Wonder of Wonders

Before taking the boys to visit Santa, I decided it would be wise to prepare Ben for the encounter as in years' past he has greeted Santa by bursting into a fit of hysteria. To my surprise, when I mentioned to Ben that we were going to see Santa, he got super excited and squealed, "Santa!" Not sure if he understood what I was telling him, I asked Ben what he was going to say to Santa. Clearly Ben is no dummy because he responded very matter of factly, "more Legos." Somehow he has overheard his brothers' conversations and put the pieces together that this Santa character brings toys to good kids. Still, I was interested to see whether or not Ben would chicken out and resort to hysterics when the time actually came to sit on the big stranger's lap. Sure enough, Nana Grover took the boys to visit Santa and Ben went willingly! We'll work on the smiling for the camera thing next year--the deer in the headlights expression is major improvement!

Gingerbread Houses

I decided in advance that I was not going to micro-manage our gingerbread house project and that I would just let the boys decorate them any way they'd like. As Hank and Max just haphazardly stuck a candy cane here and a jelly bean there, I had to sit on my hands to keep from "suggesting" a few design ideas. At one point, I couldn't stand it any longer and applied a few candies to the roof of Hank's house in an ordered pattern. Hank took one look at my contribution and said he needed to "undo the damage" from my additions. The funny thing is, they LOVE their gingerbread houses and have been admiring them and complimenting themselves on their work all week long--even though they turned out a little sloppy for my liking, they like them because they made them themselves.

Checking In

The other day I was holding Rocky, just pondering his perfectness, and passed him to Aaron so that he could also appreciate our little boy. Aaron bounced him on his knee, held him up over his head airplane-style, blew on his cheeks and tummy, made raspberry noises, and then passed him back to me, rather unimpressed, and commented that Rocky is still "checked out." Well, lo and behold, it's like the lights just switched on because overnight Rocky has "checked in" and is suddenly becoming an alert, observant little guy. His hands are beginning to open and close, he's mesmerized by overhead lights, he smiles on demand, and loves to bat the toys under his play gym.

Polar Express

I'm going to file the Heber Creeper under the "really-good-idea, but-probably-won't-do-it-again" category. Last night for FHE we boarded the polar express on the Heber Creeper for a 90 minute train ride. Perhaps in our rush to gather the needed outerwear (the rail car was not climate controlled) and baby gear, feed the kids a quick drive-thru meal, and barely arrive at the train station before departure, our attitudes weren't as cheerful as they could have been, but our overall experience of the train ride was just average. We all enjoyed the Christmas sing-along and on-board hot cocoa, but the train was so cold that the windows were frozen over and we couldn't see a thing outside, making the ride a little on the boring side. Oh well. We tried. More "cool parents" points for us.

Check is in the Mail

I just want to know where to send in my application and collect my prize because I feel like I've earned my "Mom of the Year" award this week. And, dang it!, I deserve to toot my own horn. Who spent several hours playing outside in the snow with the boys, teaching them how to build a snow fort (and if you've seen their tiny dollar store shovels you can appreciate who did all of the work in the construction of our fort (which, by the way, was even more impressive than the photo does justice)), and hurling myself down the mountain with them on the sled? Me! Who invited the boys' friends over to make marshmallow blow guns AND whooped them all at a marshmallow fight? ME! I do my fair share of nagging them to get their chores done and sentencing them to time outs for fighting, but I want the record to show that I am a fun mom! Yes, I sometimes put off their requests to play with a "just a minute" that lasts more like and hour, but I hope my boys know that I try really hard to make time to just play.

Nativity

Our family was invited to participate in a great little nativity reenactment at our neighbor's house. Hank and Max were assigned to play the role of the wise men. After we cut up a couple pillowcases for tunics and covered cardboard with foil for hats, I thought they looked the part quite well! The program was simple but very sweet with all of the neighborhood kids dressing in costume as the parents narrated the story with scripture and Christmas carols.

My Rockstar

I lucked out scoring this sweet little baby. He is such a pleasant, patient, happy little guy. He takes multiple 2-3 hour naps throughout the day and spends his few waking hours just contentedly playing (laying) under his play gym, watching the happenings around him from the bouncer, or being carried around as I complete my housework. He gets a little fussy when he's tired, but is easily soothed by being swaddled in his favorite blankie and is happy to be laid down to sleep in his crib. At night he will usually sleep five hours at a stretch and wakes up just to feed and goes back to sleep. I really couldn't ask for a better baby.