Santa... love at first sight (this year).

Please excuse my blog slacking.... I am so exhausted these days that once I get supper made, Adrian bathed and in bed it is all I can do to prop myself up on the couch with a heating pad for an hour before I go to bed. I frequently think "I should go post some pictures" but that is as far as it goes. Only 12 more days of work left before I am off for a whole year and about one month until the baby is due. I am sure I'll have lots more time to blog then. (Yeah right.)

Our Christmas festivities are well underway. We didn't think that Adrian would like Santa based on his reaction last year and his extreme phobia of all dressed up creatures recently. He is also very shy all of the sudden and can burst into nervous tears if someone tries to talk to him at the mall. But to our surprise Adrian is in love with Santa. I guess he feels like he knows him personally because Santa is everywhere this time of year.

We have been to two Santa parades (Florenceville and Fredericton) and two Santa parties so far and Adrian loves him more and more every time he sees him. Our first Santa party was at Jayden's house and Santa came right to the window and banged on it and Adrian went running to the window and then to the door to great him. I was shocked. He ran up and gave Santa a big hug. Then Santa started passing out gifts and Adrian didn't know that he had to wait until his name was called so he ran up and grabbed the first gift he could get his hands on. It was priceless. He got to see Santa again that afternoon and he was an old pro that time.

So I am starting to realize why Christmas is so much fun with a little one around... it doesn't take much to get him excited. Just opening his daily advent calendar door provides big excitement (and I might add they don't make advent calendars like they used to in my day... the chocolate is about the size of penny and always square!) and a candy cane can just make his day. We are looking forward to the next 3 weeks of fun!

Adrian and Grampy U at the Florenceville parade... Adrian didn't understand why they kept throwing candy at him but he still talks about it to this day.

Meeting Santa for the first time after the parade at Jan's old Intermediate school. Ah the memories!

The bag of candy from Santa sealed the deal... Adrian and Santa are friends for life now.

Adrian and Abby waiting for Santa at Jan's office party. Adrian cannot contain himself (literally). I thought we were going to have a riot of pre-schoolers on our hands.

Watching Santa pass out gifts. Adrian is waiting at patiently as possible for his turn.

Skating

I went shopping with the girls in Bangor this past weekend and Jamie was left to entertain Adrian all weekend long. He thought that would be a good excuse to get Adrian on the ice for his first time. I am sorry to have missed it but love that it is something that they got to do together with the 'boys'. As with anything Adrian was very timid at first but once he warmed up to it he loved it. I am sure it is just the first of many many visits to the rink for them.

Aren't those little skates adorable!?!

Halloween (a.k.a candy day)

We had a delightful Halloween. The festivities began Wednesday night at my office's kids' party. Boy there sure are a lot of young kids at my office and they threw one heck of a party. Adrian was very spooked by the costumes at first (especially a scary ghost that seemed to be everywhere we went) but once he realized he could run around the office picking up treats everywhere he was happy again. And when his best pal Abby showed up he was extra happy. Adrian was a Boston Red Sox player this year as I know he wouldn't keep a store bought costume on, especially inside.

Here he is getting ready for the party... not really sure what to expect.


And finding Abby was an extra sweet treat!

As if that wasn't enough Halloween fun Adrian had another party at Lisa's on Friday. He came home with more candy and lots of Halloween crafts. We had a quick supper and then it was off again for some trick or treating around the subdivision. It was very cold that night and I quickly realized that a baseball player with a winter coat and mittens on just looks like a boy with a hat. So I dug into the closet and found his monkey costume from last year. He didn't want to wear it again this year until he realized how warm it was. Okay... check out my blog from last year and compare the pictures!!! (http://janunderhill.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html)

So Adrian and I were off trick or treating while Jamie stayed home and gave out treats. Adrian was timid at first but once he realized that he could just walk up to people's house and they gave him candy he didn't want to quit. We were out for a good 45 minutes and he walked the entire time. He was getting tired and impatient carrying a whole bag of perfectly good candy that he hadn't even sampled so we headed home. He also really enjoyed giving out candy at our house and would keep watch at the door for any 'kids coming'.

So we let Adrian dig into his treats and he was quite delighted. He wasn't sure why he was getting candy and staying up past his bed time but he liked it.

Here he is with all his treats (minus one that is on his face and hands)


And here he is enjoying a cold glass of milk and peanut butter cup after a hard night's work.

Surprisingly Adrian went to bed, an hour late and full of sugar with minimal fuss. We sure had a fun Halloween this year! Hope you did too. I will be glad when the Halloween rush is over and he stops asking for candy for every meal. I asked him what he wanted for breakfast this morning and he answered 'candy'.

Fall leaves... where did you go?

Fall seems to have come and gone very quickly. Or perhaps it is that I have been too busy to fully appreciate it. I love this time of year and have had good intentions of taking Adrian to the country pumpkin and out for a nice family fall drive. It doesn't look like it is going to happen. We have been so busy lately with illnesses, home renovations and just life in general that October has been a blur. Luckily we did make it out for an impromptu leaf session at Nanny and Grampy Jones a few weekends ago while the leaves were still if full swing. Adrian liked raking and jumping in the leaves. He did not like it when you threw leaves on his head though because one went down his shirt and he did not care for that at all.

So it is hard to believe that there are only 2 months of this year left. I am especially cognisant of that fact because our baby is coming early in 2009 (due Jan 8) and the clock is ticking. It is hard to believe that in about 2 months Adrian will be a big brother. I am trying to enjoy all of my uninterrupted time with him that I can right now. I am not sure he 100% understands what is going to happen but he does frequently point to the nursery (his old room) and says 'baby sleeps in there' so he must have some idea. We have been reading lots of books about babies and big brothers and he is cautiously curious about everything.

Sick

Well we have had quite the week at the Underhill-Jones household. It started Sunday after Adrian and I got back from Sunday school (his first time!)... he was sick to his stomach and we knew we were in trouble. From there on in we all ended up with the flu. Jamie got off easier than Adrian and I which is good because we always had one flu-free parent. I was home from work for 3 days and what a long 3 days they were.

Poor Adrian was still sick yesterday. He is getting so skinny from not eating. Hopefully he will be all better this weekend. He certainly seemed to have lots of energy this morning. Even the babysitter got the flu so Adrian got to spend the day with Grampy Jones. He was pretty excited about that!

My attempt to get Adrian to eat... homemade mini pumpkin muffins. He was just excited to carry them around.