art

The art of grandparent-hood is something that our grandparents have perfected.  The supply of  cuddles and smiles are well stocked.  It takes some tongue tying concentration and some serious back strength.  In the end, you have two very happy guys with what looks like a whole new toy collection.

Here is the fun hunt after the gran and pop fest ended this time - It's not uploading directly for some reason, but this link should work:

http://fb.flixlab.com/p/0p0o5klqe07ua04esfpmtyrd9d

Here is some of that tongue tied concentration working on the 2011 Nutcracker:

thanksgiving day

Here are some snaps from turkey day:

 It's a hippo picnic tradition ;)

 Wow, 85th year of the parade!

 Hippo pile up!

 A very sweet turkey ice cream cake and the real lemon turkey:

 The cousins goofing around:

Huge thanks to my folks for all their help especially baby cuddles:

santa

Santa2011 was anticipated by a good little boy who was trading out old photos of himself on Santa's lap in our xmas picture frames and ornaments.  He was giggling about what to tell Santa but wouldn't reveal to me.  We wandered our way above the ice palace over to the elevator and from our angle all you could see was the Ice Princess, a teenaged girl dressed in a furry wedding dress.  Aiden was giggling at how silly he thought that was and kept looking for Santa who was hiding around the corner.  The line up to Santa was nearly empty (go on a Sunday after dinner) but there was all sorts of fun stuff.  The artic winter facts about conservation including animals like beluga whales, baby seals, dolphins, and polar bears.  They had huge snow globes that shimmered, a spot to stand next to tall bears, and even a spot to compare your hand  to a polar bear paw print made out of ice.

Then it was time to enter the dome where they had fake snow falling into the light.  Fail: when it gets in your excited kids eye ;)  Then we rounded the corner to be greeted by the friendly Ice Princess.  Then Aiden skipped over to Santa and hopped up in his lap.  Smiley Keaton was plopped next to him and seemed very interested in Santa's beard.  Santa immediately started making Aiden laugh by asking if he could take KC to the North Pole to be a helper elf.  Then Santa asked what Aiden might like and he hmmed and hawed with his thinking finger tapping his cheek.  Then Santa started to make some guesses: a sandwich?  Giggle, giggle!  a vacuum cleaner?  Gfaw! a barbie doll?  No thanks silly Santa!

I'm not too sure he ever actually told Santa anything that he wanted.  Because then it was time to try to capture a photo.  Aiden had a nice calm smiley face and KC just looked at us wide eyed wondering what the heck was going on although looking comfy on Santa's lap.  Aiden was so excited when Santa presented him with two coloring books, one for him and one for KC.  Then it turned out that our package included photos with the ice princess too, so we hopped back over to say hello to her and hop in her lap.  KC seemed happy to cuddle... although when the camera had trouble and we had to go to round two he wasn't as interested.

It was a really fun swanky Santa visit and I felt like we were in Disney world.  Although I will always have fond memories of santa's arrival at the cruddy MA mall where the animatronic animals clicked a little and the only light show was when the misdirected spot lights shone in your face.  Oh, the questionable Santa had his own charm.  These are fun moments to cherish regardless of how swanky they are.

seasonal

'Tis the season!  KC's first Thanksgiving parade, first tree decorating, and first santa visit all in a quick three days ;)  The Ice Palace was a pretty extravagant santa experience... but I still kinda miss our rouged up crazy Swansea Santa.
Here are a bunch of video snips from the past few days watching parades while picnicking, decorating for Christmas, and visiting Santa!

good list

Aiden told me that the good list should include the acrobat squirrels in our backyard.  I would say our neighborhood definitely makes it on the good list.  We even squeezed in a beach visit on a sunny nearly 70 degree day: NOVEMBER 27th - Yay Virginia weather!

