A very big holiday that is not so far, far away

We took the boy to see the new Star Wars movie on Sunday.  I was worried he wouldn't make it through the entire thing since it over two hours long.  To my surprise, he stayed in his seat for most of the film and seemed to enjoy it very much.  At the end he told me he liked it because there were only two scary parts.

Up until now, the house had been almost entirely Star Wars toy-free, but I feel like that may change very soon. A force has indeed been awakened and I feel it will bring an abundance of light sabers and x-wings.

With only three days remaining until Christmas, this is the boy's last day at school until the new year. That means a bit of a hiatus for this blog, but we'll return in 2016 with many more doodles. 

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Merry Monday!

There are only four more days left until Christmas, and the boy has one more day of school before they break for the holiday.  That means there will only be one more doodle until after New Year's.

Here is a festive little elephant to continue our countdown!

I fail at Fridays

*sigh*

At least it's only a day late this time.

Thursday, the boy didn't have school, so I took him to do something special.  We went to ICE! at the Gaylord in National Harbor. After riding the ice slide, we went into a giant gingerbread house and decorated our own gingerbread house.  I bought him a hand puppet shaped like a gingerbread man and he has named him Josh.  While the boy was working on his house, a giant gingerbread man came round to give hugs and take pictures. It was a very gingerbread-filled outing.

As of today, there are only six more days until Christmas.  For those of you that haven't finished your shopping ( like me), the time to panic is now.

The countdown continues

Another day closer to Christmas. I'm doing my best to send a little holiday spirit to school with the boy every day.

Seeing as the boy is obsessed with Christmas trees this year, I thought it would be nice to work another one in.  The reindeer is for me. They're my favorite. Selfish? Maybe, but cute all the same.

The boy's school is closed tomorrow morning.  I haven't yet decided if I will send him at all.  They're opening at 1. He usually only goes until 2:45. I feel like it might not be worth it.  Whether he goes to school or not, he'll be eating lunch at home, so there won't be a doodle tomorrow.  Maybe I'll remember to post the last doodle of the week on Friday.  Given my track record, it seems unlikely, but I will do my best to not be a forgetful slacker!

It comes bearing gifts

Ack. Somehow, there are only ten more days until Christmas.  Seriously, folks, where has this year gone?  

This little guy came out looking just as much like a mouse as he does an elephant.  Luckily, he has a trunk that freakishly resembles a human arm to distinguish him as a pachyderm.

Is there anything sweeter than a gift-bearing elephant? Looking at this doodle, I find it hard to believe that there is.

The return of the elephants

It would appear that I am very bad at remembering to post a new blog on Fridays. *sigh* So, this is another double doodle.

Hot cocoa may be the boy's favorite drink in the entire world, especially if marshmallows are involved.  

Last night, we watched a documentary on the great flood in Africa and there were many shots of African elephants.  The boy was excited as elephants remain his favorite animal.  (Remarkable considering his favorite color changes almost weekly.) This morning, I decided there have been entirely too few elephants in my doodles as of late.  

This fella is infinitely cuter than eleven pipers piping or a partridge in a pear tree, depending on how you choose to look at the Christmas countdown.

Think Snow!

We've been getting in the Christmas spirit around casa de Gilliam.  Holiday movies have become the go to background noise provider.  We watched Frosty the Snowman yesterday, and it's amazing to me how much the boy loves it.  I loved it too when I was younger. I'm happy that the magic is still there for him.

I tried to draw the Frosty from the movie, but he looked bloated and strange, so I drew my own snowman instead. It's supposed to be in the mid-sixties today which is a bit strange with winter lurking right around the corner. There's no chance of snow here, but I'm sure we'll see some soon.

Fishes

We read One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish last night before bed.  The boy read every third page.  He's getting very good at reading. It makes this bookworm of a Mama very proud.

Two for Tuesday

Apparently, I forgot to post a doodle on Friday. I didn't forget to send one with the boy though.  I drew another at his request.

