So glad we have a break coming up. It means planning for Elsa's birthday party (she's turning FOUR!) and general Christmas prep. We just bought a new Christmas tree at the Home Depot in Kenai. Sometimes it hits me how crazy it is to have to drive an hour and a half to the nearest Home Depot. Most everyone else probably has one within fifteen minutes, depending on traffic. We managed to find a budget-friendly, skinny, pre-lit tree. It took minutes to set up. Perfect. Elsa is enthralled with decorating for Christmas. She helped Nana with tree decorations and we enjoyed listening to her "ooohs" and "aahhhs" as she discovered the many treasures that Nana has for the tree. Every ornament elicited exclamations of joy and wonderment.
I have the invitations to Elsa's party finished...just have to hand them out! The theme is Noah's Ark. Over the past couple years, she and Nana have been collecting those very realistic looking plastic animals for the "ark," a resin-cast ark that Nana purchased. The collection of animals no longer fits in the ark and have their own box now. Elsa will spend hours setting them up, putting the mommies and daddies and babies together. She sorts them from smallest to largest. We will often find a trail of animals extending far from the play area. I guess the next exercise is to count them. When we are out shopping, Elsa has a mental list of the animals that we are missing for the ark collection. "Mom, the baby zebra needs a daddy!" It seemed the right theme for the party this year.
Ethan can no longer be on the floor on his back without rolling over. He's mastered the skill. Evan seems content to lay which ever way we put him. Just an observation of the differences in their developmental timeline, despite their shared DNA and similar "nurturing." Pretty fascinating! Both boys are remarkably happy and are very good-natured; they always smile upon waking and are going to be responsible for many smile lines, as Nana puts it.
