November in Boulder

Another month is coming to an end. It's been busy as usual: 1 craft club, 2 knitting clubs, 2 baby showers, 1 thesis defense (Yeah!! Congrats Russ), 1 primary program at church, 1 preschool class at home, a conference in New Orleans (Russ),  the big Family Housing Thanksgiving dinner (inconveniently during Russell's conference), our own Thanksgiving dinner (with a few friends)... and especially the busy day-to-day life of a family with 2 boys under 3.

Every day brings new challenges and new opportunities to learn. I never expected my children would teach me so much about life and about my own limits. I am still trying to find a balance between the chaos they joyfully and repeatedly create around me and my slightly OC vision of the perfect home and family.

It starts with trying not to freak out when William takes every opportunity available to sneak into the bathroom, climb on top of the toilet and play with our toothbrushes. I had to replace all of our toothbrushes this week after he shoved them down the drain of the sink. Of course that's better than finding him drinking from the toilet bowl. (Ew!! And to think Joshua sometimes forgets to flush and close the door behind him...) He loves to climb over and over again, and jump, and giggle. He seriously needs a full time lifeguard.

He is cute that's for sure, and sneaky, playful, mischievous, teasing, clever, funny... and I wouldn't want him any other way. 

 and he's cuddly (he'd passed his arm around my neck on this picture).

Coming home from church on a sunny Sunday morning in November. Boulder is so pretty!

 Our little Willman got his good looks from his Daddy.

On a completely different note. Tonight was the Christmas tree-lighting ceremony on 29th St mall. We had no idea, but we were looking for something to do before dinner and I thought Santa might be at Macy's so we headed there. When we got there, we found a crowd of people listening to a live performance of Christmas songs outside of the store and we found out that Santa was scheduled to arrive on his horse drawn carriage 20 minutes later. So we listened to the music, had some free roasted chestnuts (a treat!) and admired the reindeer while waiting for Santa.

After Santa arrived, people were allowed to ride in his carriage down 29th street. The line was a little long but judging by Joshua's smile when the carriage arrived to pick us up, way worth it!

 William freaked out a little bit when the carriage left, but we faced him forward and he relaxed.

After the horse ride we took Josh and William inside Macy's to take a picture with Santa. While Russell was waiting in line with William I took Joshua up front to see Santa and the kids sitting on his lap. I asked him if he wanted to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what he wanted for Christmas. He gazed at the old man and squarely said no. I insisted a little bit and showed him all the kids who wanted to sit on Santa's lap but he was definitely not interested. So we left. Before we could reach the door he had changed his mind and was screaming his guts out that he wanted to see Santa. Well, it was way past dinner time, almost bed time and we didn't want to reward his obnoxiousness so we said no. He threw a fist and screamed the entire way back home until he had no idea what he was screaming about. When he'd calmed down and gathered his thoughts about what was making him so upset, we told him we'd go back tomorrow. Hopefully he won't freak out again tomorrow when he sees Santa...