We have an Advent Calendar for Davey.  Every evening he opens another numbered window, and every evening there is a piece of chocolate inside.  The chocolates are shaped like Santa Claus or a present, etc.  They are wrapped in very colorful pretty foil.  Davey loves them.

He carefully opens the window, and he takes out that chocolate like it is the most precious of valuables.  He slowly unwraps the candy, and then he moves off away from us abit to enjoy it in peace.  He just treasures them.  I guess it’s in the presentation.  We try not to go crazy on it around here, but he does eat his fair share of chocolate.   These are special.

David asked him if he was going to share one night.  Typically, Davey is a good sharer, but not with these advent chocolates.  He allowed David a microscopic sliver.  I am not sure that David could even see it.

I imagine and am glad that this will become a tradition.

Davey and I went to Super Target this afternoon.  Davey wanted to look at the toys while we were there.  “Mommy,  I don’t want to buy any toys.  I just want to LOOOOOOoooooOOOOk.”  (I tried to describe just how he said it.)  So we went to look.  We’d been wanting to get Candyland though, and so we did get him that.

Candyland!

I was having too much fun with my camera as usual trying to go for some unusual shots.

My goal here was a picture of Davey.  Not the waving Candyland pawn.  But I like it.

Ohhhhh!

Animated kid!

I couldn’t resist this picture of the top of his sweet head.

This is not actually a victory shot, but it could be!

Candyland was a hit.  Two games:  Mommy 1.  Davey 1.   I think more matches are in our future.

The Advent Wreath and Christmas decorations are still buried in the back of the closet.  Unfortunately there is just no room for many decorations.  I think Davey and I will buy some Christmas lights today to hang on the mantle.  He’d love that.

So we improvised again with other candles.  Davey wanted more dancing; however, he (and David) did not approve of my Christmas musical choices.  I kept getting shot down in this manner:  “Mommy.  That song is TERRIBLE!”, and David would laugh along merrily (Form of laughter allowed around Christmas).  So I went through a variety of Christmas cds.   I think Davey wants the equivalent of a holiday AC/DC Thunderstruck.  That’s not going to happen!

Here’s my little AC/DC loving “hoodlum”.

And for a knitting update: I have 2 more projects finished.  Yay!  They were fairly quick knits.  I took pictures this morning so that I can share after Christmas.   I keep looking at the box of yarn for The Sweater.  I need to figure out the fair isle design from the Eddie Bauer sweater.  That shouldn’t be too hard, but then I have to adjust the pattern I have for the fair isle.  Again, it shouldn’t be too hard, but we shall see.

Ok, we are off to tumbling in just a little while.   Then a few errands.  It’s pretty much Spring here again in Denver.  Well maybe not Spring, but it’s pretty mild outside.  They say it snows here on occasion, but we are starting not to believe it.  At some point, it’s going to dump 2 feet on us, and then I will be sorry I said that!

Happy Tuesday!

This afternoon, Davey and I decorated Christmas cookies.  He had a great time with sprinkles.  He also carefully placed these little pearly gem sprinkles one by one.  Until he got towards the end, and then I looked over and saw a small mountain of sprinkles on a cookie.  That was fun too.

What is the knitting equivalent for “her eyes were bigger than her stomach”?  It applies to me regarding current projects, yarn stash and projects I want to begin.

I did finish a hat and scarf yesterday.  They are having a drive for handmade items at school, so I thought I would make something.  The scarf I knitted is such a fun scarf.  If you need a fairly last minute handmade gift, this pattern is great.  It knits up fast, and it is such a fun scarf to knit.  Well, I enjoy dropping stitches on purpose.  That never gets old for me.

So at least I do have one thing finished.  I am also more than halfway through on 2 other secret projects.  I am looking forward to putting up photos of those after Christmas.

