Christmas

We began our Christmas celebration with some very sweet memories. Taffe and Grandma made several dozen cookies.
Cutting the dough and decorating with icing was a huge hit. Taffe asked "Mouth?" every time before he'd sample a little bit.

On Christmas Eve, the Blanchards came over. A little "Ring Around the Rosy"action here.

Christmas morning lasted from 8 AM until lunch time. We had a slow unveiling of the gifts since Taffe was enjoying all of his new things. He really liked handing out gifts and helping everyone open their presents. This is such a sweet age!

And Santa got it right this year! Taffe was so captivated by his new train table, he did not want to stop playing with it.

Such focus and intensity while playing!

It was a very Merry Christmas for all!

Taffe and Charlie did some check-ups with C's new doctor kit. A few "MINE!" comments here and there, but overall the generous spirit was there between the boys.

Funny Little Man

I remember learning in my psychology classes that a personality is defined by about age 2. There are some days that make me think, oh boy, I am going to have my hands full! But usually, I am delighted to know the funny little man that Taffe is becoming. Besides trains, he also loves being silly, laughing, dancing, drumming and wearing boots.
Taffe's latest phrases are so telling of our daily activities. These are a few of my favorites:

"Daddy, home!" "Flush!" "Mama, go, vroom" "Cookie! My cookie!"
"My toot" "Oh no, choo-choo!" "All aboard!" "Lucy, all done"

We're working on "Ho, ho, ho!" which we hope to say to this weekend!

Gingerbread

This weekend we had Samantha and Camryn over to decorate gingerbread houses. Note to all parents: Read the directions completely before involving your young children. The assembly was much more demanding and time-consuming than anticipated, so we just let the kids decorate gingerbread shapes. This proved to be entertaining enough with Samantha calling it painting and all of them eating way more candy than I thought possible!
Taffe needed to be right in the mix with the girls.

Another gingerbread treat... Aunt Kathy sent Taffe a gingerbread man cookie which he was psyched about. "Cookie!!!!" I may have helped him eat it, once he relinquished part of it over to me.

All done! He's got this crazy sweet tooth! I don't know where he gets that from! :)

Bye Santa!

Well, we got the cute Santa picture last year.... this year, we had screams. As soon as we were 15 feet from "Santa" there were incessant cries of "No Tanta!" Hmmm, he loves the inanimate version. Can you see the look of fear on Taffe's face?
However, once we said bye to Santa, Taffe was all smiles and blowing kisses. :)

Oh, and check out TJ's new shoes: he's obsessed with his black high-top Converse sneakers and insists on wearing them constantly.

Escape Artist

At our annual playgroup Christmas Party, Taffe was showing how Houdini-like he could be. He wanted no part of the group photo as you can see in the series of 3 pictures.

Attempting to hold him on...
Going...

Outta there!

But he did have a wonderful time other than the photo shoot. Taffe shared snacks with long-time love, McKenna. She actually feeds him as I think she wants to beef little TJ up a bit.

From his Secret Santa, Cardin, he got the best holdiay gift ever: a Santa Mr. Potato Head. There has been a long of time taking body parts on and off.

obsessed

Bet you can guess what Santa is bringing this little boy...

It's always something

After throwing tantrums at the post office, Taffe is being a good boy and taking a nice nap. But the other day, it was party time in the crib. Turns out little man was trying get his clothes off, and that was just too exciting!

A Special Christmas Delivery

We hosted Lauren's baby shower this weekend, and what fun we had! Lauren is due on Christmas day, so we were in full on holiday mode. Niki and Saylor stayed over which gave Taffe the chance to show me excatly how much he will like being a big brother.

Taffe to Saylor: "Hey! What are you doing here?"
"Don't worry, I'll take care of you." It's going to be a loving relationship, as long as Taffe can still have his way, and all of the toys.

JMU roomies! Any day now we'll welcome baby number 5 of the group!

Highlights of Turkey Weekend

Decorating cookies with the boys
Kissing Papa (which Taffe pronounces with a very cute French accent)

Train ride in Danbury

Holding hands with Cousins on the train ride