Per the boy's request, here we have one jack o'lantern from  plants vs. zombies.

Yesterday, the boy stayed home from school.  He was sent home early on Friday because he was running a low fever and had a runny nose.  The cold persisted through the weekend.  He has a tendency to get these nasty coughs that linger.  Decided to give him an extra day for his body to recover.

And recover he has! I sent him off to school today with nary a sniffle.  I felt this doodle was very appropriate to mark the occasion.

Fingers crossed that we can keep him healthy, at least through Christmas.  He's had a very cold-filled fall.

Bundle up!

We've had pockets of warm days, but I think the majority of them are behind us.  Winter seems to be settling in.  The mornings have been especially cold lately, and we've needed hats and mittens for the ride to school.

I saw this picture of Baymax and thought it was both adorable and seasonably appropriate.  While I doubt that Baymax actually feels cold, the boy certainly does, and frequently forgets to put his mittens on.  His school tries very hard to get them outside every day, as weather permits.  In this colder weather, it's important that he remember to put those mittens on before they go out to the playground.  I'm hoping my hints help keep his fingers warm.

The boy likes trees

The boy made another doodle request this morning.  He asked for a Christmas tree.  I guess he liked yesterday's doodle so much, that he wanted a repeat.  This time, though, the tree had to have a star, lights, ornaments, and tinsel.

Voila! One tree that meets all of his specifications.  He's apparently in love with trees this year.  I asked him what he would like Santa to bring, and he asked for Christmas tree toys, one he can decorate and one he can't decorate and one made out of play doh. Play doh doesn't make a Christmas tree set, by the way, so we'll see what Santa comes up with to make that wish come true...

Hello, December!

It seems that November passed us by in a bit of a whirlwind.  December is here already.  The countdown to Christmas begins, and the air smells of snow, especially first thing in the morning.

The boy has an advent calendar.  It has 24 drawers, and there is a small prize hidden behind each one. He got to open the first door this morning, and his excitement is contagious. I can't wait until Christmas morning.  Christmas has always been my favorite holiday, and I swear, having a little one just made it even more fun.

What better way to welcome in the new month than a festive tree and some lights? We put our tree up on the day after Thanksgiving. It's become a tradition for us. Hope you all had a wonderful first day of December!

Good Dinosaur

My sister treated us to The Good Dinosaur this weekend.  In traditional Pixar fashion, it made me cry. It was like The Land Before Time meets The Wild Thornberrys. There is much sadness followed by an epic quest and life lessons are learned along the way.  The boy told me he liked it except for all of the scary parts.

I drew Spot and Arlo today since the movie is still so fresh in all of our memories.  

I'll Have You Know...

The boy asked me if he could make a doodle request today.  I said, 'of course, what would you like me to draw?'  He considered for less than a minute and said, 'Spongebob Roundpants---no, Spongebob Squarepants."

He wouldn't have been my first choice, but I didn't want to disappoint the boy, especially since he never makes requests.

His eye look a little Clockwork Orange-ish, but overall, I'm happy with how the little guy turned out.

Today is the boy's last day of school this week.  His school is closed for the next three days so everyone can celebrate Thanksgiving.  That means, it will be about a week before I post any new doodles.  Hope everyone has a happy turkey day.  Eat much and loosen belts often!

The doodle that almost wasn't

We started this morning off with a pink eye scare.  The boy awoke with an eye crusted shut and proceeded to freak out when he couldn't get it to open.  A warm wash cloth had him quickly cleaned up, and the eye uncrusted.  However, it was still pink and puffy.  Cue a call to school and the doctor.

Luckily the doc assured us that it's not pink eye, just a byproduct of some angry sinuses.  Huzzah. With doctor note in hand, I rushed home, changed the boy into his uniform, packed a quick lunch and carted him off to school.

This little guy went with him.

Another week gone

Today was the boy's first official school picture day. He told me he stuck his tongue out because there weren't any parents watching and that made it ok.  I'm very interested to see what the pictures look like once they come in.

