Merry Christmas

Another Christmas Day has come and gone and it was a good one. Christmas Eve was busy making a gingerbread train, decorating Christmas cookies and getting everything ready for Christmas Day. Our tradition of staying in our pj's all day on Christmas is everyone's favorite part. The kids actually slept in on Christmas morning and probably started on their stockings around 7:30 and I think we had opened every present by quarter after eight. It's amazing what Christmas morning can do to a living room, it looked like a tornado went through. The kids were great though and were very grateful and appreciative of all of the great stuff that they got. Santa was very generous, and got both kids what they hoped for. It was a very special day.

Angels

Last week was Cameron's Christmas program at daycare. This year they split it into two nights so Cameron was one of the oldest ones in the younger performance on the first night. The 3 year old classes were last and his group were angels and sang three songs, "Picture a Christmas," "Away in a Manger" and "Angels we have heard on high" As always it was adorable, one of my favorite things all year. I can only imagine how much work it takes to pull something like this off and I'm so grateful that the teachers are willing to take it on. This year Cameron didn't proclaim his "hi Daddy!" love like last year, but was equally adorable. He did a great job singing and now whenever we hear the "Glo-oo-ooo-oria" part of the song he likes to proclaim "that's my song!"
After the performance the kids got a surprise visit from Santa, each got a present from Santa and enjoyed some treats. It was another successful program!

Who-ville

Here are the last of the pics from Papa and Kathy's visit. They got to spend the night with the kids while we went to my work holiday party which was super fun. As always there was a lot of book reading. I don't know who loves Dr. Suess books more, my dad or the kids! He loved the story of the Grinch and now Addy reads it all by herself. We learned how to play Cameron's new Thomas the Train game and Addy and Papa figured out all of the cool designs you can make with Addy's new spirograph. It was a great trip and we were all sad to see them go. 

Pre-Christmas Christmas

We've started a new tradition of celebrating Christmas with my dad on the weekend of Cameron's birthday. This year both he and Kathy came out for a long weekend and we had a great time. On Saturday we rode the "Christmas Trolley" and saw Santa and did a little shopping. Then we got to have a delicious crab dinner and open Christmas presents. It's like the sneak-peek-preview to Christmas and it's wonderful!

Birthday Boy

When Cameron woke up on the day of his birthday, he went in to see Papa and Kathy and when they asked him if he knew what day it was he said, "tomorrow?" When I told him that it was his birthday and he was no longer two he asked "but will I be two tomorrow?" I think he had been waiting so long for his birthday he couldn't believe that it was actually here.
Before we even had breakfast Cameron got to open his presents from family. He got tons of great stuff and had a little help from big sister reading all of the cards and opening the presents. The funniest card was the one that said, "Guess what? Chicken butt!" Cameron especially got a kick out of that but loved playing with his super hero stuff, tractor, books and games. Such a lucky kid!

Calling All Superheros

It's hard to believe that our (not so) little boy is already 3 years old! It was a very special birthday as we had a super-hero themed party and Papa and Kathy were in town to help us celebrate. Cameron had his choice of several super-hero costumes and he made his way through most of them. For his birthday he got Batman, Captain America and Superman pajamas. At his party everyone was in costumes and we made super-hero cuffs and shields. It was really fun and very cute to see all of the kids dressed up. 

Night Owl or Early Bird?

It's pretty clear that in our household Brian is the night owl and I am the early bird. I can't stay up past 10 to save my life, but I love getting up early and getting a start to my day (most days).  It's becoming obvious to me that Cameron is both. The kid loves to stay up late AND get up early and its driving Brian and I crazy. He is just never tired at night and can never sleep in in the morning! We've tried moving his bed time later, we've tried skipping naps, we've tried running him ragged but it appears that it doesn't matter he just isn't tired before 9:30 at night and he loves to get up before 6:00 am.
Last night we tried a later bedtime and he was still up in his room playing, jumping, looking at books. He even snuck downstairs to see what Brian and I were up to and wanted to "hang out" with us.  Tonight I caught him in his room with the lights on playing basketball. Literally shooting baskets at 9:00 at night. When I went in to stop him he insisted that I leave (but not before shooting "one more" until he finally made one). He is seemingly never out of energy and it is exhausting us. I wish he could have Addy's gift of falling asleep within 2 minutes of hitting the pillow.

The Pond

A few weeks ago Brian and the kids met Chuck and Robin at a pond owned by Chuck's cousin David. It is actually kind of a famous local urban reserve and it's pretty cool that there is a huge pond in the middle of the city. The kids loved seeing ducks, they even got to pet one and they saw koi fish. They had a great time on their no-school day.