Merry Christmas!

In the morning, we leave for New Jersey and we'll be there for several days. We'll post lots of Christmas pictures in the new year. We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas Cookies

Kaitlyn and I started what I hope will be an annual tradition--baking Christmas cookies together! Although I love to cook, I really don't bake very often. But I found a sugar cookie recipe that looked pretty easy, so I decided to give it a try. Kaitlyn was mostly an observer this year, but she enjoyed playing with the mixer, the dough, and the sprinkles. And of course she liked the yummy finished product!

We mixed everything together at the dining room table so she could see what was going on. She was eager to "help" me pour the ingredients into the bowl. And she got to touch the dough afterward.

After I cut out all the cookie shapes, it was time to decorate. Her "job" was to help me press the sprinkles into the dough. She diligently did what she was asked to do.

However, I had trouble conveying the concept of pressing lightly. Pretty soon, all of my cookies had perfect finger-shaped holes in the centers!

She loved watching the cookies bake and rise in the oven. And she got to enjoy a few bites of a cookie once they had cooled. (I, however, was unable to stop after just a few bites! They were quite tasty!) Hopefully, this will be the first of many cooking experiences we will share together!

Uh-Oh

A funny thing happened last night. I was in the kitchen making dinner before Jeff came home, and Kaitlyn was playing quietly in the living room. Then I felt a little hand tapping me on the leg. When I looked down, Kaitlyn was quite serious and she simply said, "Uh-oh" and walked away. She's been saying that a lot lately, so I didn't really think much about it. But she came back and tapped my leg again. "Uh-oh." And then she walked away, but this time she looked back every few steps to see if I was following her. I decided to investigate.

When I walked into the living room, I expected to see a broken toy or a torn page in a book. But nothing appeared out of order. So I said something to the effect of, "I don't see anything wrong, Kaitlyn." Again, she looked earnestly at me and said "Uh-oh." So I asked her to show me the uh-oh. She pointed up toward the fan, but I didn't even bother to look up because what could possibly be wrong with it? I said, "Yes, it's a fan." She was beginning to lose patience with me, but she tried one more time. She pointed to the fan/ceiling again and said (a bit more insistently) "UH-OH!" So I looked up, and that's when I discovered the problem...

Apparently she had been playing with her Publix balloon and somehow managed to separate the balloon from the weighted string. An inaccessible balloon in our house is a BIG problem, but since we have ridiculously high ceilings in our living room, I knew there was no simple solution. It was clear that she wanted Mommy to fix things immediately, but I wasn't about to climb on a ladder at this point in my pregnancy. So I promised her that Daddy would get it down when he got home. She seemed content with that, but as soon as he walked through the door, she ran up to him saying "Uh-oh" and pointing to the ceiling. Fortunately, he wasn't as slow on the uptake as I was :) So with the help of a ladder, a Swiffer handle, and some tape on the end of the Swiffer, Daddy was able to save the day!

The lengths we go to for our children...

Santa

Last week, we went to the Family Christmas Breakfast at our church. In addition to a yummy breakfast, kids could have their pictures made with Santa. As you can see from above, Kaitlyn was not thrilled with that prospect. Although she loves pointing out pictures of Santa at home and in books, apparently the real thing is a bit scarier. The video below shows the "traumatic" visit in more detail.

Once we got away from the scary Santa, Kaitlyn was happy to enjoy the rest of the festivities. We had a family picture taken on stage. I'm sure the regular readers of this blog (all four of you!) will not be surprised in the least to see her with a balloon. They were part of the decorations, and she managed to find a loose one and claimed it as her own. Not willing to make her cry twice in less than an hour, we let her keep it.

Here she is with Austin, one of her friends from church. Amazingly, the two of them sat still enough to have their picture taken!

Christmas Lights

Last night we started decorating the house for Christmas. We had time to put up the tree and the lights before Kaitlyn went to bed. Last year, she showed little to no interest in the tree or lights. but this year is completely different. She especially loved the lights! We had an extra strand that we draped around her neck. We got one picture where she was looking at the camera, and the rest of the time she was focused on investigating the blinking lights around her body.

This morning when she woke up, there were ornaments on the tree and the rest of the house was decorated. She had lots of fun exploring the house and is pretty fascinated by all the shiny things hanging on the tree. We hung lots of kid-friendly ornaments down low so that she could explore freely without too much fear of permanent damage. We're still trying to get her to understand that the ornaments are not toys and have to stay on the tree. It's a hard thing for a toddler to comprehend!