Helping Mommy

Mommy was looking for a certain can of something, and pulled out every can in the cupboard.  Keltan was helping to organize them.

Of course, we are talking about a 2-1/2 year old's attention span here:

Christmas Cookies

Mommy and Keltan were making Christmas Cookies (and Keltan was enjoying himself a bit too much!).

The finished product!

Big Ole Sucker

The results of some serious big-as-yo-face-all-day sucker enjoyment!

It is interesting how the things we said and/or did as a child will come out in our own children.  One of Dad's favorite memories from my childhood was when we would "rastle" and I would charge at him, whereupon he would falk over and I would loudly proclaim, "I knocked you down!". Without any prompting, Keltan does the same thing.  He loves to knock Daddy down,  (And anyone else that is willing to play along) and then excitedly holler out that he has knocked you down.

One of the things we do that we both enjoy (Keltan and Daddy) is to go to Braum's for ice cream.  He loves the ice cream (ok, I admit I might like it, too), and I live how the people in there - both customers and workers - make comments about him and flirt with him.  So, the other day I decided to take him to Whataburger for breakfast.  Whataburger has quite the senior citizen crowd, so I was looking forward to all the hoopla they would make over my awesome son.  Well, aside from the lady at the register, not one single person made a comment or even winked at him!  I was highly insulted, and have decided I am not at all in favor of the Whataburger crowd.  In fact, I have decided I am so not impressed with their patronage, I will no longer bestow my gift of money upon their establishment, at least not until they get some new regulars.  The nerve of those folk!

Christmas!

Christmas Eve, we told Keltan he needed to stay nite nite bed so Santa could bring him presents.  Well, he got up one time, but Mommy put him back in bed, and he stayed there until 7:15 AM!  Of course, it was then time to see what Santa brought him, and he was not about to let us sleep in any longer!  Daddy stalled, quite purposefully antagonizing the little guy, but eventually his "come on, Daddy" and "hurry Daddy" cries of agony worked, and we went to see what he got.
We had also told him if he didn't stay in bed, the Grinch would come take everything away.  Turns out, he was so good that the Grinch actually left him a present under the tree!  He opened gifts with great gusto, and was excited about them all, even the jacket he got!  He had to try it on, and, with his feet snugly in his warm, bright red Elmo Monster slippers, he was ready to step out on the front porch to try out his new jacket.  Daddy stepped out with him, but with only a light weight hoodie sweatshirt on, I was quite ready to go back inside!  Keltan, however, was not ready, and stepped between the door and me, and said "no no, Daddy.  Stay out here!". So, of course, I stayed and chilled out a little while longer.  Finally, his coat must have proven to be quite warm, and he started taking it off.  At that point, I was able to convince him it was time to go back inside where the heat had it a comfortable temperature. 
He enjoyed his presents, and was ready to play with his new Hot Wheels and the Hot Wheels Trick Tracks he got, when we told him there was a stocking hidden behind the chair.  It was at that moment that nothing else mattered as he found the Big-As-Yo-Face-All-Day-Sugar-Coma-inducing sucker!  He didn't care about the coat.  The Hot Wheels were yesterday's news.  The train set?  Bah...it all paled compared to the dentist's dreamsicle!  And so he commenced to licking the sucker while we opened our gifts to each other.  After a few minutes, we decided the little guy had consumed enough sugar and left enough food dye on his face, and we pried the delightfully sugary treat from him, and washed him up.  And, what do you know?  He was ready to play with his toys! 
We played with his cars for a bit, then we all got dressed and went to Ihop for breakfast.  He picked out a smiley face pancake with strawberries, bananas, and whipped cream, and requested, and received, chocolate milk.  He entertaoned the server, and enjoyed looking at people through the glass (his words, not mine). 
When we got back home, we took all his cars and tracks upstairs.  He played with them for a looong time, and eventually came back downstairs, looked at the tree, and said,"me want open more presents.". "well, there are no more, Bugs", I told him.  "Get me more presents" was his reply. 
I got him to go with me to his room, where we laid out his new train rug and train quilt.  Of course, I couldn't help but crawl under the quilt, and before long, I awoke to being measured with his new tape measure from his contractor's tool kit!  Not sure what the measurements were, because before he told me, he had his hammer and was wanting to go upstairs where he could bang bang. 
Merry Christmas to you!  I hope your day has been at least half as enjoyable as ours!

