Breakfast with Santa, Mrs Claus and the Grinch

This morning we took the kids along with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Heather to a Breakfast with Santa event and had a wonderful time. When we were kids we always went to breakfast with the Cinnamon Bears...so we thought we'd continue on with the tradition as close as we could find up here in Seattle. Brenden loved almost everything as long as we didn't insist he sit on Santa's lap or follow through on the high 5 he almost gave the Grinch. I believe Mrs. Claus was the only one that actually got him to shake hands. This was our 2nd Santa attempt this week, our 3rd and final attempt will be tomorrow with Todd's family for pictures. I'm guessing we won't be successful in getting him on Santa's lap without a few tears. You'd think he hated Santa, but he's absolutely fascinated with him, as long as he keeps his distance. They also had a great musical performance for the children that held Brenden's attention quite well, and he ate a great breakfast using an adult fork for the first time. We were a little concerned he might lose an eye waving his fork around, but all in all, he did pretty well. Here are a few pictures...and finally a huge smile from Claire caught on camera!

Claire-week 9 pictures

Little Claire is growing like crazy and is smiling more and more. We are still awaiting her first little giggle. She had her 2 month check up and weighed in at 11 lbs 5 oz putting her into the 75th percentile, she was 23 1/4 inches long putting her in the 90th percentile and her head is now in the 75th percentile. Overall her growth pattern is identical to what Brenden did, she's just a little smaller then he was. I'm still struggling to get pictures where she is smiling, but I've finally captured a few. Brenden is her biggest source of entertainment and he loves it.

Brenden holiday fun & the Village Bean Coffee shop

Brenden is fascinated with all the holiday decorations and loves to sit in front of his tree and just admire all the bright lights and fun ornaments. Anyone that is over visiting is pulled over to the tree with him and instructed to sit down on the floor and just look at the tree with him. It's pretty cute watching the holiday fun through his eyes. We also discovered a great little coffee shop about 3 miles from the house called the Village Bean. Brenden loves the train table and all the little animals. We took him there on Monday for a few hours and I took him again on Friday with my friend Kim and her little guy Michael. Brenden has also discovered the dust particles that fly in the air that you see in the streams of sunlight...apparently they are fun to try and eat...

Brenden and James

Despite a 10 month age gap, Brenden and James are learning to play together quite nicely. It's so fun having my best friend have a little boy so close in age to Brenden and even better seeing that they like each other! As if they had much of a choice! Pretty soon we aren't even going to be able to tell who is older!