Merry Christmas

We're on vacation for now, so no pictures or new blogs, but there is a new video of JJ's preschool Christmas program. I didn't get a chance to edit it, so it's a little long, but I know there is a Grandma and a few adoring aunts who won't mind sitting through it. For those who aren't that interested in my kid (and I do understand and am not offended), here's a quick recap:

The first half is the nativity and JJ is a sheep. He spends most of the time picking at the black makeup on his nose, or actually picking his nose and sings intermittently. The second half is all the kids with reindeer antlers and a red nose and JJ discovers the wall to wall mirrors (it was in a dance studio) and spends the whole time turned around, looking at himself in the mirrror. I video taped the mirror, because you can actually see his face. He does turn around at one point, when the girl next to him pulls him around. And he knows all of these songs.

So I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. We did. And I'll be back in the New Year with lots and lots of stories, I'm sure.

Holiday Drama

I try to be a pretty organized person, especially around the holidays. I have a budget all lined out and a pretty good idea of what I will purchasing for the boys. This year was no exception. It wouldn't be a gift-giving event if JJ didn't get a train and I knew there was one he had had his eyes on for a while and so it was first on my list.

And then disaster struck. The day before we went to see Santa, he discovered another train and that was what we told Santa he wanted. He's told two Santas about this train. The drama? This train is not popular and very difficult to find. The simple solution is Amazon, but it's getting to the point where it wouldn't arrive before we left. What to do, what to do. I started by explaining to JJ that Santa might not be able to find this train and he might bring a different one. Being the smarty pants that he is, he just looked at me and said, "His elves will just make one for me." Shoot!! Jer remarked that he was a little young to have his hopes and dreams dashed, which means I had better come up with a solution.

So today we went on a treasure hunt, checking every place I could think of. Our final stop was Toys R Us, where, again, I struck out. I had no idea what I was going to do when I remembered a little independent toy store. Thank goodness for my iPhone, which I whipped out, looked up the number and called. "Do you have it?" "Yes, we have one."

VICTORY!!! Maybe Santa's elves will be able to make one, but if not, we have a back-up and one little boy will not be devastated Christmas morning.

A tender heart

JJ has always been a very sweet boy with a tender heart, and this Christmas season has really brought that out in him. He has on more than one occasion been brought to tears by the Christmas story.

It started out when he was learning 'Away in a Manger' at school. He came home and said, "why was the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay?" So I explained that there weren't any hotels and that they had to sleep with the animals and by the end, he was crying because the baby didn't have a warm place to sleep.

Then we have a book called 'Little Drummer Mouse' (by Mercer Mayer, really cute story, btw) which is essentially the nativity from the mouses point of view. And again he was so upset(crying) that the baby Jesus had to sleep in the stable. He said that he would give the baby some money so that he could stay some place warm, and then decided that he would also give the animals some money so they would be sure to have enough hay and carrots and apples. Then he decided that the baby Jesus could just sleep in his bed with him and that would just solve the whole problem.

These conversations have been very cute and heart-warming and the perfect reminder of what this season is all about.

Some Milestones

We've hit a couple of big milestones around here recently that I keep forgetting to blog about. First, Ryan is officially walking. He's still pretty clumsy and definitely toddling, but still walking.

And second, more importantly, JJ is potty-trained!!!! YEAH!!!! After months and months of frustration, it finally clicked for him. The day after Thanksgiving, we were out shopping and I think he knew this was not a place for an accident and he asked, he went, and its all good. We've had to go back to Pull-ups this week while he has been on heavy duty antibiotics for his second ear infection in a month (yes, a month), but other than that, he's always dry at night and doesn't need a reminder. I'm so excited.

Another First

Tonight, after expressing his displeasure at his punishment, JJ looked at me with tear-filled eyes and while stroking my hair, in his sweetest voice said, "Mommy, I don't love you."

Okay, but I bet you will in the morning.

Visiting my old Roomie

Right after Ryan's b-day we headed down to AZ for 10 days. One of the things I like to do is visit my old roommate, K. She was one of the best roommates I had and we had a lot of fun for two years. We did our student teaching at the same time. She has two kids, the same ages as mine, so it is really fun. This time, we got to see her house, which I love. K, you really need to come visit and help me decorate my house. The kids had a great time playing, especially because S dressed up like Jessie, so we had Woody and Jessie running around. K had some really fun Halloween crafts for the kids. Here they are showing off their foam Jack-O-lanterns
And then they decorated cupcakes. These were a huge hit.
The best part about visiting is that because we each have blogs we can keep up with each other and our visits seem more like we see each other all the time.

