Christmas Pageant

Christmas pageant at church. The kids were very excited - not only because they got to dress up in costumes, but we haven't been to church in, ahem, a bit too long (and here's the part where I complain about Joe's school and my school and Joe's softball team and my graduate thesis and, ahem ahem, blah blah blah.)

Holden started out as a Wise Man...

But wound up as an angel, just like his big sister, when he saw how awesome the wings and halo were.

The kids up on stage. We're talking seriously adorable.

After church, and for the first time ever, Scarlett wanted to talk about baby Jesus...and then adult Jesus. We had a very nice talk. I explained that He was a wonderful man that helped a lot of people and that's why people go to church - to celebrate Him. Scarlett said how she thought that must make Jesus' heart very happy. Then she wanted to know His story. And so I gave a very preschool-friendly lesson on the life of Jesus. Scarlett asked if she could talk about Jesus at school. And so I gave a very preschool-friendly explanation of the separation of church and state. I told Scarlett that other mommies and daddies might want to tell their kids another version of His story and we wouldn't want interfere with that. So then she asked if she could talk about Him with her teachers. Curious to know what she had retained from our little talk, I asked her what she would say to her teachers about Jesus. "Well...I'd say he's DEAD," Scarlett said. And so we're not going to talk about Jesus to teachers, either. At least not until we have a little more Jesus under our four-year-old belt. But, I'd say it was a successful start.

Cousins

P.S. - New camera. I likey.

Christmas Tree - 2011

This was brought to you by the letter "C"

I recently bought a bag of pretzels. The pretzels are ring-shaped. Holden bit a pretzel, held it up to me and said "this is a C." Why yes, Holden. Yes it is. And now we will start working on letters with the boy.

A 4 1/2 year old Scarlett

A 4 1/2 year old Scarlett looks like this:

(Here is me interviewing Scarlett)

1. What is your name? Scarlett
2. How old are you? Four
3. Who is your mommy? Lauren
4. What does mommy do? She takes me to school, makes me breakfast and comes to my ballet
5. Who is your daddy? Joe
6. What does daddy do? He plays monsters with us...and games
7. What is your favorite color? Pink and purple
8. What do you want to be when you grow up? A cooker
9. What is your favorite food? Broccoli
10. What food do you not like? Carrots and beans and pumpkin seeds
11. What is your favorite animal? A little cute kitten
12. Where do you want to live when you grow up? A building - a big one
13. What do mommy and daddy do after you go to bed? They do their exercises
14. What does daddy say? Can you please pick up your messes
15. What does mommy say? Can you say sorry to Holden
16. What is your favorite song? Baby You're a Firework
17. What is your favorite movie? Robin Hood
18. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Vanilla with sprinkles on top
19. Where is your favorite place to eat? McDonalds
20. Who is your favorite person? Holden
21. Who is your best friend? Minnie
22. Who are you going to marry? I didn't pick one yet
23. Where do you live? In Stratford
24. Do you like school? Yes
25. Favorite thing about school? Play at work time and go outside
26. Favorite letter? S

27. Favorite number? 12

28. Can you speak Spanish? *shakes head no*

A 2 1/2 year old Holden

A 2 1/2 year old Holden...

• Looks like this:

• He sometimes looks like this:

• Or this:

• But usually looks like this:

A 2 1/2 year old Holden...

• loves pirate ships
• loves ketchup
• hates (really hates) when he can't go to the IKEA playland with his sister because he is still too small

A 2 1/2 year old Holden...

• has got some mean dance moves:
• and really enjoys going to the dentist:

A 2 1/2 year old Holden...

• answers questions with "of courwse!"
• really enjoys wearing his backpack to school (but the second he gets to school he lowers his shoulders so the backpack drops off his back onto the floor and he just walks away as if announcing to the school - "I have arrived.")
• loves Lightning McQueen...but usually calls him "Kachow"

A 2 1/2 year old Holden...

• really loves his sister:

• wants grapes and juice for a snack the second he gets home from school...so much so that he starts chanting "grapes, juice, grapes, juice" long before we've pulled into the driveway
• will randomly say "bow chicka bom mow - shake my bootie, shake my bootie!" much to the delight of everyone who hears him

A 2 1/2 year old Holden...

