Tamara

Gingerbread Houses

This year was Jude’s first opportunity to build a gingerbread house.  While Jude was sleeping, I built the houses for the kids to decorate.  My hope was that it would have time to dry a bit and be able to withstand Jude’s aggressive decorating techniques.  Gigi eagerly awaited Jude’s wakening from his afternoon nap, actively stomping around the house and rocking out to Hannah Montana in her room in an attempt to wake him up.   It finally worked and we dumped out the candies and started to squirt the frosting!

This felt like the first year that Gigi really had a plan.  Her vision was clear from the get-go, and the goal did not appear to involve loading the house down with as much candy as it would hold.  Rather she was precise and exact with her house, and only put on what she needed when she needed it.

Jude spent the first few minutes loading his mouth full of gumdrops and ignoring his house completely.  When he did realize the purpose of our candy filled activity, he took the gumdrops and mashed them on the house as hard as he could.  It was as if sheer pressure was going to insure the decoration’s stability!  Slowly, the roof began to slide down the side of the house until he had a flat roof and very decorated exterior wall.  Then the former roof and new exterior wall completely came off of the house and became what I am calling ‘the annex’.  It works!

When all was said and done, we ended up with two cute Christmas decorations and two reasons for our two little ones to look forward to New Year’s Eve when they can consume them!

Posted on 12.22.09 to Tamara. Grab the feed. No comments yet. Comment or trackback from your own site.

Tamara

Snowflake Lane

After we got out Santa pictures taken, we headed to Snowflake Lane (just outside of Bellevue Square).  We had read about the event for years, and were shocked at how big if a deal it really was.

They had characters wandering the street in costume who handed out peppermint lollipops (very important for Jude), people on really tall stilts, a whole procession of marching drummers, and the most magical part was the ‘snow’ that fell.

All the pieces came together to make us feel like we were in Disneyland.

We were amazed that the event happens nightly through Christmas!

We Littlejohns loved it!

Posted on 12.21.09 to Tamara. Grab the feed. No comments yet. Comment or trackback from your own site.

Tamara

Sleeping Beauties

After a long day at the construction site for one, and a long day of running around and climbing everything possible for the other, Bradley and Jude settled down to watch some TV.  I turned to make some pithy comment to Bradley about what was happening on the screen, and found this:

Jude didn’t squirm as I took him from his Daddy’s chest to put him in bed, and Bradley was so deep in sleep that it took several tries to finally rouse him and get him to the proper sleeping place.  Those boys!

Posted on 12.20.09 to Tamara. Grab the feed. No comments yet. Comment or trackback from your own site.

Jude Said

Lexicon

Babo: Bottle (or sippie cup as bottles are no longer used) *

Nigh-nigh: Blankie *

Meh-meh: Sucker (pacifier or binky) *

Dow: Down *

Bahbum: Bottom *

Kiki: cookie *

Kiki: Kitty *

Ah-wa: Water *

Bopbop: Hammer *

Bop-bop: Grandpa *

Kaka: Grandma *

Yuck: Said often, means yuck *

Ba: Bath *

Nahnie: Nakie (naked) *

Ahah: Arthur *

Deedee: Gigi *

Eh-oh: Elmo *

Ruck: Truck *

Sings the Emperor’s March: Star Wars *

Voom-voom: Light Saber

Posted on 12.19.09 to Jude Said. Grab the feed. No comments yet. Comment or trackback from your own site.

Guinevere

Snowmen

We can’t have the real deal yet as no flakes are promising to fall, but Gigi was so pleased with QFC’s  soda pop version that she made me take a picture.

Posted on 12.19.09 to Guinevere. Grab the feed. No comments yet. Comment or trackback from your own site.