Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
First off, we just wanted to say THANK YOU for all the gifts and cards. They were very much enjoyed and appreciated!
Now, on to the show!
Katie was up at 8am to open presents.
Believe me when I say, that is REALLY early for her. She usually rolls outta bed somewhere between 9 and 11am everyday. She is NOT a morning person.
Unlike previous years, this year Katie opened her ALL her presents in
about 30 minutes or less. She then moved on to the "Katie & Mikey" presents,
and then finally stepped in to help Mikey who, according to her, was moving
WAAAAAYYYYY to slow.
"WOW! Look! A dragon!"
"THHHHHHBBBBBBPPPPPPP!"
Mikey's sound for truck.
Car has a different sound.
Kinda like "Vroom".
"There's guys in there and princesses and horses, Mom."
We got Mikey a "Zoom Around Garage" and a bunch of Lego
CARS figures (McQueen, Mater, etc.).
He (and Katie) loved it.
I didn't know this, but it is also good for climbing.
Meet Baby Deathwing - the red dragon - and her
blue baby dragon in training.
RAAAAWWWWRRRRRR!!!!!!!!
I guess even Deathwing gets tired.
Here she is taking a quick break from destroying all of Aseroth to play
with her new castle set.
Everyone got the post-lunch nappies.
Mikey started to bonk out on the couch.
And even Little Miss Energy was toasted by mid-afternoon
and decided to head up to her room for a nap.
Wakey, wakey!
After everyone was rested and had their post-nap snack, it was play time!
"You mean, be careful 'cause I could fall off this and hit my head?"
"No way, dude. Never happen.
You gotta trust The Mike."
Huzbend had the week between Xmas and New Year's off
and so it was play central around here.
Here's a baby pteradon (yes, her characters are always babies)
emerging from an egg.
"Does that tickle, DaDa?"
Here's Mikey and I engaged in a deep conversation.
It seems that he has really made huge leaps
in communication in the past few weeks.
He's got lots of words and even answers yes
or no questions with head shakes.
During the middle of last week, it snowed. We got about two inches of the white stuff.
Because of the temps the snow didn't go away. In fact, it's still outside.
Here's Katie getting snow crazy.
Here's Mikey following suit.
And this is what happens after about thirty minutes
of snow playtime.
Katie likes to settle herself down to a huge
mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows.
Since the snow is still around, Katie and I went out to sled today. When we came in, she told me that she doesn't like the chocolate so much. She just wanted the marshmallows.
So, I put ten of them on a plate and nuked them for 5 seconds.
She liked them.
Sometimes, I wonder about that girl.
And, what happens to poor little Mikey you ask?
Well, he crashes.
Hard.
That brings me to New Year's Eve.
Here's Mikey getting ready to party.
Katie was very excited about the prospect of a party.
Parties equal "special treats".
So, not one to disappoint, I made some caramel dip and chopped
up some fruit to go with it.
Parties also equal balloons.
Later that evening, it was time for Mikey to go ta bed.
"Aw, stinkers!"
Katie decided to stay up until midnight with us.
Besides watching a bit of America's Funniest Home Videos Grand Prize Show, she kept herself busy doing various "art projects".
Here is a "diver costume" that she put together.
And here she is working hard on another project -
Santa and Snowman plates.
She got pretty tired at around 11:30, but we put on Dick Clark's Rockin'
New Years Eve and that kept her entertained until the big moment.
She watched the ball come down for the first time as she laid in my lap.
She told me that she didn't want to go to sleep until all the people in
New York City on TV went to sleep.
I told her they were ALREADY asleep because their clocks are ahead of ours.
"Oh. Okay." she answered without much protest and I carried her up to bed.
She was pretty much down for the count before I left the room.
What a nice week it's been.
I'm not really looking forward to getting back
into the swing of things. It's a bit too crazy during the week here with
all the preschool happenings and such. It always seems like there isn't enough time in the day.
Oh well, eh? C'est la vie.
Nice ta meet ya, 2011. Now, let's get down to business.
