We have no big New Year’s Eve plans and I’m fine with that. After a busy month of travel, I’m looking forward to chill-out time on the sofa with my main squeeze, a glass of wine and maybe a movie. CRAZY TIMES, I KNOW!
Camille rang in the New Year a little early today at Monkey Joe’s. They sponsored a Happy Noon Year party and counted down to 12-noon, then had the kids jump on bubble wrap to simulate the sounds of fireworks. It was really cute and Camille thought it was fun even though she was seriously worn out after a morning of jumping.
Happy Noon Year to you all!
Happy Noon Year! from Ginger on Vimeo.
Hello sweet sleeping girl! It is Christmas Eve as I write this – can you believe it? The last image I had of you tonight was watching you pull your quilt up over your head so you wouldn’t see Santa. Several weeks ago you announced that you did not like Santa. Not one bit. I kept reminding you about all the presents he brings, but you’d already solved that problem. “Santa can just mail my presents!” you declared. When I informed you that it didn’t work that way, you decided you didn’t want any presents.
WHAT??
Then later, you said it was ok if Santa didn’t come, because Boo would get you presents. I think you are absolutely spoiled rotten!
I believe some of this anti-Santa-ism may stem from the talks we’ve had recently about stranger danger. We’ve tried to impress upon you the importance of not going anywhere with strangers, and I think you’ve taken that message and morphed it into ALL STRANGERS ARE SCARY! Now, for example, when we get on an elevator with strangers, you clamp your eyes shut tightly. It’s as if you’ve decided – if I can’t see them, then they can’t see me! If a stranger comes up to you in the grocery store to remark about your pretty, sparkly red shoes, you’ll slap your hand over your eyes as quick as a wink, completely shutting them out. Thankfully people don’t seem to take offense, and we’re all mostly amused.
Oh sweetheart, I am sorry your letter is so late this month. It’s not because I had trouble finding things about which to write, but because we’ve been too busy to write! One thing I love about December is that we get to spend time with family for the holidays. But unfortunately, our dearest ones are not also our nearest ones, and that has meant a lot of travel. Don’t misunderstand, I love travel and I think you’ve got the travel bug too. But I also like to spread the travel out a little more!
The first weekend in December, we flew up to Boston to visit Auntie, Uncle Dave and Jones. We had quite a time getting there (delays in D.C., cancellations, last minute taxi ride across D.C. to catch a plane at another airport, etc.) and you were a trooper through it all. But once we finally arrived we had a wonderful visit.
Auntie was nice enough to summon snow for us, so we had a very good time stomping around in the white stuff and tossing snowballs. The suburbs around Boston are so picturesque, and were made even more perfect with a layer of snow over the whole landscape. Everywhere you turned, the view looked like the perfect Christmas card.
It was fun watching you and Jones play together. Your favorite thing to do is wrestle, or as we say here in Georgia, “wrassle.” This basically involves you laying on the floor yelling, “Get me, Jones!” And then Jones does a belly flop on top of you and you wrestle. It’s really cute, and we’d better enjoy it now because he’s growing so quickly he’ll soon be too big for wrassling!
The next weekend we were back in Savannah and got to enjoy the Holly Days festival. You loved the “ice” skating rink on Broughton Street (no ice, but an ice-like surface) and watching the old-school Frosty movie in one of the historic theaters downtown. We had a good laugh at the end of the movie when Santa brought Frosty back to life. You looked at your Daddy and said, in an exasperated tone, “See! I told you Santa was nice!” As if we had said anything to the contrary!
Since that day, you’ve become smitten with Frosty and with snowmen in general. When the Frosty song comes on the radio you squeal and then start doing the “Frosty dance.”
Well, lucky for you, Nana and Granddaddy also summoned some snow the next weekend when we went to Tennessee to celebrate Christmas with them.
