Christmas is Coming!

     This weekend was full of fun-filled family/ Christmas activities. As usual, we took Laura to her swimming lessons Saturday morning, and she did better than she usually does when I am in the pool, which was nice.

Afterwards, we went and picked up her Christmas ornament she painted last week... it's very 'abstract', we'll say, but turned out pretty well, I think, considering it was painted by a one-year-old. :)

     After swimming we went to the bank for some financial advice, for which Laura was reasonably well-behaved, other than trying to make off with the paper from the lady's printer. Then we came home and had a quick bite and some naps. After I woke up, I made Laura a hat to go with her winter coat, and then we trekked off to the Santa Claus parade in town. I was only able to stay for about the first 20 minutes because I had to go to work, and I wasn't sure if Laura would be into it or not, but when Josh tried to bring her into the restaurant half way through the parade she demanded to be taken back out. So I guess she liked it. She was a little apprehensive of the loudness that was the emergency service vehicles, but felt compelled to wave to them nonetheless (below). Based on the amount of times she mentioned "Neigh!! Neigh!! Boon! Boons!", I'd say it is safe to say her favourite parts were the horses from the riding club, and the balloon store's float.

     Josh came into the restaurant for dinner after the parade (along with EVERYONE else who was watching it), and though the service was slow, Laura was very patient and did really well on her date out with Daddy. :)
     This morning we got a start on Christmas shopping and went for groceries and I was actually able to enjoy our family trip to the grocery store again without feeling the need to vomit. After, we went and picked out some Christmas movies to rent for the week, and came home for lunch. After naptime Josh and I discussed the possibility of going to see the new Muppet movie with Laura. She is only one and a half, but has a reasonably long attention span for movies she is interested in, and she is definitely interested in the Muppets, so we thought we would give it a go. Plus it was good way to put off vacuuming. She did about as well as I expected her to; she sat through about half the show contentedly eating Skittles, and then decided that traversing the giant set of stairs would be more entertaining for the second half of the movie. It was fine - there weren't that many people there, and she wasn't being loud, and most of the other patrons had kids with them. When the movie was over (it was quite cute, by the way, if you're wondering), we came home and Skyped Grandma and Grandpa so Laura could tell them about her weekend. She told them all about the "[Muppet] Show! Show!" and the "Neighs! Nine Neighs!" and the "Boons!!" and then proceeded to run around the living room on her Skittle high.
     All in all a good weekend. <3