Zsa Zsa, Aiyee, and Cue

Aiyee and Cue are in town for Cue's office Christmas party so we drove downtown to meet them for lunch today. Sylvie wore her "jacket Grandma brought it" (is how she describes this one). I call it her Zsa Zsa Gabor jacket. I took her picture in it before we left-

Timer shot at the hotel-

Christmas Candyland

Today we day-tripped to Hershey Park for Christmas Candylane. I've never been to an amusement park in the winter. It was fun- as long as we kept warm (I had the kids in their snowsuits- lol!).

Crazy sun shot and I couldn't see what I was taking, but wanted a shot of the little chocolatier measuring up. I think we determined he was a smidge above a Kiss, a borderline Reese's?

Doesn't she look like the cutest little snow bunny with her shades on top of her head and her snowsuit on?

This was their first ride and they LOVED it. I loved their faces and their happy squeals. Amusement park in the winter = unique fun!

This rocket ride was funny. Brett was taking pictures and goes, "Why's Sylvie buried on this ride?" I said, "b/c we showed her where the buzzer was and she's leaning in to press it." lol- she stayed like this for the duration of the ride.

Syl-syl mid "cheeeese!" face here on one of the train rides-

This was the last picture we took when I realized we didn't have one of the two of them in their snowsuits together next to the Christmas lights. They were tired and pretty much done at this point. lol! What a fun day!

Video

I haven't posted much video b/c now with the SLR taking HD video it takes forEver to prep the videos for upload and forEver to upload. But Sylvie's laugh and the kids singing are worth the effort. So cute!
Sylvie laughing-

Little Ditties- (haha- Brady sings about the "broken sleigh" in Jingle Bells)

Here Comes Santa Claus

We went to see Santa at our neighborhood Nature Center again this year. I was most pleasantly surprised with how it went this year. I was by myself with the two little peeps, but they were great! Great with the lines, great with the treats (and the limits I was placing on them), and great with the big guy! I thought Sylvie would cry...I mean, first off, Brady did at her age; second, she was nervous with the Easter Bunny and even with the Sesame Street characters earlier this year. But nope, she was Awesome! I kept talking Santa up and I think she does get that he "brings presents" (even if she doesn't quite realize what that means.
btw, cute story- so the kids and I are driving around the other night looking at Christmas lights and they both say they want to see Santa (I think they meant a Santa decoration.) But I said, "Brady, when you see real Santa, what will you tell him you would like?" (as I try to gauge ideas for Christmas presents) and before Brady can answer, Sylvie yells without hesitation, "Pahwesents!!!" LOL!
Before we left, I took a few pictures at home-

Love the crazy eyes- lol! It was at this point that I realized I might be pushing it and should probably quit taking so many pictures. :p

Anyway, so Sylvie was quite adorable tonight. She kept saying, "Want to see Santa." We had to wait our turn, but we did keep taking peeks at him. When we were second in line, and she had a direct sight line of him, she starts waving and yelling, "Hi Santa! Santa! Hi!!!"

Love this one of Brady, too bad Sylvie's mesmerized by Santa and not looking at the camera. :p

They invited me to hop in the picture too. Sure, why not?

Here are the ones taken by the association-

Sylvie was adorable afterward. She continued to wave (while holding the coloring book Santa gave her) and kept saying "Bye Santa! I lubb you!" This video makes me LOL b/c she's so cute and b/c her almost 4-year-old brother schools her saying, "Don't do it so many times." and shaking his head. LOL! Love them!

Sweet Sibs

There was such unrequested sweetness between these two this evening that I had to take their picture. I was cleaning up in the kitchen and I hear the sweet exchange-
"Hey Sylvie, let's snuggle! Mommy let me bring Elephant downstairs. You can even have Winter."
"Okay."
"Here- I'll share my blanket with you. Snuggle time!"
oh.my.heart. tooooooooo sweet! loooooooove them!

