Getting ready for Christmas (and Wild Animals Week)

We've been living in our new townhouse for a week and a day, and we really love it. We're all settled in and have been able to spend some time getting ready for Christmas. Joe and I originally said we weren't going to get a big tree this year and were just going to use a little table top one instead. However, once we were in the new house we saw that we had room for a big tree and decided to go for it. We bought a fake one this year to make things a little easier, and we have it all set up and decorated in our living room. We put our Super Yard around it to keep it safe from two certain toddlers and we've been enjoying it all day long. Charlie and Lily really like looking at it, and they enjoy hanging on the gate and throwing their toys at the tree. Sometimes they reach in and "decorate" the branches with their toys. The other day I a found a little toy frog nestled in among the regular ornaments.
Grandma Anne recently went shopping in New York and bought Charlie and Lily a whole bunch of fun holiday clothes. She also brought them these reindeer ears, but Lily wasn't interesting in modeling them.

Grandma Anne was happy to show her how it was done though.

I also managed to get out some of our Christmas decorations. Charlie and Lily love, love, love these two singing snowmen. When I turn them on they both race over and smile, dance and clap along with the music. The snowmen are currently passing Elmo as the favorite form of entertainment in the house.

"What?!? The snowmen stopped singing and we got bored. This is totally not our fault."
Preparing for Christmas can be very stressful, so Charlie and Lily make sure to take time to relax each day with a little spot of tea.

This week we also got back on track with our lessons. We learned about wild animals by reading Tommy Teddy Meets the Wild Animals and singing "The Elephant." We ate animal crackers, practiced animal sounds and worked on identifying animals. Charlie and Lily also watched Baby Einstein World Animal Adventure, although they didn't enjoy it nearly as much as they enjoy their favorites, Head to Toes and Baby MacDonald. For art we made paper plate lions. I know they look a little like suns, but I think they're still cute! Charlie and Lily have gotten very good with the glue stick, and know how to push the glued paper down all by themselves. Let's see...what else? I feel like I haven't given a good baby update in awhile. Both Charlie and Lily are full-fledged walkers now, which is awesome. I love seeing them walking all around the house. And I love that when I say, "Come give me a hug!" they run over with their arms outstretched! Lily is starting to grasp the concept of gender. She picks up the farmer-shaped puzzle piece and the Little People prince and calls them "Dadda" and refers to the Little People princess as the "Mama." This morning I asked her where the doggie was and she she flipped to the page in the animal picture book with the dog on it. Charlie has a few more words now - he says "Dadda" and "ball," and the other day he said "Pop-Pop" to Grandpa Fred! He is awesome at stacking blocks and is really good with the shape sorter too. They are getting so big and so smart. I can't believe that in less than two weeks they'll be 18 months old!

PS: We need to say a heartfelt thank you to the secret Santa who sent us an awesome gift in the mail. It came unsigned with no return address, so we don't know who to thank, but if you happen to be a blog reader, please know how grateful we are :) Happy Holidays!