Jingle All the Way

Yesterday, Isaac had his first official cookie (to our knowledge) and he quickly became an avid fan of Keebler Jingles. This addiction started with a simple brown bag lunch with Santa at our local community center. The event was free and included lunch (if you brought your own---which we did), pictures with Santa (if you brought your own camera--which we did), crafts, and a puppet show. Fun times. I figured this would be an easy (and free) way to get Isaac's picture with Santa (Last year all dreams of precious Santa pictures were crushed when...A. I realized that you must buy expensive portrait packages taken by a teenager to be able to snap your own picture with Santa at our local mall and B. Isaac does not like Santa. Taking these two things into consideration, I have let go of all idealistic Mommy dreams of my precious boy sitting angelically on Santa's lap.).







We headed out to "Lunch with Santa" on Wednesday, arriving a bit early so Isaac could get used to the place before large amounts of children descended on the gym. We ate with some people who take Mommy and Me class with us on Thursdays and then Isaac immediately wanted down and set off to explore. Although his "exploring" involved me chasing after him, I was happy that he felt relaxed and comfortable enough to set out on his own. We made some crafts (okay I made the reindeer ears, but he did color the Christmas card---until he felt the need to take the markers in and out of their bag. His new word this week...."doder" for "color" He loves to have his big crayons and art pad out on the coffee table at all times. This is his first request after his morning milk.). I gave Isaac a sticker and he immediately put it on his shirt. Where did he learn that? The only place that he gets stickers is the doctor's office (which I confiscate and put in his prize chest for a time when he is older and needs a reward system) and the library (which they always put on his hand). However, he wanted that sticker on his shirt and would not let me remove it for the rest of the day. Too cute.







After crafts, it was time to meet Santa. We were second in line and Santa was just a bit grouchy by the time we got to him. He was insisting that someone bring him a fan and never even greeted Isaac. He then acted annoyed because Isaac would not look at the camera. My question is, why sign up to be Santa if you are not going to be jolly about it? This man was obviously a "professional" as his beard was real and he is not an employee of the center. His attitude kindof bummed me out and the pictures are not stunning at all, but in ten years when Isaac is looking at old pictures he can never accuse me of not taking him to see Santa as a small child.







The puppet show is where the cookie addiction actually started. Isaac sat on the mat with the other children, eager to see a good puppet show. All I can say about this production is that it was put on by our local children's librarians and bless their sweet hearts. It was during this time that the plate of Jingle cookies was passed around for the children to enjoy. They are small and I figured Isaac should try one since it is the holidays (I normally don't serve him anything with processed sugar--we do the whole organic thing on juice, yogurt, applesauce, etc...). He loved it. He then wanted more, so I let him have another. He then discovered where the plate with the cookies was kept and crawled right over to help himself to a third serving. This is when I cut him off and the tears began. Fortunately "Lunch with Santa" was winding down, so we said our good-byes and made our exit. Isaac was sad as we left and as we loaded up in the car, but he did catch my eye in the rear view mirror as I was driving home and flash me a big grin. That boy is sweet even when upset about life being unfair. However, we will be avoiding all Jingles at future holiday events and will be sticking to fruit until he gets old enough to figure this whole junk food thing out. Don't even think about buy him a package for Christmas, because they will be returned to the store before he even realizes they are gone.

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Isaac's other big milestone yesterday was that we turned his car seat around to forward-facing. Although the law says you can do this at one year and 20 pounds, it took us a while to get to 20 pounds. I also wanted to make sure his neck was nice and strong before turning him around in case of an accident. Lately he has been attempting to sit up more while rear-facing, so we figured it was time to turn him around so he can see the world as it should be rather than out the back window. I am starting to wonder how I am actually going to get him into the car seat once this belly gets big. That might be an interesting sight....

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I went to the post office the other night after my bootcamp class to mail our Christmas presents (we are flying everywhere again this year, so we must mail our presents). I choose to visit the post office after-hours because I hate the lines and because we have the handy-dandy 24 hour kiosk that allows you to mail packages and buy stamps without ever interacting with an actual human. The two people in front of me in line could not get the kiosk to work for them. I figured I would try since I was already there and had lugged in two big boxes and a shopping bag of Christmas cards. First, the machine told me it was unable to sell me stamps at this time. Fabulous. However, I was able to get mailing labels for my packages. After making twenty decisions about how I wanted the packages mailed, I was granted my official mailing labels. I slapped those things on the boxes and put the first one in the big mail slot, specifically designed for boxes. Well, the box apparently got stuck and the mail slot would not open for me to stick my other package inside. A man waiting in line for the kiosk said that meant the bin was full on the other side. Aaargh! I attempted to dislodge my package, but was met with only failure. Several people in line gave me mean looks as if it were my fault that no more packages would be able to be put through the slot that night. A man in line had been at a neighboring city's post office kiosk--which was broken--and had come to this one in hopes of mailing out Christmas presents. Because the mail slot was now stuck and not working, he planned on going to a 24 hour post office somewhere at the airport. Hope he got those packages mailed. So my plan to avoid long lines at the post office was ruined because I had to return the next day (with the baby) to mail my other package and buy stamps. I have since gone on long tirades about how our postal system is broken to Tobe over the past few days. Poor guy.

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Pictures with Santa

(Notice no one is full of cheer in this photo)

Craft Time

The beloved cookie

Another photo from our Christmas card photo shoot

First offical picture of Isaac and his future sibling together

(Notice how thrilled Isaac is about this picture)