The Holidays

I'm sure most of you have been busy with the holidays and we have too.  We've been managing to take Louis to do some fun things and had family pictures taken.

Louis finally got his first haircut.  The poor guy takes after me in the hair department since Joe had long curls by 18 months.

He was happy with the cut and struck a pose on his own.

His gymnastics class is finished so we will be going to open gyms around town.  He loved learning to tumble and climb and I'm a little sad it's over.

We went to a different pumpkin patch this year.  It was expensive but had some fun things like a pony ride and lots of farm animals to feed.

He was very excited for Halloween and said "Trick or Treat" at each house.  He was even more excited to eat candy and turned into a monster before bed that night.  I ended up letting him have one piece of candy a day but Joe and I ate most of it.

It was a little trickier to get him excited for Thanksgiving so we made some paper props.

He also was a big help baking and made some pumpkin bread.

After hanging out with Joe's family on Thanksgiving we walked to the Plaza for his first lighting ceremony.  It was a little windy but nice and warm.  The fireworks and cookie treat were a hit with Louis.

My dad came for the weekend and went with us to cut down a Christmas tree.

Louis picked out this baby tree and really did not want to leave it.

 We convinced him that this tree was a little better.

We had fun decorating it a few days later.

Today we went to Crown Center to see Santa.  Last year we had a crying picture so I have been talking to Louis for weeks about sitting on Santa's lap.  I could tell he wasn't sure until I told him that Santa is nice.  So today I think he was pumping himself up by repeating "he's nice" when we brought up the visit.

We ate at Fritz's first and of course he loved the trains.

He ran through the Crayola stuff twice before making it to the big guy's lap.  

And I'm happy to say our little talks worked!  He told Santa right away that he wants candy (ugh) and smiled for the picture.  We took our own but they asked if they could take one since he was so cute!

Louis had seen an ice skating commercial so I told him Joe could take him.  He loved all the outdoor stuff under the Mayor's tree as we made our way to the rink.

He LOVED the skating.  Joe said he was screaming at him the whole time because he wanted to do it alone.   He had a blast.  Joe's back was killing him by the end but it was really fun.  There was a 3 or 4 year-old out there doing turns alone.  Super cute!

We finished the day up by watching the trains here and at Union Station.  I totally recommend this tradition if you live in KC.  There is so much fun stuff to see.

And the best part is it took about a minute in the car to pass out.

Joe and I are headed to New Orleans for an adult trip before the new baby arrives.  I'm really excited to have some time away without PBS Kids!