I decided to stick with the food theme I inadvertently adopted this week...well, sort of.  I found another popsicle stick joke that I thought the boy would appreciate, so I went with that.

I know what you're thinking, "that's a doodle of a tree." And you'd be right.  However, there are apples growing on that tree, and apples are food, so this technically counts as a food doodle. 

I hope everyone had a great week, and that your weekend is amazing. See you on Monday :)

Gummy

Since I've apparently adopted a food theme for this week, I decided to keep it going for another day. I also kicked my pun game up a notch.

I'm thinking I might toss jokes in more often.  I guarantee that they will all be the cheesy kind that you find on popsicle sticks. Those are the best.  And just because I'm in a dad joke mood tonight, How do you make a tissue dance?

..............

..............

..............

..............

Put a little boogey in it!

That's my favorite popsicle stick joke ever. Hope you had a great Thursday!

Mmmmm...pie

Somehow, no matter how early I get out of bed, we are always in a rush to get to school.  I had an hour and thirty minutes to serve breakfast, make a lunch, and get the boy and I dressed.  It's plenty of time.  Yet, when I finally sat down with a bowl of cereal and looked at the clock, we had less than fifteen minutes until go time.  And the boy wasn't dressed.  And I had no doodle.  We were a whirlwind after that, cereal and clothes flying everywhere. So, I chose something simple and sweet for the daily napkin.

Today's doodle has food and puns, which I love, but I'm just not satisfied with it.  

The pie looks so friendly, while the apple looks like an angry bully.  Maybe he's upset because someone took a bite out of him. I'm not really sure.  One thing I do know: I fail at time management.

Hey, cupcake!

The boy and I were a bit pressed for time this morning.  By the time lunch was packed, and breakfast served, I found I had less than twenty minutes to draw a doodle and get the boy dressed for school.  I googled cute drawings and sketched one of the first ones that came up.

Such a cute little cupcake :)

Hoping I have more time tomorrow morning so I don't have to draw so feverishly quick! Also hope everyone's week is off to a good start!

Wirt

A friend of mine recently posted a movie review for an animated series.  I'd never heard of it, but he made it sound amazing, so I took a gamble and bought the DVD.

It was wonderful.  It was a bit dark at times, but still very enjoyable.  The boy didn't want to watch the video at first, but then he asked to watch it again the next day. I would say it was a hit.

Since he liked it so much, I decided to draw one of the main characters for him this morning.

The show is called Over the Garden Wall.  It was originally shown on Cartoon Network.  I highly recommend giving it a watch.

Two-fer

Ack! I forgot to post yesterday's doodle.  Today is the big silent auction for my friend, and things have been a bit more hectic around here than usual.  For yesterday's doodle, I went festive, and seasonal.

Today, I went back to my lovely puns, and one of my favorite animals.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Dino-mite!!

Yesterday morning, I awoke to the gentle touch of the boy slamming his head into my face with the force of a thousand dinosaurs.  Seriously, my cheek is bruised.  It hurts when I smile or yawn.  It was not the best way to start my morning.

In honor of my thick-headed face masher, I drew one of the thousand dinos that helped lead the charge against my cheek yesterday.

Parenthood in a nutshell: allowing your child to fall asleep in your bed even though he just battered your face.  It's unconditional love, folks.

Brrrraaaains!

I tried something new this morning.  I asked the boy what he would like me to draw on his napkin today.  I expected another cartoon character or an animal. Imagine my surprise when he requested "a dead zombie."

I went for a friendly looking fellow from the plants vs. zombies game.  They're zombies that aren't super gross and are more acceptable at the lunch table.

I really just hope his teachers don't hate me now.

Hello, old friend

Over the weekend, the boy's passion for Blue's Clues was suddenly rekindled.  I think amidst the Ninjago and Minecraft craze, he had forgotten poor Blue existed.  I let him watch an episode while we had breakfast this morning.  He sings the songs, and shouts out answers to all of Joe's questions now.  He never did that before.  It's cute to see him so interactive with the show.

