Early December Fun

On the 1st of December we had our very first visit from the Elf on the Shelf! I bought one on clearance after Christmas a couple of years ago and this year I thought James would actually understand and enjoy it. We had been talking for awhile about an elf coming to visit us that would be our very own elf, so it wasn't a total surprise when he arrived. We spent the night before he came decorating the Christmas tree, so the elf's first spot was on the curtain rod near the tree.

In the morning James found him and we sat down to read the book that tells you all about him.

When we got to the part where you give him a name, we gave James some suggestions. We told him the names of his cousins' elves and some of the ideas in the book. He insisted, "His name is James!". So we responded, "He is going to be James too?". James came back with, "No! He will be James 3!" He hasn't deviated from that decision since. His name is now "Elfie James 3".

The book explains that you aren't supposed to touch the elf because that will make him lose his magic and he won't be able to fly to the north pole. We talked about that a few times and James understood it. A day or so later we were driving in the car and James asked me, "Mommy, can I shake Santa's hand?". I said, "Of course you can!". He replied, "But, then he will lose his magic!" You can't get anything by this kid! He notices everything and will point out any discrepancies. We already had to explain to him about all of the different Santas being Santa's helpers because he notices all of their differences.

We haven't done anything too creative with our elf. He just basically moves around the house...or sometimes really likes a certain spot so he stays there for two days in a row ;) The second day, he hung around on our ceiling fan:

 The next day he turned some of James' cars and trucks into reindeer. James was actually not very happy about it when he found it. He insisted that I fix all of his cars right away.

One morning he brought James a tiny bag of candy with a note saying that he likes how good James has been. James will ask me all the time what the elf is looking at, or why he picked a certain spot. I think tomorrow he will be bringing the ingredients for making Christmas cookies, so that will be fun!

The city has a little park downtown called Christmas park and every year Santa visits a little house there so kids can come and sit on his lap (for free!). Last Saturday we decided to go to the park and then walk over there. I looooove that there are never any lines to see him. James was pretty much the only kid there, so Santa talked to him for a long time. He asked him a lot of questions, but James could only manage one word answers. He was so distracted by all the lights and decorations in the little house! He did say that he wants a big airplane for Christmas.

 Rett was fine with Santa, as long as he was sitting in the stroller, watching him from a distance.

 As soon as I put him on Santa's lap, it was instant hysterics! My favorite are Santa's eyes. He looks like he wants to escape!

Whenever I ask James what he wants to do today, he almost always yells, "The beach!". I pretty much never want to go because it is so much work! Getting everyone dressed, packing stuff in the bag, carrying everything from the car and then back again when we leave, not to mention cleaning up all the sand. It is exhausting! Finally I gave in and we went one afternoon. It was our first trip since Rett started walking and he had a blast exploring every inch of that beach!

James found a friend as soon as we got there and he played with him the entire time. His parents had built a large sand mountain with a moat, so the boys were running back and forth filling their buckets in the waves and then dumping it in the trench. They didn't even notice that the water always absorbed, they were having too much fun running around!

At one point, Rett climbed into the trench and tried to scale the sand mountain. He has no fear when it comes to climbing on things! I still can't believe it when he climbs to the slide on the park and then goes down it by himself. Isn't he still a tiny baby?? I finally got a video of him doing it the other day. Notice I don't touch him at all.

With both of the boys running and climbing now, life is a lot more exhausting, but still really fun :)