But then I am ALMOST done with the first sock for David’s “wheat socks”.  I don’t know why I don’t just finish it up.  Maybe then I know that I have to start the second one.  Second Sock-itis abit on these.  It’s a pretty fun pattern, but it’s dark gray and I am going to have to get more yarn I think.  Look at that long foot.  It has to be almost done.

I have one leg knitted on a little magic loop monster I’ve started.

I am anxious to get back to my test knit project, but I love the horizontal cable, that I have done so far:

And then yesterday we went to the Fancy Tiger craft show.  Great stuff there in a really cool old building in downtown Denver.  Unfortunately, it was very crowded and not the best place for a 3 year old (or his 43 year old dad either I think).  I had a lot fun looking though for a little while, during which time David wrangled with Davey.

There was a spinner selling her yarn.  You can check her out on etsy.  I like her seller name “MurderousHoney“, I guess I should find out the inspiration for its origin before I like it too much!  She had such pretty yarn.  I can’t resist green too well plus I like the idea of meeting the person who actually dyed and spun the yarn.  So I bought this.  I am thinking shawlette.  I’d kinda like to knit one like the Alaska one I did earlier in the summer.  This is not the best photo.  It’s cloudy this morning and the light is not great.

So that’s yarn and knitting for me.  And I haven’t even mentioned “The Sweater”.

But now it’s about time to make cookies with Davey.  I have to take some to school tomorrow so we get to have fun baking and then I won’t have them all here tempting me!

Happy Sunday and Second Advent!

The other day one of my students surprised me with some finger paints for Davey.  She told me that when she was a kid, her mom would put her in the bathtub and she would paint and paint in the tub.   It was a great idea (and so thoughtful of my student).  Davey loved it.

He painted and painted.  Although he mostly used a big sponge brush.

I have to say that by the end it was starting to look like a primary colored crime scene.  Davey thought it was fun cleaning up though, and he helped me scrub.

Then look what arrived yesterday.  I guess I am going to have to get started.  David claims that I can still meet the deadline.   I think that by January 11th, I am still going to be figuring out how to adjust my pattern to meet the David Specifications.

Happy Saturday!  We are off to a craft show.  I am thinking that it’s going to be more of an etsy artist type craft show which would be really neat.  Davey is excited.  He wants to go see the “beautiful crafts!”

Yesterday we took David to the “beach”.  This time Davey really did fish.   Well, David put a piece of hotdog on for bait, and Davey held the bait in the water.  He can push the button and actually cast and reel it back in.  He’s still perfecting his methods, but he is doing great!   We determined that there are exactly zero fish in that part of the creek.

We walked David back over to the lake so he could see the geese.  They are amazing.

As we were walking around the lake, about 50 geese launched.  They flew right over our heads.  It was incredible.  These Canada Geese are pretty good sized!  So it was as if I was standing right in front of an airplane runway, and the airplanes were coming directly toward me.  The geese rose very quickly just above us.  Why I did not yank out my camera and get a shot of that – I’ve been kicking myself ever since.  However, it was such a brief cool moment that I hated to ruin it fiddling with my camera.  I was also afraid to take my eyes off them as I was very afraid of big plops of green goose poop hitting me in the head.  Not that I probably could have dodged it in time, but I wanted to keep my eyes on the situation.  It was something else.  David said I could photograph it next time.  It happens approximately once every 42 years it seems.

Then I have been trying to figure out what to do for our Christmas card.  I was able to get Davey to pose for me at the park.  Well somewhat.  It was more my usual approach of taking about one million pictures and hoping that something turned out.  I was happy to get some nice ones, and I ordered the cards yesterday.  A little late.  I hope they ship to me quickly.

So here is what did not make the Christmas card.  Although I think it might have been kind of fun.

And I loved this pose:

Time to run some errands.  We are off to mail bills and buy groceries.  The wind is incredible here today.  There are supposed to be 80 mph gusts in places this afternoon!

I am knitting.  Not as much as I would like, but I am hoping to knit more this weekend.  I am ready to get back to my Joy of Sox Socks!  My test project for Susan is coming along.  This is such a fun pattern, I hope to get back to it this weekend.  I’ll have to put some pictures of my progress up.

