capitol

We ran up to visit the big tree in front of the Capitol Building, which was already set up for the Inauguration.  Aiden remembered that it was the building where the laws are made and that last year we made up our own laws (his at the time was that everyone should do their business in the potty).  Aiden's law this year was that we shouldn't cut down trees... But then he revised it to not playing with the rope in front of the tree. KC didn't have the words to describe his law, so he acted it out by trying to rip off his jacket - no coats on warm winter days when I want to run.  Aiden made a buddy and they were racing back and forth, with Keaton, the little guy, trying to keep up.

botanic

The train exhibit at the US Botanic Garden was covered with natural material elves, gremlins, and other creepy crawlies that were a hit with the boys (although not as charming as last year's critter houses, in my opinion).  Aiden's favorite was a huge troll laying on his back with a big tummy that looked like a rolling hill behind the train track.  The little peek holes seemed to be sleepy Keaton's favorite.  We then followed the trail to find all of the festive plants on their holiday scavenger hunt.  KC was making funny faces trying to sniff the flowers.

playgroup baby edition

A few members of the baby playgroup (who are not getting hit by this flu bug bouncing around) made it to the annual Christmas party.  It was fun to see how different it was from last year, where some were toddling, but most were sitting in a circle wobbling towards each other to grab a circle of toys.  This year the little roller coaster, climbing structure, and kitchen were hopping.  Keaton traded in his favorite vacuum for a cute toy guitar that he wanted to carry everywhere.  Aiden bounced around with his big buddy Max playing hide and seek and cars.

playgroup big kid edition

Aiden is on the younger side of this huge group of elementary age kiddos in our neighborhood.  The get togethers are always on the wild side, but I've met some great people from the mix.  The gift exchange was elaborately run through this internet site Elfster, so we knew exactly what to buy (a 7 year old wanted Zombie Dice - ug!? - guess kids like what they like).  It also meant that Aiden got exactly what he loves - a Star Wars lego set.  After receiving his Secret Santa present while gobbling the nutcracker present cake, Aiden declared "This is great mom, it already feels like Christmas!" (Even though you were out playing on a the teeter totter and swing set without your coat all afternoon!?)

beats

The most fun!  We giggled and made tons of these from this awesome iphone ap - Vidrhythm!
vidrhythm from LB on Vimeo.

sweeter

The first real choir concert of the year was entitled What Sweeter Music!  What sweeter than seeing your boy confidently march up onto stage with a little smile, put his hands in his pockets like some grown man with a smirk, and then shimmy shoulder to shoulder with his friends with some serious concentration. What sweeter than seeing your little boy smile and point with a squeal as he sees his brother up on stage, sipping his water bottle and munching through his crackers quicker than daddy expected, and lasting the full hour plus listening and then cheering yay! louder than the rest of the clapping crowd (but at least at the right time - phew!) What sweeter than your big boy belting out bitty bums and dormi dormis, and being the first one to take a bow every time. What sweeter than seeing your boy light up and say to hid friend "There's my mom!" when he sees you up on the lighting balcony (to take photos) with your hands high in the sky as you clap along with the thunderous standing ovation... What Sweeter?  Not a whole lot.

Getting ready for the Da Capo bow:

With all the choirs at the end for Hope for Resolution:

Look how tiny he looks down there third kid to the left of the flute:

I wish that I had the full Hope for Resolution song, because it is a truly uplifting song.  It seems necessary on this sad day - I'm heartbroken for the families of the young children in the Connecticut shooting and I hope they can find comfort.  Here is the song sung by another choir: http://youtu.be/XArsuRWApvY
Here is the link to all the photos I took (without flash) of all of the performances:

http://flickr.com/gp/brennans/tS81yg/

The general audience wasn't supposed to take photo or video (although I think they have video available later) But here are some snippets from the earlier warm up at the nursing home, the rehearsal, and Aiden's relaxed at home version of Bidi Bum.
choir from LB on Vimeo.

badth

This boy loves to take off all his pants and ask so sweetly for a bath - "badth pease mommy" while scrubbing his tum - first thing in the morning, after lunch, you name it... Today was a mid day solo bath.... It's pretty relaxing so I understand his inclination.

first 12 days

12 bits of fun in the first 12 of December:::
1. Gingerbread House!
I picked up the Trader Joe's A frame that Aiden loved last year thanks to the cool sugar people and dog/goat/cow unidentifyable animal. Aiden got the hang of sprinkling a little candy here and there and on his tongue... When I asked what he was doing he said, "Don't worry mom I shared with Keaton's tongue too!"

