Finally Christmas

I am writing to the heartwarming sound of the American Idol theme music. Does anyone else just feel so happy when they hear that oddly not annoying annoying synthesizer sound?

Moving on.

Christmas morning! Jensen opened his fifty books. I swear it was so exciting... Look at my cute little family..

The first two matchbox cars had to be parked together upon opening.

Look at that concentration on that face. Grandma and Grandpa Garner sent Jence this cute little Melissa and Doug latch board. It's so fun... and a little concerning to note the facility which the little monkey opened them up...

Here is a favorite sequence... Watch the stance.

Check out that face. "Oh my gosh, this is soo awesome!"

Line em up.
The ribbon was a bit confusing...

And the stocking- with candy inside! "open it! open it!" Instantly what he says when faced with aaaanything new.

All in all a happy boy. (and I got a bird feeder! I'm ridiculously excited!)

This was my Christmas morning surprise. Apparently I let it rise a little too long. (It's bread in a bunt cake pan, if you can't tell... and I don't think I would be able to.)

My favorite part of this Christmas season (totally lamely) was when I got up from a nap and found this. Alex expressed his surprise that we hadn't put this together before; Jensen's new favorite move in the whole world is Tranformers.

Look at the forgotten hand just lingering there, ready for the emotion.

Oh yeah, there it is. How could we not have known- one of the main characters is a Camero! He sat there yelling, "Camero!" "Helicopter!" "Police car!" "Truck!" It was a good morning for Jensen.

As a disclaimer- Jensen was sitting in the empty tub while we bathed Kiki, then I went into the bedroom to finish packing for VA. I hear from the other room- "Uh, Babe, the water is kind of orange..." and I find my child sitting in this.

We have no idea why the sudden appearance and subsequent disappearance of the ghostbuster water. No proton packs needed.

Here are a couple more pictures from Savannah. How could you not fall head over heels for that scenery. I adore Savannah. And I'm thrilled that Jence likes "Bella" so much and that Phil and Paula claim that they enjoy our company, so I get to go back again and again!

That is gummy bear stuck to his teeth.

So, here we have a picture of my craziness for today. Jence and I went to Target and got some big boy underwear this morning. We got Buzz and Woody (shown), Wall-E, Mr Incredible, Nemo, and Lightning McQueen. I've been telling him for a while that only big boys get to go sit on the toilet and that big boys don't have to wear diapers, that they get to wear underwear, etc. So after his nap we opened the package and admired all the new friends. He chose to try out Buzz and Woody. I told him that he needed to tell me if he had to go potty so that he didn't potty on Buzz! A few minutes later he told me he wanted to go to the toilet- and did nothing once he got there. Fast forward twenty minutes he starts yelling, "Oh no! Clean it up! Clean it up! Clean up Jensen's house!" So the wet spot on the carpet is currently drying, Buzz and Woody are in the laundry room with the rag that Jensen helped me clean up with, and Jensen is wearing a "baby diaper" per his request. Oh well.

Savannah

After we went to Virginia- which I realize I have posted nothing about- we headed down to Savannah. And not alone! We rented a house on Tybee Island (which is fabulous) with Ron, Betsy, Hayley, Adam, Ellie, Heather, Ephraim, Max, and Ezra. Phil and Paula only live a few minutes from there so they spent a good chunk of time with us too. It was quite the exciting week with 6 kids three and under "playing" together.

Al and I were thrilled that Jence seems to have gotten over his beach/sand/water fear.

I think I have a thousand pictures to date of him showing me things like this, and I adore every one.

Seashells as shovels.

Daddy- always the educator.

hmmm. lovely.

There was a really fun playground on Tybee, which we only hit up once in the ten minutes between Jensen's nap and bedtime.

It was cold and dark, but little bodies don't seem to notice. Mine, being not so little, did notice.

There is a little aquarium near Phil and Paula's house that we took the kids to as a reward for their "cooperation" during our attempt at a grandkids photoshoot. I'll get the fruits of that labor up on my photo blog... someday...

The family all call Isabella Izzy. She and Jensen call her Bella. I find it an intriguing distinction. The two of them had a lot of fun together at the aquarium. Of the six cousins they are the closest in age- three months apart. They would run together to a tank, climb up, talk to each other about the fish and then high tail it for the next tank.

I love the tip toes.

Yay for the touch tank... Or at least Yay for water to splash everywhere...

Izzy, Ephriam, Max, Heather, Jence Ezra, Paula and Daddy- and you can begin to imagine the craziness of our trip!

Izzy inspecting Alex under the magnifying glass.

Looking at the turtles (though I think this particular moment was more about Jence and Izzy goofing around together on the railing).

We let the kids have a little picnic so they wouldn't die of starvation. Aren't we nice.

And playing again. This anchor was as much fun as the aquarium, I believe.

So all in all the cousins had a ton of fun.