More Holiday Fun!

Here are some pictures from this past week. 

I bought a reindeer that sings "Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer" and both kids LOVE it.  Sloan knows exactly where to push the foot to make it sing.  I am guessing the batteries may be dead by Christmas as often as it is singing.  One of our neighbors is extremely into decorating for holidays.  He went all out for Halloween and Christmas is even crazier.  His entire front yard is loaded with decorations and lights.  The lights are set to holiday music.  And this year, he built a huge chair and dresses up like Santa on the weekends for all of the kids in the neighborhood.  He even gives them candy canes after they see him, lol!  

Sloan still LOVES to sit in chairs.  She is too small to get up on the chairs by herself though.  She will stand up in front of a chair and hike her leg up and scream for you to put her up there.  She did this for one of my dining room chairs next to our Christmas tree.  I put her up there and she immediately stood up to get to the light switch.  The switch is actually tied to the outlet that our tree is plugged into......so she quickly learned that she could turn the tree lights on and off this way.  Crazy girl!

We made Christmas cookies this weekend too.  Grant really enjoyed decorating them but his favorite part was making and eating the dough and eating the cookies afterwards.  He may turn into a Christmas cookie with as many as he has eaten in the past 2 days. 

Sloan and the singing reindeer.  She is holding a miniature reindeer too

Wild Child!

 Tormenting Mason with his toys.  She holds them out like she is going to give it to him and then jerks it away.  Kind of sad for Mason.  But she cries if you take them from her and give them to Mason.

 Sloan still loves to get in the dog bowls.  She has a handful of dog food in this picture

 She spreads the food out on the floor and then will try to eat it.  Mason's bowls stay up on the counter most of the day now.

 Hanging out in the laundry room while I fold some clothes

 Grant with our neighborhood Santa

 I did not tell him to pose like this but it is hilarious!  He wanted me take his picture with the penguin

 Decorating the cookies.  He used a spoon to put the sprinkles on and some of the cookies ended up completely covered

 Playing with his cars

 Sloan and a chair

 Grant hiding behind the tree

 The light switch.....trouble, trouble!



Preschool Fun, Santa, and a stressful little Elf

Grant and I have been busy doing lots of holiday stuff over the past week.  Saturday we went to Home Depot Kids Workshop and he built a holiday picture frame.  He also got to see Santa at Home Depot which was an added bonus.  We then went to a Candy Cane Hunt and Grant got like 30 miniature candy canes.

Preschool has one of the greatest ideas I have ever seen for kids.  Every family sends in a few little gifts that could be for moms or dads.  Then each child is given a dollar bill and enters the "Store", which is a room at the church made to look like a store with all of the things that families sent in.  Each child picks out a gift for mom and dad and takes it up to the register and pays their dollar.  Then, they take the gift to the wrapping station and have each one wrapped.  I volunteered to help with this event and it was so cute!  It is fascinating to see what each child picks out too.  I got the benefit of watching Grant, from a distance, pick out our gifts.  He picked me out a back scrubber and bath gel set....strange choice but funny!  I didn't see exactly what he picked out for Luke but it looked like a little electronic gadget.

I bought Grant the "Elf on the Shelf" movie and the Elf's name in the movie is Chippy.  So, now our Elf's new name is Chippy.....last year it was Buddy.  However, Grant doesn't seem to want to leave our elf alone.  He finds him everyday and then pretends to fly him all over the house.  Last night, Luke and I looked all over the house and could not find Chippy.  Grant had no idea where he was either.  This is a stressful little elf already, ha ha.  We ended up giving up and then Ms. Kasie, our nanny, found him stuffed in his bookshelf this morning. 

Grant said to me on the way to school this morning, "Did you know that Baby Jesus birthday is Christmas?" I said Yes and he said "I like Baby Jesus".  It was cute and out of nowhere like most of his funny comments. 

Sloan now says "Ho Ho Ho" when she sees a Santa.  She also gets on the floor with Grant's cars and makes a "vroom vroom" sound.  She is cutting more teeth, namely the top two teeth next to her front teeth.  Teething seems to bother her more than it did Grant.  Her teeth take forever to come all the way in so I think that is why it is worse.  She is still not walking but will walk around everything holding on to something.  She can climb the stairs super fast and also knows how to turn around and go down backwards. 

Candy Cane Hunt

Home Depot Santa

 Play Doh time

 Done shopping at preschool.  And yes, his hair looks crazy most days....nothing will make it lay down so I have given up.



