which he has completely loved.

This weekend Nana and Papa were with us. Yay! They bought a few things to put in the kids stockings, so this morning we told Lennon to call up the stairs to Mia because they had some presents in their stockings that they could open now.

"Miiiiiaaaaaaa!!!!! Eee have pehinks in our tockings! It's Christmas already!!"

Translation: Mia, we have presents in our stockings!

Mia said in the car on the way home from school the other day,

"I wish instead of trick or treating, we could go 'treat or giving' and at Christmas time walk from house to house giving gifts to our neighbors."

In response to that, Claire and I are going to take the kids caroling in the neighborhood and bring along something small like little bundles of cookies or small votive candles to give away to neighbors.

When we opened up all the kids presents from Nana and Papa, Lennon opened these fuzzy, red Elmo hands that make noise when you clap them together. As we tried to convince him to put them on and play with them, he held his hands up to us and said, "No, I like mine hands dat color."

Mia's First Dance Recital

Mia is in the front row on the far right (as you look at the stage.) She has a red scarf and red headband on. You could also just look for the most precious little seven year old in existence!

Mia's dance school had their Christmas show tonight. Mia's hip hop class did a cute little dance to a version of Twas The Night Before Christmas. She was so precious! She knew all the steps and was in the front row for a good amount of the dance. She had a really good time, and we were so proud of her. We got her a little bouquet of flowers that made her day too. It was extra special because Papa and Nana got to be there to see her first recital.

Mia, having just danced came back to sit with us and we gave her the flowers

Nana got the shot as we were leaving the auditorium. Mia is still glowing. Not to mention covered in make up. They asked that we put foundation, blush, red lipstick and blue eye shadow on the girls. I did the foundation and blush...

She is so darn sweet!

Mia and Chloe, best of friends. I think this picture caught Chloe mid blink, but they're still so cute together

Jaclyn's Visit So Far

I am completely behind on here, but I had a second and thought I'd at least put a bit about Jaclyn's first and most likely only visit to us up here in Boston. It's been SOO fun so far. The kids are all getting along SOO well. It's been amazing actually. Emma is 4 1/2 so she's almost right in the middle of Mia and Lennon. They've been playing this game they are calling "poisonous baby," where Lennon chases them around and they laugh and scream and hide. Another favorite has been baby birds, which is Lennon's new favorite game all the time. Each person gets their own nest (a blanket) and we sit on them and chirp and eat pretend food. Sometimes the birds get sick and need the doctor. There are always lots of shots involved in doctor visits which is particularly funny to me seeing as how Lennon and Emma are both unvaccinated. When it's timr for the birdies to go to sleep Lennon asks you to lay down and then he "tuggles" you in. He combines the words "tuck" and "snuggle." It's so stinkin' cute! Emma says "Yay!" about everything and has really warmed up to me for the first time and is being very sweet to Lennon too.

Jaclyn and Emma got in last Wednesday afternoon. Thursday we went into Boston for the tree lighting but we all forgot our cameras so we don't have any pictures of that. Friday we let Mia stay home from school and we went out to Nahant Beach. Our intention was for everyone to wear flip flops so we could stick our toes in the sand, but the kids ended up fully getting in the water. Lennon insisted on bringing his swim suit and wore that the whole time, but did not get in the water past his feet. Saturday during naptime Jaclyn and I went out to Cambridge and checked out Harvard and Harvard Square then that night all the girls went out to see Chloe in The Nutcracker. The girls had a really good time. It was Emma's first ballet and it also started snowing on our way to the theatre. Sunday morning we woke up to piles and piles of snow. My camera was lost in the snow early, so I didn't get any pics of all the sledding fun, but we all had a great time. Sunday night we had a "slumber party." We rented a live action Snow White, painted our toe nails and had Coconut and Pumpkin ice cream we had bought earlier at Jordan's after watching the water fireworks and climbing all over the bunk beds. Monday we froze to death as we did about 1/4 of the Freedom Trail in Boston. We made it to Fanueil Hall, Quincy Market, Paul Revere's House and The Old North Church before returning home for the day. We went to the Stone Zoo today while Mia was at school and the kids had a blast. A surprising number of animals were out and about on such a chilly day.

Emma and Mia excited to eat their Gingerbread cookies Gaga sent with Jaclyn. They were watching Home Alone during Lennon's nap and laughing hysterically.

Anticipating the waves crashing into the trench they dug with Jaclyn

The weather was nice for December, but the water was still ICE cold!

Crazy girls!

The Best of Friends

Lennon hamming up his smile while the kids have all their feet buried in the sand

"Where'd my feet go?"

Christmas in July? Summer in December? What's that saying?

Nice outfits

Walking past the Public Gardens in Boston

Pretending to be Mermaids

Mia is being such a good "big sister" to Emma

Exploring the woods in our back yard

Rock climbing behind the house

up in the fort after checkin' out the tree house

The weather was so nice on Thursday we all walked down to pick Mia up from school. She was not to thrilled to have to go to school yesterday or today while Emma stayed home. The kids are all going to be so sad when Emma and Jaclyn have to go home. Maybe we'll get them back up here sometime in the next couple of years.

