And Remember, you're only in a Furniture Store....

is the tag line to the Jordan's Furniture LITE show and we heard in twice in the past 2 weeks! Mammy, Kyle and I took a trip to The Christmas Shops late one night because Kyle had a nap that day and I knew we had to do something. While on our way there we remembered The Enchanted Village was a new thing going on at Jordan's and decided to stop in. It was 7 pm on a Monday night and it was perfect timing because there was no line at all. What a beautiful display of 192o's Christmas themes.

And while walking through and viewing the displays Christmas music plays and every so often when a Christmas song mentions snow....it snows! The lights come on and the snow shoots out from every corner of the room. I'm pretty sure I was one of the more excited parents oohing and ahhhing at that part, but I loved it!

Knowing that you are supposed to be 40inches to ride the MOM ride (we had been denied a few weeks back) I put Kyle in his big snow boots and we sneaked him onto the ride. It was worth in because they played a 1/2 condensed version of The Polar Express in 4D and it was incredible. Ky loved every minute of it (twice because we did the same thing on the following Thursday afternoon with Nana Cill)

We end the adventure with the LITE show, which is a laser show set to Christmas music. Both trips were great fun. We were equally lucky to go at slow times and avoid the 3 hour wait that I've heard some folks have had to endure. Oh and Santa is there too!

Bedtime stories

Kyle will actually sit with me to read not only 1 bedtime book, but a whole pile these days. We have a few favorites, the most popular as of today is "Good Dog Carl" given to us by one of Auntie Erin's teacher friends. This book though small, short and with only 2 pages that actually contain words bring so much laughter at bedtime that I giggle a bit as I write this. It's about a big dog named Carl that's left alone to watch the baby while Mamma runs some errands (I know right? Like Loco could handle that!). Carl and the baby have lots of fun from one page to the next dancing in the living room, swimming in the fish tank, sliding down the laundry chute and by the time Mamma returns the baby is safely in bed, bathed and Mamma say's "Good Dog Carl" Kyle makes a point to stand up and dance with Carl and the baby.

The next book in the evening line-up was given to Kyle from Aunite Annie and is called "The pigeon gets a hot dog" and its just as silly as it sounds. Again, very little content but a whole lotta laughs! A pigeon is getting ready to enjoy a "sensational" hot dog and is being pestered by a duckling who's curious about the hot dog because he's never had one. Kyle's favorite take-away lines are "for pete's sake, can you believe this guy?" and "hmmm, needs mustard"

The newest addition to our bedtime reading is a Dr. Seuss book called "The Sleep Book". I personally LOVE any and all Dr. Seuss books. I love hearing them, I love reading them and I love sharing them with my little man. Many of our Dr. Seuss collection are special because they've come from Mammy (once Matt's books) and Auntie Laura. The Sleep Book is quite long with a lot of content but the funniest thing about reading this book is the amount of yawning we do. I've learned that not only are yawns in real life contagious, but even a Who's yawn from the pages of a book send yawns our way. ( I literally just yawned writing this) Kyle and laugh and yawn the entire time. I know that reading to your child is an important part of development but I never realized just how much fun I would have doing it.

Maybe, just maybe it influences this wild imagination of his?!

Halloween Fun

Halloween is always so much fun in our extended neighborhood because they go "all-out". People literally drive up from RI to park at The Birdlanes (a large neighborhood with street names after birds) . The candy goes quickly and the houses are spooktackular! We typically have a good group too which makes it that much more fun. The festivities started a week earlier this year at Uncle Stevie's work at Taunton Nursing Home and the whole crew dressed up! Kyle was rocking the alligator/crocodile/dragon costume this night and turned to a Devil the night of Halloween.

Halloween day we gathered for a nice backyard pumpkin carving session that went awry and winded up being a pumpkin guts fight! Matt innocently tossed a couple pumkin seeds and Mammy took full revenge for years of torture declaring all out war! She WON! Matt was drenched with guts from head to toe and Kyle joined in the fun too. Notice how I stay out of the mess, behind the camera my friends.

