Tis the Season
Katherine has been so excited about Christmas, in part because of all the activities that are becoming family tradition. We started the weekend after Thanksgiving with a trip to the Christmas tree farm. Katherine ran around pointing at trees for about five minutes – at which point she got impatient and all the females in the family retired to the warm minivan. Decorating was a success again this year; Katherine helped me unpack the ornaments and put them on the tree. Our damage…only one ceramic ornament was broken. Allison wasn’t sure what to make of a tree in the middle of the living room and lights all over the tree!
That evening we went to an annual cookie exchange – where Santa made a star appearance. Katherine was a bit surprised and apprehensive about sitting on his lap. We asked her what she wanted and she said “a candy cane!” She ended up sitting on Steve’s lap and telling Santa “I want a candy cane. I have all my stuffed animals already.” Since then, she’s elaborated on her wish list, saying she wants: a candy cane, a new Lambey (hmmm), a new Carl book (Carl’s Sleepy Afternoon) and one other thing I can’t remember! She insists “I’m a good girl” and fully expects Santa to deliver on these items. She is also very concerned about Allison – telling me that Santa should not put a candy cane in Allison’s stocking because she’s still a baby.
Early the following week we decorated a gingerbread house. This is our third year of doing so. The first year, our friends the Sarins brought over a house. Tina glue-gunned the house together and we made a beautiful house. Last year Katherine was an active decorator, placing candy all over the tree. This year, I bought a kit and she was just beyond herself – holding the kit with a firm grip and telling Steve when he got home that we HAD to decorate the house that I had managed to glue together. Funny enough, Katherine understood that the candy was for decorating. She found Steve with candy in his mouth several times and admonished him “candy is for decorating, not eating!”
Steve went to LA to visit his grandmother just a few days later. I tried to stick with our planned activities and took Katherine to a cookie decorating party for a little friend. She did amazingly well – telling me when she needed my help (for frosting), and asking nicely after decorating if she could eat a cookie! The cookies were laden with frosting, marshmallows, jelly beans, chocolate chips and M&Ms. She was in cookie heaven! The decorating was followed by a beautiful lunch – and the kids at the party did a great job behaving at the restaurant.
We discovered a new tradition yesterday with my mom who had visited the local nursery (Molbaks) and wanted to take pictures of the kids there. Molbaks is celebrating the holidays with a Festival of Poinsettias – literally hundreds of plants and a gigantic 10′ tree made of poinsettias with benches in front. A woman walking by was thoughtful enough to volunteer to take our picture – and the resulting picture was wonderful. I have a feeling this will be a new family tradition. Allison loved the colorful flowers as she kicked all the way through the visit. We finished up our visit picking up some new clothes for the kids and headed home for cookie decorating with Grandma.
Finally Eating!!
Allison is Finally Eating solids. It’s really been touch and go for the last month. While she’s eating only say a teaspoon of food at a time, she’s getting the hang of eating and getting really messy! Our first technique (courtesy of my mom) was to wait for Allison to open her mouth while she played with her own spoon and to gently jam a second spoon in her mouth. I learned that she loves to hold spoons and try and get the food in her mouth herself. She also LOVES finger food – namely the Whole Foods organic equivalent of Cheerios.
Allison now eats sweet potato, apple, bananas and a bit of peas. She still doesn’t eat cereal…Oh well.