Did I still sneak a pun in there? You betcha. Probably should have drawn this one in blue pen, but I've been using the same pen, everyday, since school started.  Decided to stick with tradition and keep it black and white.

Hope everyone is having a magnificent Monday!

Space Oddity

My little man truly is a wild thing, a force of nature that devastates the living room every day without fail.  His energy levels are out of this world and inspired today's doodle.

A cute little extraterrestrial for my crazy guy.  Hope your weekend brings you some cosmic fun!

Aww, nuts!

The boy loves to eat nuts, and I love puns, so why not combine the two? Seems like a reasonable plan.

Stumbled across these guys on a website that sells pun posters. Yes, they devoted a site entirely to puns. I thought the little peanuts were sweet.  More doodles inspired by the pun posters may surface as the weeks go by. They had a plethora of cute posters.  

Wild and wonderful

For reasons I don't quite understand, the walrus has always been one of my favorite animals.  I know I would most likely be mauled to death by their tusks if I ever encountered one, but they're so roly poly and friendly looking, even with the sharp weapons of destruction attached to their faces.

I decided to share the cuteness that is the walrus with the boy today.

I am a firm believer that everything is more adorable with a tophat. Also, I couldn't think of a clever walrus pun, especially one the boy would understand.  So, hooray for alliteration! Hope everyone has a wonderful Wednesday!!

Terrrrrific!

The boy's school was closed yesterday so they could hold parent/teacher conferences. Hence, no doodle.  We did get to have a nice sit down with his teacher, and learned that he's not a jerk to the other kids and listens to the teachers most of the time.  Overall, a pretty good report. 

I decided to revive the terrible puns because I love them.  It doesn't matter that they're incredibly cheesy.  Also, the boy has recently discovered jokes and humor, and actually gets puns every once in a while. It won't be long before he doesn't find me funny at all, so I have to embrace the lame mom humor while I can.

Sorry about the crazy brightness. It was very sunny in our apartment this morning.  Hope everyone had a grrrrrrrreat Tuesday!

The only time I will say "That's a Cute Spider"

Remember how I told you the boy wanted to be a cave spider for Halloween? It's not the most popular of costume choices which means I got to craft it myself. I let the boy try it on the other day to make sure it fits.

I'd call it a success. He loves it, which is really all that matters to me.

I thought it would be fun to do a doodle of the boy. I'm interested to see what he thinks of it once he gets home from school. I've never drawn him a picture of himself.

Hope everyone has a freaky Friday and a great Halloween!

Monster Minion

While looking at cute Halloween pictures this morning, I kept seeing a minion dressed as a vampire. I'm guessing it's from when they worked for Dracula, before they exposed him to the sun. I think I saw a few in other costumes. A Halloween classic was missing from the minion costume repertoire though.

The boy has only recently discovered Frankenstein, or the monster as literary nerds like myself would call him. I thought a minion would make a cute monster. I don't think I was wrong. What are your little monsters planning to be for Halloween?

Are you my mummy?

The boy has trouble picking just one costume for Halloween. Luckily, the season offers many opportunities to dress in costume. I refuse to allow more than two choices, so he usually wears one to Boo at the Zoo and one to trick or treat. This year, we also have a costume birthday party on Saturday afternoon, in addition to his school's Halloween get together and another costume night at his gymnastics center. Like I said, plenty of chances to get into costume.

He was Link for Boo at the Zoo, and will wear the same costume to gymnastics and his school. For the birthday party and trick or treating, he's going to be a cave spider from Minecraft. Weird choice, I know. As such, I had to make the costume for him. I'm proud of the fact that it is recognizable to him as the character he wants to be. I've never made a costume for him before.

With Halloween just around the corner, I found it fitting to throw in a few festive doodles.

I think the remainder of the doodles this week will be Halloween-y. This little guy came up in my google image search this morning. I think it is the cutest mummy I've ever seen.  

