Day Out in St Paul

Today, New Year's Eve, Phil had the day off, so after cleaning up the house (including getting rid of that fateful Christmas tree that contributed to yesterday's accident), we headed into St Paul. First stop was lunch at Cosettas, a popular local Italian eatery that is very family friendly. Noah had devoured 3 breakfasts this morning and was more interested in people and environment-watching than eating. Kai, however, was just in heaven with the pasta and couldn't get enough of it. After a quick purchase at the Italian market that is part of the restaurant, we wound our way through the impressive crowds that had formed and headed to the Children's Museum. A new dinosaur exhibit awaited us, much to Noah's delight. There were pits with dinosaur fossils to dig for, tunnels to crawl through, dinosaur toys to play with and enormous models of dinosaurs to look at amongst other things. Next, both boys had fun in Water World with boats, ping pong balls and bubbles. Finally, we swung through the miniature town (grocery store, post office, restaurant, bus, etc) before it was time to head home for some late napping. Tonight, we are all headed over to some neighbors for a neighborhood New Year's Eve party - we will most definitely not last till midnight!

2009 ... Out with a Bang!

Yesterday Noah decided that 2009 needed just a bit more excitement before coming to an end. While Kai was napping and I was cleaning up in the kitchen, he determined that the Christmas tree needed to be redecorated. In order to do this, he must have climbed up on top of an armchair - then, not realizing that the Christmas tree would not hold his weight if he leaned on it, he went flying through the air and hit his forehead on a sharp edge. In typical Noah style, few tears were shed, however there was some blood loss and a lovely gash to the side of his eyebrow. It looked to me like it needed some medical attention - so much for quiet clean-up time around the house! Fortunately, always helpful neighbor Pam came over with her boys to watch Kai (and confirm that the cut indeed probably needed more than home treatment could provide). Off we went to the urgent care clinic and 2 stitches, lots of screaming (WAY more than for the actual accident) and several tears later, we were on our way home again.

Attempt at a Family Picture

We decided to take advantage of Gram and Dadday's visit to try to get a rare family picture. Easier said than done!

Tough Minnesota Kid

The day after Christmas, one of our neighbors organized a sledding party at our local park in town. Phil and Gram were out grocery shopping and Kai was sleeping with Dadday as babysitter, so Noah and I bundled up and headed over. There were several hills to choose from - all quite icy after the ice/snow storm that passed through recently. I tried to steer Noah towards the gentlest slope, however, he only wanted to be with the big kids on the steepest, fastest slope. Most kids were wearing skiing or bicycle helmets - I hadn't even thought of this, but will definitely have Noah wear one from now on - which was a good idea with the conditions and volume of sledders. Luckily, I was able to convince Noah to start half-way down the hill, so his runs were somewhat controlled. On his third or fourth trip down, he hit a bump, flew off the sled and landed with his face on a patch of ice. He bit through his lip and scratched up his cheek and chin....but he just wanted to keep on going, blood-smeared chin and all! Not a single tear! Looks like he's turning into a good old tough Minnesota kid.....it's probably time to strap on those hockey skates!

It was a very Merry Christmas!

Gram and Dadday flew up from Richmond to spend Christmas with us and we had a wonderful time together. The weather people had forecast a potential monster snow storm (20 inches +) for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We ended up getting about 10-12 inches before the snow turned to rain for a while, then switched back over to a sleety mess which eventually froze to a nice crusty ice, topped off with a final inch or so of snow. Fortunately we did not have to venture out on the roads much and spent lots of cozy indoor time playing and eating. The boys just loved having their grandparents around - such a treat! This year was really the first year that Noah was excited about Christmas and Santa. One of our neighbors had stopped by with a bag of "reindeer food" which we spread out before bedtime on Christmas Eve. For the first time ever, Noah didn't even want a story before bed. We put some cookies, milk and a note out for Santa ("Dear Santa, I hope the reindeers liked our food. I hope you bring a Thomas thing. Love, Noah & Kai") - then Noah went straight to his bed and said, "I need these blankets on me right now! I don't want a story." On Christmas morning we all went downstairs together to see what Santa had brought. It really is quite fun to experience the magic of Santa again through our children's eyes! Later in the day, the Moffitt family(we had Christmas lunch with them last year - they are fellow out-of-staters) came over for a delicious meal of rib roast, veggies and Phil' s favorite - yorkshire pudding. We all had a lovely afternoon together enjoying each others company and the spirit of the holiday season. It was truly a very merry Christmas!

