Thanksgiving and Christmas Prep!

I've noticed something.  The holidays get a lot busier once there are kids involved!  We have been having lots of fun celebrating Thanksgiving and getting into the holiday spirit.

The most exciting adventure of the past few weeks has been having Grandpa ("Papa" according to Clara) and Nana come visit for Thanksgiving.  Despite a rocky start - Clara was confused (and made that known) when we picked them up at the airport and Nana got into the car next to her - both kids warmed up to their new book-readers, er, visitors quickly.  We kept them busy with Thanksgiving meal prep, lego-constructing, and book reading, but we did treat them to some sunny Portland weather!  It was a great trip that went by too quickly.  We are looking forward to seeing them again at Christmas.

Since Thanksgiving we have been busily enjoying some Christmas fun.  First up - getting our Christmas tree!

On a mission

 After surveying the wares,

Grady zoomed in on the perfect tree.

Then it was home to decorate!  Grady helped Daddy string up the lights.  Then both kids helped decorate the tree.

"Smile Grady!"

And the big reveal -

Pretty magical!

We've also checked out some of the holiday activities around town.  A Christmas tradition for us has become taking the Holiday Express train along Oaks Bottom.  It's a short train ride down along the Willamette, complete with a visit from Santa Claus.  More importantly, a candy-cane wielding Santa Claus.  The train is always packed with families, is decorated with Christmas lights, and feels very festive and special.  Although we do tend to spend most of the time trying to get the kids not to spill their hot chocolate.  Anyway, it's rather dark so hard to take a good picture, but here's what I've got.

A blurry Santa Claus

The next weekend we braved the cold (17 degrees!!) to check out Santa's reindeer.

We didn't realize he was going to be there, but Santa was there too!  This was Grady's first time sitting on Santa's lap (Clara was a definitive no).  It's a strange thing when it comes time to explain the tradition.  "Do you want to see Santa?  You sit on his lap and tell him what toys you want. He'll give you a candy cane after."  Something very wrong about that, but anyway, he went with it.  I'm glad he did, because it turns out what he wants for Christmas is a mouse.  Never would have guessed.

Will Ferrell as Santa Claus

Other Christmas activities included making ginger bread cookies.  Not sure how they felt about the cookies, but the decorations and icing were a hit.

I love how they are completely in sync in these decorating photos!

Time to eat!

We also went to a gingerbread house making party.  It was a total madhouse and my hat goes off to the brave hosts, who had 50+ sugar-crazed children running through their house.  We went with a bold plan, and allowed the kids to eat as much of the house as they wanted for dessert that night.  Since we still have Halloween candy leftover, it seemed the right thing to do.  I certainly didn't want to be doling out gumdrops for the next two weeks.  Grady excitedly exclaimed over and over "It's CANDY NIGHT!  It's CANDY NIGHT!" and "We've never had this much candy before!"

On the non-holiday front, all is well.   By Portland standards, we got quite the little snowstorm.

That's accumulation right there! 

And the kids are doing great.  Grady seems to be settling into his new school.  He has a best friend and some other good friends, and every so often will bust out a french word - or correct us on our pronunciation.  He had his holiday concert at school yesterday.  He got a little overwhelmed - it was a big crowd - probably 100 people and no real demarcation between "stage" and audience, so the kids were really up in front of the crowd.   But we were proud of him for giving it a try.  And he looked super cute in his little Santa hat.

Clara is continuing to work hard at independence.  She loves to pick out her own outfits.  Here are a few of her favorites.

Going for stripes today

Note the double skirt

She can put on her pants and skirt(s) herself, boots, and has even gotten a sock on once or twice!

Her language continues to blossom.  She is working really hard at making her demands known, and more and more often is putting several words together.  ("More milk please Mommy!")

Grady and Clara are able to play together for longer stretches at a time too.  Of course there are still plenty of battles, but there are so many moments of total cuteness.  Case in point:

The littlest Wilkinson seems to be doing well too. He's squirming around more - or at least I can feel it more.  I passed my glucose test - no diabetes! - and have otherwise been feeling good since eliminating gluten.  Well, tired, but good.  We are stumped on names, so feel free to send some suggestions.

That's it for now.  I'll be back with Christmas photos.  Happy holidays!

Halloween

Halloween was a pretty big deal around these parts this year.  Grady was old enough to know what he wanted to be (Mike Wazowski from the movie Monsters, Inc.) and more importantly what he wanted to get out of the whole Halloween business (CANDY).  Clara was less sure about the dressing up, but did not take a lot of convincing to come around to the candy part.  

Although both kids were most excited about getting to the actual day and the trick-or-treating, they were also pretty enthused over the pumpkin carving.  We let the kids scoop out the pumpkins themselves.  Grady actually managed to do his whole pumpkin!  

Hamming it up

Scooping takes careful planning

Showing Clara the ropes

Goofs

After the pumpkins were emptied out, it was time for the kids to draw on their jack-o-lantern faces.  Grady had a really clear idea of what he wanted this year, and was pretty vigilant that Matt get the carving of his drawing just right.

Clara, eh, not so much. 

The end results were pretty spooky!

It is so hard to get a picture of them both with a) Grady not talking; or

b) Clara not picking her nose

  

Before the big day, we had a warm-up on the costume front during a reunion party of Grady's baby group.  Clara was so, so not pleased with her costume, despite our picking out the costume that was the most like regular clothes.  She perked up a bit when it was explained that when she wore these clothes she got to eat chocolate!  

Don't our kids look happy?!

Her spirits definitely turned when she got the bouncy house all to herself. 

After getting the lingo down -

the kids were ready for some trick-or-treating.  

One tough wrestler and one friendly monster

 And then they were off!  Since I got to take them last year, Matt had the honors this year.

They cannot believe I am still making them pose for pictures.  There is candy to be had!

They both brought in a decent haul, including some full-sized bars.  Probably over a dozen pieces each.  We've got about half to go.  Clara enthusiastically calls for her "Buck-ee!" whenever she sees it.  

Grady chose Dots for his Halloween night candy

Clara chose skittles

On the non-Halloween front, all is pretty well.  Grady continues to be our funny, 3.5-going-on-8- little boy.  He is settling in at his new school.  We've definitely noticed an emotional adjustment as he gets used to the structure (more acting out at home) but it's hard to tell how much of that is school and how much of that is being 3.  He has made some friends at school and has brought home a few French words - he can count to 12, say cat, mouse, pig, hello, goodbye, eat - all the essentials.  He's been working hard at the song that they will be singing in their winter festival in a few weeks.  

Clara also has been working hard at her singing, though she's sticking mainly to original songs at this point.  Here's one from today.  Sorry no picture, it was in the car. 

Clara is also continuing to work on sentences.  Most of them now are some combination of object + mommy.  "SHOE mommy! Mommy, shoe!"  But she's also got down "Watch out!" - and seriously, she means it.  It's not her fault if you don't get out of her way when she's barreling after you with a stool.  She is running everywhere.  Walking is not her style.  She continues to be a very opinionated and loving girl.  

The littlest Wilkinson seems to be doing well.  He's got me off gluten and most dairy still (plain yogurt seems to be fine).  He's moving around a lot and generally has been pretty low maintenance, especially compared to the two that are already out.  

Here are some favorite pictures from the past few weeks before I sign off. 

Dual slide 

Best friends

Proud of the tower she built all by herself!

This is what happens when we let Clara choose her outfit 

Portrait of Cheer Bear, by Grady