Travel Day

While waiting for our first flight, Kevin saw a boy about his age nearby and asked if he could go where the boy was. He stood beside the boy, each playing with their own toy, but neither speaking to the other.

In Philly, we had to take a bus shuttle from one terminal to another. Kevin enjoyed the close-up views of some of the planes we passed.

Our first flight was a sardine prop ride. From Philly on, was a nice, big plane. Kevin enjoyed his iPhone games

and workbooks, plus we read some stories too.

Uncle Greg picked us up at the airport and took us home where the three boys were dancing with joy at seeing each other!

We celebrated our New Year's Eve at a Mexican restaurant. Grandma LOVES hugging her boys!!!!

Babysitter and Packing

Grampa was home to babysit this morning while Grandma attended Rotary, but then we had to hire a teenager to stay with Kevin while Grandma had an appointment. Laura was a hit with both boy and dog!

Apparently, they were too busy to eat. Grandma had to make his PB and banana sandwich, then he asked for a SECOND with jelly. He ate two whole sandwiches!!! They must have been very active to work up such a big appetite!

Grandma spent the day preparing to leave tomorrow -- several loads of laundry, sorting, organizing, and packing.

Kevin's Crayola Fillz is now complete, dry, and ready for packing to take home.

He made these creative designs with the leftover "stuff." There won't be room to take these home, so we have pictures for the memory.

Tonight, Grampy picked up Great Aunt Diane to have dinner with us at the Club.

Kevin wanted to take my picture on the stairs,

So I took his picture also.
Incidentally, his additions to my decorating are visible. He added a series of pipecleaners along the bottom of the stair rails.
With Goofy Guinness in our house, I can no longer line the stairs with Christmas stuffed animals/characters as he would steal them and slime them. So I use his Christmas stuffed toys. He generally leaves them alone, but takes one occasionally to play with.

Before bedtime, I found him playing with Guinness on the bed. They are going to miss each other!!!

Warning, Play, and Crafts

This morning, the Wise Men moved to the dining room.

We met a friend with her 3 and 1 year olds at a Lil' Monkeys for a playdate.
The baby likes the pink boots!

Saying "Cheese!"

My friend was more thoughtful than I. She brought a gift to Kevin -- a Zhu Zhu Pet. She warned Kevin to not place the toy while running on someone's head, because hair can become caught in it. I reinforced that warning.

Eagerly making his initial climb.

Kevin loved the FAST slide!

The kids had a happy time until... Kevin knocked down someone's block house. Then, when it was his turn to make a block house,

he was very annoyed that kids kept knocking his down. We took a break in the Library room with our friends.

He took a picture of Grandma relaxing. Oh, my... that place became BUSY and NOISY!!!

When he returned for the his next round of fun, he chose the highest climb and twisty tube that shot kids out like a cannon ball!

After two hours of eardrum pounding, we went to MacDonald's for lunch. Well... guess what happened. Kevin sat next to his little friend, forgot the warning, and set the running Zhu Zhu Pet on his friend's head... MacDonalds did not have a pair of scissors in the house. Mommy had to run across the parking lot to another store for scissors. Very, very sad... WARNING: NEVER buy a Zhu Zhu Pet!!!! That act finalized there would be NO playtime at the MacDonalds' playarea.

I, the Queen of Hoarders, have several of Karin's and Greg's childhood crafts and artwork in my attic. Kevin has been working on making his own version from a few of their Christmas ones -- such as these silver bells.

Tonight, he needed an activity, so I pulled out some more ideas and he wanted to make the Santa puppet. Being the puppeteer, he is hiding behind the mirror while making his puppet sing "Here Comes Santa Claus."

He found a paper cutter in my drawer and wanted to use it, so he sliced strips of red and white paper.

Then he wove them to make a mat.

Grandma's Birthday

With Kevin here, Guinny has not had a daily big playtime/walk. He needed one today, and I decided, since it is my birthday, I am going to splurge and take him where it costs $16 per car to enter the park. All three of us had a frolicking time!






After leaving the doggie park, we went to the Children's Farm. NO one was there! Kevin had the entire barn of play equipment to himself!


Four cows were in another barn. We watched a man bring hay for them. They were excited!



We would have stayed longer, but Grampa called to say he was at home for birthday lunch! :) And look what was waiting for Grandma when I arrived home! :)

Grampa and Kevin watched some videos this afternoon.

Grampa arranged for birthday dinner at our club. Grampa is diligently trying to re-teach Kevin table manners Mommy had taught him. He is now eager to pray at mealtimes and prayed for our dinner tonight. Very sweet.
We had a family photo taken at the fireplace.

Kevin helped Grandma blow out the candle.

Residual Christmas

The passenger wiper on my vehicle has not been wiping. We stopped in at the dealership for new wipers. While waiting, I opened the roof and Kevin popped through it. To get out of the service queue, a serviceman had to drive us through the service loop, giving Kevin a brief view of cars in the air being worked on.

The three of us had lunch at the new Turtle Jack's (one of our favorite places) near our house! The kids' menu has some great jokes for Kevin to learn:
Why did the turtle cross the road? The get to the Shell station.
What kind of phone did the turtle buy? A shell-phone.
What did the turtle wear to keep warm? A turtleneck.
and more... LOL

Santa left a teensy Spiderman in Kevin's stocking. It was to grow 600% in water. First, we placed it in a glass tumbler. Within a day, its hand was reaching out of the water, so we transferred it to the vase on the left. Today, its hand was reaching out of the vase. We had to find an even larger vase! This fella may grow too big for Kevin's suitcase!