Teddy Tank

Most of the good list is full of presents from Aiden and Keaton's spoilers ;)  This one is from Lulu and S all the way from the home show in Florida - Thanks!  It is such a cool deal where the fish tank is in the belly of a teddy friend.  Aiden was excited to pick out his new fish friend, Mr. Skip! He's a red crown tailed beta who matches the red rocks Lulu thoughtfully picked out for our red loving guy.

Buzz and Woody jammies

Aiden says he likes them because "you always think I'm not Aiden and they are funny!"  J's folks helped him pick out tons of fun stuff for his birthday including these jams - Thanks!  My favorite is when he comes in dancing with his Donald and Daisy ducks in the morning ;)

3D dino puzzles from Gran and Pop who I think found these on Woot.  These are a hit and even stomped around at his party.  Woot Thanks to Gran and Pop!

Wooden desserts

Aiden loves these velcro desserts. He'll take your order "which includes special delivery!"  The donuts were a hit at a playdate a while back and the S family remembered them as a birthday treat - Thanks!

Puppy Robot
KC really likes this special treat from Gran and Pop which was an early Christmas present/ all around spoiling treat for Thanksgiving - KC says thanks by kicking his feet and smiling! KC loves clapping at this guy.  His cousin loved it too.

The itty bitty poang chair from ikea gets a spot on the list (Also from Gran and Pop - Thanks!)  It has a big gorilla guy sitting on it in the corner of Aiden's room.  

end

It's the end of November and I'd like to give Virginia a woot woot for delivering in the weather department. Here we are goofing around at the beach after taking the wagon on a hilly walk on Nov 25th!

clapper

Little fuzzy hair buddy is surprised every time he manages to get his fists or hands together in a clap ;) This is the best attempt to capture it on video since he likes to try to eat the camera phone...

full

Our thankful day (as dubbed by Aiden) was full of a giddy guy dancing during the parade, hippos picnicking and burying some cuddly guys, sunlight drenched playrooms and hot ovens heating up the house, turkey stuffed with steaming lemons and sage, a banner full of kiddo art, and turkey shaped ice cream cake and cupcakes squeezed into full tummies. I'm so thankful to be surrounded by family to share the day. I'm also very grateful for the help pulling it all together!

tango thanks

Happy Thanksgiving!  We hope that between all the gratefulness, parades, and foooood you have a chance to do the Turkey Tango:

brothers

Poor little brother isn't feeling tip top today.... It was a long night for everyone (KC broke through Aiden's white noise barrier), but we are off to the doctor soon... I think ear drops or something will help.

I figured I'd brighten up the rainy day with some photos of the brothers playing around.  I spent hours late, late last night just holding and bouncing my seemingly humongous baby.  He seemed so huge compared to the old videos I was watching on my iphone.  It seems that so much living has been packed into the last seven months, it's hard to believe it's only been that short amount of time.

We have so much to be thankful for this year!  Thankful that we have supportive family and friends that can bring so much joy to our kiddos.  Thankful that we found a nice spot to land here in DC. Thankful we sold our MA house, so we didn't have to worry about it in a hurricane.  Thankful that we can take the little bumps in stride.  Thankful that I can see my boys play and giggle with each other.  Thankful that there will be more to be thankful for in the future....

rounded

Aiden woke up and declared he'd finally decided what he really wanted for Xmas from Santa off the huge list of stuff he clicked onto his amazon wish list. Oh, I was curious what would get the top billing from all the stuff he'd rounded up... Well yep, it's another hunk of plastic similar to the ridic orange Dora dollhouse that he thankfully changed his mind on last year. At least the Olivia pirate ship that transforms into a house is kinda cute and not too big. We rounded out the weekend with a trip to Ikea complete with two Smalland kids area visits... and a new magic hat for the magician. It was fun to play with the S twins again! Glad we could meet up and measure some trees ;)

little bear

A bear, oh my! The face painting artist more than accommodated Aiden's request for a bear! We were visiting a nice Christmas bazaar where Aiden got to go upstairs by himself and and santa's elves helped him buy us presents (he told me my surprise holds water that you want to freeze - i bet two bucks it's a fancy ice cube tray?!). Then we headed to his school book fair at Barnes and Noble. It was especially fun because J was signed up to be one of the story time readers. Aiden was so excited to jump like Piggie and Gerald and pretend to be a Wild Thing while J got the kids involved in telling the story with him. We munched on some treats, did some crafts, and even tried out some new games. It was a fun day for our little bears.