Being brave

So, there isn't a doodle for today. The boy only had a half day of school, which means he ate lunch at home. I thought about doodling on a napkin for him at home, but it didn't feel the same.

We had a lovely visit with the allergist this afternoon. After three glorious hours, we discovered that the boy is neither allergic to eggs nor latex.

He's got super sensitive skin, so the needle things that they use to administer the tests irritated his skin, but the doc doesn't think he's allergic to either of the possible triggers. What does this mean? Next year's flu shot will be interesting. We get to test him with a bit of it first to see if it irritates his skin before we administer the entire immunization to him. After all the fun we've had this year, there's a very good chance we'll be skipping the flu shot next fall.

Duck, duck, moose!

While the boy's favorite animal is an elephant (though recently it may have changed to tiger), one of my favorite animals is the moose. Cartoon moose are especially adorable. In real life, they are monstrously huge and a bit terrifying, but I still love them.

Since today is my birthday, I decided to include a little moose in my doodle.

I wanted to do some wonderful Monday moose pun, but couldn't think of anything good. This way, the boy got two cute ducks to keep his moose company. Hope everyone had an a-moose-ing Monday! (see? terrible)

Boo!

When the boy was barely walking, we started a family tradition. Every Halloween, we go to Boo at the Zoo at the National Smithsonian Zoological Park. It's not free, but there is no danger of cars, and he gets just as many healthy treats as sweet ones.

Today is Boo at the Zoo day for us, so I wanted to do a doodle to acknowledge that. This friendly little ghost was on a poster for a previous year's Boo at the Zoo. I think he's cute.

Hope everyone has a spooktacular weekend!

Finally back to school

With an arm that is still very much swollen, I sent the boy back to school today. He's full of Benadryl and antibiotics since they can't determine whether he got an infection from the shot, or had an allergic reaction to the vaccine. Either way, it's been a fun week so far. On the plus side, the boy's attitude and energy levels have been absolutely normal. He's very much himself, just with a bigger arm.

Happy Olaf wasn't supposed to look like he has a swollen head, but, given the current situation here, I found it fitting, so I didn't try to fix it.

Another day at home

Took the boy to the doctor yesterday. The nebulizer treatments will continue. He also got his flu shot. Like every other shot he's ever gotten, he had a reaction to it. His arm is at least twice the size of the other, angry, red, and inflamed. He says it hurts if you touch it. I'm keeping him home from school for another day.

Doodles to hopefully resume tomorrow.

Poor guy :(

Under the weather

The boy has another cold. Trip to the pediatrician this afternoon to make sure it's not something more since he's had this cough for like three weeks now. 

Hopefully, he'll be on the mend soon and school will resume tomorrow.

Mistakes

Horror of horrors! I thought I posted Thursday's doodle, but didn't. I'm so sorry that I forgot you, Maisy.

I thought the boy had outgrown Maisy books, but he surprised me on Wednesday. We brought a Maisy book home with us from the library. She was our Thursday doodle as a tribute to all of the times we've read her books, especially Maisy Big, Maisy Small.

Since I'm a day behind, here's today's doodle as well.

It's funny that I drew Ms. Frizzle this morning, because her motto has never been so appropriate for me as it is today. Not only did I forget yesterday's blog post, I also forgot that it was a teacher inservice day at the boy's school today. Drove all the way to school to read the sign on the door reminding me they were closed today. Oh well. The boy and I got to spend a lovely day together instead! Hope everyone has a great weekend making mistakes, getting messy, and taking chances!

A love stronger than kitten hugs

Hw do you know you've got a love that's truly special? When you love to give that person hugs more than you love kittens.

While I worked at the library, I stumbled across a gem of a picture book. It's called Prudence Wants a Pet. It's absolutely adorable. I laughed out loud the first time I read it to the boy. So, I think today's doodle is a little more for me than for him. He likes to listen to Prudence, but I think I enjoy the story more than he does!

