And...

This was taken recently at Mac's daycare so we don't know exactly how this encounter with Santa went, but here is our guess.

Hey Santa,
I want buzz and woody and basketball and football and baseball and soccer ball and umm games and...

For some added realism, try stuttering and repeating every other word at least twice.  That's how Mac talks when he gets excited, and he is EXCITED about Christmas.  (This is the kid who had to read the Toys R Us Christmas catalog (his book) at every meal for at least 2 weeks.)
This past Friday, one of the Dads at daycare came in with a Santa hat and beard on and Mac just stopped and stared with his mouth hanging open.  He couldn't believe that Santa was here already.  After Santa left the  building, Mac told everyone in the room that Santa was there to bring him his buzz and woody.

I'm so glad that he his "getting it" this year. That he knows what is going on and gets almost as excited about picking out gifts for others as he does telling us what he wants.  But sometimes I worry that he's missing the real meaning of Christmas - the birth of Christ.  I try to make sure he knows that story and that we think about others this time of year.
I worry, but i really shouldn't.  Mac will randomly start telling us about baby Jesus.  He will tell us that the angel at the manger says "Glory to God!"  Since we have started talking about and focusing on Christmas, his rocking horse has become his donkey.
As much as I'm happy that he's "getting it" with Santa and the gifts, I'm even more excited that he is "getting it" with Jesus and the story of his birth.

Jingle Bells!

By the way the ornament features Cindy Lu Who from How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Decorating

We've had our trees up for a week or so, but its taken me a little longer to get the pictures on the blog.  Here is Mac with his little tree in his room.

 He decorated it himself, mostly.

 We had to help a little because the ornaments were all congregating in one location.  Like on Hairy Dog...

 And the angel on top

But otherwise he did an excellent job and he hasn't once taken the balls off and thrown them.  (We had a talk about that as we were decorating)  The house looks pretty festive and smells like Christmas too.
Now we just have to finish up the last of the present hunting and wrapping.  The wrapping is a little slow with Mac's help.  Mostly because I only have the patience to do a few at a time.  He gets a little ahead of me with the scissors and tape so I have to keep reigning him in the whole time.  But I still can't resist such a sweet little helper.

Nighttime drama

Sorry its been quite a while since we managed a post.  Its been a whirlwind lately.
We had a great Thanksgiving, Mac loved getting to play with cousins.  I'm not sure he really even ate anything he was so busy running around.  We can't wait for Christmas so we can see even more family.

Last night Mac woke up at 4 am and came to our room.  He was scared because he said there were sharks in his room.  He loves to play sharks and pretend they are in his room and we get them out.  Usually its a fun game, but last night he seemed really scared.  He was shaking and didn't want to go back to bed.  We turned on the lights and checked everything and got him calmed down.  He went back to bed and said that I could go back to bed as well.  That only lasted a few minutes and then he was back in our room.  I probably made a mistake by letting him get in our bed then.  My thought was that I was really tired and wanted to go back to sleep.  Ha. That was a terrible reason because I hardly slept at all after that.  I don't know how anyone so little can take up so much room.
Here's hoping that we won't repeat that experience again tonight.

Happy Halloween

Trick or Treat!
We visited a few houses in our neighborhood tonight and also gave out a little candy of our own.  It was a nice amount of halloween.  We don't have a ton of candy that we have to eat and he didn't get completely worn out walking around.
Here is a few pictures from the highlight reel.

 "Trick or Treat!"

 Being a fireman is serious business.

Check out the Loot!

The real surprise of the day happened while we were getting ready for church this morning.  After breakfast Doug went to get in the shower and Mac asked if he could play for a few minutes before bathtime so I went to dry my hair.  Five to ten minutes later I noticed that things were a little too quiet.  I went to check on Mac and found him putting diapers from a new box into his diaper drawer.  A very constructive project he was working on, just that he was bottomless.  I asked what he was doing and he said he had pooped in the potty. Apparently he decided that he needed to go and so he went.  He even took off his pull-up and put it in the trash and when he went to get a clean one he decided to restock the drawer for me.  Luckily I got to him before he reached the point of dumping his potty into the toilet which might have been disastrous.  I told him that I was very proud of him, but next time to tell me so I could help him.  Thats what mom's are for right?

Full Circle

Well the blog has officially come full circle.  We started with our very first post as a picture from an ultrasound and now here is another one.  This is the first pictures of baby 2 so you can't tell very much yet.  So far all we know is that things look good and they have re-estimated our due date for June 4th.  I may not feel this way by the time June gets here, but I'm actually hoping for June 6.  Mac is 3/3 and my birthday is 4/4 so I think that would be a nice way to make an addition to the family.

Pumpkins!

This is a little late, but the weekend before last we went to Washington Farms.  Its a local farm that has a corn maze and tons of other kids activities.  We had a great time playing all afternoon and even managed to take a few pictures.  I was surprised as I uploaded these pictures to see how tall Mac looks all of a sudden.