Alice the Elf and Other Holiday Stories.

Daddy, Zoë, and Oliver playing with the train.

We have had such a fun three weeks since I last wrote and have entered the Christmas season with an almost 3-year-old.  And let me just tell you, it is ALREADY freaking fantastic.

Santa has watched a lot of Harry Potter, clearly.

I have been waiting 2 years to start the Elf on the Shelf with Zoë and this year is the year.  I decided to wrap up the box with the elf and the book in brown paper and make it look like it was a package from Santa.

When I got home from Zumba tonight (THAT'S another story...I was the youngest by about 20 years) I convinced Zoë to play hide and seek with me (yeah, like that took a lot of convincing), and while she was hiding we put the package out on the front door step and rang the doorbell.  I had to find her because she's gotten really good at not actually yelling "in here, Mama!" when we don't find her right away and then told her to go check who was at the door.  This was an important teach-able moment since she f.i.n.a.l.l.y figured out how to open doorknobs this weekend- two months away from turning three freaking years old- and we had talked about waiting until Mama or Daddy said it was ok to open the door.

She opened the door and saw the package and the look she had when she turned around was priceless.  I never want to forget it.  Plus, she was in her Christmas jammies, so she looked extra adorable.  She grabbed the package and we asked her who it was for.

"It's for Zoë!" she said.  We read the front of the package and made sure she knew it was from Santa.  "Santa must have known you like the color blue, he put a blue bow on it!"
She kept asking "what's in there, Mama?" while she ripped off the paper proudly proclaiming, "it's a book!" when she got some of it off.
As soon as the package was open she GRABBED the elf and wanted to play and looked a little ticked when I told her Santa left her a message to read the book since it would explain everything.

Now, if you don't know anything about Elf on the Shelf, you must not have children OR you've have been living under a rock for the past 3 years BUT, as soon as children receive their elf they're supposed to name it.  Zoë's not great at names.  She insisted I name her.  But we kept prodding and gave her some suggestions and she settled on Alice (we suggested it, along with several others, because we heard her talking about someone/thing named Alice a few days ago in the car).  So, Alice the Elf it is.

This would be a great end of the story.  But if you know our precious daughter, you know that the ONE AND ONLY RULE to Elf on the Shelf would be the hardest on Zoë.  You MUST NOT touch the elf or its magic goes away and the Elf won't return.  So, Zoë's hopes of sleeping with Alice were dashed.  AND, of course, the Elf has to leave every night to fly to the North Pole to tell Santa if the child was naughty or nice during the day, but always comes back in the morning and hides somewhere new in the house.  Well, this was the straw that broke the camel's back.  She ended the night in tears because she wanted Alice to sleep with her AND didn't want her to fly to Santa at night (no matter how many times I told her that Alice would return the next morning).  So.  There's that.

Good and bad, I suppose.  But the best part was re-opening the door to see if we could see Santa and his sleigh because she was puzzled as to how the present got onto our porch and her constant queries about Santa and how he's magic.  It was wonderful.  I can't WAIT for the rest of our month and to see Christmas through her eyes.

We've got a mover on our hands now, and he's SPEEDY.  He prefers to be on his feet to sitting and can pull himself up on anything with finesse.  He just popped another tooth, we're up to five.  Five!  His hair is growing like crazy, he's fitting into his 18 month clothes, and I love, love, love this baby.  I can't believe he's almost 8 months old already.  Time is going way faster the second time around.

This girl LOVES olives.

More on him in a few weeks when we take some 8 month pics of him.

Red cheeks=getting a tooth.

I sure love these two.  :)

Grandma and her redheads

Happy family

Father and Son

First Thanksgiving!

Good Christmas Tree hunter

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with both of our families, have already cut down our tree (we'll decorate tomorrow, after the Christmas Light House Lighting unofficial ceremony), and have lots of fun activities planned for this month.  Happy Holidays, YAY!

The Christmas Tree Team

Swinging on a cold, cold November day.

Weekly trip to the library has become more fun with a mover...

Oh, yeah.  Oliver's first Apple Cup.  We don't want to talk about it.

Baba and Zoë

Oliver helping Dedo recover after the Apple Cup.

Mr. Blue Eyes

Happy Seven Months, Oliver!

