This boy knows Santa Claus!

Tonight was the Santa Claus parade. It feels a bit early to me, and I hadn't  really discussed Christmas with Olan yet so last night I figured I'd better start planting the seeds.  Little did I know how easily he would cotton on to the whole deal. He was immediately very excited about seeing this Santa dude in the parade and decided that Santa should give him a yellow dump truck. There were a few minutes there where I needed to negotiate around the whole gift issue, and avoid any confusion there might be about Santa giving him said gift at the parade. Phew.

But thanks to my little pre-bed Santa chat guess who was bright-eyed and bushy tailed and babbling away about Santa Ho-ho-ho at 5 frickin' thirty am this morning??? It sure as hell wasn't me. So we basically spent the day waiting for it to be time to go to the parade. And while it was so nice and toasty warm, 15 degrees, it was also pouring rain. After dinner, we made our way downtown and found the perfect parade watching spot, complete with hot choccies and cookies. 

Olan had a blast. He was SO in to it! The favoured line of the night was definitely "what next mommy?" as he peered down the street anticipating the next float. I'm so excited for Christmas, he's going to love it. I didn't think that he'd be this into it at such a young age, but he's all full of talk about reindeer and Santa and sleighs, etc. Hopefully we can sustain the level of excitement until the 25th. :)

Total awe at the madness that is a Santa Claus parade

"What next mommy?"

The little pumping arms as he yells "Santa where are you???"

Some of the floats

His blessed little cookie crumb face JUST as he spots Santa. It just doesn't get any better.

Poppies for all

We woke to a beautiful day so Vitamin-O and I packed up the car with snacks and hit the road. We decided to attend a nice small remembrance day ceremony at a little seaside town near the cottage. The ceremony was perfect, Olan size. He got to march along with the band, and has a new interest in the tuba as a result. "Mommy I HEAR tuba... you hear TUBA???". It was beautiful and sunny and we watched it all from a nice mossy stone wall. The water sparkled and after the moment of silence at 11:00 the bagpipes started and a huge helicopter flew right over our heads. It made every hair on my head stand up. Olan was enchanted.

When we were planning the day Olan specifically insisted on "go cottage Mommy... NOW" as part of it all. Of course it wasn't until we got to the cottage that I realized that he thought that Grandpa would be there and that it would be warm enough to go swimming. Whoops! Lesson learned: Cottage does not exist in perfect bubble where leaves are always on trees, lake is always waiting to be jumped in, boat is tied to dock, cottage is full of people and fun. Once it all sank in he still had a pretty good time racing around and rediscovering toys he hasn't seen in WEEKS. He even ran around with a barenakedbutt once I turned the little heater on.

Watching everyone warm up

Picture-perfect ocean day

Watching the parade

At the cottage, "swim duck... go swim!"

Happy that his big sandpile was EXACTLY as he's left it.

This boy could swing here alllllll day

"No pants Mommy, no more pants!"