We spent all of Saturday morning in the snow building snowmen and watching you sled for the first time! Here’s some video with highlights of our snowy adventures in Boston and Tennessee:
You opened presents at Nana and Granddaddy’s house, and were ecstatic to get a new baby doll that laughs and coos and a bucket of dinosaurs. What a fun mix! I love this picture I snapped of you on the floor, cuddling with Baby Allee while the Brachiosaurus gave her a kiss on the cheek.
Another big event this month was your debut in Savannah’s Christmas parade. Your dance class marches in the parade every year, and last year I remember standing in a square with you, watching all the little girls go by. I remember thinking, “That could be Camille one day!”
Being in the parade was a much more difficult undertaking than I expected. First of all, it was really cold that night and your parade uniform wasn’t nearly warm enough. Secondly, we had to line up for the parade an hour before it began. That was a looooong hour, standing on the asphalt, freezing cold, just waiting. And waiting. You were pretty miserable and I kept waffling about what to do. One part of me wanted to just call it quits, go find your Daddy and Boo along the parade route and watch like we did last year. But another part of me wondered if this was an important lesson
about being part of a team and having to stick it out even when it wasn’t easy. Finally, when I didn’t think we could stand it another minute, we started marching. Once we got moving your mood improved dramatically and you marched with a big smile on your face.
For about two blocks.
Your Daddy and Boo had stationed themselves close to the beginning of the parade route. At first, when we saw them, I thought you were going to march on by. But at the last minute, you dropped the baton of the girl next to you and collapsed into your Daddy’s arms in tears. When I asked you if you wanted to march some more, the answer was a definite NO. I decided a compromise was in order – you’d endured an hour of waiting in the cold and marched a couple of blocks with your team. Now your reward would be watching the rest of the parade with Daddy, Boo and me. Here’s a video of your brief parade appearance:
A Very Brief Christmas Parade Appearance from Ginger on Vimeo.
Camille Grace, it has been so great to enjoy this holiday season with you. I have always loved, loved, loved Christmas, but watching you love it too just magnifies the magic. Sleep well tonight my angel, because you’ve been a very good girl this year. Are those reindeer hooves I hear on the roof?
I love you sweetheart. Merry Christmas!
I think age three is a pretty spectacular time to celebrate Christmas – plenty old enough to get very excited about all the holiday trimmings!
We picked out our tree yesterday, and just happened to show up at the tree lot at the same time as her buddy Elsie. The two had fun racing through the aisles, gasping while extolling the beauty of each tree, posing with the inflatable Santa and – best of all – CANDY CANES!
So, everyone else is probably sick of these already, but this is my first time making one of these Elf Yourself videos. And I must say, I’m kind of excited to show this to Camille tomorrow. I think she’ll get a kick out of it!
Send your own ElfYourself eCards
It was with great anticipation and no small amount of nostalgia that Lee and I traveled to Athens last weekend for the Dawgs final home game of the season. I hadn’t been to a home game in nearly a decade and was starved for the electricity that races around Sanford Stadium. I savored the pride that comes from wearing red in a sea of red and chanting all those bulldog chants along with the thousands of other fans. And while the final score was disappointing, the experience was still a rush.
We had some serious nose-bleed seats on that chilly night, and I yelled until I was hoarse and made a general fool of myself. I glared enviously at the student section where the kids had a much better view. When I was student I didn’t know enough to appreciate the perks of football tickets on the lower level at a price I could actually afford. But I had too much fun at this game to complain for long.
Now if only I could figure out how to squeeze the state of Georgia so that Athens were a bit closer to Savannah, because I sure do miss my alma mater. G-E-O-R-G-I-A!
Hello my sweet princess, and Happy Forty Month Birthday! Tonight it is
very possible that you’re having dinosaur dreams, because they’ve been
on your mind a lot lately. I have the PBS show “Dinosaur Train” to
thank for this – or perhaps my confused Tivo. Let me explain.
My
Tivo got some wires crossed, and one day we sat down to watch Sid the
Science Kid, but Dinosaur Train came on instead. I would never have
thought to record this for you because you get scared so easily and the
show does occasionally feature a T-Rex with big teeth. But you wanted
to watch it, and as it turns out – you ADORE this show.
