It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like ...

I LOVE Christmas!

I love the music, the decorations, sending cards and thinking of that special gift to give someone.  I love the cheesy TV specials, drinking out of mugs that look like snowmen, meals with family and the cookies you bake just once a year.  I love driving around the neighbourhood with a travel mug of hot chocolate while admiring someone's light display at 5 kms an hour.  I could go on ... but you get the idea.  My favourite of the favourite is decorating the tree.

Last week Dave had the week off, so we decided to set up our trees.  We have 2 artificial ones.  A large one set up upstairs in our livingroom with all my nice ornaments I've collected since we've been married.  This tree is a definite no touch for those under 4 feet tall.  The second is a small 3 ft. tree kept in our family room/play room. 

Cole has always been good about not touching anything he was told not too.  When he was younger we never even had to put safety locks on a single item in our house.  Kendall is now 18 months.  We still don't have any safety latches, but Kendall likes to push the boundaries when she thinks no one is looking.  Okay ... sometimes even when I AM looking!  So this year I knew that I needed to be creative about the tree readily accessable to little hands.  That, or watch Kendall every second of the day. 

So I chose option #1.  I put anything breakable away and left out only ornaments that were plastic, foam, or metal.  Then I found this tutorial for these felt ornaments online. 

Believe me they are super simple because my sewing abilities are limited to mending buttons and the straight stitch my Oma taught me when I was a little girl.  I think they turned out quite well and I only worked on them for a couple of days ( I did a dozen of them).  If they peak your interest check out the link.  You can make them simple like I did or, add a little bling in the form of beads.  If I had to do it again I think I would add a couple of layers of fabric to make them a little fuller.

The kids for the first time this year got into helping me decorate their tree.  Cole had trouble hanging the ornaments but, had just as much fun looking at all of them and bringing each one over to me.  They didn't tell me but, I'm pretty sure they are enjoying the finished product.

Happy Halloween

Last year we didn't celebrate Halloween.  We had just gotten possession of our house and Dave, Kendall and I were in town frantically painting Cole's room before the moving truck arrived with our furniture and Grandma arrived with Cole.





My Assistant

Once again, Halloween wasn't a big event at our house this year.  Kendall is still too young to really eat candy and Cole WON'T eat candy ... so Trick or Treating is sort of a lot of work for the payoff.  There were no parties to go to this year and with no family to visit, I didn't go to the trouble of buying costumes for the kids.  I did dress them up to see the other kids come to the door.  Cole wore some of his dress up clothes and Kendall got to wear Cole's costume from 2 years ago.  However, we probably only had a dozen kids, and my kids managed to rip off their costumes within 10 minutes of putting them on.

Something we did do this year was carve pumpkins.  Cole was actually interested in doing this, this year.  They had carved a pumpkin in class at nursery school which probably helped peak his interest.  First off Cole wanted to use the knife which was a definite No No.  He was rather persistent.  I told him he could help me scoop the seeds and the insides out, but after getting the smallest amount of goop on his hands he was instantly turned off by that idea and was frantically trying to clean his hand.  He watched me for a while and then once again appealed for the knife.  When he finally felt I wouldn't relent, he gave up asking.  I then watched him pull a chair over to the kitchen cutlery drawer, open it and then stare at it for awhile before abandoning his post.  I realized after, that he probably figured that since I wouldn't give him one of the knives on the table, that he would go get his own.  However, the reason he just sat there staring at the drawer was that all the knives were dirty and in the dishwasher.  There were no knives.  It was good to see him take some initiative though and do some follow through problem solving.  This is huge for a kid who has trouble with sequencing and cause and effect.  Even if that thought process involved knives!

Sock Monkeys

Construction Worker Cole

So with the end of Halloween, you know what that means .....

 IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS!! :)





The Finished Product





Here, There, and Everywhere

This month's calendar has been full of appointments ... mostly for Cole.  First I'd like to say how impressed I am about how quickly the ball has started rolling since Cole's assessment by the Child Development Centre.  In the past 2 months we've seen occupational therapy, who has referred us to a feeding team.  We've seen a speech pathologist, who has recommended us for a communication course for parents of children with, or possibly with, Autism Spectrum Disorders.  Next week Cole starts a gymnastic class designed as Occupational therapy.

I won't lie ... we're tired.  All these extra appointments has meant shuffling days off, and using what would normally be down time, going from one office to the next.  But I'm happy we're here.  I'm optimistic of seeing Cole reach his best potential.  I'm receptive for input on how I can be a better parent to my son.  I'm feeling blessed for all these resources and all the people who seem to genuinely care about Cole and our family.

Healed!

Thanks to the world's most wonderful husband (mine) and Geek Squad my computer now has a new adapter.  We previously thought there was something wrong with the battery (as in it wouldn't charge) and therefore I was totally reliable on my power adapter.  When the adapter bit the dust, my laptop was stuck in permanent OFF mode.  It turns out that the adapter was the problem all along.  A new adapter and now not only does my computer turn on, but it also charges.  HURRAY.

Now that I've bored you all with those details, I'm back online and the blogging can once again resume.  I can't even begin to tell you have busy the last month has been.  Cole got croup, we all got sick, there's been family visits, family pictures, and there has been appointment after appointment regarding consultations and programs for Cole.  All this I will leave for another day. 

For now, here are a few pictures I took a month ago before the great computer blackout.  Be back soon!

Get Well Soon

My laptop is dead at the moment.  That's why its been been pretty quiet on the blogging front.  Thankfully my hubby is letting me use his one from work otherwise, I'm checking all my internet stuff on my smartphone.  Typing on that tiny touch screen is just plain ... well ... its just not worth the effort.  So I apologize if its been pretty quiet around here.  That is if anyone actually reads this blog?  Really I have no idea who does.  Just sending my thoughts out there to cyberspace ...