winner

The bear detective received the best surprise!   The newsletter had an email to address the poem writer so I sent her a photo and a bad poem back that read:

Our litte guy
looked way up high
and look what he spotted!
Thanks for the time you allotted!

She turned out to be this very sweet long time resident that happens to do embroidery!  She asked if she could bring by a prize for the first guy who found the bear.

Of course! I expected a candy bar and a nice conversation with a resident (all of whom are so friendly).  But it was better than candy!  It was a new favorite sweater for the bear detective.

outtakes

The brothers were good sports about family photos for the most part, but Aiden's smile or lack thereof in these shots couldn't quite get off the ground.  We had some doozy family shots where we look like a bunch of oversmiley stiffs, but here are some brother outtakes.  The color in our neighborhood = gorgeous.  I think the photographer had her hands full with us, so at least we gave her a nice backdrop to work with...  I just scheduled my first family session in this area, so let's hope I can deliver as the photographer.

Outtake #1: I'm not too sure of this, I'm going to smack my lips and this will be over, right?!

 Outtake #2: Hey, watch it, if you mess with my brother, I'll....I'm a thug, just look at me.

 Outtake #3: Um, Mom!  KC thinks it's funny, but that smells!

crafternoon

Crafternoon buddies!  When we had the idea to craft with our seven and nine month olds, we wondered if it was too ambitious?  Well, not if you want to laugh a ton! Their favorite part was slurping on their matching sippy cups together.  The dot stampers were munched, and occasionally a dot would accidentally make it on the page or across a cheek if the lid was off.  They stashed the stampers in their smock pockets - tricky guys!  We tickled them for some hand and foot stamping. The smudgey results appeared to have six toes and zero fingers.  The big kid showed them how it is done. 

shoot

These are my favorites from our family photoshoot. In about 75% of the photos Aiden looks like a miniature thug who may need to use the potty. We didn't really like any of the posed shots all that much and should've had her do more photo journalistic stuff. Here are some crops of the shots leaving out the crazy eyes, barracuda smiles, and stone faces. This was the second part of my family photo experiment (the studio photo attempt earlier this fall was even worse - uh those flat light places are too hard for me) and I have to say I think I'm going with a timer or recruiting my dad from now on... Because I think we'd have just as much success...although the photographer did a good job with the light and the photo quality is good.

enrich

Aiden's school hosted a night with all his enrichment teachers where they gave us an example lesson and asked us to participate. I like to say that I would love to go to Aiden's school because it seems so calm and fun, so this was my chance!
Above is a blurb from the newsletter along with a funny picture of J acting during the drama storytelling example with Kofi. Also, Aiden in action with the movable alphabet made it into the picture page.

art

I haven't posted art with Aiden in ages... There are piles of fun things that come home from school and he is always hunting down some specific sort of crayon for drawing at home. He's getting more interested in picture pages and coloring in the lines. Here are few from the recent spooky past:

The stickers were from the halloween party and he wrote that menu after taking everyone's orders ;)

These are the monsters and eyeballs that graced his cupcakes at his party. He says that they are yummy and cool ;)  He helped fill in the outlines with his Nana!  (Thanks!)

When I first pulled that apple wreath out of his bookbag I thought someone had spilled something in his bag.  He was proud that his glue stuck.

The spider web that hung at our house had some creepy crawly guys hiding in it.  I have so, so many of these big paper drawings from his school.  Many of them have our whole family and it alternates where KC is being held in his carrier.

Gluing, cutting, pin punching, lacing... so, so many papers in his enormous bookbag.