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Ryan turned one last month. I can't believe it's already been a year. Here is my cute, smiley, boy.
He spent the day relaxing and hanging out, staring at the fan among other things.
We actually had his party the night before. I made up these quick invites
And made this cake. This one took way less time than JJ's first cake. In fact, it was such a positive experience that I might do it more often.
He loved his balloons
But he was not so into his presents. JJ ended up opening all the gifts.
He was really happy in this picture.
Was slightly concerned when we started singing Happy Birthday.
JJ blew out the candle.
And this is honest to goodness the messiest he got. He loved the cake, but kept it clean.
At 1 year old, he just barely made the 20 lb mark, so we could turn his seat around. He's pretty tall at 30 inches. He needs 9-12 month pants for the length, but I have to safety pin them because they fall down.

He's walking a little bit more and feeling more confident, but I wouldn't call him a walker yet. He loves to play with hair, especially mine. He idolizes his big brother and wants to do everything JJ does. He makes silly faces all the time and is really good at imitating sounds he hears and making funny noises with his mouth and tongue. Sometimes he just cracks himself up with the noises he can make. He loves Baby Einstein still, loves animals, especially dogs, and reading. His favorite book right now is The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

His vocabulary is growing, which has reduced the screaming a little, but not nearly enough. Just like his brother, I tried to teach sign language, but he just learns the word instead. Appropriately, most of his words surround food. Yogurt, cracker, milk, juice, drink, cheese, cake (for pancake), dig, out, ball, bath, dog, duck, truck, balloon, dada, yes, light, and stairs.

Happy Halloween

These are my cute little trick-or-treaters. JJ, or Woody, as he likes to be called, has been wearing his costume everyday for 6 weeks. Ryan is wearing a much loved and handed down Mickey Mouse. He wasn't thrilled about the ears at first, but it grew on him and he was gracious enough to smile big for the camera.
Friday night we finally got around to carving our pumpkins. JJ was so excited. Saturday we did our trick-or-treating. When I asked some of our neighbors when we go trick-or-treating they looked at me like I was dumb and said, Saturday of course. It's just an unwritten, assumed thing, you don't go trick-or-treating on Sunday. It was great of course. We got our celebrating done and I took down the Halloween decorations all before November 1st.

Happy Halloween!

Snow Day

So, this is what we woke up to Wednesday morning.
And what's a boy to do with all that snow. Wait until his brother went down for a nap and then build a snow man. He wanted to know if we had coal for his eyes. We didn't, but he settled for rocks. We did have a carrot and then he wanted buttons for the mouth. I don't know where he got that idea from, but after scavenging we found some. But they wouldn't stay pressed in so we had to put them on their side. Worked just fine for him.

And about 15 seconds after I took this picture, he knocked it over.
Oh well. The next two days were beautiful and warm and all remnants of our first snow day were gone.

I find it funny when people from Utah are shocked when it snows before Halloween. I've been here for 12 years and going back through my journal and blogs, it's snowed before Halloween about half the time. This is Utah. It snows... a lot.

Hold on a Little Longer

I know there are a few of you waiting for a new blog post, specifically one about a birthday party, but I am not able to upload pictures to my computer right now. I should be back to posting again in about a week. However, to keep you interested, there is a video of the party on our Mac site (link to the right). The user and password are the same as all the others.

Ryan at 11 months

Just some quick updates on Ryan for his scrapbook, so I don't forget. Ryan is just the sweetest, smiliest kid. And he gives great hugs. He is also a great problem solver like his brother and he loves to test his limits. He is quick to head to the bathroom or the top of the stairs if he notices them unguarded. He has taken a total of about 10 steps, but is much faster on his knees, so why walk? And he has turned into a great sleeper. He sleeps through the night, and takes 2 decent naps without crying. It's wonderful.
He loves Mickey Mouse and Baby Einstein videos. He loves macaroni and cheese, refried beans, and ice cream. He is happiest outside, digging in the sand, jumping on the trampoline, and sliding on the slide. In fact, he can climb all the way up the slide to the top. Gave me a heart attack the first time he did it. And he's added a few words to his vocabulary. Besides dog, duck and dad, he also says dig (big surprise), frog, crackers, and done (while signing all done).

