The Most Wonderful Time of the Year begins

This weekend was packed full of fun! Just how weekends should be. We attended our first ISU basketball game of the season! Eoin behaved really well; we were a little worried how sitting during an entire game would fare out, but he was amazing and really seemed to enjoy watching the Redbirds play! It should be a great season with the Redbirds proving to victorious by large margin over North Florida. We're hoping for much more excitement when conference play begins.

Eoin enjoyed playing with his animals for some of the game!

Eoin "rawred" with his animals :)

Grandma and Papa Kohn were unable to attend and so we had some open seats next to us. Eoin took full advantage and loved having his own seat! Probably have to get him his own next year!

Auntie Tina went to the basketball game too and joined us for the second half. We all attended the Festival of Trees afterwards for a quick glance around and then headed for some dinner. Eoin was definitely our entertainment for the evening! He was Aunt Tina's little sidekick, though, and didn't really want anything to do with anyone else! Auntie "Tee-ta" loved it!

Sunday morning, we headed back over to the Festival of Trees with Grandma Kohn. We enjoyed walking around leisurely and Eoin was again very well-behaved. He allowed Grandma and I to take our time with each and every tree, which worked well for The Baby Fold, the charity benefiting from the festival, as Grandma and I each ended up having the winning bid on items; Grandma took home the blue-ribboned Most Elegant Tree, and I a Dicken's village. We also had Eoin's first run in with Santa Claus of the season; and I do mean 'run in.' We have been practicing meeting the big man by reading a book about Santa and Eoin has his impersonation with the "ho, ho, ho" down, but it didn't really help . . . the above picture is Eoin running from Santa after receiving the customary candy cane! Hey, he didn't leave the candy! I held him to meet the Big Man and as you can tell, he was curious, but a little nervous.

The Christmas Village, or Jingle Bell Junction, was so cute and if I had have realized there were so many photo opportunites, Eoin would have been dressed in something better than sweats :)

I, once again, had the pleasure of designing a tree this year. The theme was Merry Merry Mocha and paid homage to the McDonald's McCafe drinks with a brown, gold and bronze color theme and little McCafe ornaments placed throughout the tree.

We are really looking forward to the Holiday Season that is quickly approaching; we will be going up north to see Nana, Auntie Kelly, McKaylah and Kennedy the weekend after Thanksgiving after spending Thanksgiving Day with the Kohn's. Eoin is so much more aware of what is going on this year so he participate in the Holiday activities well!

Since Eoin is really the reason for this blog, I figured an update on his little happening is well overdue. Every day he lights up our lives and we see him doing it for others now too and it warms our hearts! He had adjusted to the daily grind at Little Jewels very well! I can't believe the things he does there, he seems so grown up. He now 'sings' and motions to 'Wheels on the Bus,' 'If Your Happy and You Know It,' and 'The Itsy Bitsy Spider.' The motions include putting his fingers and moving his head for "you face should surely show it!" and stomping his foot! He cracks us up! He LOVES reading! LOVES IT. He loves all of his books and we read most of them daily, but the most read has to be 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear,' hands down! We sit on the floor to read books and he plops himself in the lap of whomever is going to read to him!

The little man is talking non-stop. Sometimes we understand what he is saying and other times we smile and nod! "Hot" is one of his favorite words and he often uses it to describe his food; he uses it over and over and over, even when the food isn't hot, I think he uses it as an excuse not to eat :) "Hi" is often said to strangers and to break the silence! "Aspen" and "Aspen, no no no" are also frequently used. Little Jewels has a cute tradition of having warm cookies ready for the children to take as they leave on Friday afternoons, well, Eoin hasn't quite received the only on Fridays memo and asks for a 'cookcoo' everytime we walk out the door . . . he also mentions it everytime he spots a McDonald's bag :)

As you can tell, he is learning and growing every single day! I can't believe my baby is a toddler!