This Santa guy

This is Raina's first Christmas where she has enough brain cells to know that something is going on. She notices all the pretty lights outside (and inside, as well). She knows that there is an increased chance of seeing boxes containing "Presents!" sitting out on our porch when we open the front door in the afternoon. She knows that snow makes "nice happy snowmen." She knows that there's this Santa guy who brings presents to good boys and girls, wears red and white, has lots of white hair on his face, and says HoHoHo. Mostly, though, she knows that Santa's reindeer make lots of pees and poops (thanks, Pittsburgh Zoo reindeer!).

The Dormont rec center held a cookies-with-Santa event over the weekend, so of course we had to go and check out Santa. Over the past several days, we had been pointing out all the images of Santa and talking about his clothes, how he likes to laugh, his pets, how he's super nice, etc. I had no delusions that she would run into Santa's arms like he was her long-lost friend. I'm not even going to try for a pic of her in Santa's lap this year. No way! So instead, we just sat on the sidelines and watched other boys and girls sit in Santa's lap. She never smiled at him...but she also didn't cry. That's a start, right?

Here's me trying to convince her that Santa's a good guy...she's considering it...



She has this tendency to play with my hair when she's nervous...luckily I'm not high-maintenance :)

Completely unrelated...here she is all bundled up. She calls this her "happy birthday coat" 'cause she got it as a b-day present from her Papa T and Mama T. Red is a good color for her :) Let me just say, too, that putting gloves on a 2-year-old is way easier than a 1-year-old!

So yah, nothing much else going on here. I finished putting up the Christmas decorations this evening. As I was doing so, it occurred to me that this was the first time since Raina's birth that I'd really been able to put out so many decorations -- she's past that stage of putting things in her mouth or touching things she's not supposed to touch -- and that it'd be the last time for at least a couple more Christmases because of Phoebe. It was just kinda weird to think about.

I think I'm done with my Christmas shopping, too. Well, at least as far as presents go. Once it gets closer to time, there will be a lot of grocery shopping trips. We're having 3 Christmases here this year, so there will be lots of cooking and baking to do. I'm looking forward to the baking :)

Pregnancy-wise, my belly enters the room about 10 seconds before I do. Tee-hee. Either Phoebe is smaller than what Raina was at this time or she's just more laid-back. I remember being in pain from Raina's movement. Phoebe moves around, but nothing like Raina did. It could also feel differently because I have more cushioning this time around. I had forgotten what it was like to have a belly like this. I've been fat before, and to a certain extent, you can move fat around. There's no moving a pregnant belly. It's like having a bowling ball stuck to your abdomen. Putting on shoes that require more than simply looking down and slipping my feet in is simply no fun. On a TMI note, I'm growing skin tags. Not cool, people. Totally not cool. I just rip them off. I've heard that it's a pregnancy thing, but that doesn't mean I have to let them grow rampant on me!

On that note, I'd like to end with a video of my little girl counting backwards. I learned a couple months ago that she could do this, but it came as a surprise to Daddy about a week or two ago. She loves to count backwards from 10 and then yell "Blast off!" as she lets her balloons go. (Family-- Don't look too closely...there are unwrapped presents all over the background!)