Piggy Do

Ms. Flori was again responsible for making Sylvie squeezably cute today. I tried to get some pictures of her piggy do b/c I love it so much-

Rude Awakening

Our whole family is in for a rude awakening (literally!) when the kids begin going to a school with a set start time (like elementary school). I just have to comment on our morning routines b/c they will change one day and I'll forget about these glory days. So for a while I was waiting on Daylight Standard Time to begin b/c the kids were actually sleeping in too much- like past 8:30 every day! Usually I do not set an alarm- the kids are my wake-up call. It's been this way for almost 4 years now (since I telework). There are a few days when I have to go to client site in West Va and on those days I get up with my alarm clock. But mostly it's them- either sleepy shuffling Brady armed with no fewer than 3 stuffies (Elephant, Winter, and Downey-- but also whoever else he can grab) or the cutest sweetie peatie voice calling, "Mommy, wey-ah ah you???" that I wake up to. They typically sleep until at least 7:30. Sometimes Sylvie does wake up earlier, but if she calls and I'm not ready, I just don't go to her room. Eventually she stops calling and either plays quietly in her crib (with her stuffies or with the zipper on her jammies- ha!) or she falls back asleep. We've been doing that (ignoring the too-early-wake-up call) since she was about 4 months old. lol! What a good girl she is!

So we're finally all moving and get downstairs by 8. These days, I usually let them watch Dinosaur Train while they eat breakfast. Then just before 9, we load up, go to Ms. Omayma's to drop Sylvie off first and then off to OA to drop Brady off. We're pretty spoiled having an almost 2 and almost 4 year old- yet still sleeping in until about 8 daily. :)

The Dinosaur Invasion is Coming

While Daddy's in NC watching the Hokies play in the ACC championship game, we are doing some prep for Brady's dinosaur birthday party this weekend. We painted cereal boxes and glued on claws this afternoon to make dinosaur feet. Here's a preview of the future birthday boy trying out the feet and channeling his inner 2 fingered T-Rex for one of these picts-

The kids were AMAZING this weekend- so sweet to each other, playing So nicely together. I took video of it b/c it was so sweet. I'm not sure it's worth my effort of converting the HD video and uploading to YouTube (b/c the process takes forEver for HD videos), but they were wonderful! It was a fabulous weekend. However, this afternoon it seemed that I really did have a crazy T-Rex in the house with me as Brady protested his nap and "quiet time." Finally I told him I was not going to talk to him b/c he was being too crazy. It was very quiet in the family room and I found him (and Romey) like this 5 minutes later. This Never happens...he usually doesn't ever fall asleep anywhere but in his bed, and certainly not during the day time.

Elf on a Shelf

A new tradition began in our house this first day of December. We got our Elf on a Shelf. I had not heard of this 30 year old Christmas tradition until Danisa told me about it last year. It's a cute book that comes with a little elf. The story goes that he is Santa's helper and it's his task to watch the kids in the house daily. Each night, he magically goes back to the North Pole to report what he's observed to Santa. Each morning, the kids have to find his new perch where he's returned to watch again.

I had the book wrapped to make it more special. It's after baths so they are in their jammies...it looked like a preview of Christmas morning. The kids are cute- they love presents and they love books. So it was fun to start with!

The book indicates that the first "task" is to name the elf. After some silly nonsense names, Brady called him Gingerbread and Sylvie repeated, "Gingerbear." LOL! I love it!

Oddly enough, Sylvie seems to get it more so than Brady and is more excited about our new little resident. We told the kids the first time Gingerbear was going to play hide and seek with them. They counted and then went searching for him. Brady asked for a hint and when Daddy said, "He's near something you can see your reflection in," it was SYLVIE who went straight to the mirror and said, "mee-ah! Gingerbear up dare!!" :p

Yes, the 22-month old gets it. She's awesome!

I'm back-blogging and can say that it's been 2 weeks since our resident elf arrived. He makes for a fun time each morning when the kids try to find where he is on his new perch (also makes for a fun time for me when I bolt up realizing, "I didn't move Gingerbear!" as I try to distract Brady and keep him upstairs while I stumble around without my contacts in and find the little guy a new space for the day. Brady seems to be tossing the idea of "elf magic" around in his head. One morning he said to me, "Where did you put him?" I replied, "I didn't put him anywhere! He's wherever he wanted to be when he returned from the North Pole early this morning." He goes, "How could he even do that? He's a stuffie. His legs don't really work." I was stunned, I said, "uh, magic!" But then just a few days ago, when Gingerbear fell from his perch on the window cornice when I closed the back door, I had to pick him back up. Brady goes, "Don't touch him! He'll lose his magic!" (b/c the book outlines this "rule") So who knows what's going on in his brain? But it's fun to hear about it!