• really likes "bad guys" : 

• tends to repeat the last few words he hears someone say, which is unfortunate when you're presenting him with options ("pancakes or waffles, Holden?"..."yes...pancakes waffles!")
• knows his shapes - and his favorite color is "Holden"

A 2 1/2 year old Holden looks like this:

Parent Observation at Dance

Today was parent observation at Scarlett's dance school. It was pretty adorable. Most of the same girls Scarlett met last year are in her class again this year and it's so cute to watch them all progress. Here's a video from today's observation. Enjoy! 

Halloween Night

Despite a brief snow dusting that made most of Connecticut lose power for 2 days to...well...some may still not even have power back yet...we went trick-or-treating on Halloween.

 Scarlett was a monarch butterfly and Holden was Lightening McQueen from Cars.

 Blake even came over (with Nachie and Uncle Craig, of course) to go trick-or-treating with us.

 And after a very successful night of trick-or-treating, we came back to the house to have a very successful  night of handing candy out. (14 bags of candy gone in roughly 50 minutes.)

 "Daddy...quick! Hand me another QUICK! SOMEONE IS COMING"

And that was our Halloween.

Some school happenings

We had some fun stuff going on recently at both Scarlett's and Holden's schools. Scarlett's class had a butterfly release party. They raised 27 baby caterpillars, which then formed chrysalises and turned into monarch butterflies and the class released them so they could fly off to warm Mexico. For the release, the class dressed up as butterflies. 

And then they had a mini-parade. Scarlett ditched her antenna for a yellow flower headband. (To make the video larger, click the arrow icon in the bottom right.)

And then...THE RELEASE!!

 "Goodbye butterflies!!!"

 "Goodbye!!"

A few of the kids made "wishes" for the butterflies and Scarlett's wish was displayed for everyone to see. Cute, huh? (And, so you know, the flower is Scarlett's symbol at school. Many Pre-K's assign symbols before children learn to read so they can use sight recognition, which is one of the first steps of reading, to determine what belongs to them and what belongs to other students.)

 And then, at Holden's school, there was an adorable Halloween parade. Holden's class made train conductor costumes. It was really cute.

And we even got to see cousin Blake and his class, who dressed as cats.

And here is a short clip of a slightly confused Holden after the parade looking for his daddy.

So that's what my Goose and my Boog have been up to at school!

Guess who moved into a toddler bed?

Tonight we moved Holden to a toddler bed...but not just any toddler bed. A fire truck toddler bed.

We didn't really need to buy this for him; we have Scarlett's old toddler bed ready to go in the basement. But we saw it (thank you, Craigslist) and knew he'd love it and decided he should have it.

He was a little shocked at first. And then he was very, very excited.

 Holden and Scarlett played in the bed for a good 30 minutes before bedtime.

 And, unfortunately, Holden cried when it was time to go to bed. Not because it was a rough transition from crib to bed, but because he didn't want to stop playing and go to sleep. So that's it...my baby is in a toddler bed and there are no more cribs in the house.

Face Painting at the Harvest Fair

Scarlett's school held their annual Harvest Fair this Saturday. The kids very enthusiastically got their faces painted. Scarlett picked a butterfly:

 And Holden picked a "pirate ship" - and he chased everyone around yelling "I a pirate ship. I a pirate SHIP. Argh!"

It's potty time!

Holden used the potty three times last night. What's even better is he told us that he had to go. "Pee now, pee noooow" he'd say. We'd bring him to the potty and he'd pee. We're pretty psyched. We've had very good success losing the diaper at home and letting the kid go bare-bottom while training. This worked well for Scarlett, and appears to be working for Holden as well. Holden is actually skipping the little potty and going right to the adult one. I think it's a combo of wanting to do what Scarlett does and, really, his butt is just too big for the little potty. We'll keep you posted!

Thursday night dance party

New haircuts

Before:

After:

 Before:

After:

We brought the kids to get haircuts this afternoon. Some might say the haircuts were long overdue. Particularly for Holden. We were trying to grow Holden's hair out a bit to see what it would look like long-er-ish. Turns out, the more hair he has, the bigger his head looks. And, unfortunately for him, he doesn't need any help in that department. So farewell, fun, surfer boy hair and hello, hair that makes Holden look like he's 12 years old. (Sigh.)

 Oh. And Scarlett has layers. I don't even have layers.