Visits with Santa

Well, it's official, Jack does not like Santa. We took him Saturday morning up to Begor's in Mooers to see Santa and Mrs. Clause. He had no problems with Mrs. Clause, I think it's because she slightly resembled Grammy, but he cried every time we tried to bring him near Santa. He did have a good time hanging out with Ryan (they met this summer at camp) and a few other little girls, Sophia and Olivia, whose parents are friends of Grammys.

At least he wasn't crying....but he still isn't happy.
He seemed much more comfortable with Mrs. Clause...I also got a few cute pictures of him while we were there. He had a great time running around and playing with the other kids. He also got to color a little bit with daddy, eat a candy cane and a cookie, and he got a movie from Santa. Mark and I also got a chance to meet a few friends of Grammy's that we have been meaning to get together with and I got to see a few kids that used to be in my classroom. It was a pretty fun morning.

Playing in the racks of clothes...
This is what happens when Jack gets a hold of my camera...
We attempted to bribe Jack with a soda that Santa had, but that still didn't work...
After that he passed right out and then later in the evening he went and had his picture taken with Kasey. I was working my last night at the studio (YEAH!) and did Keith, Erika and Kasey's pictures as their Christmas present. I wanted to try to get a picture of the two of them together, so we attempted it. It turned out pretty cute, but Jack wanted no part of it. Kasey was a great sport through the whole picture experience and we got some pretty cute ones of him. The rest of my night was a little hectic because I started getting a little sick and didn't end up leaving until an hour after we close. Grammy and Gramps took Jack for the night so Mark and I could go shopping for him on Sunday. I ended up catching Jack's stomach bug and was a mess all night and all day Sunday. I still got out and went shopping though...although it was pretty rough.

We are both feeling much better today, but neither of us is really eating much. It's a good thing for me to not eat, but I worry about my little man not eating much. He still is full of energy, no fever and making enough wet and dirty diapers though, so I don't think I need to worry too much.

Today Jack's day care provider took him to have breakfast with Santa at Duke's Diner in Plattsburgh. I figured this is his third encounter with Santa and it would probably go smoother...wrong again. Of course he cried and would not sit on Santa's lap. Oh well, maybe when he gets older we can get a picture of him smiling.

I'll leave you with a picture of Jack near our tree playing with his Santa he got last year. He is a little blurry, but it's still a cute picture.

Brownies!

I have been trying to let Jack try to help with some of the baking and cooking lately; i.e. mixing or placing toppings on pizza. He brings a chair up to the counter, takes his spoon (or cheese) and starts copying me. He loves helping and I'm an advocate for having children help with a lot of household things, of course all of them being safe things. So the other night I was in the mood for chocolate, but the only thing we had were low fat brownies. It has been a while since I made brownies, so I decided to go for it. Jack of course brought his chair over and starting stirring away. After everything was mixed well, I poured them into the pan and let Jack lick the spoon. The licking of the spoon turned into dipping the spoon in the bowl and making a mess all over...see pictures below.



Don't worry, low fat brownies do not require anything but water, so he wasn't exposed to any raw eggs. He absolutely loved being able to dip the spoon in the bowl and of course getting chocolate on the spoon was an added bonus. We had to take it away though because it was getting all over him and the floor. This is what happened after we took the bowl away...

Thought everyone would get a kick out of those pictures. Anyway, our monkey has had the 24 hour stomach bug and resting with Grammy all day. Lucky lady. He seems much better tonight and has been playing for quite a while at Mammy and Papa's. He was tired though, and just passed out about 20 minutes ago.

Tomorrow is a big day for us...we go see Santa and Mrs. Clause up at Begor's Supply in Mooers. The owners are Gramps' Aunt and Uncle, so we are going to visit with them and some other friends and family. Look for lots of pictures of that =) We also have pictures to take of him and Kasey (and auntie Erika and uncle Keith) and one of Jack alone (I forgot to order the 10x13 for our living room and I need more wallets for x-mas cards). So he needs his beauty sleep.

Hope everyone is enjoying the snow!!