Sara and her little sister Caring came down, Kallie joined us and Marie and Trin came too! Poor loco has a boo boo (what else is new) so she couldn't partake in the pulling of the wagon this year and had to sit it out.

One of the funniest parts of the night was when the whole group was gathered outside of Trinity's friends house talking and getting ready to move on to the next candy station and out of nowhere comes a giant Gorilla running in and scooping Trinity up into its arms and taking off! She's screaming and kicking and Kyle all but runs straight home. All the while I'm whispering into its ear that the little boy in the stroller is scared of Gorilla's trying to get him to give Ky an extra scare but he didn't bite....the reason why was because it was UNCLE EDDY in the costume! Surprise! I had no idea, but some others were tipped off. It was great and he wore it the rest of the night, while Kyle chose to stay safely away from Uncle for the night.

We packed it in about 9:30 and headed home with giant bags of junk. And I'm still throwing it away little by little without it being detected :)

You did what?!

Matt left last week at 2AM to drive to the cape for a fishing trip on a good friends boat. He arrived home that night about 9PM with some great stories and pics. I'm a borderline worrier. If I allowed myself to think about the dangers of Matt's job hanging off of roofs all day long and recreational outings in the middle of the Atlantic with no cell phone reception, I'd have to be heavily sedated. He's a smart man and I trust his judgement so I don't allow myself to worry too much. And then he comes home with a story that goes a little like this; him hanging off the back of a fishing vessel, hooked into a 900lb tuna that pulled him overboard enough so that his entire upper body was underwater and his friend grabbed onto his legs pulling him back into the boat. The best part of that story? He never let go of the fish and they landed the dam thing! Now do you see why I can't allow myself to worry? If I thought of that crap every time he went out fishing I'd have to be in a coma to let him go. The smile on his face and the laugh he lets out while telling that story actually makes me happy, I know I'm twisted, but he loves it! How can you not be happy for the person you love to have such a great day doing something that makes him that happy? OK that said; it will be an entirely different story when Kyle wants to go.....ugh!

I'm a HUGE slacker, I know

I need to make more time for Blogging and less time for Bejewled Blitz I see! A month, really! Yikes. Let's see; where should I begin.

Kyle is a pre-schooler and successfully at that. The 1st day went really well, he got all dolled up, rolled his Diego backpack around and posed for pics like a champ. Daddy and Papa Billy Bob came with us for 1st day drop-off and it helped us both out a lot. I was VERY sad......very very very sad. I choked back my tears and put on a happy face for my little boy and actually never allowed myself to turn on the water works at all, even after I left the school. His teacher is amazing. I got a great, comforting feeling from her right away which is good feeling. He was given his own little cubby for his belongings with his picture on it and he went right for the sand table to play. Once his attention was on playing I kissed him on the head and quietly creptout the door. The following 4 hours were very strange for me. All I kept thinking about was "is he OK", "wonder what he's doing now", "I hope he's not crying" and I did break down and call to make sure he was fine. The teacher told me that he had a moment when he noticed I had left and cried a bit, but them found the sticky blocks and built a rocket ship. He was so excited to see me when I went to pick him up!!!! I don't get that often from him because he's not all the often away from me and when he is he's with his other most favorite people in the world so he never really misses me at all. He made friends, made arts & crafts, sat quietly during story time, played outside and learned about apples all in one morning and he was tired.

The next few drops offs were a little bit more difficult, it wasn't new and exciting anymore, now it was just "Mommy's not staying with me" and it made him sad. Every day has gotten a little bit easier and this week on Tuesday he was waiting at the door with his backpack wanting to leave early because his bestest friend in the whole world Bella was going that day too. I warned his teacher that the two of them were going to melt her heart when she saw how much they love each other. They sat together during story-time holding hands saying how much they love the other one and during the day if they lost track of each other one would always seek out the other to check -in. I have never seen a friendship at 3 years old like Kyle and Bella.

So he's got about 10 days at school under his belt now and he's doing really well. Brings home art and stories that filter out of him throughout the day, new songs, dances and new friends. I'm very proud of him.