Feed your curiosity

A few weeks ago, the boy read an entire book to me for the first time. It was an amazing moment for me. The book nerd in me has always loved that he enjoys being read to, and now, I'm hoping he will enjoy reading to himself just as much. The first book he read was The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. A few days later, he read a Curious George book to me. I had to help him with the big words, but he read the majority of it on his own.

I guess I should have drawn Peter since The Snowy Day was the first book he read, but George was one of the first characters he recognized from stories. I think the cartoon series helped with that immensely, but we read a lot of George books.

My little one loves experiments and figuring out how things work. I think George might be his spirit animal. 

Let the wild rumpus start!

The boy is a very wild thing, even on his best day. The more exhausted he is, the wilder he becomes. It seems to defy nature, really, the bursts of energy when he should be sleeping. Take, for instance, a dark Monday morning, long before sunrise, when he's asking me (repeatedly) if he can get out of bed yet. We've instituted a rule that states he must stay in bed until my alarm goes off. How I birthed such a morning person is beyond my comprehension.

I mentioned last week that I was going to feature storybook characters in my doodles this week. I figured Max was the perfect way to start the week.

I hope you all had a wonderfully wild Monday as well!

Do kids these days even know what groovy means?

There's this storybook character. He's blue and very chill, and says things like groovy. He's also a cat. My son loves him. He was his first favorite storybook character. If you haven't met Pete the Cat, you should. At least the first three books anyway. They're filled with repetitive, catchy little songs. The boy's favorite is probably Pete the Cat and his four groovy buttons. Yup. Groovy.

The Pete I packed in the boy's lunch today isn't blue, but he does have an awesome pair of sunglasses. I hope he helped my little man have a groovy day. Have a great weekend!

To the moon and back

My doodle yesterday got me thinking about Guess How Much I Love You. It's an adorable book about a father hare and his son. The son tells his dad how much he loves him, and the father always loves him back a little more. I haven't read it to the boy in a while, but I think it's time we revisited it.

With the story occupying my thoughts, it was impossible to consider anything else for a doodle today.

While Guess How Much I Love You is not my absolute favorite book to read to the boy, it definitely ranks pretty high on the list. I think I might doodle some favorite story characters next week. It will be fun to see how many the boy recognizes. For the record, he didn't recognize the bunnies.

Guess how much I love you

So the good news is that the fire alarm did not go off this morning. The bad news is Little Man still had a bad case of the grumps. I felt like it was an especially good day to remind him how much I love him.

The boy and I like to play a game that goes something like this:

Me: Did you know I love you all the way to the moon and back?

Boy: Mama, did you know I love you all the way to all the planets?

Me: Wow, that's far.

Boy: Yup.

The distance changes, but he always chooses something in space. It never fails to make me smile. It also makes me think of the book Guess How Much I Love You. If you've never read it, you should. Every bunny (or boy) deserves to be loved as much as that little nut brown hare.

I felt like the boy needed some extra love today. This little dino has a lot of love to give. Maybe next time I'll have to make it a bunny.

I'm Gonna Wreck It!

We got off to a bit of a rocky start this morning. In the middle of sketching today's doodle, the fire alarm in our building went off. I scurried around the apartment gathering pants for the boy, jackets for both of us, and shoes. Then we headed to the parking garage to wait.

Our apartment complex is above retail shops. There are many new businesses, which means, many fire inspections and alarm tests. They give us advanced notice for those. However, with all of the new construction, the alarms are set off frequently due to sprinkler heads being knocked off, too much dust from sawing or drilling, or any other number of things that trigger our apparently sensitive fire alarm system. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to know that should there be a real fire, the alarms will go off with no problem. I just wish there weren't so many false alarms.

Needless to say, we were a bit pressed for time once the alarms finally stopped blaring and we came back inside. I hastily finished the doodle, and packed a lunch that was almost entirely out of the pantry. I usually like to have more fresh foods in there, but there wasn't time for that today.

We made it to school on time, but just barely, and I did manage to send a doodle in with the boy.

I hope tomorrow morning is less harried. At least there wasn't a fire, right?