LIGHTS!

     Keltan is crazy about Christmas lights (actually, he is crazy about lights)!  Everywhere we go, he talks about "look at that light!", so, tonight we loaded him and the dogs in the Jeep and went looking at Christmas lights around town.  Normally, I would not have been too impressed with Terrell's array of lights, but with a very enthusiastic 2-1/2 year old in the back seat, every display of lights looked like the top tier of professionals hung them.  Santa was saying HI, Mickey and Minnie Mouse were around, the penguins were singing, snowmens were everywhere, and the blue lights were beautiful!  Every corner brought more lights and more excited chatter from the back seat.  Every poorly hung rope light display was a cool new invention, exciting the senses beyond containment.  We ended up driving down many more streets than I had originally planned, all just to hear the wonderment of a kid who has come to notice the lights of this Christmas season for the first time in his life.
     In other news, Keltan had a small surgery yesterday to repair a hernia.  We arrived at the hospital at 6 AM, and were home by 10 AM.  He was sleepy, but otherwise no problems.  Towards the end of the night, however, he started walking like an old man because he was sore.  At one point, he was laid back in a chair, and when I walked back into the room, he was saying, "help me, help me."  I asked him what he needed help with, and he told me he couldn't get up.  Guess his little ab muscles were sore.  On the lighter side, however, he was (is) fascinated with his black belly button (the doctor made an incision in his button to put his scope into).  He was thrilled to show his little buddies Trey and Gage this morning when I took him to Mrs Margie's!  He is doing very well today, and should recover quite nicely.
    We are looking forward to Christmas this year!  He gets so excited about things, and I can only imagine how excited he will be to have all those gifts to open!

    Tonight, I taught Keltan how to do a headlock maneuver.  What a great time he had putting Daddy into a headlock and knocking him down!  It is so much fun to "rastle" with him - he certainly loves the rough housing!  It has pretty much become a routine when I get home in the evenings for us to go to his room where he proceeds to whoop upon poor ole Daddy.  Which brings back awesome memories of wrestling with Dad when Craig and I were little and I enjoyed "knocking Daddy down."  In fact, that was one of Dad's favorite things to remind me of, and Keltan now says it the exact same way I did when I was little.  Funny, since I never once said those words to Keltan.
    He also has discovered the fun of helping Mommy cook.  He loves putting things in order or straight lines, and the other day she was putting pears into a breakfast dish.  He was having a great time putting them in, and placing them in just the right spot.  Of course, he snuck a few bites of the yummy crust every so often...I thoroughly enjoy watching him work with Mommy.  This, too, brings back incredible memories of my childhood where I enjoyed doing things with Mom.
    Another one of his favorite songs is "My Hope is Built on Nothing Less".  It was rather surprising that he started liking that tune, as it is not particularly a kids' song, but it is ok with us.
    In the not-so-fun category, Keltan has an appointment Tuesday morning (December 6) to have his hernia repaired.  It is supposed to be a quick in-n-out procedure, but we are still nervous.  Again, I am always so terrified when it comes to someone being "put under."  But, hopefully everything will be ok, and this problem will be solved.
    To leave with high spirits - Keltan likes to blame things on trains.  (Used to be tractor)  Ask him how he got hurt, and he will tell you "train knock my off railroad track."  "Train knock Mommy off railroad track", and on and on it goes.  The other night, he had me talk to the train because it kept knocking things off the railroad track.  So, I had to call it on my phone and discuss the issue.  Hopefully I cleared things up and the train will settle down...