Thursday, December 27, 2012

Christmas Eve

This is my first trial post from my brand new Christmas gift - an iPad! The only pictures I could find were a few from Christmas Eve so future posts may be out of order but that's okay. I'll have to figure it all out when I have more time to play with it. (It's kinda been monopolized by my boys!)

Cookies for Santa:
 Playing on the beach...I could get used to this in December!
 Malachi and Uncle Scott even built a sandcastle!
Jonas liked walking all over and it was much easier having him at the beach now than it was this summer.


Wednesday, December 19, 2012

More Milestones

In addition to Elliott's big milestone last week, Jonas started walking! He's been able to take quite a few steps together for a while now but just didn't want to do it very often. As of last week he's been walking more than crawling. Our baby's growing up!



Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Buddy's Best Trick Yet

Apparently our elf Buddy is in fact magic. Or at least he's very talented when it comes to potty training!
 
Last Thursday morning our boys woke up to this:

Buddy had taken their stockings and hung their underwear/diapers on the hooks instead! Elliott was very concerned about where his stocking had gone and whether Santa would be able to fill it with presents if Buddy didn't return it. He talked about it for about a half hour and I just kept telling him that Buddy would probably return his stocking that night, just like he always cleans up his messes at night when we're sleeping. Then as I was cleaning up the kitchen from breakfast Elliott came downstairs carrying a pair of underwear. He told me that he wanted to wear underwear and use the potty all day so that Buddy wouldn't need his diaper anymore. Elliott has wanted to wear underwear on occasion before, but he always had multiple accidents and later decided he wanted his diapers back so I didn't think much of it at that point. By naptime when Elliott had gone to the potty several times, mostly without being asked, I thought maybe we were on to something. That evening (still no accidents all day!) he didn't even want a diaper for bedtime, although we decided he needed more practice before wearing underwear all night long. I was VERY excited about such a successful day and wanted Buddy to reward Elliott somehow since Elliott apparently thought wearing underwear would help get his stocking back so...
Buddy returned the boys' stockings and made a special note for Elliott saying, "Yay Elliott! Keep wearing these. You're a big boy now!" The boys thought it was hilarious that underwear were hanging in the kitchen and Elliott couldn't wait to take off his overnight diaper and put on his "big boy underpants."
Now it's Tuesday. 6 days in and only 2 accidents. I consider that pretty successful and I give full credit to Buddy the Elf for potty training Elliott!

Monday, December 17, 2012

Buddy the Elf

Just before Thanksgiving I was looking at some pictures of the popular Christmas tradition Elf on the Shelf. As I was looking at them I thought to myself how I was glad we hadn't bought into this tradition and how I hoped that noone would gift us an elf that I would then have to keep up with. Then the boys received an early Christmas gift. An Elf on the Shelf.
 
The boys named our elf Buddy (although Johnny Football, Manziel and Heisman were also possible name options) and I must admit it's been pretty fun having him around. For one thing, Malachi has recently been questioning the reality of Santa Claus, mainly because he just doesn't think it's possible for one person to do all Santa does in one night. But Buddy stumps him. He is so excited each morning to show us what Buddy has gotten into over night! Thanks to friends who also have elves at their houses and Pinterest it's been pretty easy coming up with fun and creative things for Buddy to do each night too. And tomorrow I'll share my favorite thing about having Buddy around, but for now here are some pictures of all Buddy's shenanigans so far:





Monday, December 10, 2012

Santa Train

A while ago my siblings and I decided the cousins should get to do something fun together for Christmas rather than get more toys (which none of them needs!). So yesterday we took a trip to Lebanon, Ohio, to ride the Santa train.
 
We started with a half hour train ride. There was even an elf that entertained us with balloon creations while we rode!
We got off at the "North Pole Junction" where we had some hot chocolate and cookies. The kids were also able to color a picture, write a letter to Santa and visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus.


We all had a great time and I'm so excited that we were able to make memories instead of buying more presents that won't last. Hopefully this will become a tradition the cousins look forward to each year!

Thursday, December 6, 2012

My Little Piano Man

Jonas is getting quite a bit of personality lately. He's also starting to play well independently and one of his favorite toys is my old toy piano. Maybe we have a future musician on our hands?!