eve eve

Christmas eve eve as another fun day here in Ohio. It started with a fun visit with my old friends and their kiddos. Great to see everyone and see the kids play - thanks for having us over E (and for the fun photo above)!  It was topped off with a date night for J and me at Pranzo in downtown Willoughby (yum gnocchi!), a quick chocolate dessert at Arabica (who knew they had yummy desserts!), and the 3D showing of Tron (who knew that I'd actually like it?!).  Thanks for babysitting L and D!

Here are snippets of the cute buddies playing - AB took some special requests from L:

HB from LB on Vimeo.

best present

What a fun and fulfilling Christmas spent surrounded by family.  Thanks for all the laughs, food, and presents galore!  My best present was something Aiden couldn't wait to give me and told me what it was before I even opened it because he was so excited. He made this candle holder at school complete with a decorated wrap - The letters to his name might not be lined up and there is an extra E started, but he wrote it completely independently!  I also love the monster he drew on the back.

countdown

Merrrrry Christmas!  We hope that you enjoyed the season!

Aiden loved counting down the days of xmas on our fabric wall hanging and, of course, with the chocolate doors Gran gave him. We made an attempt to do some sort of random "special" thing each day.  It made for a fun crafty time of year.  

A goofball and his christmas tree sandwich:

 Painting his 2010 toy soldier and tracing his hand for the xmas playground:

 The 2010 Gingerbread House designed by Aiden:

Here was our crafty advent countdown:

• Day 1: Bake cookies and decorate them as Santa monsters
• Day 2: Make a Christmas Village/Playground with macaroni noodle characters
• Day 3: Donate to the school food drive
• Day 4: Decorate the Christmas tree
• Day 5: Help stamp and close the holiday cards
• Day 6: Paint the 2010 wooden toy soldier
• Day 7: Make some new ornaments for the tree

• Day 8: Learn a new xmas song, We Wish You a Merry Christmas
• Day 9: Make gifts for friends, a tree or mitten crayon
• Day 10: Dance party with friends, Green's Theorem Band fans
• Day 11: Shop for presents and discover a stocking Santa left behind early!
• Day 12: Decorate the gingerbread house
• Day 13: Make outdoor bird seed pine cone ornaments
• Day 14: Have xmas tree sandwiches for lunch

• Day 15: Visit an old buddy and make gingerbread men
• Day 16: Make gifts and gift tags for teachers presents
• Day 17: Drive around and look at the xmas decorations and lights
• Day 18: Fly like santa's reindeer through the sky
• Day 19: Craft some holiday garland and place cards with Gran
• Day 20: Make Snoopy christmas cookies
• Day 21: Make the annual I Want a Hippopotamus for Xmas video
• Day 22: Discover a tree that santa decorated just for you during the night
• Day 23: Decorate reusable shopping bags with xmas stickers
• Day 24: Make a wreath shaped pizza

science museum

We visited the Great Lakes Science Center with my folks.  The definite highlight wasn't caught on camera, was the Omnimax Dolphins show.  Aiden asked right as it started, "Am I swimming?"  Then a little later on he leaned over and asked his dad, "How come we are moving?"  So I guess the true effect of the Omnimax worked for Aiden!  We had fun tooling around with the museum.  We're going to go back today for another Omnimax and the Bubblemania show.

Science Center from LB on Vimeo.

bounce!

The bouncy zone my cousin works at, Zero Gravity, allows adults to bounce with the kids! (but not pregnant adults, but I swear I got just as much of a workout from laughing so hard)  My dad almost beat J through the obstacle course slide combo - when they raced!  Verdict is still out on whether Aiden could've beat Gran Gran (who liked to slither through on her back) - we'll just have to go back to find out.

The iphone through a fence that was bouncing and everyone is rendered a big blur - why didn't I bring the real camera again!?

