4 Years + 9 Months!

On the first day of December, the Christmas Countdown calendar went up, which Ryder remembers very well from last year.  He was so beyond excited that he was jumping around and hooting and hollering with joy.  Each day he got a little something in his bag, sometimes candy, sometimes a Christmas themed item and some of them were little paper Christmas houses to build.  At first he was unimpressed with the paper houses, and even crumpled his first one up.  But after seeing Vivi with hers, he changed his mind and I printed him a new one.  Then he arranged them as decorations. 

Ryder has always been very excited about decorating, so I expected him to be all over that, and boy was he!!  But this year he was also super into wrapping presents. They did a present wrapping activity at school most days, so he obviously really like it because he spent the month wrapping up his toys as presents.  He wrapped a few and put them up where Vivi couldn’t get them, but then he started putting them under the tree.  As Christmas got close, he wrapped a bunch more and then piled them all into a big reusable grocery bag and pretended to be Santa with his sack of toys, all the while wearing his Santa suit PJ’s that I got him.  It was very festive!

Ryder has always been helpful and has done many things around the house, often without asking.  All summer long he was the recycling king; a task which he still enjoys!  With the Christmas season upon us, he has been extra helpful, in hopes that Santa would notice what a good little boy he is!  He even unloaded the whole dishwasher by himself one day- I love it!!

The last couple of days leading into Christmas were so much fun this year.  We had a lot of activities planned, so we really kept busy.  There was a visit with friends, a trip downtown to the police station to see the lobster trap Christmas tree, our annual Christmas Eve trip to Rockport followed by a screening of the Grinch, and of course, Christmas morning.   Ryder was so excited and he loved his presents so much!  The pirate ship and fort was a huge hit, as well as the pirate costume and the nerf guns.  The kids got loaded up with art supplies and of course some practical items that the parents really appreciate!

He loved that ornament

So happy!

Showing off that ornament

Looking spiffy!

3 Years Old!!!

This year Vivien really knew what Christmas is all about, so this was the first Christmas that she was really excited for because she knew what was coming instead of because Ryder was all hyped up.  We did our Christmas Countdown calendar again and this year she understood all of the parts and what to do for them, whereas last year she needed hands on guidance to do her activities.  She was able to glue on her own pom-poms to our Santa's beard picture and get out her own stickers for the card that we hung up.  Basically she and Ryder could do the whole thing on their own.

Vivien loves to do “activities” basically anything where she does some art or science-y activity that Ryder and I do with her.  All month long in December, we did Christmas themed activities, painting ornaments, making cards, making decorations… so Vivi was in heaven. 

This month the pre-school had a little concert downtown with some singing, a visit from Mrs. Claus and ice cream.  Vivien was super nervous and shy once it was time for her to get up on “stage.”  She willingly went and sat on her chair, but she hid her face in her purple lamb and didn’t sing for about half the concert.  Towards the end, she got into it and dropped lamby to the floor and started singing and doing the hand motions with her class. 

Vivien celebrated her birthday in the middle of the month with a small party.  I couldn’t really get any sort of theme idea from her, but she knew that she wanted a ducky cake, so she got a ducky cake.  That was more than enough to make her happy!  She loved all of her new presents and didn’t want Ryder to steal them, so all of her presents immediately went into her room.  In fact half of them have a special place on her bed- like the baby carriage!

Even though Vivi remembered some things from Christmas from last year and had been hearing about it all month long from Ryder, she still wasn’t quite as into it and excited as Ryder on Christmas morning.  Ryder waited patiently for a half an hour or so, and then woke her up.  She wasn’t sure what to make of everything and wasn’t ready to dive in immediately like he was, but once she opened her stocking and had some of Santa’s special apple juice, she was into it.  She was thrilled with her play-doh and started zooming around on her scooter right away! 

Playing with the lights

Playing with some candles

Ready for her party

Someone is three!

So happy to be seranaded

She loves her presents!