Boy, do you every have a great imagination!
Lately one of your favorite toys is a roll of wrapping paper that you have decided is a rocket ship.
You run around in circles with it held over your head or gripped in your little hands and I will sometimes chase after you pretending that I want to get it from you.
Sometimes you will put it up to your mount and call into it in my direction and I'll pretend to fall over from the force of the blow from your rocket.
Then there are the times that you simply love to make it stand on it's own and then watch it fall over by some unseen force, whether it's a slight bump of a table or a little wind or being slightly off balance.
Yes - the Santa Rocket may be the best toy of the season.
So, why did we bother with the toys? :)
Just kidding!
WAIT TILL YOU SEE THEM!
Santa Rocket will be long forgotten!
I can hardly wait!
Love,Mommy
To the adult eye, the display is gaudy and cheesy, but to the child's eye, it's a wonderland! You sat in my lap as we drove slowly through the park and you pointed out everything you could take in - Santa and the elves, snowmen, gingerbread men, elves and candy canes, toys and characters from popular movies that you just KNOW didn't give their express permission to be a part of that display.
But I think the light display angels made the biggest impression on you. They were displayed in such a way that it looked like they were flying over the cars and this was amazing to you. It made SUCH an impression in fact, that you woke up this morning and the first word out of your mouth was "ANGELS! YOU angel, Mommy!" which melted my heart.
The snow has brought with it a lot of fun and new activities to enjoy.
Today we started the day off with making snowcones.
We scooped snow into cups and put different flavors into the snow.
We had a squirt bottle of blue bug juice (this is the brand name, not what it actually is even though it looks mysteriously blue....) that looked like windex and this was a perfect snowcone topper. You loved to add as much or as little of the juice as you wanted and would scoop it into your mouth, at first tentatively and then sloppily with it running all down your clothes and on the floor.
We also tried orange juice snowcones, apple juice snowcones and lemonade snowcones. But the bug juice snowcone was your favorite.
I tried to teach you to make snow angels, too, and we made them together, but you didn't really see much of a connection between the hard-to-distinguish ones in the snow and the fantastic flying light up ones from the night before, so that was a flop.
Then, at dinner time, we loaded you into the car, picked up some fast food Pizza Hut for you and White Castles for Daddy and me and headed to Tilly's Park to see their light show.
Another night of snuggling you on my lap in the front seat of the car while you pointed out new lights that we hadn't yet seen before and listened to Christmas carols on the radio.
I think it's this time of the year that turns me into a sap, but there is so much sweetness and magic in this time of the year!
Bring it on!
This dusting of white on everything is a red flag to our instincts and we are compelled to dress like arctic explorers and go out to stand in it.
You weren't sure what to make of the full snow gear. You would have eagerly shed it all, but couldn't figure out how to get a grip on anything or manuveur yourself without fear of falling over in a big heap of padding.
Once in the snow, though, you were thrilled with this new experience!
With snow all around, we HAD to try to make a snowman. It was somewhat sticky, but not enough to make a snowman that didn't fall apart once we got past the size of a basketball.
I tried to explain it to you, but that wasn't working so well because each time I would get to the word snowman, as in "Jack, it doesn't look like we're going to be able to make a snowman..." you would nod your head in agreement and say "Make snowman!"
So we launched that basketball sized snowball and watched it smash on the ground which led to the activity for the rest of the time we were outside of assembling snowballs, launching them and watching them sink into the snow or burst on the top.
After our outdoors fun was over, we went inside for the traditional hot chocolate. I found to my almost disbelief that you were unwilling to try the hot chocolate because it was new and therefore BAD!
So, I enticed you by tossing in a silly straw and VOILA! Hot chocolate is now on the menu!
I just wished that worked with veggies!
It was nice to have a goal associated with blogging because I love doing it so much.
At first, I was worried that I would be searching for things to say and blog about, but over the course of the month, this was never a problem. I always had something about you to share. Something you were doing - an activity or a comment or a scenario.
I got to thinking about this as I've been blogging into December with much more regularity and I think this daily blogging has made me realize what a gift each day is.
There is something special about every day if I take the time to stop and realize it. NaBloPoMo MADE me stop and realize it and I don't want to lose that.
I think about how I might have blogged only a percentage of what I did and what I would have missed out on.
Living life is such a gift and it's an even better gift when you can remember the enjoyable moments with fresh clarity and sometimes even with photos or videos to make it even truer to life in the memory.
I don't really know where I'm going with this. I know I won't be able to continue to blog daily. I'm taking more classes next semester towards my MBA and I remember how few precious minutes that leaves available at the end of the day.
But I am very thankful for that fresh perspective on life and I feel like my eyes are opened a little wider to the fact that life is such a gift and I'm so lucky to be living this life that I am.
Just think of how many of these memories would be lost without taking time to notice them.
Can’t you see the caring concern in the eyes of Mommy Tator?
It was only then that I realized the issue was the mouth in upside down so while you were sleeping….. *flip*!
And when you woke up, Tator Tot was happy again. Naps DO help afterall! Let’s have that be the lesson of all this, okay?