 Here's the adult bounce with J and his popeye arm:

 The big tall basketball hoop that PopPop could lift Aiden up to reach:

 I risked injury for this shot:

hippo for xmas

Continuing a four year old tradition:

Hippo for Xmas 2010 from LB on Vimeo.
Here is 2009.
Here is 2008.
Here is 2007.

library

 Aiden's favorite spot is the library down the street from his school. To me it's like a low key Gymboree that is always open. There is a great play space for 0-3 year olds and a side room with duplos, a kitchen, and a big puppet theater.  He loves stacking the plates and putting fake food on them for "dinner."  His other favorite is "spelling" real and fake words on the magnet board.  Some of his fake words get pretty long!

surprise!

We managed to surprise the socks off Gran Gran at her early 60th birthday party! Well, her socks didn't come off, but she dropped her purse and nearly fell over ;) Complete with a hippo cake and dinner prepared by my sister and brother-in-law (so good!)... Topped off with the hosts' my uncle's homemade irish cream and appetizers, etc from my aunt.  

Aiden helped Gran Gran blow out her candles and was so patient waiting for cake while we played PopPop's birthday quiz for my mom.

Can't beat fun surprises! 

Happy Birthday Mommu, Gran Gran!

Aiden and Uncle Woah being silly with "ham sandwich" faces:

Thanks J for nabbing some great video:

more xmas fun

We have really packed in the fun in this first half of December.  We were able to squeeze in a visit to see Aiden's oldest best buddy Tyler and decorate Gingerbread cookies and exchange presents (new cars!).  These two get along so well.

Gingerbread Men with Tyler from LB on Vimeo.
We had a sixth visit with a Santa and this time Mrs. Claus was there too.  They met with each kid, gave them a present (a stuffed penguin friend) and read a Christmas story.  It's so fun this year that Aiden likes hanging out with Santa.  My favorite is how he puts his finger to his lips like he's "thinking" about what he would like.  IPhone shots:

concert photos

I realize there is something about these concerts that will eventually wear off when the kids aren't quite as cute or enthusiastic to see you there.  I realize that they are much more exciting to the actual parents who see their smiling cuties than anyone else.  But I didn't realize how ridiculously happy it would make  me to see my smiling boy sit up there today...ok, maybe I did realize pretty quickly after hearing about it ;) - but these photos and videos will be my go-to cheer up for a while.

Giggling at the funny face game he wanted to play with daddy:

 Singing face:

 This kid had a full night's rest, but here he is lounging during the big kids singing and yawning with a singing face:

 Scritch scratching his rumbling tummy:

 Singing about delivering pie to his grandmother's house:

first concert

Today was the Winter Program at Aiden's school.  I was really looking forward to it and really hoping that he wouldn't get sick or miss it somehow.  I got especially excited because Aiden told me he was doing a solo dressed as a christmas tree.  I was skeptical and asked him what and solo was, and he responded "oh mama, a solo is when you sing by yourself!" (as if I was so silly for not knowing)  Then I asked him what he was singing and he coyly said, "That's not for talking about at home."  So the teachers must have told them to keep quiet so it was a surprise ;)

Turns out that they had the class sing a "solo" of I'm a Little Snowflake with the bigger primary kids as back up singers.  There was no christmas tree costume to be found, so that must have been the result of an active imagination from a tricky kid. Aiden spent about 20% of the time actually singing, 20% of the time yawning with his lips pursed like he was singing, 25% staring off into space blankly, 5% actually laying his head down on the back of his chair, 10% pulling on his shirt rubbing his rumbly tummy (which was ready for you know what), and 10% making faces at his daddy, 5% bowing a tiny bit, and 5% waving and smiling at us.

Here is my "coverage" which I wasn't terribly happy with because I felt like I missed some really cute moments when my shot was taken over by hair, etc and when I was getting still photos instead.  Turns out that the front row seats are auctioned off at their Parent Fundraiser every year, and the second row was already full an hour before the show started! Crazy parents are crazier than me ;)

Winter Program from LB on Vimeo.

