25 Christmas Books For Kids

We are getting into the holiday spirit over here.  Xavier has already been wearing Santa pajamas and Christmas long-sleeved tee's and I've started baking Christmas cookies (and freezing them).  We occasionally rock out to Christmas music because the local radio station has already turned over to it.  I also got a head start on some holiday decorating.

 Balls garland // Mittens garland (found at Target)

Xavier's attention span for books is growing exponentially right now!  Literally one month ago, he had no patience for books.  Then, one day, when my parents spent the night, they read him a book, pointing out the objects and naming them, and something clicked!  He seemed interested, eager to see what was on the next page.  So I put together a list of some of my favorite Christmas books for kids.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
The Night Before Christmas
A Christmas Carol
The Polar Express
The Elf on the Shelf
What is Christmas?
The Pajama Elves
The Night Before the Night Before Christmas
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Spot's Christmas
Bear Stays Up for Christmas
Little Blue Truck's Christmas
Dream Snow
Olivia Helps with Christmas
Snowmen at Christmas
Maisy's Christmas Day
Baby Santa
Merry Christmas, Mom and Dad
The Little Christmas Elf
The Sweet Smell of Christmas
The Poky Little Puppy's First Christmas
Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree
Pete the Cat Saves Christmas
Counting Christmas

I think this is a good mix of some classics, with some modern ones mixed in.  I love Christmas book traditions like Elf on the Shelf and The Pajama Elves, to throw in some fun when Xavier is a little bit older.

Board books are his favorite now.  He loves picking up a closed board book and using his two little thumbs to split the book and turn to a page.

Sometimes he flips straight to the middle of a book,

sometimes he reads to himself in his own language,

sometimes he throws it on the floor,

and sometimes, he sits quietly and lets me read to him.

Thanksgiving Plans

After going back and forth on what to serve, we finally decided on a menu for Thanksgiving.

My husband will be cooking up the turkey this year, baking it in the oven in an oven bag, adding lots some herbs and seasonings.  See a great recipe here.  This is how we made it last year and it was terrific!  Baking it in oven bags makes the turkey so flavorful and tender, it literally falls right off the bird!  We're also serving up some of our favorite side dishes:

I also want to try a traditional cranberry sauce-inspired dish, these Cranberry Brie Bites.  They sound so tasty!

As for pie, although I'm not a fan, we will probably be serving the traditional pumpkin pie.  Alongside we may also serve apple pie or peanut butter pie to satisfy my tastes!  For other recipes mentioned on my blog, see my newly created Recipes Page!

We are hosting for the second year in a row.  Last year, we cooked all the dishes (except the turkey) the night before.  About an hour before serving, we popped them in our double ovens on reheat and only had to worry about cooking the turkey the day of.  It worked out so perfectly!  We barely spent any time in the kitchen which left much more time for us to spend socializing and visiting with our guests.

We will have the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on in the background, listening to some Christmas tunes, and visiting with family.  I'm thinking we'll snack on some appetizers, maybe these bacon wrapped smokies or mini-pigs in a blanket (using crescent rolls in a can) while we watch the parade.  And this will be Xavier's first real Thanksgiving Day dinner.  Can't wait to see how he likes it!  He has informed us that he wants to help with the cooking.  He's been practicing!

Off I go to daydream of all the food that's about to come!! :)

15 Month Update

Age: 15 months
Size:  27 lbs, 7 oz. (84th percentile), 32.5 in. (86th percentile)
Clothes:  Wearing mostly 2T, sometimes 3T if the brand runs small.  Though we constantly roll up pant legs to keep them from dragging.

Favorite Foods:  chicken nuggets, tater tots, meatballs, spinach and peas mix, mandarin oranges, bananas, blueberries
Least Favorite Foods:  pasta or ravioli (when he takes a bite, it makes him cry)
Favorite Words:  doggy "gaw-gie"  His favorite word, he says it over and over :)

Favorite Activities:  Making friends with strangers.  Playing with straws or cups, putting straws in the cups.  This entertains him longer than most of his toys and is a great activity for keeping him in one place.  Reading himself stories using his own language and watching Baby Einstein or Wiggles Dance Party.  Opening doors to take something out-close the door-play with item for a few seconds-open the door and put it back in-close the door-clap his hands to show how proud he is of himself.  Blowing kisses and waving bye-bye.  Hiding behind things and poking his head out.  Playing with magnets on the fridge.  Climbing over rails at bottom of dining room table.  Playing with the automatic opening trash can lid.  Smashing his face on the glass windows.  Putting toys in kitchen drawers for us to find later.  Getting tickled.

Least Favorite Activities:  Diaper changes and anything involving him keeping still.

Favorite Things:

Baeba utensils - These spoons and forks are fat enough to be easily gripped by his little fingers.
Wooden Blocks - He likes stacking them and throwing them :)
Animal Magnets - We put these on the bottom of our fridge and he plays with them constantly.  We put a few out at a time and tell him what the animals are.
Go, dog. Go! - We keep going back to this book.  He likes how busy and colorful the pictures are.
Shapes Sorter - Similar to the one he got as a birthday gift.  We like teaching him the shapes and colors and he's getting good at lining up the shapes and dropping them in.
Toothbrush - These toothbrushes have a fat handle, making it easy for Xavier to grip and brush his own teeth.  He's at the age where he won't let us brush for him, so this makes it easier for him to do it.

See all Monthly Favorites here.

