Christmas 2010

Christmas...what can I say; we made it through. It is such an incredibly busy time of year for us, that I have not had time to sit and write. It was very enjoyable all said and done. We finished our shopping way ahead of schedule, for the most part, but there just seemed to be an endless amount of things to accomplish, places to go and people to see. We kept the holiday music streaming in the background pretty much everyday from thanksgiving until Christmas, this coupled with our fresh Nobel Fir Christmas tree, and our home was filled with a little extra Christmas spirit this year.
  The hardest part about this Christmas season, was trying to convince Apollo to go see Santa. We showed him pictures of himself sitting on Santa's lap from the past two years, even had Santa send him a little Christmas video where he was talking to Apollo, watched all the animated Christmas movies, and still he did not want to go. Every night turned into a battle; "Apollo, look! Santa is on Dada's computer! Wanna see him?", "NO! I don't like him! Close it!" he demands, as he extends his hand out in front of himself and positions it to block out Santa, yet spreading his fingers ever so slightly to allow for a view of the bearded man, "Close it, right NOW!". It was time to change strategies. With a little help from one of our favorite Christmas movies, Elf, I encouraged Apollo to get super excited when he saw Santa on TV, "Santa! Santa! Santa!" He would scream at the top of his lungs...that is until we got to the mall, and there was Santa in person. "Dada, Apollo want to go home. I don't like him." It was our strategy to have the big brothers go up there with him, and Apollo could actually sit on Ian's lap instead of Santa. This sounded good in theory, however, once they began to walk towards Santa, Apollo went into full on 'fight or flight' mode; twisting and convulsing while screaming "No...no, NO!". Needless to say, Mel drug him up there anyway but had to stay by his side even for the pictures. The only picture where he managed to not be freaking out, is the one I posted here, where he decided to do his best impression of his dog Remi, by shoving his lower jaw forward, so he would have the same under bite as his dog. Well, at least we got a picture.
  A nine hour car ride, and we found ourselves in Southern California at my parents house for Christmas. We were joined by Uncle Gooch or "Goochie" as Apollo calls him, along with Aunt Debbie and cousin Alexandra. Apollo was excited to be at his Yiayia and Papa's house, and to our amazement, he even remembered their house when we pulled up in front; it has been 8 months since we were last there. "See Yiayia's house?"
 My favorite memory from this Christmas will be Apollo's singing. He is very intuitive and picked up on how much everyone liked his singing, and decide to grace us with his cute little singing voice several times a day. Apollo can actually carry a tune quite well! I am sure he spent a good 4 hours a day singing to all of us. Some times, he would invite you to sing along with him, but most times, if you joined in, you were quickly put in your place. "Mama! No sing Twinkle little star!...NO!!" while pointing defiantly at his mom. His favorite songs to sing right now are: Twinkle, twinkle little star, ABC's, and jingle bells. I am working on getting video of him singing and I will post it here when I do. For now, I will write his favorite versus as he sings them: "Twinkle twinkle little sar, how I what you what you are, up above the worl so high, like a dino in the ky, twinkle, twinkle little sar, how I what you are ....yeah!"

Let the holidays begin

I spend a good portion of my day in front of a computer, staring at spread sheets or blue prints, but from time to time, I will close out enough of my documents that I can see my wallpaper. It is a picture of Apollo. Some times, I see the picture and think, "Holy crap! I have a kid!...When did this happen? I am way to young to have a kid." Way too young...Melanie would certainly equate this with my maturity level. But the point I am trying to make is, there is this rush of excitement inside, I can only compare it to climbing out of an airplane at 13,000 feet getting ready to make a skydive. Its like a quick little adrenaline rush. It startles me at times, but then I cant wait to get home and see my little man.
  The Holidays are upon us, and Melanie has done an amazing job with the lights and the decorations. Our tree is up and the house is filled with the fragrance of Noble Fir...thank you Oregon! This is truly one of my favorite smells.

  Apollo's excitement levels are rising. He loves lights and is mesmerized by them. Our street has some very festively decorated houses and yards which makes it a fun time of year for Apollo. We have been talking to him about Santa and letting him watch some of the animated Christmas movies.  I can tell how much he understands and is excited about Christmas, by his mumblings in his sleep; "Dada... go see Santa?". We will see how much he really wants to see Santa when we place him on Santa's Lap this year. His first two years visiting Santa, he was absolutely fine. I am almost certain that this year might be a little scary for him. One of Apollo's recent developmental phases, is the ability to differentiate between unsavory characters. Not that Santa is unsavory, but a white bearded guy in a furry red suit that likes to have kids sit on his lap, is definitely a little creepy. In the past few months while reading stories to Apollo, he has started to express his disdain for certain characters in the picture books. It is pretty cute to watch actually. He will place his hand out in front of himself, fingers up, palm facing away, like he is saying "stop". He then adjusts his had forward and back to block out the figure he does not want to see.    He has especially been having a difficult time with the Finding Nemo book. If you have seen the movie or read the picture books you can totally relate to the scary characters. The first villain in the book that he does not like is, the scuba diver that captures Nemo. We sometimes have to close the book at this point in the story, and put it out of sight. If we make it past this first villain, the next is the dentists' creepy little niece who has red Pipi Longstocking pigtails sticking out of the side of her head, and a mouth full of braces complete with head gear. We still like the sharks at this point, but the little girl is just a bit much. So, I am thinking Santa might be too scary this year. 
  Conversations with Apollo are becoming more complex. I am constantly entertained with what he says, how he says them and the context that he uses words or phrases. Last night, Apollo and I were sitting on the couch discussing his "owee's". "Dada, see owee? thats a big one!" "That is a big one Apollo, this is a big one too." I reply pointing to another abrasion. "No Dada, that a little one." "What about these other two owee's?", "Those ones all gone dada." At that moment, Apollo lets a rather loud fart. "WOW APOLLO!! Thats a BIIIIIG owee!!" With a straight face he looks at me a bit perplexed and very matter-of-factly, proclaims, "No dada, that's a really big fart!"