Christmas 2011

The Santa bounty was pretty good this year.

The "pup" tent and matching Jams were both huge hits!

Patrick really, Really wanted to put up the big tree this year. But thankfully he gave in (per all my begging and pleading and crying) and agreed that we could skip it. Which was a huge relief for me. I just don't have the energy or patience to be policing Flynn 27 hours a day to stay away from an electrified 10 foot tree loaded with would be projectiles.

We're super excited about the balance bikes we got for the boys this year. Henry has absolutely refused to use the Spiderman bike he got from Santa last year. Attempts to ride always end with loads of whining and crying about how hard it is to pedal and how it's too heavy to steer and push. It has proven to be quite frustrating over the past year since his friends are all riding bikes. I did some research and found that balance bikes seemed to be the perfect remedy for kids having issues with traditional bicycles. They are ultra light weight which helps kids learn to balance and steer a bike safely. They're built like a regular bike but are free of pedals, crank set, chain and training wheels so that children can walk the bicycle with both feet on the ground. Once they master this, they can graduate to running and "gliding" while riding. All while having their confidence soar! And surprisingly enough Henry has already ridden his new balance bike more in the last 2 days than he rode his traditional bike during an entire Year. It's wonderful to see him so excited about it and Flynn is right there with him. They're both getting the feel of it so quickly and are picking it up quite easily. Henry is already gliding his way around. Yeah! With any luck he'll soon have the confidence and stamina he needs to try out a regular bike.