Here is the better coverage overall from the other camera J held while standing against the wall on the side, but it's a "grandparent cut" meaning it's loooong.  My favorite is at about 4:30 in when they sing, "Music Makes Me Sing":


We continued the musical day with a visit to a new music class that used the whole Nutcracker suite.  It was so much fun to see Aiden get so excited to march like a mouse, which he immediately said was his favorite part.  Here is a blurb from the invitation - "You're invited to sample a class at our celebrated "Nutcracker Ballet" open house. Experience music in a whole new way as we march with the mice, dance with the Sugar Plum Fairy, sing with Mother Ginger’s children, and travel through the Land of the Snow."

green's theorem

Last week was the annual Winter Party at what will soon be my "old" job - Tomorrow is my last day!!  Aiden, aka. Green's Theorem's biggest fan, was at what may be his last performance.  It's a bit sad that I think he's been to every one of their performances ;)  They are a group of engineers that play your classic rock type stuff that Aiden likes to bop to.  These photos were all taken by my replacement while I sat at a table actually enjoying some food - how novel!  I really enjoyed it ;) Aiden was playing shy to the camera just like a photographer's kid.

week two

In between all the big fun, we've had some everyday fun activities.  I managed to capture a few little snippets from the crafty stuff, so you can watch and feel like you're sitting there watching Aiden craft ;)

• Day 8: Learn a new xmas song, We Wish You a Merry Christmas
• Day 9: Make gifts for friends, a tree or mitten crayon
• Day 10: Dance party with friends, Green's Theorem Band fans
• Day 11: Shop for presents and discover a stocking Santa left behind early!
• Day 12: Decorate the gingerbread house
• Day 13: Make outdoor bird seed pine cone ornaments
• Day 14: Have xmas tree sandwiches for lunch

Week Two from LB on Vimeo.

party!

I think one of Aiden's favorite thing to do is go to birthday parties.  We never turn down an invitation ;)  This was a great one with all of J's fun family.  All the kids are cousins in some way with the birthday boy. It's fun to see a new generation all together.

Aiden always picks the "buurthday cake" as his favorite part of the party.  This kid sure does like frosting like his dad.  I think he loves helping blow out the candles, wearing the party hats and especially playing with all the "new" toys.

I can't wait to see more of the photos from the party because some of the kiddos took over the cameras and were shooting away ;)

discovery museum

We finished out our holiday shopping this weekend.  Thanks goodness for Amazon that saved us from too many crowded stores!  Then we were planning to cruise north of Boston for cousin Matthew's 2nd birthday party, and we made it a day trip.  We had a nice lunch at Not Your Average Joe's (tomato basil soup with ricotta mozzarella puffs and peanut butter haute cocoa - yum! - and their green beans are so good that Aiden ate them dipped in ketchup like french fries).  Then we stopped at the Discovery Museum in Acton.  I think J loved it just as much as Aiden:

Discovery Museum from LB on Vimeo.

library santa

Aiden dubbed this santa, the Library Santa.  We went to his favorite library right down the street from his school for their santa and cookies decorating event.  When we arrived and I couldn't find a place to park I knew I was in trouble.  It seemed that half of Rhode Island showed up for the event.  We were able to get into cookie decorating only after a few minutes.  Somehow I thought the santa line would die down, but it was only getting worse.  I tried to convince Aiden that we didn't need to see a fourth santa, so we could just go home.  But someone clued him in that Santa was giving away candy canes and this kid will do a lot for candy.  Then a nice librarian gave him one "to hold until after you talk to Santa" - I think she thought she was doing me a favor, but instead it meant that we just-haaaad-to wait in the over 45 minute line to see Santa to "earn" his candy cane.  J was at a workshop, so we couldn't split our parenting and have one parent wait in line while Aiden continued to play.  So we read Beatrix Potter books and the crazy santa would occasionally jump up and start singing, so we stayed entertained.  We went out to a pizzeria for dinner and thumb wrestled while we waited for pizza.  While we waited yet again, out of the blue Aiden pulled out his sweet I love you mommy, and it was all totally worth the wait.