"No, No, No" to "Ho, Ho, Ho"

In the timeless words of one Josephine Marie Schneider, "I do not like his suit, I do not like his beard, and I do not like his Ho, Ho, Ho...Santa is scary."

So, the whole idea of Santa thrills Josie but anytime she spots him (even from across the room) she says one of two things - "Cuddle Me" or "I'm ready to go home!"  This has been the case at more than one Santa-sighting. Since each time has gotten progressively more terrifying to her, we've gone from "let's not push it" to "avoid Santa at all costs." In case you need anymore evidence of her Santa-phobia, she told me the other day - "You tell DD not to say Ho, Ho, Ho to me. He has a beard like Santa." 

The good news is that there's plenty of non-Santa holiday action in & around downtown. And we've had so much fun already this year doing it all. Here are some photos from "Holiday Junction" at the Museum Center - where we were lucky enough to bump into Angela & Andrew so that J & A got to ride the train together.  Josie wasn't sure about it at first, but definitely had fun in the end!

 

 

She really loved the trains as you can very clearly see from all of these photos! 

(Trains aren't just for boys, ya know?!)

 

 

 

And, she got to spend some good quality time playing with her Daddy while I played photog!

 

 

The other big news about our day at the Museum is that Josie has now deemed herself big enough for "The Woods" which is like a big, huge maze of tunnels, slides, etc.  Look at her go!

Here are J & L inside a tube that makes you feel like you're actually inside the aquarium. Josie thought she'd make it even more fun by pushing her nose up against the glass at the end.

 

 

(This is looking down on them in the tube from the top.)

Here's my fearless family making their way across a tunnel that we all hoped was strong enough to hold adults, dangling about 10 feet above ground. Yay Josie!

 

 

And what would an afternoon at the Children's Museum be without a little sailing?

Be sure to head over to www.threeaustins.blogspot.com for some super-fabulous pictures of Lyla & Josie on Thanksgiving...

Clifton Mill

Well, I'm admittedly behind on the blog but that's only because we've been packing every day with family fun and last week was ridiculously-hectic at both of my jobs. So here are the photos from our trip to Clifton Mill "Opening-Day" when we were in Xenia for Thanksgiving. It was our first official holiday event of this year and definitely got the Schneiders in the spirit.  Seeing the holidays through the eyes of your child certainly brings a whole new level of "magic" to this time of year, and we got our first glimpse of that at Clifton Mill.  I should also mention that our drive to Clifton Mill was really memorable as well. Not only did we run into these donkeys and sheep on the way there (gotta love Greene County) but we used the drive to tell Josie all about Santa, his reindeer, Rudolph, elves, etc.  She thought we were crazy (especially the flying sleigh part) but got really excited about the whole thing. 

(Okay, wait.. sidebar...Josie has a few fave off-the-wall Holiday songs this year including "Jiggity, Jigg, Hee-Haw, Hee-Haw, it's Dominic the Donkey...The Italian Christmas Donkey." At the time of taking this photo, that little ditty hadn't made it into our lives yet but as I write this post, it has firmly sealed its fate as a Schneider Family Favorite.  And - kid you not - we were listening to it last night (it's the bonus track on a CD I made Josie of her favorite Christmas songs) and there's a part that says, "A pair of shoes for Louie and a dress for Josephine..."  Cuh-razy.) Anyway, I digress. Back to Clifton Mill...

Josie's first view of the Reindeer, which she later recounted "a million" of - 

 

Josie making her own antlers -

Josie very much enjoying her first candy cane - 

And the real star of the show - the lights - "ooooh, ahhhh" - 

 

 

All-in-all, a great kick-off to the holiday season. (And also a little foreshadowing into Josie's fear of Santa. More on that later...)

Quick Quotes

Josie to me at breakfast yesterday:  "But I DO need two bagels mommy...I have two hands."

Josie to her Mickey Mouse doll yesterday (very sincerely) while Lou was at the grocery, "Don't worry Mickey, Daddy went to get us some cream cheese."

Me: "WHAT?!?!?" (...out loud to myself when I looked over to see Josie loading "Here Come the 1-2-3s DVDs into the DVD player, even flipping it over the right direction & then hitting play. She then proceeded to bring the remote control over to me so I could make it louder.)