2. Stamp, Seal, and Deliver Christmas Cards
Aiden loves doing stuff like this all on his own - I handed him some addressed envelopes, stack of cards, and stamps and he took them straight to the table to work on all of them. A half hour later they were all set. He even ran around to deliver them to our neighbors all on his own.

3. Candy Cane pipe cleaner and baking Soda Ornaments
Both boys have two prelits in their room, so we made some ornaments just for their trees. The wrapped and beaded candy canes were a hit with both boys. The baking soda dough is really smooth and soft and dries nice and hard even without an oven in about a day.
BAKING SODA CLAY:1. Mix 1 cup corn starch, 2 cups baking soda, and 1.25 cups cold water in a non-stick pot, stir until smooth. 2. Cook over medium-low heat until the mixture becomes somewhat "gunky" and thick.3. Remove from the heat and let cool while covered. Once dry, the clay stores well for a few days in sealed ziplock bags. 4. After you finish creating your ornaments, you can let them air dry to hardness at room temperature over 2-3 days OR speed up the process in a 350 degree oven with the heat turned off.

4. Cookies! with our sweet neighbors and their huge tree
Our older neighbors invited us in to see their great giant tree. The boys munched cookies and gawked at each ornament as she explained where they were all from. It was such a nice neighborhood moment.

5. Legos Advent Calendar
My folks gave Aiden this star wars edition for his birthday, and it's a hit - thanks! The little space ships and creatures are so neat even of you know nothing about Star Wars.

6. New friends at jingle library storytime
KC is beginning to recognize his buddies and he enjoys anything with jingle bells!

7. Chalkboard fabric
Aiden spotted this on our last trip to the fabric shop and wanted to create his own wall hanging. I look forward to changing it for every season.

8. Cutout Menorah
We did an easy color, cut, paste on a Menorah to recognize the start of Hanukkah.

9. Christmas Books
KC especially enjoys his Boynton book searching for Bob the Reindeer. The Grinch is Aiden's favorite.

10. Bike and scooter rides to look for Christmas decorations
Not your usual December activity, but in addition to "lights on the right/left!" games in the car, we scouted the neighborhood on our little wheels.

11. Choir Concerts
The best mommy treat was seeing Aiden beam while his brother clapped and cheered for him.

12. Christmas Jammies
New striped jammies for the whole family make for big smiles ;). More coming soon...

painting

A group of mom friend's got together and purchased a groupon for this studio that gives you a painting lesson along with wine. We traded our wine for my friend's homemade hot chocolate, which was a good choice to keep up with the painting (although the wine may have helped with my shaky hand)... I had decided I would give the painting to Aiden since I keep accidentally knitting sweaters for him that are too small. I figured I could manage to paint something any five year old would love ;). I was excited to give it to him when he woke up the next morning and his sweet smile made me happy.

ellipse

We intentionally picked a warm, yet a bit wet afternoon to venture down to the trees, trains, and holiday fun on the Ellipse. It was still pretty crowded (although no lines) since it was the Menorah lighting a bit later. The Menorah is huge and very cool, although Aiden really wanted it to be blue. When we went into Santa's Workshop, J joked that he saw Aiden's name on the naughty list which was the reason for that sour puss face in front of the mail room. He also loved imitating the same comic guy on one of the Ohio ornaments who is making a waaaah face. Keaton pointed out all the cool trains with some very enthusiastic choo chooos.

national santa

We went down the the Ellipse for a visit to Santa's Workshop.  Love these free photos they give you a code to access online - and then they have this program where you can add stickers - See Aiden's masterpiece below.

bday construct

Another fun birthday party with one of Aiden's buddies with a construction theme. It was every kids' dream party. These brave parents set out a bunch of boxes and packing peanuts - the staticy bits were eventually ground up and spread everywhere. The 'civilized' piñata where you pull a string was pretty much a ten second frenzy. The 'quiet' activity of constructing your graham cracker house was mostly kids stuffing their mouths with candies dipped in frosting. It was even nice enough to go outside and play with trucks (without coats in Dec!).

