The things he says!

New one from George this morning "Daddy, where are you going Daddy? Going in the basement Scooby Doo?"

George loves Jazzie's gifts too

Santa sent me a chuckit and balls for my stocking. George loves using it to throw the ball for Jasmine.

George and the Dragon

I had to go to work today, but Chris and George got to stay home together. George still had 3 unopened presents under the tree this morning, and must have opened at least one. Chris just texted me this photo of G with his gift from Uncle John & Aunt Sarah sent from Ireland.

Christmas Morning 2010

In spite of George's fear of Santa, he did like getting gifts.  Chris and I awoke at 6 am, too excited to sleep, though far too tired.  So we got up and I made blueberry muffins and we drank tea...lovely.  George eventually began to stir at 8 am.  We went in to greet him and told him Santa had come during the night and left him presents.  He was a bit worried.  He wouldn't walk down the hallway himself and halfway to the living room said to me, very quietly in my ear, "Santa be nice to me???"  When I explained that Santa had come and gone, he was much relieved and ran into the living room.  Below is what we watched:

After this he was so happy that he was in no hurry to open more gifts.  It is now half one in the afternoon and he's just gone to nap with more than half his gifts still unopened under the tree.  So Chris and I too are going to snuggle in for a while to rest.

A few more pictures of our lovely morning-

Father Christmas

Santa came and left his treats, Mommy had to take a peak!

Winter Sandbox Play

No matter the weather (this day was 22 degrees F) George loves digging in his sandbox.

Habits Are Learned at Home

Dining au naturale

The other evening George wanted to have dinner at his table in the living room. There was a roaring fire in the fireplace, the Christmas tree was twinkling across the room, and I was sitting nearby addressing our Christmas cards. This is a picture reflecting a very happy and content home.

Japanese

George attends a lovely Japanese daycare each day while Chris and I work.  They only speak Japanese-they speak English to him only if he is feeling completely lost or not understanding directions.  So 98% of the time, he hears only Japanese during the day.  He has been there only 7 weeks, but he is beginning to pick up some of the language.  We got a note from his Sensei the other day which said, "George is beginning to use some Japanese phrase.  He says "Yamete" a lot.  This means "don't!"  We had a good laugh that the first word he uses reguarly is a negative, but he did learn the one word to help him express frustration.  Last night my parents picked him up from daycare as Chris and I had to work late.  Then we all had dinner together at my parents (they served us dungeness crab, oysters, and caesar salad!  Yummy!).  When we were leaving, George went and said goodbye to Grandma and Pop and gave them big cuddles and kisses as usual.  But then Pop said, "Sayonara."  George's response: "No Poppa, that's talk for school!"  So he does understand, but as far as he's concerned, Japanese is school talk, English for everywhere else.

Clever boy!

Christmas tree

We finally got our Christmas tree up and decorated this weekend. I think it is quite pretty. I am very excited about this Christmas-George is very aware of the decorations and activities, and I think Christmas morning will be very fun. Last night I sat up by a roaring fire, addressing my Christmas cards by the light of the tree. The room smelled of fir and woodsmoke, I knew my son was snuggled in bed and sleeping soundly, my dog was snoring at my feet, and my husband resting after a trying day. It was a lovely evening.

Cozy with his dog

The other night as I was decorating the Christmas tree, George took his clothes off (nothing new there) and decided to go "sleep" with Jazzie. I could not resist capturing the moment.

Seattle's First Snow

We had our first snowfall and really cold weather the weekend of Thanksgiving.  It was the first snow George has seen when old enough to remember and he thought it was pretty wonderful.  Though the first day he didn't like it so much as I didn't have any mittens for him, and when he tried to play in it he cried - he was not used to such cold on his little fingers.

George's daycare closed for two days, which made life a bit more complicated.  But we were so fortunate that my parents live next door AND were willing to take him for both days.  So Chris walked in to work and I got to drive the Suburban.  But each morning, George and I took some time to play on our walk over to Grandma and Poppa's house.  It was such an adventure and so fun to see the snow again through a child's eyes (though I admit to never outgrowing that childish joy when it comes to snow!).  We didn't get more than 3 inches, but then it froze and remained so for 3 days.  The temperatures dropped into the teens (~ -5 C.) and sadly we lost our large crop of chard and our artichokes that had been just ripe for picking.  Ah well, next year we'll know to get out and pick right away! 

Here are a few pictures of George playing in the snow.

As you can see, Jazzie also loved the snow, and had so much fun playing in it with George.  In the picture above, George is jumping - you can just see that his feet are off the ground.  Nice action pic Daddy!

2 Months later...a visit to Santa!

I realize the blog has not been updated for 2 months...so much has been going on, but I've been too overwhelmed to catch up.  So, I put it off.  Now, instead of catching up, I"ll just start with now and move forward.  And perhaps fill in a bit of the past two months as ideas occur.

Last weekend Chris, George and I, plus my parents, headed down to the cabin for a visit with Santa Claus and a Christmas tree cutting party.  My parents picked George up from daycare on Friday and headed to the cabin with him.  That gave Chris and I a chance to pack up after work, head out and even stop for dinner on the way at the Tides Tavern in Gig Harbor.  That was a treat.

When we arrived at the cabin, George was fast asleep, and Mom and Dad nearly so.  So we headed off to read before we went to sleep.  A nice night overall.  The next morning Grandma brought George up to our room to sleep some more while she headed out for her walk.  After some nice playtime, we headed over to the firehall to see Santa.  George was not looking forward to this, nor did he really enjoy the walk as it was cold and windy.  But we got to the firehall, and Chris got in line while George and I watched children sit on Santa's lap.  By the time it was our turn, he seemed fairly confident...until I brought him to Santa.  As I began to hand him over, he began to cry.  But I was a mean Mommy who really wanted a picture, so I sat him on Santa's lap, backup up and quickly took a picture, and then took George off.  George, of course, quited right down and was happy once he was off Santa's lap.  And then he got cookies and juice! 

After this, we walked back to the cabin just in time to get the oysters on the grill. We had a great group of people over for a party and we all had a lovely lunch together, then went out to cut our own Christmas trees. We got a beautiful Noble Fir that is currently standing in the carport waiting for us to have time to get it up in the house...hopefully we'll do it Saturday.