Plimouth Plantation on Halloween

On our way home, showing off the corn husk dolls we made in the Wompoanog Village

Petting the goats

This was shortly after Lennon fell, face first into a ground level well in the colonial village. He was soaking wet, so it's a good thing the weather was nice that day. At the end of our trip they gave us some clothes from lost and found that was actually really cute, so all in all, it was a score. Every time we faced the direction of the well that day, Lennon would grab my face and say "I'm okay Mommy."

Leaving the colonial village, ocean in the background.

Mia's corn husk doll rules! She's got to stop getting older. I can't handle it.

Some Pics From October

My first crochet project, a hat for Samantha

our last trip to Breakheart in nice weather for the year

Lennon was fascinated by throwing stuff into the water

Sliding down the big rock

Much Belated

We finally just took Mia in for her seven year check up at the doctor. Really, the only reason I took her in was the school was requesting a clear bill of health or something of that nature. Everything was great. Really all they did was check her temp, height, weight, blood pressure etc. As compared to Lennon who has traditionally been in the 60% or so, she was somewhere around the 20% for weight and the 30% for height. She's a teeny little munchkin. She's getting really excited about Christmas and keeps saying that she wants Santa to bring her stuff for her American Girl doll. A little more pricey for Santa than the box of raisins Lennon wants, but I think he can oblige her.

Mia rode her bicycle with no training wheels on Saturday, November 20, 2009! I've been super lazy about getting her practice on it. It's so different up here than when I grew up because we have to load her bike in the car and drive somewhere there is flat space to ride it. We can't just go out in the neighborhood to ride here or where we lived in Malden. A few of her other friends have been riding without training wheels for a while, but it was when Mateus, who's 5 remember, got his training wheels off that I knew I was going to have to step up my game. All it took was one trip to the bike park with uninterrupted attention from me and Shelby and she had it down. She was pretty proud of herself and we took her to Starbucks for chocolate milk to celebrate her new skill. Lennon got a bagel and cream cheese, his favorite treat. And he requested "cow milk." He was very excited that Starbucks sold "cow milk."

Mountains and Space Men

Lennon has become quite the little comedian. At lunch today he first declared through his ear to ear grin that he was a space man, just before asking for the "pata cheese" (pasta cheese, that green container cheese you put on noodles.) He was having leftover noodles. I was cleaning the kitchen. Shelby was working on a school project. There were probably three to four minutes of wonderful quiet while I did some dishes. Taking a break to give my little guy a kiss in his high chair I realized why he had been so quiet. He had emptied possibly half of the container of cheese out on top of his noodles. "Lennon!" He looks up at me and smiles his impossibly adorable smile, giggles and says, "I made a mountain. A mountain of CHEESE!!" How could we do anything but laugh at that point? Then he took a bite and laughed and a little cheese sort of sprayed out like snow which of course he thought was hilarious. Shelby and I couldn't stop laughing at him either, so he "snowed" the cheese out of his mouth a few more times before I called it quits and started cleaning him up. He's a little kook.

Lennon has this funny little thing he does. At the end of Happy Birthday he always sings "cha cha cha, ooh la la, kooky, kooky." Well, he now will just sort of randomly insert "cha cha cha" or "ooh la la" and sometimes both in the midst of normal conversation.

Examples:

Lennon toddling around playing and laughing, "hahahha, cha cha cha hahahah"

"Mommy, read me that book, cha cha cha."

Looking inside the refrigerator, very calmy "hmmmm, cha cha cha, ooh la la."

It's really impossible to get how strange and funny it is across in this format. He always just inserts it as if it were a pause or something. What a strange dude.

CHa CHA OOLaLA

jack was gonna leave soon.

so lennon sang Happy Birthday.

lennon: appy budday oo ou CHACHACHA OOLALA CoCECOE!

jack: it not my birthday!

lennon: a a a a a a A A a a a aA AAaaaaaaA!

by Mia

Brown Bunny Gonna Watch?

Lennon is far from potty trained, but we've gotten to a point where he pretty typically does something on the potty each day. Lately, before he heads back to the bathroom he chooses an animal - often Brown Bunny - to sit on the laundry basket and "watch" him and then say "good boy Lennon." I'm pretty excited about seeing the light at the end of the dirty diaper tunnel. It could still be several months to go, but I can see the light!

update: Lennon went on the potty three times today! Woohoo!

Say What?

Lennon asked me what a mammal was a couple days ago, so we were discussing that mammals nurse their babies and that I nursed him when he was little. The subject passed even though he argued with me that he DID NOT drink milk from me. A few days later, sitting in the highchair, eating his lunch, he said, "Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy."

"Yes, Lennon?"

"Mommy. When I used to drink milk from your breast, I bite you. I bite your PENIS!"

What a weirdo.

Jacks visote

When jack came we went outside.

he loved the tree house!

Lennon and Jackson got along well.

Lennon:dat mine ock star parking.

Jack:ok

Lenno:ba oo unt to ack up mommy?

Jack:mommy is up.

