3-2-1 ... Happy New Year!

As relatively new parents, we can all kiss good-bye any chance of scoring a babysitter the night of New Year's Eve. So we did a countdown to Noon today with some of Graham's little playmates instead. Hats, blowers, and mac & cheese! What better way to ring in 2010?

Does this blower work?

Maccallum

Annabelle

Amelia

Bring on 2010!

Graham & Eli —B.F.F.!

Merry Christmas!

This posting comes a week late, but that's just how the holidays go. Our Christmas was spent with Jeff's parents, brother, and grandmother in Fargo, North Dakota, where Graham's 93-year-old Great-Grandmother Henriette lives. The scenes: a blizzard, stuck in our hotel, our microwaved Christmas dinner, opening a few Christmas gifts in the hotel lobby (hey, we had to open gifts near a tree—even if half the gifts under the tree were fake!) and a make-up Christmas Day on the 26th at Great-Grandma Henriette's.

Graham scored lots of books, some toy trucks (made from recycled plastic!), his first action figure (batman!) and a transformable Batmobile to go with it, a table and chair set that's just his size (perfect for art projects), and a train set, that occupies nearly every brain cell in his head now. The first thing he says in the morning is "choo-choo!" and the last thing at night is also "choo-chooooooo" (with a bit more whine at night, since he's been made to stop playing and go to bed instead). Sometimes he mixes up his sneeze and train sounds and says "AH-CHOO!"

But mostly, Christmas was a fun time stuck indoors while the snow blew around outside like we were in one of those snow globes you shake up. That means our fun was created from the simple gifts of hanging out with each other and swimming in the hotel pool!

Let's ... get... messy!

Upon being given a recipe for homemade finger paint last week, I suddenly turned all crafty mama. Amazing what a bit of flour, water, salt, and food coloring can make! And if I do say so myself, Graham looks smashing in his Crayola smock.

The ingredients.

The mixer.

Add a dash of color!

The Artistic Genius Himself.

The Masterpiece!

Ho! Ho! Ho! Meeting Santa...

Graham met Santa for the first time recently... he was tentative and skeptical, but it went over pretty well. We went into it with the idea of it just being a "meeting"— no plans to hand Graham over to Santa just yet. Graham definitely nuzzled closer to me when we sat down next to Santa, but the big, bearded one did manage to get a high-five out of Graham and drew him in with the big jingle bells attached to his sleeve.

Video: Little Stevie Wonder

The scene: Barnes & Noble
The action: Our little music lover listens to music on a head set for the first time.

Expert traveler

Now that Graham has taken some six or seven round-trip flights and visited seven states in 18 months, he is naturally a pro traveler. Still, sometimes toddlerhood makes travel less-than-simple. So I felt super lucky when we scored an empty seat next to us on our flight back from Birmingham. Not only did he settle in well with is sippy cup, cheerios, and dragon (pacifier), he also took to our incredibly kind flight attendant. Said flight attendant made announcements on his little airplane phone with Graham in one arm, collected passengers' trash with Graham in the other arm, and took him on a walk up and down the aisle to "give mom a break." (See below.) What a guy!

After landing, I asked a sky cap to help me, Graham, our car seat, stroller, diaper bag, camera bag, and large suitcase to the taxi area (Jeff was out of town for work). Despite my protests, the friendly sky cap wouldn't even accept a tip because I was a mother "traveling alone." Too nice!

Meanwhile, Graham was happy to people watch, repeat "bye-bye" to people, and felt like a fun little travel buddy to have along. The second we got home, he went down effortlessly for a nap and slept for two hours. I call that an excellent travel day.

Video: A little boy + his shoes

It turns out that putting your shoes on is a fairly advanced skill. One of these days, we'll make it to the grocery store. In the meantime, Graham sure is having fun figuring this out. ("Boot! Boot!") Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, his burgeoning vocabulary prominently includes one of his new favorite words: "no."

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose." — Dr. Seuss