Christmas in NC, part 2

Happy New Year! I meant to get more of these Christmas pictures posted before New Year's day, but didn't manage it. I'll combine Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so there will be a lot of pictures in this post. Fair warning!

We spent Christmas Eve at my Dad's and Barbara's house. My mom and Rick, Donna and her family, my step-sister Lynn and her family, and step-sister Nicci and her boyfriend and his parents were all there as well. The kids had fun playing together, and there was an impressive spread of food, as always!

Here is Emma all ready for Christmas:



Carter and Emma played some "tunes" on the piano.



All the little kids had somehow lost their pants once time to open presents came around!



It was fun to watch them all open presents and get excited about new toys.





Here is Carter with Uncle Chris, trying our a megaphone gift from Nana.



Carter opened one gift and would have been happy to stop there. It actually took a while to get him to open something else! Which says a lot, really. He wanted to open a little airplane playset while we were still at Dad's house, and we told him that we would open it when we got back to Nana's house. He fell asleep on the way back, and then slept until 9:30 on Christmas morning! When he woke up, Mom asked him if he wanted to see what Santa Claus had brought, and he said, "Did he bring my airport from Papa's house?"

Once in the living room, he completely ignored the pile of presents, went straight to the box with the airplane playset, and insisted that we open and assemble it. It was a good 15 minutes before he could be convinced to open any presents!



There were lots of toy tractors for him to unwrap:





And a big fire truck from Grandpa and Grandma Smith.



John Deere was definitely the theme of the morning!



He also enjoyed this crane from Nana.



We lounged around and had a brunch of red velvet pancakes. We headed up to Mount Airy in the early afternoon for the family gathering at my Aunt's house. My mom's parents and both her siblings and all my cousins were there. It was a big crowd, but fun as always!



We got the kids to sing a little before we started opening presents. Sort of...



Here they are waiting patiently for the gift opening to begin.



Then it was a blur of paper and boxes for a while!



After the presents were unwrapped and played with, one of the kids decided it was bathtime, and the next thing we knew they were all naked. So, into the bath they went!



After that we all just hung out and enjoyed each other's company.



Carter had a great time playing with his cousins. I have such great memories of these family get-togethers when I was a kid, and the Christmas ones were so very special to me! I can remember being so excited and everyone laughing and enjoying each other's company. I really hope Carter has similar memories of Christmases spent with family!

We lingered over conversation and full tummies, and then finally set out to go back to Greensboro to my Mom's house. I'm always sad that Christmas is over. It's a holiday I look forward to for months, and then it seems to pass by so quickly! And Mom and I realized too late that we'd forgotten to get a picture of all the kids with my grandparents, and we were both sad about that. It's so rare that ALL of us are together like that, and we definitely missed an opportunity to get a photo. :-(

The holiday wasn't over yet, though. We still had an awesome gift left: my dad and Barbara had gotten us a night at the Great Wolf Lodge in Concord as a Christmas gift! I'll write all about that in my next post.

Yo Gabba Gabba!

We tried about a year ago to go see "Curious George Live", and Carter didn't make it all the way through. So we decided to wait a while before trying again, and "Yo Gabba Gabba Live" today was out next attempt. It was cold and rainy here today, a good day to be doing something inside.

We decided to splurge and get good seats and the "Party Package", which meant we got to go to a special character meet & greet after the show. The seats were fantastic and the after-party was fun, though it was more fun when about half the people left. Here are some pictures from today.

Here we're waiting for the show to start.



In that picture you can see he's holding a spinning light toy. That thing cost $20! In comparison, we got him a Buzz Lightyear spinner at Epcot that is a lot bigger and we only paid $15 for it!



Carter really seemed to enjoy it, though I think he was a little overwhelmed with the lights and sounds for a while. He spent the entire show in my lap, and most of it alternately burying his face in my chest and then peeping shyly at the stage. At the intermission I asked him if he liked it, and he said he wasn't sure, that it was really loud and bright. But by the end he was standing in the aisle and dancing, and later said that he really loved it!

Having close-in seats was really cool, mostly because we were in the confetti zone. Confetti and streamers spewed forth at least four times during the show, and it's always cool to be in the middle of it rather than watching it from the sidelines. The show itself was great, and they did all of their "greatest hits" songs. It was staged more like a concert than like an episode of the show, which worked really well with the format. It was great for the attention spans of the kids in the audience as well! Everything was really upbeat, and there were lots of opportunities for the audience to get up and dance along.

After the show we headed over to the party. At first the crowds were daunting and we started to wonder if the extra cost was even worth it. Everyone was waiting in line for a photo op with the characters. The first line was loooong. Here Carter is entertaining himself with a balloon.



Then we finally made out way up to where the characters were. Carter enjoyed the hugs and high fives!











