Baking Cookies with Colin

A mega mess and a real exercise in patience for Mommy, Colin and I made Christmas cut-out cookies. The first batch was made with whole wheat flour. Not the most attractive look for cut-out cookies. Chose the white flour for the cookies meant for gifting. Once Colin realized how tasty the cookie dough was, I had to keep a sharp eye on him to keep him from sneaking wads of dough.

These are a few of my favorite things...

A photo of Colin with his OSU hat from St. Nicholas Day, his Frosty the Snowman shirt, and his U.S. map puzzle. He was quite content. He puts together this map puzzle 1 -3 times a day (it was suppose to be for Christmas, but we busted it out early, we=Bill). It helped when I was on a recent trip to CA for work and he and Daddy could discuss how far my plane traveled and when I would return.

Last week at school Colin the daredevil jumped off a playground climber and landed with a "hard sqwish" on his foot. He was gimping the rest of the day. I picked him up early to see the peds dr. who suggested we get it x-rayed. His first x-ray! Bill took him to the urgent care to do this and said Colin was very brave through the whole ordeal. The x-rays showed nothing that they could tell and sent them home. He was hobbling for a few days. We were able to ice it once and wrap an ace bandage on his foot for about 15 minutes. Then Colin started to play with the clips and tried to wrap the bandage around his whole body. Guess we're feeling better... He was very careful to let his foot heal. I thought we'd have to tie him down to keep him from jumping around for a few days, but he did really well.

Oh the holidays...

In the car this morning on the way to school.

"Santa won't visit me, Mommy," said Colin in such a sad voice.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because I'm not home, I'm going to school."

I said "Santa doesn't visit for another 30 days or so." And then I thought, well, he arrives in the middle of the night and he doesn't actually stay for a visit. Ugh with these holiday explanations!

I followed up with "Let's plan to go visit Santa soon. Like the kids we saw at the mall who sat with Santa and had their picture taken."

"Where is Santa now?"

"Ummm, at the mall...shopping." It didn't occur to me to start outlining the whole North Pole concept. I think we'll hit the library and check out the story books on some of this stuff.

Holiday Music

We have a whole season of new songs to share with Colin. The radio stations start earlier each year. Colin's "mastered" Frosty the Snowman thanks to the book we received from G'ma Kate last year. He's enjoying the opening lines to Jingle Bell Rock: "Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell"...and repeat.

I've been talking up the Thanksgiving Day Parade to try to keep this holiday on his radar. I think Colin picked up the Santa concept in one sitting. Bill asked Colin to be a good boy... Colin interupted with "for Santa!" I did toss in some Baby Jesus birthday information, but between Santa and Jesus, my explanation as to why we have these holiday songs started sounding really out there and it freaked me out.

Here is Colin singing for his play date Audrey at the mall.

Parent Teacher Conference

We had our second parent teacher conference at Colin's school. His teachers feel he's a well-rounded kid, very enthusiastic and enjoys his friends and the activities. They did say that with the high level of happiness and enthusaism, comes too his high level of frustration. Bill pretty much said you get the yin with the yang. Both school and home, we are working on increasing interest in using the toilet. Some days he's better about saying he needs to go and we make it in time. Other days, he announces what he's doing but has no interest to head to the bathroom. Eh - we'll get there.

Colin has some of my children trends to the joy of my mom. Every tag in his shirt is itchy, his socks get too bunchy in his shoes, the watch or jacket is scratchy. Everything that has an odor is stinky and he doesn't want it. Sheesh. It takes us forever to get out of the house once everything is not bothering him in some way.

Good thing he's such a cute kiddo.

A Play Cafe

We have a new kiddie play place right by our house! Kids 2-5 years, and all toys are non battery, creative and colorful. Moms and Dads enjoy a cup of joe while the kids run amok. I organized a play date with a bunch of tots and parents. We were there for over 2 hours. Colin's favorites were the car and bounce house.

Imagination Station

During our visit to Nana Mary and Papa Beard's house, Nana, Zoe, Colin and I went to the Imagination Station (aka the fake COSI). Nana was feeling pretty brave and took on the bicycle tightrope. Colin and Zoe cheered her on!



The kids also enjoyed being astronauts!



A musical interlude...



Um, it was sort of like the movie "BIG"...