I have
been very impressed with your ability to remember and correctly
pronounce so many of the dinosaur names. You have a fairly good handle
on the word Palaeobatrachus (a frog from the tertiary period) and use
it several times a day. You seem to get words stuck in your head like I
do with songs, and the other day that word was “Ornithomimus,” one of
the dinosaurs on the show. You’d just out-of-the-blue look at me and
say, with a straight face and nearly perfect diction, “Ornithomimus,
Mama.” At one point you said, “Ornithomimus. That’s Spanish for thank
you!”
Despite the fact that you were making up uses and
definitions for the word, I had no doubt you knew its real meaning.
That same day we were walking along a trail on Oatland Island and you
took off running. The funniest thing is that you were holding your
hands up high and close to your body, “Like the dinosaur’s little
hands! I’m Ornithomimus!” you yelled back over your shoulder to me. Sure enough you were
right, Ornithomimus, known for speed, has small hands held close to its
upper body. Smarty pants.
And while you might like saying
Ornithomimus, your favorite dinosaur is, of all things, the T-Rex.
Although you correct me anytime I call it that. “Tyrannosaurus Rex,
Mama,” you gently remind me. This Tryannosaurus love was cemented on
our recent trip to Chicago, when we visited the Field Museum. You were
smitten with Sue, the T-Rex skeleton (although you didn’t like her
teeth).
Let me just tell you – you were such a great travel
buddy on our Chicago trip. You were my cosmopolitan girl, handling all
the new experiences
with more grace and good humor than I had the right to expect from a
three-year-old. Although I was reminded that you’re no country girl the
other day when we heard a fire truck’s siren and you said, “That’s the
sound we hear at night-night time!” But you seemed right at home among
the skyscrapers, loved the escalators and the subway, enjoyed playing hide and seek in the city parks and devoured the good food, even experiencing your first creme brulee.
About the only thing you didn’t like was that so
many of the toilets in the big city flushed automatically. You HATE
those toilets.
And rock star though you were, there was one event in Chicago that
proved too cosmopolitan for a family outing – a trip to the Art Institute. Let
me be clear – you loved it. But I was the one having a borderline heart attack.
As we stood in line to tour the galleries, your Daddy and I
had a talk with you about not touching the art. In the first few
galleries you were very studious, absorbing your Daddy’s art appreciation lesson about several of the fine works.
As we got a little deeper into the museum and the crowd thinned, the galleries grew quieter. Although you were still enjoying the views, you also began to sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat, but a new version.
Row, Row, Row your boat/
Gently down the stream/
If you see an alligator/
Don’t forget to scream – AAAH!
It’s a pretty cute song, especially the little scream at the end, but seemed out-of-place in the hushed galleries. Thankfully, you got nice smiles from the other patrons, and the only frowns you got were from the guards. One guard became especially concerned when you were looking at a statue and asked your Daddy, “Can I hug it?’
I was nervous as we wound through these galleries, but felt we were handling things well until we turned the corner to find a “sculpture” involving a big pile of stuffed animals. You lept from the stroller, full of glee, and started running toward it. “NO!” your Daddy and I both yelled. “That’s art!”
“No, it’s not art!” you argued. “They’re toys!”
While I appreciated your critique, I wasn’t sure everyone around us would, and I knew it would be hard to keep you from touching those toys. So you and I found the snack bar and hung out there while Daddy took in a few more galleries. Really though, for a three-year-old at an art museum, I think you kept it together quite well!
We let you pick out one souvenir on our trip. Here you are trying on a shark head (or maybe a dolphin?) which we did not buy, but made for a fun photo.
At the Shedd aquarium we lined up several acceptable souvenir choices including a stuffed dolphin with a baby blanket and a stuffed penguin hatching from an egg. And do you know what you chose? A stingray.
I love it.