We were the LAST people to go through the line! We'd stopped to go to the bathroom before hitting the party, and so we arrived when the line was at its absolute worst. But then sometime while we were finishing up our pictures, half the people left, apparently thinking that nothing else was going to happen. They definitely missed out!

We had some snacks and settled on the floor for storytime. And guess who turned out to lead storytime? DJ Lance Rock and Leslie!



Carter got high-fives from both of them.





And then after that, Biz Markie came out! Carter got a bunch of high-fives and a hug from him.





In the end, the party turned out to be a lot of fun! Carter said he really enjoyed it, and when we asked him what part he liked best he said, "the show and taking pictures with everyone". So basically, he liked the whole thing! I think we'd now feel confident taking him to other shows like this.

On another topic entirely, Carter's favorite Christmas song is "Jingle Bells" and he sings it all the time. Here is a video I took yesterday of him singing it. The noise you hear in the background is his train set.



So he doesn't really know all the words yet, but close! ;-)

NaBloPoMo 29/30: Reading, crafts

I've been meaning to post about our "Word of the Day" project for a while now. We started doing this back in October, and it's been a lot of fun. I bought some word strips at a teacher store and we've been using them to write down a new word about every day. Carter helps choose the word, and it's usually something relevant to what we did that day. Michelle does them many days she's here, and it's fun to come home and see what the new word is.

Carter doesn't write the word, but he can usually tell us how to spell it. We sound it out and write all the letters, and sometimes add a picture. We then tape them on the pantry door (which is getting full). Carter likes talking about them, and almost always recognizes them in other contexts when he sees them, so I think it's really helping his reading along.

Here is a video I took tonight of him talking about his words. You can tell that he knows a lot of them by sight, but he's also pausing to sound out some of them.



I was on campus all day, and when I came home Carter and Michelle had a craft project spread out on the kitchen island. They'd made ornaments for his playroom tree! I thought they were really cute. I'll post a picture of the tree when they get it decorated.



You can see that today's word of the day was "glitter".



That's it for today. One more day and I'll have done NaBloPoMo once again! :-D

NaBloPoMo 26/30: Orlando Day 3

I'm not sure if it was that we all hit our stride today or if Doug and I just planned the day well, but this was one of the best amusement park days I've ever had. It was SO much fun, truly a magical day!

We got up this morning and decided to have the hotel's expensive breakfast buffet. We'd tried to avoid it the last two days with varying results, and Carter didn't really have a good breakfast until this morning. We then headed to the Magic Kingdom, and we stayed until 8:00 pm, much to our surprise!

Carter was well rested and well fed, and Doug and I were both relaxed and happy (and feeling much more patient). We decided to start in the opposite direction as we had the morning before and went to Tomorrowland first. We started out riding the Speedway cars, which Carter loved.



He did a lot better driving this year than last year. He's had a lot of practice with his tractor, though.



After that we headed to Fantasyland and rode the Teacup ride, which Carter had really been looking forward to.



Again, he had a blast! We rode several other Fantasyland rides and generally had a great time. We then made our way over to the steamboat, which he always loves.



We had lunch and then rode a bunch of other stuff. We rode It's a Small World, Snow White, The Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan, and did the Tiki Room. Here Carter is playing with some remote control boats.



We rode the Jungle Cruise, always a favorite.





There is a little playscape by Splash Mountain, and he enjoyed playing there for a while.



Here he is eating an ice cream bar.



And here is the final result.



Yep, pretty messy! You can imagine the looks of the people walking past. Most of them were smiling, though. ;-)

When it started to get dark we decided to get some dinner and then see if Carter was game to stay a little longer. Here he has a blue tongue from a slushie. He thought this picture was hilarious!



He loves the People Movers ride, and we ended up riding that one twice. After that we crossed back over to Frontierland and stopped to look at the beautiful lights on Cinderella's castle.



We rode Pirates of the Caribbean again (Carter knows the song now), and at the end of the ride Carter wanted to buy a pirate toy in the shop. He'd already asked for a spinning light toy, and we had to sit down and have a talk about what single thing he was going to choose. I mentioned that there was a toy monorail in the gift shop that he could get at the end of the night, and his eyes lit up. That was it -- he didn't ask for another thing for the rest of the night. We stopped at the gift shop at the end of the evening and got him a little toy monorail and a few feet of track. He was SO excited! When we got back to the hotel he played with it for a solid hour.



The last thing we did at the park was ride Splash Mountain. We had been trying to ride it for days, but every time our fast pass came up, the ride broke down. It happened again this afternoon, and so at the end of the night we walked past to see if it was running, and it was. So we finally got to ride it. Carter was a little worried about getting wet, but very excited for the big hill. He loved the ride, and it was even better than I remembered. (It's been a decade since I've ridden it, and that one was in California.)

