Cameron's first visit to Santa

We may be going a little overboard for Cameron's first real Christmas. At 2.5 she "gets" it and we have been shamelessly using Santa's impending arrival as both a threat and a bribe. Both DH and I have been buying her presents so we've ended up with a pile that is far too big. I ended up setting aside two presents already for her birthday and we haven't even received any grandparent gifts yet. Next on my list is to clean out all the current toy locations to make room for new toys.

We were supposed to go to Florida this weekend but due to a series of mishaps involving ceiling tiles our flight was cancelled. We couldn't rebook until the late evening and at that point our 2.5 day trip was down to 1.5 days. So we decided to bag it and reschedule for January. Sorry, Mimi & Papa!

That gave us a "found" weekend to get some Christmas related activities completed. Tree up? Check. Tree decorated? Check. Gingerbread house assembled and decorated? Check. Santa visit? Check! And as you can see from the pictures below, Cameron wasn't at all shy around Santa. Think she likes him?

Cameron quirks

Cameron has been doing a few things lately that are alternately cute and annoying. Let me share....

Cameron is using her potty training as a weapon. Every time we put her into time out she pees herself. It's totally deliberate and has left a faint smell of urine in her time out spot despite multiple scrubbings.

Aside from a few accidents (or not so accidents per above) here and there, Cameron is officially potty trained. True she isn't consistently going #2 as regularly as pre-potty training and she needs constant reminders and forceful trips to the bathroom but she stays dry all day. Of course I did not anticipate the pooping in her pull up at nap time. More importantly I did not anticipate that she wanted to "help" and decided to change herself while in bed. I was greeted to a nice smell of poop and lots of clean up activities when I went to check on why she was being so noisy, mid nap. Lovely.

Cameron wants to make sure that Santa brings presents for me and DH too. How freaking cute is that? She has a Santa list made out and it includes things like: paint my toes pink & green, new underwear, an Oso toy and a Backyardigans toy. I think Santa (or family) will be coming through on that.

A friend graciously burned several of the classic Disney movies like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Mermaid, etc. Damn Disney for their stupid "vault"! I would pay for the DVDs if they just offered them retail like a normal company. But I digress. Last night Cameron was watching Sleeping Beauty and was very upset at the scene where the prince was attempting to rescue Aurora. She demanded that I turn off the movie and put on a Winnie the Pooh instead. I had forgotten how scary some of those older Disney movies are!

Cameron is really starting to rub along with Charlie. It's taken longer than I thought but now she regularly gives him kisses and pats and tells him that she loves him. She also imitates us and tells him "You are such a good boy." If we can get Charlie and Cameron to cooperate one of these days I'd like to get a great photo of the two of them.

What cute or annoying things has your kid(s) done lately?