Mudgie meets Santa

Our beloved Karen (aka "K-K") was on vacation this week, and so we experimented with a new childcare situation. MIT subscribes to a service called "Parents in a Pinch", which is basically a temporary nanny service. Linda came to our house this week to play with Mudgie all day. The first day was a little shakey, as he cried for 1.5 hours after I left for work. Poor Daddy was home sick, so he filled me in on all the happenings. Finally, Miss Linda gave him some chocolate covered pretzels and then they were best friends! Go figure. The rest of the week went much better, although I'm sure Mudgie will be very happy to see his friends and K-K tomorrow morning.

On Friday, Mudgie got to meet Santa and tell him what he'd like for Christmas. While you'd never know from the picture above, Mudgie really seemed to enjoy the experience. Santa's "village" had all these giant gumdrops and candy canes that Mudgie was really into, and he even liked Santa himself until I tried to get him to sit on Santa's lap. As you can see, that went over really well! I'm giving this picture the caption, "He just found out he's on the naughty list."

This weekend was filled with holiday fun. Mudgie and I braved the mall on Saturday, and aside from a few meltdowns at the check-out counter, he did really well. On Saturday night we went over to our neighbor's house for dinner. Mudgie had such a great time playing with Lauren, who was so cute encouraging him on her climbing toy! He was also thoroughly entertained by baby Michael, who must be the most laid back baby I've ever seen.

On Sunday we finally decorated the Christmas tree. Mudgie really liked helping with this project. He would hand me the ornaments as Daddy unwrapped them. However, there were a few that he liked so much he didn't want to give them up! Eventually, he would be distracted enough by something else that all the ornaments did wind up on the tree. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how long they stay there!