ZOOmagination Station

We are making the most of our time off with Max. Today we headed out to the zoo to meet Ms. Gina for a 'community' speech therapy session. We met at the ZOOmagination Station in the Living World. We had a great time! It is a very child friendly, hands on, exhibit that is perfect for toddlers to explore. Max played with the Arctic animals at the water table. He also hung out with daddy in the bear's cave. I think the hit of the whole thing was the house. Max ran in and closed all the doors and shutters so no one else could come in . . . good thing it was a little snowy this morning and there was only one other child there. Max also put his creative side to work at the craft table. He colored, glued, and dotted a beautiful masterpiece that is proudly on display in our kitchen. Max loved squeezing the glue bottle, but I drew the line at the glitter. I'm sure we will be back again for more exploration soon.

Gymboree

Since we can't go to the outdoor playground we have decided to re-join Gymboree. We took Max this morning for open play. He had so much fun running around all of the equipment. We are going to try out a class next Saturday to see if we should officially join up. I think we will!

Merry Christmas

What a wonderful holiday it has been! We started celebrating at my Aunt and Uncle's house last night. There was lots of fun, lots of family, and lots of great food. Unfortunately, Max was not in a very good mood! He was an angry little man. . . I tried telling him that Santa wouldn't like that, but it didn't seem to have much effect. The piano perked him up just a bit and he did pose for a family picture in front of the tree.

Max was up this morning and ready to dig into all those goodies under the tree. Max had lots of fun opening his presents. He was most interested in the Lego's and his little train set. He plopped his bottom right in the middle of the track daddy made and was thrilled to make the train go round and round. Unfortunately, Santa picked up this train set at Ikea and it isn't the best quality. Max had lots of derailments and got a bit ticked off. I think daddy and I are going to have to find a much nicer train -and a table to play with it on - for his birthday in March.

After nap we headed out to the Dulls, where more fun was had by all. Max convinced his cousin Graham that that doggy crate is a great place to hang out. I think her boys were completely content in there for quite a while. Then it was time for the chaos of present opening. . . Here is Max climbing on top of his Lego table. I think he needs a little instruction on how to best use this wonderful new toy. All in all it was a fabulous holiday spent with our wonderful family. We are so blessed! Merry Christmas everyone!

Must Be Santa, Santa Claus

We have been listening to this song a lot in the car lately - Raffi can perk Max up no matter what! Tonight we made the trek to West County mall to visit the famous man in red. Last year he sat on Santa's lap happily and even smiled for the camera. This year was a different story. Max wanted nothing to do with Santa. I had to sit on the bench next to him and Max would only sit on my lap. They tried to cut me out of the picture, but you can still see parts of me. Maybe next year Max will be okay with Santa. We are so excited for Christmas with our little man. It is always one of my favorite times of the year, and as Max gets more interested the holiday just gets more fun!

Oh, Christmas Tree

It is officially the holiday season. The lights are hung outside, the nativity is on the mantle, and the Christmas Tree has been trimmed.

We took Max out last night to pick out that oh, so special tree. When we arrived at the tree lot, we were greeted by none other than the man in the red suit himself. We took advantage of the opportunity to get a family picture with Santa. Max was okay with it as long as Santa didn't touch him or look directly at him. I am hoping to take him to visit Santa officially soon, and I don't think it will be pretty.

We put the tree up after Max went to bed last night and he was very excited with what he saw when he woke up. I'm sure next year, he will an active member of the tree trimming crew. For now, he is just going to enjoy looking at the pretty little lights. I love Christmas!