Chugga Chugga

Finally, finally, we set up Colter's train from his great-grandpop. He was thrilled by it, and only derailed it twice.

Even Elliott enjoyed watching the set-up process.

Want to see it an action? We got a little bit of video to share with you.

Thanks for the train, Grandpop!

Choo Choo!

A couple weekends ago, Keith, Colter, and Keith's dad checked out a local model train display. Our neighbor helps with it each year, and shared a few pictures of them checking out all the trains.

We're looking forward to setting up Colter's train from his great-grandpop under the tree this year. We are planning on just having it out for a few days so that he can see and enjoy it, and hopefully he is old enough to understand he needs to take care of it.

Smiles

Now there's my happy baby!

Cookies & Snow

It's not that we aren't doing anything around here, it's just that we aren't doing anything out of the ordinary, and therefore, not very interesting. We had thoughts of going to see Santa or going to a local "Christmas on the Farm" Saturday, but the impending snow and cold temperatures made it easy to stay home. And Colter slept until almost 10:00 that morning (I can honestly say that is a once-in-his-lifetime thing to date), so we were all moving pretty slow. So Saturday became a cookie baking day, and a just hanging out day.

Oh, and a cookie eating day.

Sunday was equally relaxing (excluding Keith doing a bunch of shoveling) and we took some time to play outside in the snow while Elliott slept in his swing. We managed to take a few pictures, and then we set the camera back inside and just had fun.

There was enough of a crust on the snow that Colter could slide down sans sled.

Me, not so much.

We could also give him a good push and he would glide right down our only slightly inclined yard.

And crash into a snow pile and lay like a turtle on his back.

Colter had a really tough time walking in the crusty snow, traipsing out to the middle of the yard only to turn around and wail, "How do I get back?" We cracked up a little bit before we went and rescued him. 

A Glimpse of Christmas

Just before the first snowfall blew in, we managed to get our decorating done. I thought I'd share a few photos of us at work. And if the house is ever picked up enough to get some nice shots of all the decorations, well, then you'll get to see more.

We thought we'd get the tree decorated while both boys napped. And then neither of them napped. The best laid plans...

Poor Elliott and his piddly little "E" stocking. I really need to get his finished for next year!

Keith, as usual, was in charge of the outside decorations but had a little "help" from Colter to decorate the tree on the front porch.

But maybe the most joyful part of the season so far is seeing these two find a bit of joy in one another.

Colter has been asking to hug Elliott, kiss Elliott, hold Elliott, more and more. If I lay Elliott on the floor, his big brother comes over to talk and show him toys. Elliott, for his part, smiles and "talks" when Colter pays attention to him. We have been telling Colter since before Elliott was born that when Elliott got bigger, they could play together so when I suggested that he play with his little brother the other day, he ran over, yelling, "He got bigger!" I think he was a tad disappointed that he wasn't really any bigger. But, Colter is definitely much more interested than he was even a week ago and we haven't heard much of "You can put him down now" or the classic "Elliott can go back to the hospital" lately. He also likes to bring Elliott's burp cloth over so, in his words, "Elliott can burp and spit out all of his milk." Ah, life with boys.

Hanukkah Handiwork

Hanukkah is nearly over, but I suppose it isn't too late to show you our little craft. I thought Colter would be really into coloring with markers, but not so much. It took much coaxing from me and then some more from Keith just to get a couple of scribbles out of him. Anyway, this is a really simple craft that only takes six popsicle sticks, some glue, markers, and ribbon.

Simply glue three popsicle sticks into a triangle, do the same with another three and then glue them together to make a Star of David. I marked out where to put my glue and used glue dots, keeping the mess to a minimum and eliminating the drying time.

Then color as much (or as little) as you like. You could use glitter or whatever you like to decorate them,  or even spray paint them silver if you wanted them to be fancier.

Markers work just fine with the toddler set.

Then I simply looped some ribbon around so the stars can be hung and marked Colter's name and the year on the back. We gave them to his Mom-mom and Memere to celebrate Hanukkah. 

Pinterest worthy? Maybe not. But still worth it.

I forgot when I put this up to share that when we lit the candles on the first night of Hanukkah, Colter said, "Now we're ready for cake!" 

And just for fun, here's Elliott in his funny little hat. Now I have visions of knitting stocking caps for my boys...