Bye Bye Baby Curls...

We decided to start 2013 with a new look for the little man.

Before...

Beginning the process...

Such a cooperative boy!  The only tears today were Mom's.

The finished product.

I will get more photos later today now that his hair has settled in to the new cut.  I wish I had taken one in his last bath when it was wet and halfway down his back!

 He seems to like the new 'do so far.

Here are some pics from last night after a bath settled the cut in a bit:

He looks very cute, but I am going to miss those beautiful curls!

A Very Merry Christmas

After all of the build up, Christmas morning did not disappoint!  

The last think O did before going to bed on Christmas Eve was to put out cookies, milk, and a note to remind Santa about his spaceship, and a carrot for the reindeer.

 Then he fell asleep by the cookies...

Just kidding.  He is not a very good poser, is he?

First thing O asked about when we woke up was if Santa ate the cookies.  We came downstairs, and saw that Santa had eaten all of one cookie, and most of a second.  O was a little concerned about the fact that he did not finish his cookies, but got over it when he saw the first surprise Santa left him...

A train all for O - he loves it!

The second thing he asked after the cookies, was if Santa had left him his spaceship.  One package looked promising, with a special note from Santa about the good job O has been doing on the potty!

Hurray!  It was a spaceship!  He had a lot of fun playing with it yesterday and today.

 O also loves the train plate that Aunt Jennifer's family sent him.

He was very happy with all of his new presents from everyone.  Thank you so much to family and friends who were so generous this year.  Skyping with New Jersey and Pennsylvania was great - not the same as being together, but at least we all got to see each other.

Nan sent us a book of the blog from our time in DC.  O loves looking at pictures of himself as a baby.  In this case, while wearing a new froggy towel.

We probably spent about four hours opening and playing in between.  We had a very nice relaxing day, topped off with a delicious dinner at the end of the day.

Today we went to the California Academy of Sciences (along with every other family in San Francisco).  As usual, I thought I had an original idea, totally forgetting that all kids are off school so many families are taking advantage of the time off.  At least we were there a little early and left when the crowds got too intense. We did get to see the indoor snow, penguins and reindeer, along with tropical fish and some other cool stuff.

We had planned on having lunch there, but the crowds scared us away.  We went to a restaurant out by Ocean Beach.  After we ate, we walked on the very windy beach, where we found lots of sea foam whipped up by the wind.

Back to work tomorrow (booo).

A Special Visitor

We had a busy afternoon yesterday.  Early in the day Daddy and O set up the Coast Guard Lionel train by the tree.  O is pretty excited to have a train running in his house.

After nap, we went to a Christmas sing-a-long at a German Restaurant near our house.  O loved the instruments, and seemed especially entranced by the tuba this time.  We had a lot of fun!

Dancing reindeer.

Mamma reindeer and her fawn.

After the music, we went to our neighbors' house for a little Christmas surprise.  Pam had little gingerbread houses  for the kids to decorate with sprinkles and icing.

O and his friend Odin decorating houses (and eating chocolate cakes).

The masterpiece.

 After the houses were decorated, we had a special visitor.  O went right up to him and climbed up on his lap.   As soon as he looked at Santa, O asked "Where is your mouth?".  It was pretty funny.  He also finally told Santa what he wants him to bring for Christmas.  Hopefully Santa will leave a space ship tomorrow night!  I asked O when we got home if he wanted a rocket ship, he told me "No, a spaceship.... it's similar to a rocket ship."  I sure hope Santa knows the difference.

Looking for his mouth.

Merry Christmas!

Still looking for that mouth!

It was really nice of Pam and Ron to arrange for the visit and to invite us.  The kids three toddlers that were there got Caterpillar trucks from Santa and the baby got some little wooden trucks.  It was a fun night.

Christmas is Coming!

At least five times a day lately, O tells me "Christmas is coming".  Then he asks if Christmas is here, and when I tell him no, he says "Christmas time is here.".  He is a smart kid.

Yesterday, in the spirit of the season, we took a ferry ride to San Francisco to see some decorations and have a fun outing.  O loves riding the ferry, and pretty much everything about boats in general.  We sat outside so he could see the Bay.  

