Ready for Christmas!!

December 1st- Already counting down the days!

Daniel loves this Dancing & Singing Snowman and Penguin toy!
He can almost push the button to turn it on himself...

Empty Christmas boxes are just the best...

Daniel checks out the Christmas tree!

Daniel gets to touch the tree...but he's not too sure what to make of it!

I got a kick out of this picture- you get an idea of Daniel's size compared to a calendar!

Fun with a craft mitten- Daniel tossed it and it landed on his head!

Daniel loves to watch this musical fireplace- Santa pops up and "dao"!
This toy is a frequent "must play" around here now!

It's been a fun week getting ready for Christmas around our house. I was so excited because I knew I had so many fun things Daniel would enjoy! Daniel is sure very curious about all the new decorations. We have all these toys for Daniel to play with, but he pretty much never plays in our family room these days- the good stuff's all in another room. As I've been going through the tubs and getting things out, I keep finding fun things for Daniel to play with or watch and he's loving it all. The empty Christmas gift boxes have just been the most fun- Daniel will play with these quite endlessly. He puts the lids on the boxes, takes them off, carries them around, and so on. I also have lots of musical things, and we all know how Daniel loves music, so of course I must play them all! Daniel walks around the house (almost all the time now! too cute!) and points at things for me to wind up and play or show him. He likes my dancing snowman toy and knows how to turn it on, but just needs a little more strength to push the button. The musical fireplace is fun to watch and I love how Daniel says "dao" every time Santa goes down the chimney. Daniel also likes all the snowglobes we have (we actually have quite a collection of them- I have a thing for snowglobes!) and we go around and I shake them up for him. And every morning we add an ornament to our advent trees together. I have to say I'm proud of myself for getting such a kid-friendly one several years ago- it's really a hit and I can't wait until he really gets even more out of it when he's older. It's been fun and Daniel really seems to like it.

As for the tree, Daniel's really only mildy interested in the tree. You can see we got a gate to put up around our tree (how else do you babyproof a tree??)- I was just SURE we would need it because Daniel is so very curious and mostly because he puts everything in his mouth still. It took him a few days to think about this new thing in our house, but now he looks at it from afar and will go up to the gate for a closer look, too. Perhaps he'll get more curious about it as the days go on and other things are less novel. Plus, he's never in the family room...so no wonder! Still, it's been so fun to get ready for Christmas with my toddler and show him all the fun things. It's my favorite time of year (except for the cold weather)- and this time around, my little guy is so much more curious and interested and that just makes it all the more fun!