Kevin wanted me to take photos of the gifts he gave me! He created this manger scene collage, now on my fridge, using some holographic wrapping paper for the star and angel wings. Note the humpbacked camel! :)

A tweety bird I had in this little bird cage broke many months ago when a little boy visited. We saw this beautiful solar songbird at my nursery and Kevin wanted to buy one for me for Christmas. I chose the bluebird, because Kevin's neighbors have bluebird boxes, thus we see them in his backyard all the time.

While in the car going to the grocery store, Kevin told me some things he wants to do when he is grown up! I have never heard him express this thought before. Here is his list: make movies, make toys, cook, plant flowers, be a fireman, and help people! Impressive!

As are most households, I assume, we are enjoying the Christmas dinner leftovers. Kevin especially loves the dressing with "sauce" on top. At each meal, he eats two hefty helpings.

Today is the day we were to have flown to Texas. We have no additional snow, but the entire East Coast is buried and we were to have flown through Philadelphia. Now that our stay here is lengthened, he is asking for reminders on our schedule until he goes home. Before bed, he commented that he loves Guinness, but he really misses Jack too. Then he asked, "Do you know who I miss the most?"
"No."
"Mommy!"
"Awwww.... me too!"

Travel and Wise Men

This morning, the news was all about the impending storm sweeping the Eastern Coast of the US -- all the way from Alabama to Boston -- including 5 inches in Raleigh! Flights all along the storm path will be canceled -- including Kevin's and my flight tomorrow to Dallas through Philadelphia! Phone lines are jammed and websites will not complete transactions. We are stuck at home for several days, I fear. Although, we have NO new snow!

While I spent mega-time on the travel problem, Kevin began creating his Crayola Color Fillz which uses a Play-Doh-like substance to fill in a mosaic Toy Story scene.

To toss one more jerk into our day, American Express called to say that someone is running up charges on my card since Dec. 22.

Since Mommy is gone, Kevin does not often pray before meals. Grampa has asked him several times to pray, and he is beginning to respond. He prayed tonight asking God to tell Mommy we love her.

Tonight, the three of us went to see "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader." It is rated PG due to "scary scenes." Kevin was sure he wouldn't be scared, although, he was not able to watch all of the "Toy Story 3" DVD I bought him! It was too scary. Being an adventure story, the majority of the show keeps your anticipation level high, plus it is in 3D which can make frightening scenes worse. He said he would take his glasses off if he was too scared. I kept asking him if he was scared, and he said he was fine, until near the end when he climbed into my lap.

It has been too many years since I took a class studying the Narnia series. I know it is full of meaning and symbolism, but I would have to research my notes for clarification. Grampa has never read the series and didn't find much redeeming value in the movie. But Kevin and I enjoyed the raw adventure of it! In fact, one of the quotes I noted from the movie is -- "There is no honor in avoiding adventure" (or something close to that).

A family tradition I established with my kids was celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas. One of our activities was, on the 26th, to move the Wise Men from the Nativity scene to the farthest point from the Manger in the house. Each day, they took turns moving them closer to the Creche, until, on Epiphany - Jan. 6, the Wise Men find the Christ Child. Kevin moved the Wise Men to a windowsill in my bedroom tonight.

Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus!

Kevin climbed into our bed at 6:30 AM. I assumed he was excited about Christmas and awakened early, but he said he had a nightmare. He dreamed he didn't have a Mommy or a Daddy. Enough to frighten any little boy!!! He was soon sound asleep snuggled up next to me.

Grampa and I were up long before Kevin awakened again. Kevin opened his stocking first, finding a note from Santa explaining he was delivering Kevin's gifts to North Carolina as Kevin's suitcase was not big enough to hold them. Santa also wrote, "Don't be upset you forgot to leave any cookies or milk. I am too fat anyway." Oh, my... we DID totally forget!!!

Kevin saw these dinosaur slippers at the GAP last month when we were shopping for his winter wardrobe. Grandma refused to buy them then. ha! He is dancing a happy dance twirling around and around.

Christmas dinner -- just the three of us. The numbers are small, but love for all.

While I was cleaning up the kitchen, Kevin was playing the piano. Eventually, I noted I was clearly hearing "Joy to the World" -- the notes and rhythm to those first four words of the song, then noises of frustration, repeatedly. He was playing it by EAR!!! He was not reading it from the beginner book showing colors for hand, numbers for fingers. He was playing with one finger, but doing it from having picked out the notes by himself!!!! At the word "world," he didn't know where to go. It is actually a very easy tune as it simply moves down the octave note by note, and he had chosen to play it in C making it simpler. I showed him how to finish the song while exclaiming over his feat! I told him, I was learning to play at age 6, but I could not play by ear at all. We uncovered another budding talent!

I made four ice stars over the past few weeks to have a luminaria with Kevin. At dusk, we placed two at the front and two at the back. We lit candles for the dinner table. He apparently noted where the matches were stored, because he brought them to me! And he seemed totally unafraid of them. When we were finished, they went into hiding!

We intended to have our Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus cake this morning for breakfast. but... it didn't work out that way.
Kevin gave Guinness a party hat too. He seemed to enjoy wearing it as he had it on for nearly an hour before I removed it!

We finally sat down at suppertime to have our birthday party for Jesus. We are singing Happy Birthday to Jesus. The cake is ANGELfood, frosted by Kevin with real whipped cream, and topped with strawberries.

Note the star candles! Too perfect! :)

Before bedtime, we drove around ooohing and ahhhing at Christmas lights.

While he was playing in the tub, I cut a slice of fruitcake, and returned to him eating it. He wanted a taste. And another... and another! I had to cut a second slice! A 6 year old who likes fruitcake!!! :-0 Well, it is the most fabulous fruitcake -- made by Collin Street Bakery out of Texas - http://www.collinstreet.com/