Christmas Tree Time

We put up our tree this weekend!  Grant and Sloan had a great time with all of the ornaments.  Grant fully understands Christmas this year and is so excited by all of it (Santa, Christmas decorations, Elf on the Shelf, presents, etc.).  We had to put the ornaments up higher on the tree so Sloan doesn't pull them down.  Her favorite thing to do is turn the tree lights on and off.  There is a button on the floor that you push (with your foot) and it turns the tree on and off.  She figured it out with her hands pretty fast and thinks it is so funny.  She started by pulling the entire cord out of the wall so at least it keeps her from doing that now.  I wrapped a few gifts and Grant put bows on them.  We may not be able to use bows going forward though....Sloan is a magnet to them!  She tries to pull them off every chance she can get. 

Pulling out ornaments

 Her favorite way to sit....it looks painful! 

 Playing with her new toy!

Thanksgiving Fun!

We had a great Thanksgiving this year!  Sloan got a cold just in time for the holiday though so we had to make a trip to Urgent Care to get her some medicine.  She got better fast after that.  My mom and I took Grant to the zoo to see the new baby giraffe, KiKo.  He had a lot of fun looking at all of the animals and then we went to the gift shop and added a polar bear stuffed animal to his collection.  You can barely see his bed because he has so many stuffed animals in it now.

At the zoo.  We are still working on the smile...

Sloan checking out her new Christmas book

 This is right before she jerked the cute little turkey bow out of her head.  She will not keep a bow in her hair right now.

 Go Gamecocks!

 Hanging out and playing with new toys

 Grant at preschool having a blast!



Santa....Loved by ONE and Hated by ONE

We went to see Santa this weekend!  This was Grant's second time (I still don't have the pictures from the first visit) and he LOVES him!  Sloan was not so fond of the bearded man as you will see below.  We went to a Santa that is at a great and extremely expensive children's store.  The kids get to sit in a huge sleigh with Santa!  They give you a 20% coupon after your Santa appointment and I don't think it is possible to leave without buying something.  Especially since they place Santa right next to the toy section.  The object is to find something that doesn't set you back a small fortune.  Grant set his sights on the pirate section as soon as we walked in.  We walked out with a pirate hat, sword and treasure chest!  I think I am considered a sucker and my child is slightly over indulged, lol!  It bought me peace and speed getting out of the store since Sloan was hitting nap time and not happy with the entire experience!

Pictures before we left for Santa.  Sitting in her favorite chair with her favorite music boxes.

 The pirate after Santa

 Hanging out after Santa.  And yes, Grant got another boo boo on his chin right before Santa pictures.

 They are staring at me since I just put Sloan in Santa's lap.

 Sloan realizing she is NOT where she thought she was....

 I HATE SANTA!  I LOVE SANTA!

 Solo picture since he didn't want to get down

 Deep thought on all of the many things he asked for...

You've Got to be Kidding Me!

Just a quick blog on a few funny things with Grant in the past couple of days.  They have been celebrating Thanksgiving at school this week.  All of the kids made little head bands with feathers in the back and then they each got an Indian name written on the front of it.  Grant's Indian name was "Piercing Eyes".  Then they all had to give one thing that they were thankful for........Grant said "toys"!  Not surprising there I guess.  Top off the day with his favorite new phrase that we assume he picked up at school.  "You've got to be kidding me!".  He has said it all night to every request that we have made.  It is hard not to laugh honestly.

Birthday, Crafts and new favorite things!

We had a fun weekend celebrating my birthday and attending the church Christmas Craft market.  Grant and I went to have some fun on Saturday at our church.  They have an annual craft market for kids and it was awesome.  Each craft station is a dollar and I could have never come up with some of the awesome little crafts.  He made a little bag out of pockets from jeans, a penguin out of a bubble bottle, Christmas tree out of a sugar cone, a turkey plate made from his hand print, and a ginger bread house that was super cute.  I actually dropped his ginger bread house and it crumbled.....so they ended up giving him the model that they made which was so perfect that I hated when he started pulling the candy off to eat it.  He also got to sit in Santa's lap.  He had such a long conversation on what he wanted that they had to interrupt him so other kids could get a turn, ha ha!  He asked for a Robot (totally random) and I didn't hear the rest.  I never know what will come out of his mouth.  We will have the pictures soon and I will post them.  We are taking both kids this weekend to see Santa.

