Almost Christmas!

We have one excited little boy!  He can hardly wait for Dec. 25.  We went and visited Santa last weekend, and he told Santa that he wants a "motorized Duncan and motorized Stanley".  That evening, we presented him "The Elf on the Shelf", which is all the rage this season.  The elf sits on a shelf and "watches" Alec all day, then flies back to Santa every night to report if he's been naughty or nice.  Also, he can send messages to Santa.  Alec asked the Elf to tell Santa to bring batteries with his trains, and also that he would additionally like a marble run.  The Elf returns to our house every morning, and lands on a different shelf.  Alec enjoys waking up and trying to find The Elf.

Over Thanksgiving week, we uncharacteristically got dumped up with a huge snowfall.  Alec loved every minute spent outside in the freezing weather, and took playing in the snow to a new level with his Jeep and balance bike.   He just never seems to care if he is cold or covered with snow!  

We let Alec decorate much of the Christmas tree.  He told me that "decorating the tree, is the BEST part of Christmas".  I love that he hung multiple ornaments on branches, and has them all clumped together.  Initially he hung them all facing the fireplace because he wanted Santa to see them when he came down the chimney.

As always, lots of funny things have come out of his mouth lately:

The other morning Tikka was being quieter than normal.  She is usually meowing up a storm for several hours before and after we get up.  Alec asked me with a sly grin if Tikka needed new batteries.

A few times over the last few weeks, he has told me about the "movies behind his eyes" when he wakes up.  He has very vivid dreams, and he remembers a lot of detail from them.  This is how he described the dream he had two nights ago:  "It was about Clifford and some bad guys.  It was G-rated, but it had some dark parts."

The comment that cracked me up today was about anatomy.  He was examining his chest, and asking me all kinds of questions about nipples ("what are they?", "why do I have them?" "why are they so small?").  He pronounces them "nibbles", which makes me smile.  He then asked me if Santa's elves have "nibbles".  I tried to keep a straight face and simply told him I didn't know.  Funny little boy!

I think he is starting to give up his afternoon nap (oh no!).  Night time has been a bit of a struggle to get him to sleep before 10pm.  He has mastered every trick in the book to procrastinate bedtime/sleeping.  I am so accustomed to that quiet time in the afternoon, that it will be a bit of an adjustment for me when it happens.  I will likely still require him to have "quiet play" in his room for an hour, just so he has some down time and so I can get a few things done around the house.  The upsides to him not napping will be that he will hopefully go to bed earlier, and maybe Rob and I can actually watch a TV show together!  Also, it will open up days for play dates with good friends/family like Evan Ling and Roman, since they no longer nap and are on opposite preschool schedules from us.  Speaking of naps, today's short nap is over and Alec would like me to come see the band he is assembling in his room.

Happy Holidays!
-Lindsay