The Santa Land Diaries...

...Henry style.

No tears! No screaming! No anguish! Success! Henry very calmly sat on Santa's lap while Santa asked him all the usual questions. I am not sure Henry really said much of anything, but nonetheless, he sat through the experience...and not just once, but twice. Once in his "regular" clothes, and once more in his Santa costume. The kid loves a costume and especially the Santa costume. We went to the downtown Macy's so he got to play in one of the old monorail cars (first picture...he looks a little possessed in that photo; he was having an awesome time). He also got to sit at a big desk and write a letter to Santa (third picture). Overall, a great visit! I have some of the professional pictures that they took; I need to scan them in and then will post them as well.

Weekly Update

Where to begin? It's been a busy week! Wednesday we went over to our Anna and Connor's house and got to see the lovely Molly in action, holding court over a bunch of lively toddlers. Henry had so much fun singing songs, playing games and doing arts and crafts projects. Then on Thursday, Auntie Joan came over and watched Henry for 4 1/2 hours (!) while I ran around town and got most of my holiday shopping done. The two of them had so much fun making ornaments for the tree that Henry was so proud to show off to me (and later Brett) when I got home. Friday was Gymboree which continues to enthrall Henry to the point that I've caught him numerous times at home saying "hip, hip hooray, it's a Gymboree day!" :) On Saturday he got to double up and go to Gymboree again, this time with Gigi while Brett and I spent the day finishing up our shopping. He also got to go to the mall with Gigi, something he has (somewhat strangely) been asking to do for awhile now. Today we got to go back to the Christmas Tree farm with Bumpa and Gigi to pick out her tree...with Henry dressed up as Santa. Gigi had asked if we still had his Santa costume from last year and we did...and it still fits. Henry asked me to get it out today and then wanted to wear it all afternoon and even over to Cary and Jeff's for dinner tonight. He put the gifts we took over there in a little bag and played Santa!

Phew, it's been a busy week and I think it will continue to be so through the rest of the holiday season. Thank goodness Brett has Thursday and Friday off. We still have a lot of holiday stuff to get done, including a trip down Peacock Lane and a visit to the big man in the red suit ourselves.

Trees and Birthdays

We had quite the busy weekend this weekend. Saturday we all went to Gymboree together; I think Henry really liked having both Mama and Daddy there to show off his skills for. Then he went with Gigi to a holiday festival near her school (where he got the Santa hat). Later we all went out to dinner to celebrate Mike's 30th birthday. Poor Henry fell asleep on the ride to the restaurant and stayed asleep inside the restaurant until I woke him up finally. Sunday we went and got our tree. Even though we just went to a little place down the street from us (literally someone's house where instead of a regular yard, they planted row upon row of Christmas trees), to Henry it was as good as going to a full on tree farm. He walked up and down the rows saying "too big, too small, too big, too small, too tall, too short," etc. Finally we found the ideal tree and Henry got to watch it be cut down just for us. We've spent a lot of time making little paper ornaments and stringing colored pasta to decorate it. Sunday night we went out to dinner at Nostrana (fabulous!) to celebrate Mike's birthday (part 2), followed by cake and ice cream at Gigi's. Henry insisted on serving the ice cream himself. He is so funny...I need to do a better job of writing down the things he says, because he is really saying some hilarious stuff lately.

Singing....

Today Henry put on a Santa hat he got from one of Gigi's students and started singing. At first I couldn't figure out what he was saying while singing - the same word over and over. Then it dawned on me and I asked him "Are you singing Christmas Carols?" He gave me a big grin and said "Yes!" He literally was singing the word "carols" over and over again! :)

Time out for Henry

Ha ha ha, just kidding! We took a friend's dog out for a walk and when we got her out of her kennel, Henry climbed in. He was laughing and making jokes about being a dog and then when I snapped some pictures I found it hilarious that he looks so miserable in there. Truly, he was loving it!

Weekly Update

Henry with some of our holiday decor (above) and Henry reacting to seeing Rudolph and Frosty (below). Lots of holiday related activities this week. On Wednesday we went to a holiday dinner with Brett’s parents at their country club. Making their debut were Rudolph and Frosty…to say Henry was excited to see them would be an enormous understatement. As soon as he saw them he let out the loudest scream ever. He then proceeded to scream a couple more times. My eyes were focused completely on Henry, but Brett said that everyone essentially stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him. Despite his gleeful exuberance, he refused to approach either Rudolph or Frosty. I have a feeling this might be the same reaction we get with Santa…we’ll have to wait and see.

We also put out some of our holiday decorations; something Henry had been really looking forward to. He keeps saying that he thinks Santa will be coming tonight and I have to tell him, no, not tonight. He usually just replies “maybe so.” I bought him an Advent calendar to try and give him some concept of how many days there are until Christmas, and told him once the windows are all open, then it will be Christmas. His solution is to just open all the windows at once so it will be Christmas tonight. He’s super excited to get a tree. Darn it. Brett and I have avoided getting a tree every year since neither one of us is too into the whole Christmas thing…but I suppose we really have to now.

Friday evening we went into Multnomah Village because they were having horse drawn sleigh rides. Luckily it was not as busy as Halloween was; I was afraid we might have a very disappointed kiddo if the line was too long, but we didn’t have to wait long at all. Henry has been watching a PBS cartoon called “Calliou” lately and in one episode the family goes on a horse drawn sled ride, so this was essentially the same thing without the snow. I think he was excited and had fun, but there were no blood-curdling screams when he saw the horses, so I can’t be certain. (Picture upcoming.)

In Gymboree this week the theme was jungle and the teacher asked where tigers live. Henry thought for a minute and then said “the zoo!” So cute! He was also the only kid that knew a bird’s mouth is called a beak (or at least was the only one to answer).

Crazy Hair

"That was one hell of a party..."