It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around the Zorio house! The inside and outside are completely decorated, and Dawson is loving every bit of the decorations! His favorite things are the outside Christmas lights, our Christmas tree, and our nutcrackers. He tries to say "nutcracker" and it comes out sounding like "cra...ker." I'm sure this is somewhat confusing to him when we hand him a Ritz and call it a cracker, so hopefully he will start saying all of the word "Nutcracker" before long!

Last weekend we got to go see Santa. Dawson was not afraid at all; in fact, he enjoyed seeing Santa and talking to him. Santa was great, and he even got down on the floor to play with Dawson for a minute. This is the same Santa that John and I had our picture taken with when I was pregnant with Dawson in 2008 and last year when Dawson was 6.5 months old.

This week Dawson had Jude (2 years) and his brother Jasper (4 months) over for a playdate. Dawson had fun playing with his friend, Jude, while Jude's mom, Blakeley and I chatted. Dawson's favorite thing about playing with Jude (other than trying to eat all of Jude's animal crackers) was when they played in the tent together. Dawson's tent that connects his two tunnels has recently become a new favorite toy, again. John started the game of chasing Dawson around the tent, which Dawson loves. Today though, Dawson and Jude just had fun going in and out of the tent together.

Last week Dawson's friend Connor (26 months) came over to play. Their favorite thing to do together was push the vacuum around and play with the Cozy Coupe. Dawson also enjoyed trying to eat all of Connor's goldfish snacks. You would think we never fed him! :) We even had both goldfish and animal crackers at our house, but I guess they are more appetizing when another kid is snacking on them.

A new very special treat Dawson got to try this week was a sucker. We had a couple of the Dum-Dum kind left over from Halloween, and we allowed Dawson to sit in his highchair and have one. He LOVED it. He did very well not to get too sticky. When his hands did get sticky, he would reach them out to me to wipe off! :) This was a special treat we used to try to make him a little happier two times this week. He is cutting his upper canine teeth, and he was a little fussy from this a couple of days this week.

We have been continuing our Christmas Crafts some of which aren't so much actual crafts as activities, but Dawson still LOVES it. Today's activity was making red and green cup cakes. Dawson has never helped me cook before, so today was the first time. He loved everything about it. I folded up one of my aprons and let him wear it. He was so upset when I had to make him take it off at bathtime that he cried...poor guy! I let him help me pour in the ingredients and then use a whisk to mix everything together. He loved stirring the batter. After they were finished he (somewhat) helped me frost them. For this part I held his hand and moved it where it needed to go to frost the cupcakes. He didn't care though, he thought this was SO fun! I regret that I haven't let him cook any sooner, but I think he's just now getting to the age where this is fun for him. We had a few messes, but it was totally worth the clean up time after he went to bed just to see how happy he was. Another one of his favorite parts of cooking was the timer. I think I've mentioned before that Dawson has an obsession with clocks and he has since June. He points them out EVERYWHERE! Our timer looks like a little clock, and I let him hold it. He loved listening to it tick and talking about the clock for the entire 18 minutes the cupcakes were in the oven. :)

Another Christmas activity we did this week was in the bathtub. We've talked about how Santa has a big white beard and Dawson will point to his beard in pictures. During bathtime, I filled the tub with bubbles, and we used the bubbles to make a white, fluffy beard. Dawson had more fun playing in the bubbles than when I put them on his face...he did get a kick out of the beard I made for myself though! :)

It seems like Dawson's vocabulary and thought process have suddenly advanced again. A few days ago we were all in the kitchen finishing dinner when John got up to go to the bedroom to get Bentley. Dawson was very upset that John left the room, and he started yelling for John. First he just said, "DAD! DAD! .....DAD!....DAD??" Then he strung together the most words I've heard him use together when he said, "DAD, DAD, COME BACK!! DAD BACK!" Of course, John came quickly after hearing Dawson say all of this! :)

Last weekend John was trying to share a few bites of breakfast with Dawson, and Dawson was having none of that. Dawson looked at the food and said a new word: "gross." It sounded more like "Grssss." I know he meant gross because after he said that he pointed to the food again and said, "shooooo" which is what he says about used diapers, socks, and trash. I didn't realize that I do say gross quiet frequently, and so I guess he picked this up from me! hah!