O says "Ho Ho Hos are Santa's Hyabobs!"

Olin and Daddy looking at Daddy's ship tied up on Yerba Buena Island.

 Once we arrived in San Francisco, we had lunch at a "quesadilla restaurant" and headed to the Hyatt Regency to see the train display.  It was nice, but I think we were spoiled by the National Botanical Garden display in DC.  Never the less, O was entranced by the trains and the overall display in the lobby.

A full view of the lobby.  

"Here comes the train!"

We had some extra time while waiting for our return ferry time so we stopped to watch a street performer playing drums.  O got to play along for a little while.  He loved it, of course.

Jamming on the drums!

 After that we walked over to the rocket ship sculpture.  O is very interested in rocket ships lately, since he loves watching Wallace and Grommit - A Grand Day Out.  For some reason he was pretty hesitant to stand under the rocket, we think he may have been afraid of it taking off or something.

The weather was pretty crazy yesterday.  About ten minutes after I took the picture with the rocket ship, it was pouring down rain.  Luckily, we were inside the Ferry Building having a drink by then.

As we waited for the ferry, O spied a special view:

A special treat!  A rainbow over the Bay Bridge.

Actually, not just one rainbow, but a full double rainbow that we could see from end to end.
I have not seen that since I lived in Hawaii.

 All in all, we had a great day in the city.  The weather cleared up again for the ferry ride home, so we had great views again of the beautiful Bay.

Today, Tom and O put up the train under the tree.  He loves to sit and watch it go around and around.  Later on,we are going out to see Christmas music and then to our neighbor's house for cookie decorating and a visit from Santa.

Oh Christmas Tree...

We got our Christmas tree yesterday afternoon.  O was so excited about the trip, he was running around the lot, looking at the trees, saying "Oh, look at that one".  It was pretty cute.

Here are my boys picking out the tree

Fuzzy, but too cute not to share:

And, the finished product after our decorating adventure this evening:

:

He was very excited to decorate - and actually, very careful with the glass balls.  I love the Christmas tree.

Crane Operator

On Saturday morning, Tom and O went on a field trip to ASPEN.  O loves the ship, especially the galley, the bridge and now, the crane cab.  They had a great time while I stayed home and put up Christmas decoration.  I also had fun doing that.

Here is O controlling the crane from the cab.  

Sunday we had some friends over for brunch.  As usual with us, our brunch guests left here just in time to go home for dinner at around 6 o'clock.  We had a great time!

Peter Pan Christmas Party

Today was the Christmas Party at O's school.  He has been singing some of the songs for a couple of weeks now, but as you can see, he did not really sing along in the show at school!  He has been a little sick and lethargic this week, but he was much better today, not that you would know it from this video.  This is very short, but I could not get the longer one to load up for some reason.

Here he is at home singing the reindeer song that he learned at school. This is the song I caught the end of because they had started already when I got there.  His participation in this song was the same as all of the songs, standing against the wall looking grim!

They also had a visit from Santa.  He went right up to him to sit on his lap, no problem.  There were some screamers there, though.  I think O associates this look with Grandpa.

Party Animals

The ASPEN Christmas party was on Friday night. It was held at the Argonaut hotel in San Francisco, which is a small, nautical themed hotel near Fisherman's Wharf. There was a kid's party to accommodate the little ones during the adult party and then we stayed overnight so we would not have to drive home late.

Here we are by the tree in the lobby before the festivities.  O had a great time at the kids party.  He was probably the youngest one there, so he got a lot of attention from the babysitters.

In the morning we walked around in the rain for a bit, then visited the ships at the Pacific Maritime Museum.

We toured the old wooden ferry and the full rigged cargo ship.  He really likes boats, and he especially liked the helm.

Last night our neighbors, Pam and Ron, had an ornament decorating party.  She has a grandson who is O's age, so they had a great time playing together.  It was nice to meet some more people in the area and socialize with new people.  

We are having a quiet day at home today.  It has been storming here all week, but the sun seems to be peeking out now.  

Tom is leaving for a short trip out on the ship tomorrow.  They have been stuck at the dock for a long time now, but they are fixed and are going to try and work some buoys if the weather will cooperate with their plans.