Merry Christmas!

It is Christmas morning and the presents have all been unwrapped. Breakfast has been cooked and eaten and a few phone calls have been made. Cian and Kevin are both playing with the new toys and now I have chance to sit down and reflect on the past day or two. It is so fun to watch Kevin and Cian play. Kevin is one of those dads that will lay on the floor a play for hours with Cian. Cian is really into imaginative play. He has figures that he creates scenarios with. He has never been much into cars or trains. He would rather get his figures and play space or castle. I think Cian has a enough toys now to last him for a while....well at least until his birthday! We stayed home this year for Christmas. This is the first time since we have been married that we have been home for both Christmas Eve and Christmas. It was really nice to not have the stress of traveling, yet we missed our families too. Kevin's brother Kyle and his wife Nicole live near us so they came over and spent Christmas Eve with us. It was nice to share a meal and play some games with them. We are all exhausted today. Cian woke up at ten last night wanting to open his presents and then again at 1:30. He was wide awake so I brought him to our bed, which was a huge mistake(Cian has only slept with us a few times since he has been born...He is a wiggle worm). That lasted about an hour(All the while I had feet in my back). He was still wide awake asking questions about the clock and Santa. Kevin wanted to just get up and do presents, but luckily after bringing Cian back to his own bed he fell back asleep. Cian probably would have slept in today, but Kevin(who was excited too), woke him up at 6:30. We had a great time seeing how excited Cian was over each gift. It is funny because up until this year Cian would open a present and want to play with it right away. He couldn't fathom the idea that there could be anything better under the tree than what he already had in his hands. Now he is older and wiser. He was excited for each gift.....but wanted to see them all open before he played with any of them. Our boy is growing up in so many ways. It is amazing to watch. We wish all of our friends and family a very merry Christmas!

SNOW DAY!!!!!

Today was one of those days that made me miss being a stay at home mom. We had a snow storm so school was cancelled. Kevin took our four wheeled SUV to work, so Cian and I were literally stuck. I didn't dare take Kevin's car out. I am not good at stick shift. We got so much done...the house got a top to bottom cleaning which it desperately needed. I was able to make a homemade lunch and dinner for the fam(I would love to be a good cook...but its just not there) and we played outside in the snow. I miss having the time to actually feel like everything is in its place. Cian also got to do some crafts. I just love how fingerpainting turned into finger, hand, wrist, arm and elbow painting. ;-)

Cian loved playing outside. The neighbor boys were sledding down our street(we live at the top of a pretty steep hill). We went out to join them and Cian had a blast. He loves playing with other kids especially Cade and Tabor. He wants to knock on their door every day. I try to discourage it because of the age difference, but we give in when they are already outside. Cade is in 3rd grade and Tabor is in 8th grade. They are a nice family and treat Cian very well.

Cian had a great week in school. His teacher asked me if I had had a pep talk with him on Thursday. She said he was not quite himself. That got me a little worried so I asked her to explain. She said, "well.....He's being sooooo cooperative". I laughed out loud. That is truly Cian. He is a good boy, yet he has a mind of his own. He is stubborn and would argue that a zebra's stripes were yellow and purple if he set his mind to it. She continued to say that Cian has just been extra good this week. We are all glad for that. We are super excited for Christmas and now it appears as if we will have a white one. Yeah!

Our "Crazy Cookie" Week

Cian and I were lucky enough to have this whole week off from school and the plan was to make all of our Christmas cookies throughout the week. I told Cian that we were going to have a a crazy cookie week and the name just stuck. We made a lot of different types of cookies and Cian helped me with all of them. I was so impressed with his willingness to "help" me day after day. He loved every aspect of the process, from the beginning to the end(eating the cookies). He reminds me so much of Kevin. I am fortunate enough to have a husband who also likes to cook and bake. Kevin had to work so he unfortunately was not able to partake of the fun. We missed him. (He worked from home on Friday, so at least we got to see him.) Cian is really excited to take our cookie plates to our neighbors. He is a really social kid and loves to go to our neighbor's homes. (We don't know where he gets this from, Kevin and I are just fine keeping to ourselves.) Besides baking cookies, we had two play dates, went to Cian's friend's birthday party, went on a lunch date and played in the snow. I can honestly say we wasted not a minute of our week off. I am so lucky to have such a fun kid to do things with. We have done a lot of fun things this year, but my favorite memories are the ones that happened without any big planning. I cherish these moments when we are just living life. "That's what she said";-)

Aunt Picole's Birthday

Today was Nicole's 23 rd birthday. Cian used(I hate this word...I feel like it should just be use to) to call her Picole, so now it just pops out every once in a while. We went to the Olive Garden and we had really fun time (despite the waitress dumping a giant glass of Dr. Pepper on Kevin and I). Kevin and I talked on the way home how it is so nice to get together like that. We wish Picole a very Happy Birthday and great success on all of her many endeavors in the year to come! By the way (if you read this Nicole).....AWESOME BOOTS!

Gingerbread

We decided to spend a very cold Sunday warm inside making a gingerbread house. We bought the kit about a month ago and Cian had been eagerly awaiting the time when we got to put it together. That morning Cian had been determined to go over to our neighbor's house to tell them that he was going to a birthday party the next day and we kept saying no. He loves the boys across the street. They are a little older so their feelings are not quite as mutual. So in order to try to get him to forget about the chilly trip across the street I mentioned that we could do the gingerbread house. WOW! His eyes lit up and he got so excited. We had a blast putting it all together. It did not take very long. As soon as I said I think we are done, Cian said, "Can we eat it now?". We gave in after a short while. This is how it goes with Cian as I am sure it goes with most four year old boys. You build it.....He wants to break it. So much for enjoying our beautiful...well....very decorated gingerbread house. I love doing crafts with Cian. He is so much fun. Seeing the joy in his eyes is worth a million decorated Gingerbread houses!

Fine....I won't love my teacher anymore!

So Cian's teacher sends home a daily note giving happy and sad faces for certain tasks throughout the day. Cian almost always gets all happy faces (he has gotten one sad face so far this year), but today he got another sad face for not sharing during centers. We always check his sheet when he gets home and today was no different. I think we both expected to see all happy faces....but there alas a sad face. Cian's actual face went to a sad face and he said without any comment from me yet, "Fine....I won't love my teacher anymore!". I had to hide my face from smiling. It was too cute. Of course we talked about sharing and how important it is, but Cian was still so transfixed on how his teacher could do this to him. We eventually let it drop. He is so stubborn and sensitive! Luckily we have next week off from school. Hopefully he will forget about his decision to not love his teacher anymore!

The Name

I know it sounds a little strange, but "The Dup Deposition" came from a very sweet start. Cian's first word was "dup". It is not an actual word, but he said it all the time. Any question we would ask him ....his answer would be "dup". It was so cute. Kevin and I even incorporated it into our daily conversations. When ever it would kinda fit we would use it. Kevin even made me a shirt for Mother's Day that said Dup with a picture of Cian. This made up word will always be special to us.