Well, that's about it for the Zorio Family Update for the past couple of weeks. Enjoy the pictures below...they should be even better resolution than before because we have a new camera! As part of our Christmas gifts for each other John and I decided it was time to get rid of our 5megapixel camera and upgrade. It was hard to get rid of the old camera because we bought it when we were dating, and it was our first joint purchase! That camera went everywhere-tons of football games(home and away), John's graduation, my graduation, Dawson's birth, our honeymoon, wedding showers, baby showers, etc. It was time for an upgrade though, and we're happy with our new camera! Enjoy the clearer-than-before pictures below! :)

Above: Our Family with Santa. December 2010

Dawson 18.5 months.

Above: Our family with the same Santa last year.

Christmas 2009.

Dawson 6.5 months.

Above: Our family

with Santa. Christmas 2008.

4 months pregnant with Dawson.

Above: Dawson and Connor playing with

all of the toys they got out!

Above: Dawson and Connor playing with the

Cozy Coupe.

Above: Dawson reading in his diaper!

Above: Dawson with Santa.

Above: I love this picture because it looks like

Santa is telling Dawson that he's on the naughty

list or something serious! :) Dawson is of course

on the "nice" list!

Above: Dawson playing with Santa.

Above: Singing Christmas Carols in the car on the

way to see Santa.

Above: Our tree. Since most people won't be able to come

visit Christmas I thought I would share some pictures

of our home at Christmas.

Above: The stocking hanging on the fire place

because I am afraid to hang them on the mantle

in case Dawson pulls them down I wouldn't want

the stocking holder/weight to fall on him. Dawson

likes having the stockings at his level so he can touch

and look at them.

Above: A view from the kitchen table looking

under the kissing ball in the doorway and toward

our tree. The kissing ball we bought in Miami in 2009,

and it is like mistletoe but a kissing ball. When we tried

to fly the kissing ball back to Alabama after our vacation

it almost didn't make it through security, apparently it showed

up as suspicious in our carry-on when they inspected it!

Above: Our Nutcrackers on top of the armoire with

trimmings from our evergreen trees outside. Our

nativity scene on the table that Dawson loves to look at.

Above: More Nutcrackers in the entryway.

There are also nutcrackers in the bathrooms and

the master bedroom that Dawson loves to find and

point out to me!

Above: This is hanging outside our front door.

The stocking is filled with clippings from our

evergreens and from our holly bush.

Above: Our outside lights and wreaths.

Above: Dawson playing in the tent with his

friend Jude.

Above: More fun in the tent!

Above: Dawson eating a sucker!

Above: Dawson looking like Rock-a-doodle

after getting some sticky sucker in his hair!

Above: Dawson's very first time helping me cook!

Above: Dawson kept doing this to listen to the timer

ticking! Silly boy!

Above: He was SO excited to be helping.

Above: He couldn't quit watching the cupcakes

in the oven. He loved every bit of cooking!

Above: My proud baker!

Above: Playing with the bubbles we used to make Santa Beards!

(P.S. AT, If you look at this blog update, the toy in his hand are the bath squirters

that you and Jeff gave him. Dawson LOVES these! His favorite thing

to do with them is squirt me!) :)

Above: Dawson showing me the bubbles in his hand we

are going to use to make a Santa beard.

Above: Dawson was not too happy when I made him

Santa hair. Poor boy. He got over it quickly after

I put a bubble, Santa beard on my face!

Above: This picture is totally random. John has been asking me to

make a Pot Pie FOREVER! I haven't had a pot pie in a long, long time.

The last time I had one though I remembered not liking it, so I finally gave

in a made one...guess what, I liked it. Anyways, I felt like it turned out

pretty well so I took a picture. John was happy, and who knows, I might

make another sometime soon.