Giving Thanks

We spent this Thanksgiving weekend in Xenia with Grandma & DD and Tia, Tio & Lyla.  After many years of good memories with my grandparents on Thanksgiving, it is nice to be able to create those same memories for Josie. While we strive to make the practice of experiencing gratitude a daily part of our lives, it's always nice to formally do so. What a great meal (big thanks to Louie for cooking that beautiful bird, to Grandma Fifi for her delicious stuffing recipe, to Aunt Paula for the creamiest brie we've ever had & Grandma for the from-scratch chocolate pie)! And on top of yummy food, Lyla & Josie had more fun than ever playing together, now that Miss Lyla is walking. Here are some photos from the weekend. (Tia has more on her camera that I imagine will be showing up on www.threeaustins.com any day now.)

Josie & Lyla donning Josie's "Thanksgiving crown" from Art Class - 

No shortage of toys at Grandma's house -

Master Chef Schneider -

Josie's beautiful centerpiece -

Enjoying her spot from the head of the table (where she picked to sit) just before eating her weight in cranberry sauce - 

Some fleeting "cuddle time" with Lyla, who is now a very active toddler -

A ballet lesson from Tia -

 

Some other fun memories from Thanksgiving include: Josie telling us all a story after Thanksgiving dinner, Josie & Lyla pushing around the doll stroller that my sister & I played with when we were their age, Josie asking Lyla to dance with her and then singing her "Ring around the Rosie," Josie & Lyla sleeping together for the first time in the new "Grandkids Room" and all the stuff coming in the next post about our evening at Clifton Mill...

Ho, Ho, Ho

<<<<<< Because I've had a few of you ask, Josie's link to her Amazon.com Christmas wishlist is over on the left.

Shutterfly Updates

LOL - Even though I'll be behind again the second that the clock strikes midnight, at this moment I'm all caught up on Josie's shutterfly collection and just got her September & October albums posted.  (I'll try to get November done in the next for days since this month ends in a few hours.)  Her Shutterfly collection is:   www.josiemarie.shutterfly.com

Polar Explosion

On Saturday we came back to Cincinnati so we could go to the kick-off of Fountain Square's holiday season - called the "Polar Explosion."  We're having SO much fun doing all of this fun holiday stuff with J and it's not even December yet!  Here are some photos from Saturday (which also served the purpose to trying to get her less freaked-out about fireworks since they'll be exploding in our backyard for the next five weekends).

Dinner at McCormick and Schmicks before hand - we were so proud of Josie who wanted the crabcake instead of the grilled cheese:

 

The view from our table. We really do love our city!

 

Josie's "get down girl" pose -

 

 Nervously watching the fireworks -

Getting more anxious, she turned to me and asked "Is this going to be over any second?!" - 

 

And that's when we went and hid inside of Graeters so we could see all the fun without hearing it. 


Now, for your viewing pleasure... here is Josie entertaining the crowd before the show. Enjoy!

"She's crafty"

Playing with Josie is always a blast, but it's also so much fun to sit back and watch her get involved in something all on her own.  These are a couple of photos a while after we finished a little homemade Christmas tree project. Josie went back to the table and got back to work with the ribbon.  90% of the time I have no idea what her little brain is thinking, but I love that it keeps her so busy.

Posin' & Phishin'

We've got some catching up to do before we get to Thanksgiving. Here is Josie posing for the camera in her phishy-best the week that Louie & I went to the Phish shows here in Cincy. (And a big special thanks to her Granddaddy who bought her a Phish t-shirt at "their last show" back in Vermont all those years ago before we were even pregnant, because he knew one day he'd have a little "grand-be-bep" who would wear it!)

And just for fun, here is Louie & I at Saturday's show (whew, still recovering from that exhausting but incredibly fun weekend)!

Quick Quote

We have lots of catching up to do after Thanksgiving weekend in Xenia, but I had to share this quick quote from Josie last night. We had no idea she would catch on so quickly that you tell Santa really important things.

Josie...before walking out the door to Fountain Square's holiday season kick-off:   "When I see Santa, I will tell him...Hey Santa...look...I have tights on under my jeans!"