Santa Clause Is Coming To Town

Season's greetings!

I hope you like the new blog look! I have long lamented the fact that I do not have either the time or the talent to really get the blog design how I would like it to look. Enter Blogs For A Cause, which is a great little one-woman show that designs blog templates for a donation to a charity that rotates monthly. Also, part of the proceeds go to her own personal humanitarian causes, which right now is a trip to India. Win Win!

We have had the BEST time this Christmas season. Oliver is so excited by anything Christmas-related. He has enjoyed watching the old-school clay-mation Rudolph TV special, knows pretty much all of the words to "Jingle Bells", "Santa Clause Is Coming To Town", and says "Santa baby"often and for no reason at all. He loves looking at Christmas lights as we drive by and points out each house that has something lit up. He knows Christmas is Baby Jesus's birthday, and tells me he is giving me "sugar" for my present.

The Elf thing is sort of working. He really enjoys finding the Elf's new spot every morning when he wakes up, but half of the time when we remind him that we are going to have to tell the Elf about whatever latest bad behavior has just happened, O spits out, "I no want Santa come my house." So, that's how that's going. :)

Here are just a few recent pics. The first is a video of Oliver telling Pa-Pa he is a "silly burger." We have now attached "silly" to just about any moniker - silly kitty cat, silly elf, silly mommy, etc. Next is the Elf in all of his Elfish (Elfin?) glory. The third is a picture of one of my two new dining chairs! Hooray. Thanks for the monetary Christmas gift Mom & Dad. I can now remove the plastic outdoor patio chairs from my dining room. Yes, sadly, that was true. You can take the girl out of Lawton, but....;) Oh, also, I apologize for the slightly blurry tinge to all of my photos. Our camera quit on us, and my iPhone is just not up to snuff. Maybe a new camera will make its way down the chimney this year. Or next!

I doubt I will have time before the big day arrives, so here it is: Merry Christmas to All! I hope everyone out in blogland has a joyous and peaceful holiday. We will be in Florida visiting Grammy & Grandpa Coles so Santa is going to come twice - once before we leave and while we are there. My son is not spoiled in the least!

"I go Pre-1" and Other Highlights

I have not yet recapped Thanksgiving for the Coles family. Let's do that now, shall we?!
My parents and sister came to visit for the holiday. We were also blessed to have the Griffith family over for the all-important Thanksgiving meal, as Stacia was and is way too preggo to be travelling! We had a good spread and spent Thanksgiving day cozied up at home, watching the parade, football and whatever else happened to be on. I had a bit of a cold the whole time my family was here, so I admit I was kind of a pill, but hopefully, Oliver was cute enough to entice them to come back again to visit. The takeaway from the weekend was Nana teaching Oliver to say "silly burger". He now says it all the time, and it's pretty darn cute.

Other big news lately:  Oliver moved up to Preschool! He is now in the "Pre-1" room. He has been longing to go to Pre-1 ever since his friends left him in the Toddler Room all alone back in August was it? He got to visit every day for about a week and a half, and I thought that this past Monday, the 3rd, would be a breeze as his first full day since he was so excited at finally moving up. Naive Mommy moment! Tears! Lots of tears as I said goodbye to him in his new room. I was so sad, but then Charlie's mom let me know that when she dropped off Charlie about 10 minutes after Oliver, he was all smiles and hugs. Whew!
 I knew we might have a period of adjustment (such as coming home on Monday with SIX bags of dirty/wet underpants) but I did not factor tears into the equation! Fingers crossed he gets into the swing of things before Christmas Break comes and he's gone for a week and forgets everything that has to do with any sort of routine!

What else? Oh! we have an Elf! His name is Noah (my son may be a wee bit obsessed with the Clothier family, but hey, aren't we all?! :)) and Oliver does NOT like it when Noah the Elf moves around. He wants him to stay at eye level on the table at all times, where O can keep an eye on him. Oliver is very excited about all things Christmas, including Santa Clause. We will see if that translates into a successful lap-sit here in a week or so. :)
Below are some random pics of the last few weeks. As always, thanks for reading!

O scarfed down Stacia's chocolate pie on Thanksgiving!

Cutest little sheriff ever! (At Norie Roberts' birthday party)

Sleeping angel.

Yep, that's how we roll (in Daddy's car).