You definitely have your princess traits and love all things pink and glittery, but I think it’s cute that you have your eccentricities too. Your favorite toys to date are a unicorn, a mouse, a bat and a stingray. I captured this familiar scene the other day when you were playing “grocery store,” with your beloved mouse and bat in the cart where a baby doll might otherwise be. I think it’s so cute because it’s just so YOU.
Your drawing skills have begun to blossom this month, and instead of just drawing random lines and circles you’ve started drawing figures. We have a chalkboard in the kitchen, and while I cook you often like to draw. I snapped this picture earlier this week – your family portrait. That’s you on the right, me in the middle, and Daddy on the left (complete with a beard on his cheeks).
Do you know what that’s a picture of? A happy family. Thank you for capturing it so beautifully, since you are a big part of the reason we have those smiles on our faces. I love you so much sweet girl.
The bathroom renovation only took a week and a half, but it sure felt like a lot longer! I must say it was worth it though, and we’ve been enjoying our new master bath. Here are a few before and after pics:
From the bedroom door:
The sink:
I like the beadboard we put on the walls – gives it a nice cottage feel.
A certain someone wanted to be in the pictures too, so here she is on the edge of the new tub she likes so much:
In the weeks leading up to our Chicago trip, nearly every time I told someone where we were headed they’d tell me, “That’s one of my favorite cities!” or, “You’re going to love Chicago!” And now I must say I’m a convert as well. We had such a great trip – mostly because we had so much quality time together, but also because we had the good fortune to spend that quality time in a fun place.
Camille was a rock star on the trip, and Lee and I loved exploring and discovering a new place with her. I was prepared to be cold, and I’m sure I would’ve been later in the year, but the weather was just right. It was cold enough to feel like I think November should feel, with plenty of pretty colors making the trees look like they should look this time of year.
The city felt big but not overwhelming, and we encountered friendly folks everywhere we went. People were quick to give Camille a seat on the subway, and she got lots of smiles.
We spent a day at the Field Museum which was fantastic. I didn’t know what to expect, but the exotic taxidermy was way cool. I’d seen so many of these animals in zoos, but seeing them up close gave me a new perspective on their size and texture. I wondered if Camille would be upset by an exhibit like this one, featuring a mama eagle bringing a bunny to feed her chicks.
But she just said, “The mama Eagle is feeding her babies,” and moved right on to the next exhibit. At first, she was a little scared of the huge tyrannosaurus rex, but in the end decided “Sue” was her favorite thing in the whole museum.
We visited the Shedd Aquarium, which had a lot of fun exhibits. I loved the Beluga whales, but I think Camille’s favorite part was the Polar Play Zone. She got to dress up like a penguin and pretend to take care of stuffed animal penguin babies. What’s not to love about that?
We spent another day just exploring some of the parks. I loved the big “bean” at Millennium Park. We played in the leaves, smelled the flowers, and found a nice playground. It was great to see such fantastic outdoor spaces nestled right next to the skyscrapers.
We also spent a lot of time just being silly. Just being a family. And that was my favorite part.
Today, out of the blue Camille said, “Mama, I want to be in Chicago.” Girl, I know the feeling! I’m already looking forward to a return trip someday.
What a fun thing it is to be three years old and run around in costume collecting candy from neighbors. And what fun it is to be a mom watching her daughter experience it all.
Camille decided to give her Supergirl costume an encore this year. The outfit was a little big on her last year, so tonight it was a perfect fit. She looked beautiful in her cape and boots, and they flew with more speed and confidence this year than last. She no longer felt compelled to stay right by our sides, instead running with glee along the sidewalks and in the parks with her trick-or-treat pals Will the Pirate and Sam the Lion.
I’m glad we’ve started this fun tradition together. Here they were last year on our front steps.
And here they were tonight.
What fun!
Camille likes getting dressed for dance class, but was especially enthusiastic yesterday because she got to wear her new Halloween tutu. I wish I could take credit for making this, but alas, I can only take credit for buying it. Now, I wonder why my house is covered in purple glitter…
