Catching Up- Part 2 December

I had to add this pic- it's not a great one,but it is Rudolph from Stew Leonard's.  Ethan had a love affair with this reindeer.  He asked every day to see him, asked if I could call him to see if he was at the store, and when we would go visit would completely ignore Santa and stare at Rudolph!

Barley, even at age 5 will steal my slippers when he catches wind of the fact that we are going out without him!

Nate!

Very funny trees!

My boys

Ethan made a chocolate peanut butter mouse at a local chocolate shop

Nate had to wear a hairnet too, and he didn't even get to eat any peanut butter!

Polar Express Train ride

Ethan dances with the chefs

Playing in the ball pit at the Rumpus Room

Nate's first ride in the grocery cart- big boy!

Ethan discovers the delights of hot chocolate at the coffee shop in LL Bean and  asks to go there whenever we set foot near the store

Setti Winter Wonderland in Norwalk

Christmas Eve

Ethan and Grandpa George run trains

G Ma, Great Grandma D, and Nate

Stockings!

Decorating the tree is serious business!

Christmas morning

Cousins

Part 2- The Holiday Season.  We had so much fun this year.  Maybe more fun than ever before.  Ethan was soooo excited for everything that had to do with Christmas.  He was thrilled to meet Rudolph at Stew Leonards of all things.  The first time we saw him (yes, there were many visits to Rudolph!!) he let Ethan hold his bell while we stood in line waiting for our ice cream cones.  A few days later, we were driving along in the car and Ethan said, "It sure was nice of Rudolph to share his bells with me."  I agreed.  Suddenly panic rose in Ethan's voice, "Mama, I didn't say thank you to Rudolph for letting me hold the bells.  I was so busy thinking about my ice cream that I forgot!!"  I found it so amusing that Ethan was so clearly concerned and slightly distraught over insulting Rudolph!

Ethan was excited about all things Christmas.  He was eager to do crafts, baking, wrapping, shopping- whatever it took to make things festive.  And he LOVED his elf!  I'm sure that you've heard of Elf on a Shelf.  We have one too- but he's a slightly different version.  Every morning, the elf was the first thing Ethan would mention when he opened his eyes, and he would eagerly run downstairs to find what mischief the elf had gotten into that day.  He also wanted me to read, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' to him every night before bed.  One morning, we woke up to snow.  Ethan hopped out of bed, pulled up the shade and said to himself, "I pulled up the sash to see snow!!"  Having the boys made the holidays so much fun!

Ethan has been so great at using his imagination and one thing that he really got into while we were staying at my parents' house was creating a store.  He took random bathtub toys and set them up in the bathroom and the informed us that he was the store owner and that he sold toys and building materials.  He set his prices high- $5,000 for a rubber ducky, $30,000 for a boat.  His stores expanded to the bedroom upstairs where he sold pacifiers and water bottles.  Each night I had to buy a pacifier for Nate to go to sleep!

Nate was crawling everywhere and fast!  Happily, he was only mildly interested in the Christmas tree, and it was only in the last few days before we took it down, that he really started yanking on the branches.  He was much more interested in pulling off the bells so that he could shake and chew on them.  He started pulling himself to standing on Christmas Eve, and since then, he is rarely sitting.

As you can probably tell from the pictures, we had a wonderful Christmas.  Pete and I have certainly been challenged by the distance and stress of living in two places.  But we are both so aware of just how lucky we are to have these amazing boys and that every moment is a gift.  We hope that the new year brings us some normalcy and stability, but I'm not sure that I would change anything that we've gone through over the past year.  It has made us take nothing for granted and thoroughly enjoy the time that we get to spend as a family.