It's really interesting seeing how differently he's responding to the rides this year. He's noticing lots of details that he didn't seem to notice before, and he enjoys different things than I expect. He really likes the animatronic characters and likes the slow-moving rides that take you past them slow enough to see what's going on. I think I wrote yesterday that I have a whole new appreciation now for Disney-type rides (as opposed to the thrill rides of other amusement parks), and it's all because I can see them through Carter's eyes.

Doug and I were talking today about how the fast pass system has completely changed the amusement park experience. When we were younger and spent a lot of time in LA amusement parks, it was not big deal to stand in line 3 hours for a popular ride. It was just what you did if you wanted to ride that ride. Now I can't imagine waiting more than 20 minutes! I'm really glad amusement parks everywhere made that change. The other thing that has changed the amusement park experience is the ride time apps available for phones. A quick glance at my phone told us what the wait times were for all the rides in the park, and we could make decisions about where to go next accordingly. That really helped us plan our days.

When Doug and I were in our 20s and doing all of that amusement park line-waiting, one of the things we did to pass the time was talk and snuggle together in line. We had so many great conversations while waiting in line for roller coasters. And the interesting thing is that we're doing something really similar with Carter. We take turns holding him and playing games with him, and it's a lot of fun.

A game we played a lot these last few days is the "Crazy Rules" game. It's a game I read about on a parenting website, and the idea is to take turns making up crazy rules. The idea is that since kids have so many rules they have to deal with in their lives, they really enjoy making up rules that sound completely ridiculous to blow off some steam from the frustration of having so many rules to deal with. Carter LOVES this game, and we have a lot of fun with it. The rules range from just plain silly ("No eating bananas on the ceiling") to gross ("No drinking pee with a crazy straw") , but we really have a lot of fun with it. It's a very portable game as well, so very handy for waiting in lines.

On the way back to the hotel we asked him what he enjoyed the most about the day. He said, " Riding the parking tram and the monorail, and buying a toy monorail." So yeah, not much has changed since that first trip in some ways! ;-)

Tomorrow is our last day in Orlando, and we've decided to spend it at a more relaxed pace. More pictures and updates to come!

NaBloPoMo 23/30: Travel day

We headed to the airport this morning for our annual Thanksgiving trip to Orlando. This is the third year we've done this trip, and I think it's going to be even more fun this year.

Today was mostly a travel day so I don't have much to post about yet. Carter always travels with a little Thomas roll-aboard full of toys, and this morning at the airport he dumped them all out on the floor to play. This got the attention of every other small boy in the area, of course, and when they wandered close he invited them to play with him. It was really cute!





He's always so generous with his toys. It's not something we've impressed upon him; it's just the way he is. He is always happy to share!

The flight went well and we arrived in Orlando around 4:00 pm. We got in the rental car and headed straight to Universal Studios for the evening. Unfortunately I forgot my camera in the car and it was too dark for pictures with my phone, so there are no pictures of the evening.

We had dinner at the Hog's Head in the Harry Potter themed area and rode the small roller coaster there. We first rode it with Carter last year (it was his first ever roller coaster ride), and it goes surprisingly fast. He seemed a little shocked after the ride tonight, but later he said it was his favorite part of the day!

We rode some other rides in the Dr. Seuss themed area and wandered around a bit more. We had intended to stay until closing, but Doug has a cold and was starting to feel tired, and then Carter asked if we could go to the hotel now -- he was getting tired too. We arrived at the hotel around 9:00 and had fun just hanging out in the room. Here is the first thing Carter wanted to do:



Our plan for the morning is to get up and head to the Magic Kingdom. We'll see how it goes! We may end up just relaxing at the hotel instead. I can't wait to check out the pool and the grounds. I'll remember my camera tomorrow too!

NaBloPoMo 19/30: Bucket crane!

Today we finally did a project in the playroom that I'd been wanting to do for a while. We engineered a bucket crane line on the ceiling.

Here is Carter's playroom. We spend a lot of time in here.



The plan was to rig up a crane across the ceiling so we could hoist up a bucket, pull it across, and then lower it again.



Here are the supplies, plus a couple of caribiner hooks.



I wanted a little device to roll on top of the rope like you'd see on a zip line, but they didn't have anything like that at Home Depot. Instead, I used two small pulleys upside down and duct-taped together, with the pulley attached below. This is the finished product.



We attached clothesline to the ceiling to run it on, and here is what it looks like altogether.



Here Carter is filling a bucket to take across the room. (That's rubber mulch in a big plastic bin for digging indoors. We call it the "Rock Quarry".)



It works pretty well! Here is a little video of the crane in action. (The clicking sounds you hear are him. He's a clicker!)



When we're not playing with it, I have a hook on the wall to hang it on.



Finally, here is a picture of the Thanksgiving display we put up in the playroom. The turkeys are made from our hands.



Sometime I need to do a post on how the playroom is set up like a classroom...