And finally,  David and Davey were talking about shapes the other day.  David said, “Davey what is my head shaped like?”  Davey thought about it for awhile (the last time we asked him, he’d said oval), and then he answered, “Pineapple”. Then David asked him what my head was shaped like.  Davey considered this again, and he finally said, “A Pumpkin”.  I am not sure what prompted him to consider fruit shapes, but I suppose he’s correct!

So Pumpkin Head is off to take little punkin head on our errands!

Yesterday Davey and I went for a walk.

We parked a couple of miles from our house at a park, and then Davey was off.  I never get tired of taking pictures of him on the move.

We headed down the little dirt road.   Our destination was a small rocky beach on Bear Creek.

We cut off the little dirt road and walked down a narrow path.  Some of the grasses were as tall as Davey.  He said, “It feels like we are going underwater!”

We came upon a big fallen tree.  We explored around it for awhile until we saw a big hole going into the ground.  We got a little worried (I did) as to what might come out of that hole.

We headed on down to the path into the woods.

Finally we arrived at the stream.

Davey started “fishing”, and he immediately had a fish on the line.

He decided it was time for our picnic.  He was most interested in the candy cane Hershey’s Kisses.  Who could blame him?  Those little candies are irresistible, and I knew I shouldn’t buy them.  But I just could not stop myself.  “After all, they are just available once a year!”  Thank goodness!

Then I took some more pictures of him playing.  I love the wintry background, and I was having fun with my camera.

Davey started fishing again.  Here is he walking backing and forth saying, “I didn’t get a whopper.”  (You can see his mouth saying “whopper” here.)

Finally it was time to start walking back.

We walked back around the little lake, and we were fascinated by the Canada Geese standing on the ice.

Unfortunately, we scared them away.

David is good at holding out the camera and taking a picture of the three of us.  Here is what happens when I try to do it.  I think you can spot Davey in it.

Finally we were back to the car, but Davey still did not want to stop running.

A happy picture to end on I think.

Yesterday was tumbling day again.   I took my camera and got lots of pictures.  I wanted to document everything Davey did as much as I could since David couldn’t be there.  So I took 8 million pictures – as you are going to see from this picture heavy post.

Beginning with:

Davey arrives.  He took off his socks and shoes to prepare.  We were early so he hit the toys.

Next we wait for our turn.  He likes to watch the class that is before ours.  I think you can tell that he is grinning even in this photo. (At first I was thinking about the grin showing at the side of his face, but then I also saw it in the reflection!)

Once we get inside, he is perpetual motion.

They sit in a circle after they warm up abit, and we all introduce ourselves.  They were also supposed to say what their favorite vegetable is. Davey never is much on introducing himself, and of course he is not much on vegetables.  But when they got to us, he was ready to go.  “My name is DAVEY!”  Then she asked what his favorite vegetable was.  “CARROTS!!”   Yes, I was surprised to hear that.

After they introduced themselves, they were supposed to do a forward roll.  Miss Heather helped him.  I have two pictures of the forward roll sequence.  Again, I am fascinated by the ability to do a somersault.  It was never my thing.

And over he went!

He loves climbing all over everything in there.  He is so focused as you can see by that tongue.

A brief still moment.

And I have to say that he is such a good listener.  When it’s time to sit down, he runs over to sit down.  When it’s time to get a new piece of equipment or if it is time to put something away,  he runs over as fast as he can go.

And so darn adventurous!

And he loved it!  He grinned from ear to ear!

And then on his back.  He was a little unsure about this at first.  You can see him holding onto her arm. But she was right there with him.  And he loved it!

They finish with bubbles.  What’s better than bubbles?  Oh a stamp!  On the way out, they each get a stamp (or two) on their hands.

Here he had a bubble carefully balanced on his finger.

When we left, he kept saying,  “Mommy, I had such a good time there today!”