Elfin Chachis

You've probably seen this. Many of you may have done your own when you were supposed to be working (wink). Regardless, it doesn't cease to be really funny to me. For our last Christmas related post of 2007, I bring you The Elfin Chachi Brothers. Just click the link and enjoy.

If viewing at work turn, your volume down. There's accompanying music.

Thanks to Rachel for logistical assistance.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1703640407

P.S. As a "marketing professional," I'm taking a poll. Does this thing make you more aware of Office Max? Just curious.

Christmas

One of the interesting things about having kids is seeing how they react differently to annual holidays each year.

Vincent is at the age where he realizes it's Christmas and gets excited for every aspect of it without focusing so much on the fact that he can ask for specific presents and possibly even (gulp) get them! Peter is at the age where he wants to chew on Christmas.

After church on Christmas Eve, Vincent and I scattered some reindeer food (oatmeal mixed with glitter that school gave him) on the front lawn, then Rose helped him pick out cookies and an apple for Santa and his crew. I'll note that over the past month, Vincent has been worried about Santa actually setting foot in our house. He prefers the presents get in and the snacks get out via "magic." That way we don't have to see Santa, thus avoiding fear! He seemed to buy this even though he asked several times if he'd be hearing the reindeers' "jingle bells" from his bed.

Ah to be young, ridiculously cute and kind of terrified. I've been there, kid. Minus the cute.

Both boys slept until 8:30 (!) on Christmas morning before we all headed down for THE GREAT UNWRAPPING. To be honest, it was actually pretty mellow. Vincent opened one present at a time and even stopped to incorporate them into his life. For example - he'd open a package of Disney guys, get excited about them and immediately pop them into the basket with his others. He even took the clothes out of their boxes and held them up!

Peter liked the larger boxes specifically because they provided his favorite new thing about life - leverage. He pulled himself up onto them and stood there for minutes at a time, laughing and screaming at Vincent.

After the paper cleared, we headed on over to Mom-Moms for THE GREAT UNWRAPPING 2, where the boys were showered with more gifts. Round 3 occurred at Aunt Alice's with my side of the family, before ending up at Nonna's where Rose's side had arrived bearing gifts aplenty. It was pretty amazing to see the haul these kids brought in.

What's going to be even more amazing is seeing how Rose and I fit everything into this place. We may sell tickets.

P.S.: Cool byproduct of Christmas from a parent's perspective - NEW INSTRUMENTS! Vincent got a bad*ss electronic drum kit from Mom-Mom and Grampa AND a cool starter drumkit from Uncle George. We've already started writing our rock opera - Clownophenia.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

In addition to the decorations mentioned in my previous post, Vincent has become the proud owner, courtesy of Mom-Mom, of a brand new Santa Claus is Coming to Town Dancing Fuzzy Figurine. Words can't express how much he loves it. He can watch it 15 times in row and not get sick of it.


It's featured here. Please enjoy the performance. I would like to go on record that no part of this video was prompted. It's as natural a :47 slice as you can get.

We've been Christmased

Over the past two weekends we've sufficiently Christmafied the Chachi House. We popped up the tree (Sorry - not real), adorned places with all manner of holiday ornaments and goodies, and hung the lights from the front porch. Vincent stayed outside with me the entire time we hung the lights! Don't worry, folks. He's pneumonia-free and it was about 45 degrees on Saturday. And he had a heavy coat and hat. Really.


We're fairly traditional in our holiday....um....traditions, so we stopped by the mall for a photo with Santa, but no dice. Vincent took one look at the abnormally tall (seriously) mall Santa and his gloves (a deep fear, rivaling clowns) and said, "I want to go the other way."


So Rose is going to take Peter back one day while Vincent's at school to get a shot. How she's going to explain that to Vincent, I don't know. I'll let her handle that one.

We even helped Vincent write a letter to Santa (shown here). It might be tough to make out so here's the translation:


Dear Santa,
I let Mommy sleep on the couch and I was a very good boy and big brother so I would like some presents please Santa.
*Dorothy & Toto
*Munchkins
*Flying Monkeys
*Disney Guys - Pirates of the Caribbean
*Few Games


Man - whoever helped him write this letter sure doesn't know about run-on sentences, does she? Let me explain a few things. The sleeping on the couch thing refers to one day recently when Peter was already napping and Vincent was peacefully watching a show. Rose drifted off for a moment and Vincent didn't wake her. After she woke up, she thanked him for letting her catch a few winks. This + being a good boy and big brother = presents.


The Dorothy, Toto, Munchkins, and Flying Monkeys he's referring to are Wizard of Oz character guys/dolls he's been into since discovering the movie. The Disney Guys are self-explanatory...I think. He has since rescinded his wish for Pirates of the Caribbean ones in favor of Toy Story - fyi.

As you know, Peter can't really write yet so I've taken the liberty of writing his letter to Santa, with the assistance of his publicist.

Dear Santa,
I've been a really funny, sweet, and cool kid over the first seven months of my life. I think this alone warrants gifts, don't you? Howzabout we get right to it? Here's what I want:

*Not to have a cold anymore
*To be able to eat Vincent's popsicles
*To be able to eat Vincent's granola
*To be able to eat Vincent's toes
*Not to have so much damned saliva pouring from my mouth while at the same time getting some of these teeth on their way out
*More chewy blocks
*Less whiskery kisses from Daddy
*More boobs

And - whatever else you'd like to send down. Thanks so much.

Your pal,
Peter

That's really the gist. Decorations, lights, run-on sentences, flying monkeys and boobs! It's Christmas in Chachiland!

The Faces, Pt. 3

We haven't done one of these in quite a while. I call it Peter Wallace, Seven Months, With Old School Ski-Hat.

Peter is Mobile/R.I.P. Jumparoo

It was only a matter of time. Peter has started to crawl. Now what he's doing isn't technically the same thing as crawling. He starts in a sitting position, sees something he wants to grab (read: eat) lunges his upper body at that object, then kind of drags his lower body behind. It's the 7 month old's version of the Marine's crawl.

Technically speaking or not, it's really funny and super cute.

On the down side, we've had to retire Peter's beloved jumparoo. Now that he's mobile, he doesn't have much time for it. On top of that, our house is getting so cramped with stuff that it doesn't hurt to have the thing stowed.

Still, it makes us think about the lifespan of the infant activity center (IAC, for short. That's my word. I own the copyright.). I'm eulogizing this thing after only 3 or 4 months in our lives but how many childhood toys can we say we played with every single day for that period of time. Peter just packed all of his use for it into one small chunk of his days.

Is it that it's 11:00 on a Sunday night or do I sound really crazy? Ah, whatever. LONG LIVE THE JUMPAROO!

P.S. Vincent is doing much better. He's done with the nebulizer treatments and the doctor said the pnemonia is just about gone (as of last Thursday). Poor Peter on the other hand has a wicked cough but the doctor said pneumonia like Vincent's isn't super contagious, so we're hoping for the bestest. Now that he's crawling, he can conquer anything.