Oliver is CRAWLING!  and has been for a week and a half officially now.  It is still crazy to me, even after having a child for almost 3 years now, to watch a kid struggle with a skill one day and literally the next they can do it.  I forget all of the time how fast things change until they do.

We did a "super mini" 15 minute photo session a few weeks back with a photographer...

...both kids were in a foul mood.

But this picture made it worth it.  :)  What a big girl!

Mom's favorite time of the day: naptime and snuggles

Sleeping is still steady, though he's been harder to get to sleep (though nothing really to complain about) at night and naptimes.  He still takes his one or two afternoon naps in our bed, though I think that has to stop now that he's on the move.  I dread moving him to his crib for those naps, however, because he's been taking 2-3 hour naps in the afternoon, which is glorious (still at about 20 minutes in the morning).

Zoë helped get some toys for Oliver while I was cooking.

Baba had surgery on her foot so Oliver and Zoë played nurse this week.

Oliver's first Monorail ride!

He's eating anything we'll give him.  That is most anything we think he won't gag on and puke, which is a lot of things.  We can't, however, have him sit at the dinner table with us and not have any food because he throws a fit, so he always gets to eat when we do!  He now has FOUR teeth, so he's a good chomper (including mom's shoulder the other day).

Zoë's first princess hairdo.  Not bad if I may say so myself.

Zoë has really leapt into the world of pretend play.  It's what she prefers to do all. day. long.  She wants to pour tea, make pretend phone calls to every member of her family, to take care of her baby: put baby down for a nap, feed baby, change baby's diaper, goes to work, comes home because she loves us, cooks, pretends to be a ballerina (I am a ballaREEE-NA!) and pretends to nap.  Oh, that's right, she doesn't even pretend to do that last one most days anymore.  I still force her to take an hour or more quiet time every afternoon and she falls asleep about 50% of the time.  The other 50% she ends up singing to herself and reading to her "friends" in her bed, and then making some kind of mischief with the toys in her room.

Both she and Oliver are sick again (so far we're only once a month this fall...if that's all it's going to be I can definitely handle it, though I would prefer less) and this cold knocked Zoë on her butt this weekend, but Oliver, even though the snot is running from his nose and he has a hacking cough, is still in relatively good spirits.  I hope this is always how he deals with sickness because he's a tough cookie and it makes it much easier on his mama.

Watching the Daniel Gets a Shot episode with her thinking face.

Daddy is SO excited to take his little girl skiing and bought her all sorts of
gear at the ski swap this past weekend.  I would say Zoë's pretty excited, too!

We went in last week for Oliver's 6 month appointment (he weighs 22 pounds, 2 ounces and is 28.5 inches long) and he had to get four shots, poor guy, which included a flu shot.  Zoë also got a flu shot and I was so proud of how well she did!  She teared up a bit and looked at me like I was the one that stuck the needle in her thigh, but then she was just fine, no crying at all!  Oliver was done crying in about one minute, too.  To be fair, we prepared her for getting a shot as if she were going to war...I took her to Safeway with me the day before so she could watch me get the shot, we watched the "Daniel Tiger Gets a Shot" episode, and we packed our own Frozen bandaids in case the doctor's office didn't have any.  They didn't, so Zoë was tickled to use her own on her owie.  Overall, a good day!  Hopefully the next flu shot goes just as well next year since I'm pretty sure she'll remember it next time.

All dressed up for Christmas Card pictures.

Weather week!  Look what I made!

We took family pictures last weekend with our good friends the Allen Family and Nelson Family and had so much fun creating a backdrop and shooting pictures of the kids.  Zoë always loves a good reason to accessorize.  :)

Our weekly learning themes have also been going strong.  This week is "weather" which has been fun (and a little interrupted as we haven't been home for most of the week, but that's ok!).  Zoë loves to do crafts and science!  I have to get her some good kid sized goggles and a lab coat and she'll be all ready.

We have been working on a "thankful tree" in our kitchen (only two days in so far) and Zoë has said she's thankful for baby and baby sister, and then Daddy.  :)  In that order.  But I definitely teared up today when she said Daddy without hesitation (after I reminded her that she already chose Baby and Baby Sister yesterday).  Thanksgiving is only two weeks away and then the CHAOS begins!  I can't wait!!!

Rain cloud in a jar.  "What's going to happen Mama?!"