a beautiful mess: Merry Christmas

Mia loves Christmas, like me, and we spent the weeks leading up to it watching Christmas movies, learning Christmas songs, decorating and just learning what the holiday's all about. She can sing "Jingle Bells", "Santa Clause is Coming to Town", "We wish you a Merry Christmas" and maybe one or two others I can't think of right now. We just had a lot of fun with it and I'm glad she's at an age now where she can relate and enjoy it all.

So late Christmas Eve/early Christmas morning, I stayed up making preparations for Santa. Last minute wrapping, bowing, milk and cookies, etc. Mia was so excited that Santa was going to come and so was I! I couldn’t wait to see her little face when she saw that Santa had brought her what she so wanted since she was such a good girl...

...and she is a good girl. She has her moments, but overall, we have a really good kid on our hands. I make no excuses for her terrible two’s and she can throw a mean fit with the best of them, but I know that’s part of a phase for her in her little life . She’s sweet and so funny – always wanting to make people laugh or laugh along with others. She doesn’t like to see others hurt or cry and she just always has a good nature about her. She'll talk to anyone who's willing and isn't scared or intimidated or snooty towards people. Most of the time she's in a good mood - rarely moody or sulky. She’s always loud and full of life, which I love about her. She’s just a cool, weird, goofy little girl. And theoretically, I want to give her the world…buuut then I don’t. We found that out the hard way last year at Christmas and then her birthday. She just ripped through gifts like there was no tomorrow and that really bugged me. I didn’t want to have that kid. I didn’t think she was one of those kids because of those two occasions, but it did scare me and the light bulb clicked on (Hello, McFly!). I knew that she was probably overstimulated, a little defensive and she was just TWO. But still, this year I set a limit on the gifts we got her (too much is too much) and really stressed to her beforehand that she needed to say thank you to everyone and be happy with what she has. (And she did a really good job - yay!)

SO...Santa wanted to get her her wish for Christmas, which was her pink bike. Now, we saw a LOT of bikes, but one stood out amongst the rest, not only to us, but to Miss Mia. We’ve been buying her little muscle cars and classic cars since she was old enough to play with them, sort of as a joke to see how many different makes and models we could find every time we came across them, but it seems to have rubbed off on the child. She saw this and immediately wanted it (hell, I immediately wanted it). It seems she has an affinity for old-school chrome like her Mommy :o)


There it was, nestled under the tree, fresh off of Santa’s sleigh. How adorable is that?

Yes, it's a Schwinn. That's why it has that classic look. They had red, blue and pink to choose from. She went back and forth between the pink and red, but ultimately set her heart on the pink. And when she woke up, I was ready with the video camera. I wanted to capture her real-time reaction since this was her first Christmas of really understanding it all. She cautiously walked to the living room, peeked around the corner and gasped saying, "Santa brought me a bike!" She immediately got on it and started riding it! What? I mean, I knew she wasn't brand new to the concept of pedaling, but this trike is a little heavy and I didn't think she'd just get the hang of it right off. As she rode it around she said, "This is just what I always wanted! Thank you, Santa! Thank you! Thank you!" She looked so darn cute.

It was hard getting her off of it to open the rest of her presents, but she finally brought herself around. She got lots of cute things, but my favorite (besides her trike) was her LeapFrog Scribble & Write. I knew I would get her that as soon as I saw it and I knew she would love it. She's a smart little cookie and I love finding neat educational toys that I know she'll take to. She's known her ABC's and 1-10 since she was 18 months and has only learned more since then, but this teaches little ones to use fine motor skills to write letters and draw shapes by tracing the lights that appear on the screen and she's already a little pro at it. It's really helping her learn to write them out and associate her letters and the difference between capitals and lower-case. Love it!

Playing her fishing game...still....

It's funny how kids will find the cheapest thing you get them and put all their attention on that, like it's the greatest thing ever. She did that with her little wind-up magnetic fishing game that came atop a candy tube in her stocking. Really, Mia? You have a sweet ass bike over there in the corner, remember? She remembered, but that game was just too alluring for a while there. Guess we'll have to get her the full-sized version one of these days.

Our two little ones' stockings. Ziggy loved his treats and especially his squeaky pirate bird

"Come on. Let's go for a ride."

Mia's so proud of her Daddy and she'll usually pick out a gift for him that has to do with his profession, which he Loves. She spotted this out of all the nutcracker characters on the shelves. And although she sometimes still calls them "bad boys", she now knows that her Daddy is a "police officer". He loved it and thought this guy looked pretty hardcore with his stache and white goatee.

After we opened gifts at home, we went to Grandma and Papa's house to have a yummy breakfast and watch the kids open gifts. Mia got a pretty jacket, a game and that cute little Alphie The Robot, which I know she'll love and learn from. We visited and Mia played with her cousins and tested everyone's toys...just to make sure they were working properly, of course ;o)