Lennon:no.no.NO!NO!NO!

by Mia

Tea Parties, Crafts and Playtime

This was our impromptu lunchtime tea party yesterday. The kids set their table and Shelby and I made them tea and sandwiches. Samantha, Mia's American Girl doll was, of course, included in the festivities.

Saturday morning we also had a tea party. Pancakes and tea this time though. Their favorite tea was and herbal tea called Tension Tamer, but we ran out, so now they've both decided that decaffeinated coconut thai chai is the best tea ever!

This is what happens when you leave a toddler alone with paints. He looks like he's in a rock band.

Lennon and Anderson climbing all over Lennon's truck like maniacs.

Lennon's favorite craft is making butterflies. I color it and he puts glitter and glue all over it and makes a huge mess everywhere. We probably make butterflies at least once a week.

Baby You Can't Drive My Car

It was view week at Mia's hip hop class. Lennon had the option to stay at home with Shelby, but since he still has a decent level of separation anxiety, he chose to come along even though he knew he was going to have to sit still and be quiet or else sit in the car with Shelby. He was great for about the first half, then he couldn't be quiet any longer. So, he and Shelby went out to play in the car and wait for us to be finished.

Lennon loves to "drive" the car still. With the car turned off, we let him sit in the drivers seat and mess with all the buttons and doodads.

Lennon: Daddy, tan I tart de tar?

Shelby: No, tug boat.

Lennon: Please Daddy, Mommy tome out here say, "wow, ennon, you are awesome!"

He's so cool.

Halloween 2009

The ludicrous amount of candy our kids collected. Lennon got a box of raisins that we'll let him have and the rest will get "lost."

Toward the end of the night at the strange, college-ish party we went to. We totally thought it was going to be a normal, adult party. It was more like a frat party or something. Very strange night. We didn't stay very late.

We went as The Dude and Maude Lebowski from The Big Lebowski, one of Shelby's favorite movies.

Sweet little Mia and Chloe after collecting loot around Chloe's neighborhood.

Best Friends

Pocahontas and Anne of Green Gables

The front porch of The Little's house just before heading out to Trick or Treat. Lennon surprised both Shelby and me by absolutely LOVING the whole trick or treat thing. He sweetly said trick or treat and thank you at each house and then excitedly announced to each home owner "ee doin to nunee house push dat button, say 'tick o teet!'" Translation: We're going to another house, push that button, say Trick or Treat." Mia, of course is an old pro, but it was really fun to see how much fun Lennon had. He didn't even know what he was getting, but he was always grateful and very excited. At most houses, he would take his candy and hold it up to us and ask, "ut is dat?" before putting it in his bucket. Lennon decided at the last minute that he wanted to be a "choo choo train driver" so we didn't put him in his Spider Man costume for trick or treating. He looked pretty cute and carried his train whistle we got on the Hobo Railroad last month with Granmommy and Grandaddy. Super fun night with the kiddos. Mia spent the night at Chloe's house and my friend Sue babysat for us to go to that weird party. It was fun to have a reason to dress up, I guess, but I don't think I would do it again. Mia wanted me to dress up for trick or treating, so I went as a gypsy. Chloe's mom, Cory was a witch. Overall, fun night.

Strange Ballet

The following will be fully understood by few, but loved by those who do.

I just put Anderson down for his nap in our room in the pack n play and then sang to Lennon and put him down for his nap. As I shut the door and left his room I heard him saying to himself in a sing song voice, "ballet, ballet, ballet. ballet, ballet, ballet." My first thought was, 'he's doing strange ballet?!' I pictured him in my head lying on his back with his legs and arms up in the air swirling them around in pure silliness. I wonder if Strange Ballet is genetic? And did that gene start with Gaga or did it exist previous to her? Questions I will probably never know the answer to. I guess when Lennon grows up and has kids and one of them starts doing Strange Ballet and his wife wonders what on earth her child is doing, we might have our answer.

At Bedtime:

Me: Hey Lennon, did you notice there are aliens on your new pajamas?

Lennon: Aah.

Me: Mia is an alien. (just one of the many strange things we say to our kids)

Lennon: No. No. No, no. Mia not an alien. Mia a cheeseburger.

Ahhh. He is one of us.

Pumpkin Carving, Bunnies and My Birthday

Lennon insisted on sleeping in this sparkly, blue "bunny suit" for one nap and one whole night.

Mia started it all by dressing him up as a bunny when she dressed up too. At least his is the blue one.

It's so fun that they are starting to play together.

Here's Mia with Mateus and Miranda after they all dressed up as bunnies. We just learned today that Miranda has head lice. She was here for a playdate yesterday and she spent several hours over here last wednesday as well. I just remembered tonight as I was trying on my Halloween wig that she put it on yesterday. Nice. If I get lice I just may have a nervous break down.

Mia and Mateus with their pumpkins. Mia designed hers and I carved it out.

I'm not sure if Bianca is terrified or taking concentrated aim.

Here's Lennon considering tasting that glittery glue.

Kids are so weird.

One of the highlights of my birthday. Snuggling up on the couch with my two favorite pint size people watching Backyardigans. I love that show.