Christmas in January

My mom came last weekend to celebrate Christmas with the kids. I was a little worried this year that they would get overwhelmed with the gifts but the way things worked out our holiday celebrations were spread out over a couple of weeks so they knew to just start pulling and ripping when they saw a pile of paper. Actually, the insanity started with she walked in the door with boxes. They just started to pull things out and rip like a pack of wild banshees.
Beckett found my personal favorite gift- Carter onesies. My kids wear these under everything day and night. We had short sleeve ones but time to move to long sleeved in the cold WI winter. This is one of those things that are totally needed but I hesitate to spend money on these thinking we don't REALLY need new ones. I'm always short on clean ones and always digging through clean laundry baskets to find some. I go through 6-8 of these a day!!

I don't think this skirt was intended as a present but got pulled out of the boxes in the chaos. It is an amazing skirt that is made out of different wool sweaters sewn together. My mom bought it to get a good look at how it was made so she could then makes some for the girls at like 1/16th of the price. But, it is ours now! Do you think Crazycakes would let go of a gem like this?
Of course, no outfit is complete without shoes. Little crunchy girl in a sweater skirt, Danskos, pants under the skirt. Now where are the sunglasses and wool hat?

What is this? I don't think this is for me.

Don't worry about cleaning Eloise. The push broom is for Beckett. The little sweetheart has 3 brooms and he needs them because he helps me sweep after almost every meal. He can be in the other room and recognize the SOUND of sweeping and comes running to help. Now he is prepared for the heavy traffic days.
The chaos and joy brought by Grandma.

My mom said that she was hesitant to buy this because it said the age was 2+ but I'm so glad she did. I don't know what it is called but it matches their new play table, the kids love it and Beckett is always bringing me the little cars so I can play with him.

Look at this little doll in her new tutu. We now have 7 tutus but what girl can ever have too many tutus? Not mine. We have incorporated all the tutus into the decor in the nursery. Sorry Beckett, you will have your own room someday.

No way. Is this what I think it is?
I better get every little piece of paper and tape off this box. It's a keeper with all the baby pictures.

I don't need the box. I have the real thing!

I don't understand what all the fuss is about.

Eloise taking a doll for a stroll.

Addy taking a doll for a run.

Just a note about the dolls. I had NO idea how much they would love the dolls. This is the perfect age to foster imagination and pretend play, to do tasks, to organize and find items and to take an interest in things like brushing hair. The dolls and strollers are far and away the most popular toys in the house. They got a set of the You and Me Too Cute Twin dolls from Aunt Joni and Uncle Rich and the Corolle baby dolls dolls from my mom and we have 3 strollers. Eloise feeds the You and Me dolls after she eats, drags them around by their hair and knows to give them a hug to turn them on. The baby dolls are the classic beautiful baby dolls with eyes that open and close and interestingly enough their posture is almost like a really baby a heavy unsupported head so they kind of lay and snuggle on your body. All of the kids have started to take an interest in taking toys or dolls to bed with them and the baby dolls are a frequent choice for Addy. I think she just wants to play with the eyes but if that keeps her quiet when not sleeping, have at it. So anyway, if you have boys or girls this age, buy baby dolls. Eloise screams at the top of her lung EVERY time she comes down the stairs and sees the dolls lined up.
The strollers are very popular but they are not always filled with dolls. Today I saw Eloise pushing a truck book and a calculator. Beckett pushes around cars, magnetic animals from the kitchen and play food. And Addy, well watch below-

Oh Sweetcakes. I had mixed feelings watching this. On one hand she is so incredibly observant but on the other hand I don't want her to think that life is so complicated that when you go shopping you have to push a cart and a pull a stroller at the same time like I do.
At least here she is not trying to feed three babies.

Normally the stroller rides are not this wild but you can hear Daddy egging her on in the back.


I'm tired of hearing about baby dolls. I'll uncover my ears when we talk about cars.