Santa Claus is coming to town

Joining in the Christmas celebration at the library was lots of fun. I got to decorate cookies with icing and SPRINKLES!!! We made ornaments that matched my Santa Claus outfit. Then, the big man himself came by to visit us. I really didn't want to go up near him, but I sat quietly on M's lap and watched with total curiousity as other kids were placed on Santa's knee. Some burst into tears; some clung to their moms; and then others shared everything on their Christmas wish list and had to be pulled away from Santa.

Oh, D's Alumni magazine really caught my eye today. It has a picture of a hammer, gear and chain on the front cover. I immediately ran over to collect my toy hammer and red gear set to show M the association. Yep, cool stuff with lots of possibilities!! I insisted on bringing my toy tricycle and lawn mower inside, so right now I'm in the kitchen with my tools playing mechanic! Love to all!!!

No more Christmas music

No more Christmas music...just teasing! (wink, wink) I was happily singing along with M and the radio today, until I found these cotton balls.

The fluffy white "stuff" is slowly accumulating outside. I'm really interested in going outside to play in it, but M says it is just a bit too wet right now. So, I guess I'll just have to keep humoring M and glue some more white cotton balls on blue paper inside.

We went to a music program led by Julie K; an upcoming children's musician. She was very engaging, and had a beautiful voice so it was easy for me to pay really close attention. I had so much fun that the hour just flew by. We clapped, jumped around, played instruments and sang lots! I made a couple of the other moms laugh by my enthusiastic butterfly spins, and social friendliness.

Busy, busy builder!

D received a package from FedEx today. Yep, he contributed to the economy by shopping online on Cyber Monday (from home, after work I'd like to note). Anyway, I could care less what's inside the boxes. Here's me in action. Boy, was I working up a sweat! Hope those items are packaged well!

Playing in Peoria's Zoo

What a beautiful, sunny day for the 1st of December! Mark my word, I'll be wearing my snow pants by week's end. Yep, snow's in the forecast. I can't wait. However, I'm trying to soak up all the sun rays that I can until then - I played in the back yard, at the park, and at the Zoo today. M was able to use the camera for just a moment to capture this picture of me. Otherwise, I've been the "unofficial" Jr. Zoo photographer today. We have lots of pictures of fences, railings, posts, feet, and grass in the photo album now! (Those were supposed to be giraffes, rhinos, emus, camels and lions.)

It's good to be home, but I sure had fun while in St. Louis with family and friends! Thanks again to all by "baby"sitters. My mind has been so active ever since....it was a little hard to sit still for the story book at the library; I wanted to start right in on the craft project and kept walking stickers over to the librarian to get her to hurry along the story. Whoops!

The day I took my parents to Bloomington

We haven't posted in a while so I decided to take my parents to Bloomington for a photo shoot. On the way I napped in the car - I bet my parents wished they had done the same!

Knowing M's passion for educational toys and books, I took her by the Discovery Room at the public library first. What a great place to play...uh, I mean learn! Of all the interactive learning stations (puppets with matching story books, dress-up outfits with matching story books, trains, Legos, etc.), my favorite item was the toy camera - which I still prefer to hold backwards!

From the library we walked down the pedestrian friendly downtown to the Children's (and, their Grown-Up's) Museum. Let's see where to start, it was all so exciting. I'm definitely taking the parents back some day - they were well behaved and didn't put up too much of a fuss leaving.

This water exhibit was near the entrance, so in the spirit of newness, I happily agreed to wear a waterproof apron (the same wouldn't be true by the time I reached the third floor with the paint exhibit).

I loved playing in the pretend pizza delivery truck. The dashboard included at least ten big buttons with truck-related sounds. I loved the obnoxious horn sound the most.

OK, so my favorite part was painting on the glass wall of the paint exhibit. Of course, the apron was way too inhibiting, so I kept pushing it off. M was impressed that I stayed focused on putting the paint on the glass (not myself) then spraying water on the wall (and not myself) to clean up. I watched the older kids, then I was Mr. Independent contently painting all by myself.

D's favorite exhibit was the two story climbing apparatus - technically, it was curved, laminated plywood suspended by aircraft cables. But it looked much more precarious than that. I found the smallest little hole to crawl through making M nervous as she tried to keep up. D thought about crawling through too because it looked like so much fun (but, he thought he'd make other parents nervous).

Good to the last drop

Give me my sippy cup, and I'm likely to refuse to drink whatever is in it. But, give me a half gallon jug and I'll finish it off to the last drop. Apple cider is so delicious this time of year! Today, M & I visited the apple orchard where I had so much fun. I played for half an hour in the sand inside an old silo. Then, I rode around and around on tricycles shaped like International Harvester tractors - way cool! I fed the goats and llamas. I lost M in the maze created out of bales of hay, but then found her again on the other side of the tunnel. There were so many cool things to do outdoors, but my favorite part of the visit was strolling through the indoor market and sampling everything from Honey Crisp apples to pumpkin butter to apple salsa. Yum, yum!

Speaking of sampling, over the weekend I took the parental unit up to Kroger's for their Holiday Open House. Let's just say that we had so much fun sampling that we all skipped lunch for the day. And, M won a red rose for knowing the world's busiest florist - Kroger's, of course!

As the weather was absolutely perfect, I suggested a camping trip to my fun loving parents and away we zipped. Boy, was I ever a happy camper - running around the campsite with my arms flung behind me; picking up sticks for the fire; teasing M with the tent pegs so that it took a little longer to assemble the tent completely; eating foil packs for dinner then enjoying the BBQ'd ribs a fellow camper brought over to us; hiking through the woods and playing hide and sneak around a tree. It was very refreshing - and, I slept like a log!

Captain Julian...sort of

What can I say? I'm a budding artist, and my favorite medium is M's make-up. I'm going for the curly mustache look here.

We took advantage of the sunny, warm weather today and went for a stroller walk along an old railroad trail. It's been ages since we've had such a long stretch of our legs, and it felt great! I should mention that before the walk came a romp in the park where I showed off my baby chin-up trick on the beam above the slide. Before the park came a Tiny Tot program at the library where I met a slightly older tot also named Julian. Oh, and there was a 5-year old sibling present named Jillian. What a fun, loving group with great names!

Let's see, as I had a runny nose and was recovering from a slight fever on Halloween, I wasn't crazy about posing for a picture in my costume. However, I did walk down the street holding my own orange candy bag with the tail of my costume dragging along behind me. (I was Max with his wolf suit from Where the Wild Things Are. M says we have days right out of the book with me chasing the dogs with an odd object in hand, and when I jump/swing from the furniture.)

This week, I helped to finish raking the leaves - what a pile we created. Last night D took me to the park for another fun autumn activity - we flew a kite! I tried chasing after it, but couldn't reach up high enough to catch it. As it was chilly, I came back home and enjoyed some hot chocolate! We visited the Zoo too; I had to carry my toy camel with me and was really excited to spy the live one. I love making associations between my toys and objects around me and in books (especially my books about tools!!! hammer, screwdriver, saw - oh, yeah!).