Three Generations

Isn't this a nice picture of three generations of Holladays?

"Little" Philip, Kai, Dadday Phil

Santa is Sick

I recently read somewhere that it is not recommended to use the "Santa is watching you..." method to keep behaviors in check. However, I must admit, that every once in a while over the past few weeks, I have slipped out an occassional "Noah, don't forget that Santa might be watching." It has had an immediate effect on stopping whatever the undesirable behavior was. After I picked Noah up at preschool today, we made a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up a couple of things. As I was running my items through the self-checkout lane, Noah decided to take off back into the grocery store. Luckily, he responded fairly quickly to my "Stop, Noah!" and made his way back to my side. When he got there, he looked at me with the most mischievous glint in his eye and said, "Momma, Santa is sick today."

Season's First Snow Fun!

The massive storm that moved across the country this past week left us with a pretty cover of snow on the ground and frigid temperatures. Extremely strong winds during the storm resulted in some areas having just the thinest of snow cover with drifts several feet high in other areas. After some wickedly cold days this week (wind chills below 0), it finally warmed up enough for us to go outside and have some fun. Phil took Noah out for a while this afternoon for some sledding in our yard and Kai and I joined them after nap time. A few years from now, the gentle little slope in our yard will be insufficient for thrill seeking sledders, but for a 1.5 and 3 year-old, it is just perfect. Kai seemed a bit uncertain about the whole snow thing, but if he's a true Minnesotan, he will come to love it quickly - he has several months ahead of him to get some good training in!

Crib Fun

When Kai wakes up from his nap, Noah loves to go upstairs and greet him. A few days ago, he got there before I did and climbed into the crib with Kai:

Separation Anxiety

Kai has gone through quite a long period of separation anxiety which seems to suddenly have disappeared over night! Yeah! It got to the point where it wasn't even worth dropping him off at the YMCA daycare, because after 15 minutes of crying, they would page me to come and get him - too much work bundling two kids up and into the car for just 15 minutes of working out. I guess Kai suddenly figured out that I will come back for him and that playing and having fun is a better alternative to crying. This past week, I dropped him off at several different places without him shedding a tear. What a relief! Although I know that the crying isn't harmful in any way (in fact perfectly normal), as a mom you always feel so bad handing off a hysterically crying child. It's such a pleasant change to drop him off happy and pick him up happy.

Gingerbread Train

As seems to be our tradition, we are very gradually and leisurely letting Christmas take over our house. After Thanksgiving, we put up some lights outside and hung a wreath on the door. On December 1st, the advent calendar that I made for the boys last year made its appearance. (Coinciding with its appearance, Noah started getting out of bed well before 6 am, much to Phil and my displeasure. We put an end to that by changing the time of day that he checks the calendar til after his quiet time in the afternoon!) A few days ago, I decided it would be fun to decorate something gingerbready with Noah during Kai's nap time. Browsing the internet, I found a recipe and good instructions for a very nice looking gingerbread train with a locomotive and 3 cars that looked manageable. However, after I discovered that Target sells a ginger bread train kit (already baked and ready to be assembled) for less than $10, I quickly came to my senses. Noah took the decoration very seriously and was focused on our project for a good chunk of time. He very much wanted to taste it, but agreed that we would wait so that Gram and Dadday can see it when they come to celebrate Christmas.