This afternoon Lex and I joined Loretta and Gabby at an indoor kid park called Out of this World.  We had a lot of fun.  It’s mainly for older kids, but there were certain areas for young kids like Lex.  These first two pictures just show what the place looks like.  Don’t search too hard for familiar faces, because you won’t recognize anyone.    

Here’s a shot of Lex and Loretta in the “kids under two” zone:

 

Getting ready for a trip down the slide:

Gabby:

Lex loved watching other kids play:

An adventure in the bouncy house:

Lex playing chef in the kitchen:

Tim showed up at dinner time and joined us all for pizza:

Yikes.  We’re in for it now.  Today I put Lex down for his afternoon nap but he didn’t go right to sleep like usual. He kept chuckling to himself, so I sent Tim up to see if he had a dirty diaper.  And this is how we found him!  He’s very pleased with his new accomplishment.

Here’s the remainder of the pictures from Christmas morning.  

In this one you can see Lex’s forehead bruise from when he took his latest header into a chair.  

Opening stockings:

Playing with his new toy remote control:

Unwrapping presents:

Our little Santa was definitely the hit of the dining room today when we visited Aunt Winnie at the manor.  Lex was even more social than usual, and he walked from table to table shaking hands and giving everyone huge smiles.

One manor resident commented, “It’s probably nice for your son to have a hundred great-grandmas.”

We had a terrific time today and Aunt Winnie was very pleased that the weather allowed us to make the trip to Salem.

Today Tim only worked half a day so we were able to hit a 3 pm Christmas Eve service.  We actually left Lex in the church nursery for the first time ever.  Apparently he did fine until other parents started picking up their kids, and then he lost it and was crying when we picked him up.  But he perked up again when we had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner at PF Changs.  We invited our friend Irene to join us and had a great time together.    

(Lex isn’t as smily in this family picture, but by this time it was an hour and a half past his usual bedtime!)

Kiwi hunting desperately for some grass:

Our poor Taurus isn’t used to this abuse:

Lex playing on his leapfrog learning table:

And pushing a rolling toy:

We’re looking forward to spending Christmas with Aunt Winnie tomorrow (weather permitting).  We hope all of you have a happy holiday!