choir debut

 Today was the 2012 Da Capo FCS Choral debut at a nursing home where the director's grandmother Mimi lives.  Aiden ready to go to "Mimi's house" and insisted that he wear his tie that came with his shirt.  Here he is practicing with his well loved carol sheet:

 Belting out some practice songs:

 Stretching out those singing muscles:

 The top of a big bow:

 So excited for the big show:

 Playing it cool with hands in the pockets of the brand new black pants:

 Jingle Bells!

 The biggest smiley fan:

Many more photos here since I was volunteering as the official photographer: http://flickr.com/gp/brennans/7S5YE4/

brothers

These little giggle puss guys cuddling and studying vintage Lego minifigures. Pointing out their favorites and giggling up a storm:

70s

Earlier this week there were 70 degree temps! It has since gotten a little wet and cooler but we are happy when 5 of the last 7 days were outside days... December days are meant for scooting!

boat parade

Old Town Alexandria is bustling and festive this time of year. It is especially nice with the beautiful weather we've been having! (high of 70 most of December so far!) This past weekend we visited Aiden's favorite Why Not toy shop, the boat parade setup behind the Torpedo Factory, and a yummy Thai restaurant off the wharf.  The boats were all decorated for the parade.  Aiden liked pointing out all the inflatables that he saw earlier after the Home Depot kid's workshop (which were cool picture frames this time).

xmas fest

This area is always swarming with buzz about activities... Some come with good recs for kids and seem pretty accessible. The National Harbor holiday festival or whatever they were calling this event, seemed like it would fit the bill. Well, turns out the address printed directed you to a spot to wait in a giant shuttle line - boo - but we did eventually learn we could just drive directly there ourselves. Tons and tons of people were headed to these large heated tents... I figured it must be a good event with this much popularity and our tickets promised hot cocoa and a flight of wine. We made sure to go when they had a decent kid's performer and Santa in the house. But the "craft" tables (selling things marketed as Smelly Rocks for instance - that name needs some work), and giant crowds around Santa's Cellar tables for other samples were not so hot. There were vendors everywhere that were pretty blah and I didn't think fest equaled fair. It was a miss overall, but at least we know for the future... And the little photo ops weren't bad to keep me entertained.

interview with ab

You had fun on our trip to Ohio for Thanksgiving.  You never tire of pretending you are a lump under the blanket on Gran Gran and Pop Pop's bed.... There were almost constant cries for "come try to make your bed PopPop!"
J told you that cranberry sauce was turkey brains, so you wanted to try it, so you could "taste what the turkey was thinking..." Turns out according to you the turkey was thinking, "I hope these people won't eat me."  What a turkey!

One word to describe you would be: 

I am very crazy! 

Why do you like being a kid? 

Making up stories and playing with my magnet theater. 

If you could be any animal, which one would you be and why? 

Dinosaur, because I like dinosaurs because they I have toys like that and I like going to museums with dinosaurs. 

Tell about a funny time in your life. 

When I started being crazy because being crazy is so funny!   

What is your favorite thing to do? Why? 

Say cockadoodee because it sounds like a rooster.   

What do you love most about your sibling? 

Because he tries to get your attention when I go aaah, ah, ah boozzzh.   

What was the nicest thing you did for someone? 

When I helped Randall (Santa's reindeer helper) make sure he does not give me coal.

What do you think you will be doing 10 years from now? 

Going to college and doing I don't know because I've never been to college.

What is the grossest thing you can think of? 

Poop

 What is your happiest memory?

Listening to our christmas tree that sings Jingle Bell Rock.

fancy pants

This weekend sitting at dinner at a Mexican restaurant a fun song came on the loud juke box, Aiden asked calmly and politely if he can "put his fancy pants on to groove?"  The video below was just a day before, when he was welcome up on stage with this crazy kid's performer named Uncle Pete... (The DC area excels in many areas, but children's performers is not one of those areas.) He was "singing" while the kids just sorta went wild and I think Aiden and Keaton had their fancy pants on:

dance! from LB on Vimeo.