MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Yesterday was our big Christmas la-di-dah (we have always done the majority of the celebrating on Christmas Eve).  The night started with a family trip to Top Foods for Christmas candy shopping and picking out ingredients for our pizza dinner.

pretty sure you aren't supposed to sample out of the bulk bins

 Ikaika was super into these gummy frogs.  Sure, candy is unhealthy and I almost never let him eat it - but Jesus' b-day only comes once a year so why not go nuts?!

 learning about jelly belly flavors

After a delicious family dinner, we opened presents!!!  Beth was the gift passer this year (with Ikaika as her assistant). 

Many winners were exchanged this year.  Carolyn, heading to college in the fall, got many many gifts for the out-of-state dorm room (ie. lots of Seattle stuff)  You wouldn't believe the excitement caused by this Snuggie!

 But the best gift was time together as a family.  Aww...

 ...actually, the best gift was this hoodie from Beth.  It's a Bucky the Badger hoodie and I LOVE IT!  Ikaika was really excited about Teach Me How to Bucky on YouTube and watched it at least 5 times.
It wasn't the official Christmas movie though.  This year we skipped the movie and instead played Shout About (a DVD trivia game) instead.  Carolyn and Dad won both times (boohoo).  Then Mom went to bed and we played Time Travelers - a History Channel trivia DVD Beth got.

This year was really fun because Ikaika is old enough to enjoy opening presents.  Here is a sampling of what our 3 hour present opening event was like.

We Put Up the Tree ...

... and now its time to wrap the presents.  Christmas is almost here!

Bell Square and Garden D'lights

Today my sisters and I took the boys to Bell Square Mall in Bellevue.  Excellent children's play area - it's on the third floor and completely isolated from the rest of the shopping.  Three more cheers for the monkey leash.

 
 Then we went to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens for their Holiday D'lights show.  We were all bundled up and drinking apple cider - it was wonderfully traditional.

Holiday D'lights is this amazing display of holidays lights that have been formed into different plants, animals, etc.  It beautiful, amazing, and mesmerized my two year old.  Ikaika's favorite was the crocodile, mine was this farm scene.

This display was my sister's favorite...

Monday Night Football

Koa was obviously bored stiff by the Vikings performance tonight (we knew it was going to be tragic but tuned in anyway to witness the extreme weather conditions at Gopher stadium).  Ikaika colored with Simon and Mo.  I like this picture because when he saw the camera - without any prompting whatsoever - he said "mommy, cheese!" and smiled like this.  What a big, sweet boy!

@ the Shoreline Stadium

Because the sun was out and the air was crisp and clear today, Ikaika and I headed down to the Shoreline Stadium.  I was planning to jog around the track (training for my new years 5K) but ended up just chasing the boy around and running some lines.  He was massively disappointed that there were no footballs - next time we will bring one with us.

Afterward, we went to the park.  It was one of those beautiful mornings that really highlights all the great things about the Great Northwest. 

Minor Adjustments

Ikaika has not been acting like himself.  The most noticeable difference is a fear of people.  Usually, he is Mr Charm - batting those baby blues and saying something precocious without prompt - but since we've gotten to Seattle he has been reserved.  It took him several days to warm up to my sister.  He refused to even walk through my friend's front door.  Last night, one of my mother's vball players tried to give him a ball and he fell to the floor, crying "NO! NO!" in the fetal position.

I know these behaviors are part of his adjustment process.  Even though I know we are only here for three weeks, in Ikaika's world we might as well be here forever.  I've been trying to help him through this by keeping something that resembles a schedule and not fighting his attachment to me.  My first reaction is to foster his independence by making him "cry it out" or telling him to "suck it up".  There is a nagging little voice telling me that he will revert into some snivelling spoiled brat if I entertain his neurosis.  But I also know that these behaviors are both normal and healthy.  They are a manifestation of his insecurities created by the dramatic change in his surroundings.  With that in mind, it's probably best to just let him sleep with me at night if that makes him feel secure. 

Now that we have been here a few days, I'm already seeing improvement in his eating and toilet training hasn't been affected at all.  I'm going to work for the next few days on getting back to regular sleeping expectations (that he fall asleep by himself) and hopefully socialization will follow. 

Adventures in Babysitting

Who says teenagers are totally useless?!  I was pleasantly surprised to find that my little sister has finally taken a shining to my children.  She even claims to be the captain of "Team Koa".   
 

Lucky for me, Mo's FBO (facebook official - real slang, I kid you not) boyfriend is totally willing to pitch in.  It could be because Mo likes to watch 16 & Pregnant with him and rate him against all the loser boyfriends on the show.  Whatever the reason, Koa falls into a coma whenever Simon picks him up.   

Ikaika is adjusting to the change of scenery.  He's testing his boundaries (already well acquainted with the timeout chair), not as hungry but obsessed with drinking milk, and unwilling to sleep in his own little bed (I've been thoroughly enjoying all the extra snuggles!)  We have also discovered an indoor playground at the Shoreline Community Center - $2 for 2 hours of play!  I was freaked out by the sheer number of knee-high rugrats running around the gym.  But Ikaika loved it and it was a lot warmer than playing in the rain at the park so I got a 10 punch card :)