Santa Birthday?

So we went to see Santa today. Pete's friend's son turned 5 and they invited Santa to visit the birthday party. Gavin and Nora did great. Dylan was not a big fan of the big man. Dylan started some stranger anxiety a couple weeks ago so the big scary man in a red suit, white beard, with bells was not on his list of things to do today. All to familiar!

Gavin was very excited. He truly believes this year. He was very excited to tell Santa what he wanted and was impressed that Santa knew that he would like to have a Transformer today. I love Christmas magic. Nora wasn't afraid but a little cautious. She spoke to him and stared at him otherwise. So sweet.

Did I mention the horrendous icing? Nevermind that my kids, along with majority, only eat the icing!!! I went through two entire travel wipe boxes keeping up with green icing and attempting to prevent forever stains on cute, white shirt holiday wear (Nora - mental note, no white despite the season).

Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Birthday Papa!

Happy Birthday Papa!! The kids love to give presents and celebrate birthdays. Papa's birthday was a few days before Thanksgiving this year (23). Here is to another happy and healthy year.

A rare picture with all three kids in it. Not a fabulous picture but you can see all three simultaneously.

The kids made Thanksgiving celebration "hats" at school. Nora's was for an "Indian Princess" and Gavin's was a pilgrim hat. They brought them to wear for Thanksgiving. They had a celebration at school too. They played under Gammie's dining room table for awhile.

I LOVE this picture of my Indian Princess!

Can you believe that there was enough to snow to play in on Thanksgiving? Oh the days of old. Pete and I would have been hitting the slopes.

School's Thanksgiving, hm?

Daddy went to visit the Salem Crossroads Daycare Thanksgiving celebration. Thanksgiving dinner was served. Things went as well as you might imagine for ~40 two to four year olds having lunch together and it is getting late/towards nap time for most of them. The group was adorable though. We took some pictures that evening at home to attempt a picture of all three kids. We struggle with that. Here are a few cute ones though.
Dylan is pulling up ALL the time now. He is cruising a little but pretty tipsy on his toes when he does. I love that when he smiles right now, his eyes are always closed.

Dressup! So much fun. Nora is in the middle as Snow White. Her friends from left to right: Jackson (black Spiderman), Paige (princess/Cinderella), Ethan (front, knight), Mystery kid in masked outfit, Jeremiah (red power ranger). Daddy found the kids all dressed up when picking the kids up from school. Way cute.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from Spidey Gav, Ariel Nora and Dilly Dragon Vitale!

O-H-I-O

O-H-I-O

Nora's Glasses

Nora recently found out that she needs glasses. Hopefully not forever. Either way she looks adorable. I have been shocked by my three year old. She is wearing them well and taking care of them. Don't worry we purchased the insurance…I haven't lost my mind.

Nora has Amblyopia - mismatched vision - which can lead to "lazy eye". There is a family history so we have watched her closely since she was born. She had a checkup at two and now at three and was able to complete an eye and vision exam. We are trying glasses for 3 months to see if we can get her left eye to see as well as her right eye. We'll see - haha - sorry for the pun.

In the meantime, she looks adorable. I was very sad [cried all the way home from eye doctor] for her when we made this decision. Probably because I know how hard it was for my brother, at ~3 years old ~ did with glasses. He didn't like them and it was HARD. I have concluded that if this is the worst thing we ever deal with for Nora, we are blessed. We are hoping to correct the Amblyopia and then she may still need glasses for her astigmatism which results in nearsightedness. It is a lot to take for me since I don't wear corrective lenses - yet!