More Toddler Christmas Fun

Two is my favorite age so far.  The boys are finally starting to talk and play, really play, and they are just so much fun.  They are still mostly well behaved (no tantrums!) and still contained in their cribs.  They are just the right mix of baby and little boys. I still call them "the babies", not sure when I'll stop.  They sleep from 7pm until 7am with a two hour nap at noon.  Some days, like today, I hear them on the monitor laughing and jumping around for a half an hour but luckily they settle down on their own and go to sleep after they are tuckered out.  The calm before the storm?  I hope not.  :)

I also love that now, at two, while they don't completely understand holidays and haven't got a huge vocabulary with which to express themselves, they are enjoying our activities and are (very) active participants in our family activities and traditions.  Here are some of the fun things we've been up to this past week or so since I last posted.

A visit to Santa...  We went for low key Bass Pro Shop over the crowded outdoor shopping district this year and I'm really glad we did.  No line, free photo, a train table! Lot's of things for the kids to look at and enough room to let them explore a bit on their own (with a parental shadow of course).  Aaron happily sat on Santa's lap while we did everything we could to convince Alex to sit still for a photo.  Finally we got him to sit on my lap with a candy cane, so Mama's in the Santa picture!  I just wish Daddy had stepped in as well.

We made gingerbread men.... Aaron LOVES to help me make cookies.  Every time he sees me pull out the stand mixer I see this:

He drags a chair right over and climbs up to help me out.  This would be tough with both boys but typically Alex isn't interested so it is some nice Aaron and Mommy time.  Usually, after he finishes dumping in my ingredients, I give him his own mixing bowl with some flour and water and let him mix up his own concoction.

Candy Cane Bath Time...  This was super simple to put together and the boys had so much fun!  I bought a can of Barbasol shaving cream ($1 at the Dollar Store) and put in a few drops of red food coloring and a few drops of peppermint extract and swirled it around with a wooden skewer.  (I found this idea here)

The boys had a blast smearing shaving cream all over themselves and the bath tub.  The water even ended up looking like a candy cane!  Pink with white foam, lol.  Very fun and it all just rinsed away when bath time was over. Though there were a few tears when bath time was proclaimed over.

Sticky Christmas Trees.... I got this idea from Twodaloo.  As soon as I saw it I knew I had to add it to our advent activities.  To get started, I bought 1 large sheet of green poster paper from the dollar store along with a roll of sticky clear contact paper.  Using the largest circle I could find in the house that fit on the paper (a little tikes table) I traced a large circle, folded it into quarters and cut it out and then in half.  I rolled each semi circle into a cone and secured it with some tape.  Next I wrapped each cone in the contact paper, sticky side out.

When it was time to play I gave each boy a "tree" and set out some bowls of sequins, pom poms and foam pieces and let them go to town.  The both had a lot of fun decorating their trees and tossing sequins around the living room.

Whew!  Lots of fun.  I'm so grateful to have my happy little boys (and their Daddy) to share such a wonderful Christmas season.

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