Toddler Tales: Reindeer Games

Ethan is growing and absorbing life in leaps and bounds!

Vacuuming has become one of his favorite Mommy mimicking activities:)

He is quite like his Mommy about Christmas too... he loves it! His favorite is the lights, he exclaims, "Lights!" and "Wow! Wow!", it is great to see every time:) The large bulb lights are his favorite, he loves to hold 'em in his hand, as they are painted glass and only warm to the touch. The stars are another favorite... stars! stars! stars!

Underneath the Christmas tree is one of his favorite places to play these days. So much so that I am finding tree needles in his diapers:) Removing and rearranging the ornaments, pushing the one musical ornament we have, dragging pine needles all about the living room floor. But not once has he pulled it to the ground, thank goodness!

~New Talk~

Circle, square, triangle, rectangle, red, blue, green, yellow, coloring, hot, water, mail man (oddly enough), helicopter

** Flower, gives a sniff, sniff after he says it!

** Ethan to Mommy: "Drink?", Mommy to Ethan: "Would you like something to drink?", He eagerly relies: "Okay!"

** Want to go outside - know this it not new new but the why he now demands to go outside & play is!

** I went poo-poo, thank-goodness for this one:) He used to be a frequent offender of hiding while doing the do. But over the last couple of weeks he has been alerting me to when he has gone. So, YAY, I know it is after the fact but he is acknowledging it and that's a start in my book!

** He babbles the babble with frequent recognizable words. So we are well on our way to sentences. He gets that look upon his face, he knows he is saying something and to him it makes sense, he's just waiting on his Mommy to catch-up!

He has also been frequently having lunch and sometimes breakfast out of his highchair and at the table. Excuse the dirty morning nose:)

~Play Dates~

Thursday was a much better day for our play date last week, mainly because it rained all day on Wednesday. Only down side, mud! mud! mud! So it quickly turned into a 2 pair of pants and socks day for Ethan:) Which I don't mind, he is still at that age (which I love) where he doesn't realize or may be just doesn't care that if he goes down the slide his bottom is going to get oh so muddy and a little wet! These were not Ethan's muddy pants, but take a closer look at his very wet pant legs and shoes. He decided to take a walk in the culvert, which was flowing with rain water.

Squabbles have given way to sharing, as you can see the boys love switching rides. Luke really really loves Ethan's motorcycle and Ethan loves to ride Luke's tractor!

It's great that Luke is slightly older than Ethan, he is teaching him all kinds of new things. Like not to run with the ball but to pass it to a friend. I have been trying to get him to understand this concept for a while now.

After a little over an hours outside play, we headed into the house for inside play and a little craft time. My friend, Allison, graciously offered up a spin-off idea from our Thanksgiving Turkey Rolls... Reindeer Rolls! Thank you Allison, much easier to cut 4 little hands, instead of 16 little ones. So while the boys played with match box cars and indoor slide (makes an awesome ramp), I crafted their Reindeer Rolls to Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree per Luke. He found our one musical ornament and had a field day repeatedly pushing the star when it stopped playing. It was quite cute!

~Reindeer Rolls~

Ethan's Reindeer                              Luke's Reindeer

Once finished we went back out for round two of outside play! The big wind chimes out front are a favorite of the boys.

A great test for my new Bulb Wreath I made, absolutely kid-proof! If you look closely you can see the second child (red stripped shirt) behind the door, as knock back and forth.

It was a wonderful, warm day of play!

See how our two families spent the evening together below.