Mom's Proudest Moment:  I left Xavier in the baby-proofed upstairs while I ran downstairs to grab something out of the dryer.  When I came back up, I heard a "BOOM", pause, then Xavier belting out the cries.  I ran upstairs and saw Xavier on the landing.  He had fallen down the stairs!  Guess I forgot to lock the baby gate.  Luckily he only fell 3 steps.  It terrified me the next few days whenever I thought about it.  Mama for the win.
Dad's Proudest Moment:  Dad let Xavier get into spice cabinet.  When he came back, Xavier was covered in cinnamon and nutmeg.  Our little sugar cookie!

Other Milestones:
He has some two-inch blocks that he can stack six on top of each other.  They are the smaller blocks so they tip pretty easily.  When he gets to the fourth one, he starts to stack them up so slowly and carefully.

He sleeps like a champ.  7pm - 7am with one 2 hour nap after lunch.  Sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night, but can almost always put himself back to sleep.

We caught him walking behind his walker and standing on his own a few seconds.

A funny exchange recently:
Steve:  Xavier, say Mama.
Xavier:  Dada
S:  Come on Xavier. Say Mamamamamama
X:  ..........Dadadadadadadaaaaaaa

Friday Favorites

I'm seeing all over Facebook friends who have started decorating for Christmas, some have their trees already up.  They are savoring every drop of Christmas they can!  Unfortunately, since we put our big tree in one of the rooms Xavier loves to play in, we will have to wait a while to put ours up (literally crying!).  Although that hasn't stopped me from planning exactly what photos I want to take and save in my Google docs to refer back to when we finally put it up.  Last year, he was too small for us to get good shots of him near it.  So excited!

Today was a bit of a lazy day for my guy.  We sent him off to the babysitter in the same footed pajamas he wore to bed because 1. he has drawers full of nothing clean and 2. these PJ's tend to solicit tons of snuggles, and who wouldn't want to be snuggled on this freezing, wintery-like day?

On to some favorites for your Friday!

1.  Red Nails - We had our holiday photos taken last weekend, so I dug out one of my favorite colors of reds and have been wearing it all week.  To complement the red nails, if you haven't seen it, Starbucks is now on to their red Christmas cups!

2.  B&BW Winter Candy Apple lotion - New holiday scents are out and this one is a good one!  It smells sweet and I love the festive bottle!

3.  Halloween costumes... for next year!  Places like Pottery Barn Kids and Target have their Halloween costumes on sale right now for just a couple dollars.  Time to scoop them up to save time and money next year!  Also on clearance, Halloween candy :)

4.  'Tis the season to make dipped pretzels!  Just like the popcorn mix we make, dipped pretzels can be made all year round.  I love that you can add just about anything to them, sprinkles or chopped up Andes mints.  These would be great put in a mason jar and passed out as gifts!

5.  Nestle Toll House Delightfulls - speaking of sweets, I just heard about these baking morsels with filling in the middle.  Fillings include mint, caramel, peanut butter, and cherry.  I hear my chocolate chip cookie recipe calling for the PEANUT BUTTER morsels!

Only one more full week before Thanksgiving turkey!!

Thanksgiving Fashion Finds

Thanksgiving is just a couple weeks away, so it's time to get the planning started!  For the second year in a row, we will be hosting the holiday at our house.  Last year, Xavier was just 3 months old for his very first Thanksgiving.  He was too young to indulge in the food and I'm so excited for him to eat a real Thanksgiving dinner this year!  We're not sure what we are serving, but I plan to have a few repeat dishes that were big hits from last year - sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows, cheesy potatoes, and crescent rolls with cinnamon butter.  I'll post our recipes soon!

Things I'm most excited about are the cheesy potatoes, football, putting up the Christmas tree, more cheesy potatoes, and watching Christmas Vacation.

On to some toddler fashion finds.  Here are some of my favorites for Thanksgiving Day!

headband // plaid bow dress // ruffled tights // mary jane flats

fedora // white sweater // tan cords // boots

The trick to getting Xavier to keep a hat on is to distract him while putting it on and snap pics as quickly as possible.  We only get a few good shots, but if we don't distract him with the iPhone or a toy, he will take it off before it even gets on his head!

Regardless, I'm excited to start planning our menu and for the cooking that comes along with it.  We have been working with Xavier on how to use the kitchen tools so he can help in the kitchen too.  You can see how nicely our efforts are coming along...  :)

Keepin' It Cozy

It's no secret that my favorite attire is anything comfortable.  My closet is stocked full of leggings (why can I never seem to have enough?!), soft hoodies, or slim-fit sweatpants.  As soon as I come home from work, it's no more than 10 minutes before I'm changed and in my comfies!  I'm very excited about some new cozy-wear, just in time for the cold weather and cozying up by the fire! I also threw in some cozies for the little ones!

Red sweater one-piece // Blue and white stripe bunting // Fleece booties //
Striped socks // Infinity scarf // Leggings // Slippers

This time of year, I practically live in my favorite pair of leggings and camps socks.  Our house is set up so that when the heat is on, our upstairs gets extra hot.  So we try to keep it cold upstairs as much of the season that we can, before the heat goes into overdrive during the snowy months and we find ourselves sleeping in t-shirts with no bed covers!

Of course, with cold weather already here (brrrr!!!), it's time to start running our fireplace!  I am a little nervous about having it on with Xavier wanting to get in to EVERYTHING, but for now, he's content just staring. We may have to reevaluate its use when he becomes curious about what happens to toys once they are thrown in the fire, kinda like how he is now about the toilet. :)

Having a fireplace also means making lots of fireplace s'mores!  They are the perfect snack - the equivalent to a single cupcake or homemade cookie, but hardly any of the work!  And, with graham crackers now coming in short stacks, you can open the package and not have the whole box go stale so quickly!  The things that excite us!!

Stay nice and warm.  It's coooolllld out there!