Sloan's new favorite thing is to sit in chairs....by herself!  She will go to the recliner in our living room and the chair in her room and point and say something that sounds like "that!".  She will say it over and over and then get really upset if you don't put her in the chair.  Then, if you try to sit with her she will get so mad!  Grant came up and put his hand on the chair tonight and she pushed his hand away!  The girl knows what she wants!  She is talking all of the time but not much we can understand still.  She will just babble away and then start laughing sometimes......it is so funny to watch.  Her new trick is wiggling out of the car seat straps.  She puts her tiny little arms up under the straps and gets them out.  I have it as tight as I can get it without hurting her so I just let her ride that way now.  Thank goodness the one between her legs is secure!

Sloan is an expert now at blowing kisses and playing peekaboo, it is very cute!  She knows where her belly button is and we are working on her ears and nose.  She gets them right half the time.

I bought some shirts, that were not onesies, and monogrammed them.  They are so cute but we quickly learned that she can take them off easily!  I should have taken a "before" picture but I didn't.  I will have to get one next time she wears it.  She pulls the shirt up over her head and behind her back.  Let's hope this trend doesn't continue into the teenage years!  She is also starting to pull the bows out of her hair, ugh!

Grant making his little bag

 Holding his penguin craft.  He loved the snowman and asked when we would get snow.

 Grant and I on my birthday.  I went back to my natural hair color but not so sure it will stay this way long.  I am still getting used to it.

 Sloan in another chair

Lying, Hitting, Parent/Teacher Conference and Chuck e Cheese Fun!

Grant has now learned the art of lying for sure.  He will say "I am just trickin you mommy".  He will do this with the smallest things just to get his way.  For example, after reading books tonight I told him night night and walked out of the room.  He then started yelling "I have to go poo poo mommy!".  I knew he had already done this earlier in the day and he usually only goes once per day....too much information, sorry.  However, I went back in and took him to the potty.  He sat there and didn't do anything.  I said to him, "Did you really have to go poo poo? Or did you just want to get out of bed again?"  His response was "I was just trickin' you mommy!" and laughed with this evil little laugh.  Ugh!  He went right to bed after that though.  Smart little guy.....he may just be too smart!

We have been talking about Santa a lot lately.  I told him that Santa is watching him so he better be a good boy or he may not get toys for Christmas.  He looked at me and said, "No he's not! I can't see Santa so he can't see me!".  A bit more intuitive than I expected at 3 years old!  Luke said we need to go with the story that we will report back to Santa.  Guess that is the new strategy....

I had Grant's first ever parent/teacher conference today.  His teachers said he is doing great.  They said he is a "talker" and he and another little boy are the natural born leaders in the class.  He gets the talking part honestly.....from me!  He is ahead on his drawing abilities and knows all of his letters.  He can trace his name and draw stick figures which they said was advanced.  However, he doesn't recognize numbers yet.  That is my fault since we haven't put any focus on that yet.  He shares great at school too......wish that would follow him home a little more.  I did find out that they have a timer at school and when the bell rings, the next kid gets whatever it is they are fighting over.  Not a bad technique.  They said he is VERY conversational and asks more questions than any other child.  His speech is still not perfect but that is to be expected for his age.  None of it was a surprise so I guess that is a good thing. 

Sloan is into hitting these days!  She hits everything and her favorite thing is to try and smack us in the face and then laugh.  I swear she knows what she is doing too.  I say "no no" but that doesn't seem to do a thing except make her want to do it again for the reaction.  Feisty little girl already!

I gave our nanny the day off for her birthday and took Grant and Sloan to Chuck e Cheese.  Grant loves it and Sloan actually had a pretty good time too.  I got some cute pictures of Sloan but Grant was too busy to get any good ones of him.  I had to ration the tokens so that he would keep coming back to check in with me.  It's a good thing that it isn't busy at all there during the week so I didn't have to worry about losing him.  He runs around like a mad man putting tokens in and winning tickets.  When we went to cash in his tickets for toys, he wanted a toy that was way more tickets than what he had.  He looked at the lady behind the counter after I told him no and said, "please can I have that blue ball with a sad look on his face".  I totally expected her to say no but she said "of course you can and you have the prettiest blue eyes".  Those pretty blue eyes may cause us some problems one day, ha ha!

Sloan has picked up a little cold.  Her nose has been running off and on but it seems to be getting better already.  Hoping it will be gone for good in the next couple of days. 

This was at Luke's birthday dinner at a mexican restaurant

Chuck e Cheese!