Firsts....

First smile, first tooth, first word, first steps...There are so many anxiously-awaited milestones when you have a new baby.

Then- poof! Suddenly there is this other little person in the house. A preschooler...who can walk and talk and try to boss us around. He can (and does) tell us what he wants, needs, likes and dislikes. He has a sense of humor. And an opinion. When did this happen?

"Mama, I don't like your hair like that." (he prefers ponytails)

"No, Daddy- you be the ____ truck, I'll be the ____truck." (fill in ANY truck types here)

"I want to write my name," Elijah said, in reference to the ritual we always follow before bringing a new book to daycare.

For once, I wasn't running 10 minutes late and desperate to just get out the door. So I handed him a marker, and he actually DID write his name in the book. The letters were all over the page, the "L" was backwards and the "A" was laying on its side...But for all intents and purposes, it pretty much was his name.

I was nothing short of astounded.

I know it's not unusual for a 3-year-old to begin learning to make letters, but when did this happen to MY 3-year old?

Tonight we worked a little on placement, "L's" and "A's," and before long, this is what Elijah had written:

Just another "first" I'll probably forget all about when...poof! Elijah turns sixteen and gets his driver's license next week!

Our Merry Christmas

There's nothing like Christmas, especially with a 3-year-old at home! The past couple of days have been magical. Thursday, Ed needed to do some shopping so Elijah and I went sledding and then to the bakery. That night, I did some baking and a whole lot of wrapping!

Friday, we were treated to a lovely and delicious Christmas Eve dinner at Tyler and Aimee's house. Later that night, Elijah and I cuddled up to watch "Dora's Christmas Special" before bed:

After Elijah went to bed, Ed and I decorated the tree and brought down all the gifts.
We were all up and moving around by about 6:30AM this morning. Elijah was very excited to see what Santa brought him! Thank goodness, he hasn't forgotten how to unwrap presents in the month since his birthday!

The cutest thing about this Christmas was how excited Elijah was about every single gift. It was sweet that he wanted to play with each toy for a while before getting back to the unwrapping.

Even Zoe the Horrible got a few new toys for Christmas! Obviously, Santa didn't cross-check his "naughty" list against his "nice" list...

Finally, here are some pictures of Elijah trying out his new snowshoes from Santa. He did pretty well for his first time out!

In the afternoon, I went for a ski with Zoe and then we made a fantastic, humongous Christmas feast.

After such an amazing day, I then found out that sadly, southern New England is expecting a pretty big blizzard beginning tomorrow. This storm looks like it's going to sabotage my family's gathering down in R.I. I am soooo bummed, but still kind of holding out hope that the storm won't pan out. Fingers crossed!

Merry Christmas to All!

Zoe III

It was a beautiful, mild morning.

The first order of business this morning was to build a snowman.

The snow is finally more sticky and less powdery.

As we were nearing completion of our masterpiece, I said to Elijah, "He needs a name. Can you think of a good name for him?"

Of course he answered, "We can call him Zoe."

Our dog is named Zoe. Then along came Zoe the Fish. And alas! Zoe the snowman.

Elijah's "Friend" Birthday Party

This afternoon was Elijah's first-ever "friend" birthday party.We had the three other 3-year-olds from his daycare, as well as their siblings and our friends the Garrows. It amounted to kids aged 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 (x2), and 3(x4). Having never really been to a toddler birthday party, I wasn't sure what to plan or expect. As you all know, Elijah is a very big fan of Diego, so the theme of the party was...of course...Diego. Elijah dressed as Diego and some of the other kids came dressed as little animals. Very cute! They played and then ate pizza, after which I set out materials for a craft. I found these awesome sock puppet kits at the Christmas Tree Shop- lots of great supplies and easy, colorful pictures to follow. The kids were really into it. They were so creative and fun! Unfortunately, the craft glue that came in the kits was horrible, so try as they might, they couldn't make the pom poms, googly eyes and yarn hair stick very well, and we didn't have a lot of other options for glue in the house. Kind of a bummer!

Rule #1 for teachers: ALWAYS test out a new lesson before attempting it with students. If I had followed my own rule, I would have known to purchase some better glue! Oh well-

The kids took it in stride and transitioned easily to cake and ice cream. An acquaintance here in town is getting ready to open up her own bakery, and she made this adorable cake for Elijah:

And there's pretty much nothing cuter than the chaos associated with a bunch of tiny impatient hands trying to participate in gift-opening!

It was a wonderful night, although a bit crazy. At one point, Ed commented that this is what every day must have been like for his Mom when she was raising so many children.

I think most of the adults were thankful for the wine!

New Playroom

Some of the things I (often) think about are the many improvements we'd love to see done to our house before Ed retires. I despise clutter, and sometimes I just cannot stand the toys. Everywhere. In the bedrooms, in the living room, even in the kitchen. Our house is just too small for all this stuff.

On Monday, I devised a plan to convert our seldom-used guest room into a playroom for Elijah. Once I had a picture in my mind of what that might look like, I then decided that I wanted it DONE before Elijah's birthday party on Saturday. This was going to take some serious planning and work, but I figured if I dedicated a couple of hours each night, it just might be done by Saturday.

In a stroke of amazing luck, school was cancelled due to a power outage (100 mph wind gusts yesterday)! So we got right after it and finished the whole room today, 2 days ahead of schedule!
Here is a picture of Elijah's NEW playroom! The best part about it is that there is not a single toy in our living room right now. Not one toy.