The screaming is getting better. In fact, I sat through all of sacrament meeting and all of Relief Society on Sunday. I can't believe that his birthday is fast approaching. It goes by so fast.

Pre-School

After the first day of preschool, I meant to blog about it. Then after the second day, I meant to blog. And then again after the third. And then I figured too much time had passed and the story was lost. But my SIL is holding the stories of her fabulous big city adventure hostage until I pony up my own stories, and my sister has blogged more in the last month than she ever has :) (love you L) so you, dear readers will get all the the days rolled into one long blog post.

The day before school started was the open house. JJ loved it there and he cried when it was time to go, he didn't want to leave. So the next day, he was totally gung ho about it. But he didn't want his picture taken, so these are the best I got.

When I went to pick him up, he looked surprised to see me and said, "Oh, mom, you came to get me." Apparently, about 5 minutes after I left, he realized I had left and had a melt down. As I was asking him about his day, he had a ton of fun, but when I asked him if he was excited to go again, he said he wasn't going.

So, the next school day(Tuesday) I didn't say anything about school. We got ready, got in the car and then he asked, "Where are we going?" Then came the melt down, but I promised him if he would stop crying and go to school, I would stay and then we could go to the Aquarium (his favorite place in the world). So he went and immediately got absorbed in the toys and after about 5 minutes I told him I needed to go home and put Ryan down for a nap and he said to me, "I don't want to go home, I want to stay here." Okay! And he had a great time.

Thursdays are show and tell and so Wednesday night, we carefully selected a toy and packed the backpack. Thursday morning he came in my room and said, "I'm ready for school." "Great, let's eat breakfast and get dressed and then after Mickey Mouse, it will be time to go." So, every half hour, after each TV show this is the conversation we would have.
JJ: "Can we go to school now?"
Me: "Not yet, we have 3 (2,1) more shows and then after Mickey Mouse we can go."
JJ: "I don't want to go to school."
Me: "Okay"
We had this conversation, like, 5 times. And when it was finally time to go, the only thing he said was, "You'll stay for a little while, right?"

And so as long as I promise to stay a little while, he goes to school. And he loves it, but not as much as I do.

Recovery

JJ's recovery seems to be complete. It started off really well. He was up and running and ready to play everyday. They say days 4-6 are the worst, but that was not our experience. Days 7-10 were the worst for us. He had a really hard time making up his mind and once he did, he would change it 5 more times. He was cranky and seemed to be in a little more pain. But all of a sudden, on day 11 he was suddenly better. He didn't need any more medicine and he was great. All in all, I would do it again. The younger the better.

I spoke too soon

So remember in my last post when I said that Ryan had never fallen down the stairs. Well, he rectified that situation on Wednesday. We were all playing downstairs when JJ said he was feeling a little sick. So while we were in the bathroom, Ryan climbed all the way upstairs, grabbed a pot and tried to bring it back down with him. Unsuccessfully. The pot left a huge gash in his forehead and badly chipped his upper front tooth. We had to take him to the dentist to have the tooth sanded down a bit. It's still a little sharp, but it shouldn't do any damage should he try to take a bite out of someone. And luckily, it's just a baby tooth.

Ryan at 10 months

I'm pretty late posting a 10 month update but I did want to have a couple of things recorded.
First by 10 months Ryan had said his first two words, "quack" and "dog." And not dog in the animal sense, but as in the song "Hot Dog" from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. That show comes on and he starts singing along and flailing his body in rhythm.
Some particularly great bed head.
He continues to be a little daredevil, taking headers off most of our furniture. He's a good climber and regularly makes it all the way up the stairs before we realize he is gone. He's also tried to come down the stairs a few times, but luckily, we've caught him before he falls.
Here he is enjoying a sweet tart lollipop at the carwash. He loves being with his brother and trying to do everything JJ does. He likes to imitate sounds and does a pretty good job for a baby, so we often have two trains, two cars, two dogs, or two lions. It's a pretty noisy house.

Where have you been?

I realize I've been MIA recently. My brother came to visit for a week, then we drove down to AZ to visit my family for a little while, then Ryan and I went to New York for the weekend, came back to AZ with Jer, drove home on Wednesday and then JJ had his tonsils taken out this morning. It's been a lot of early mornings and I'm exhausted. I promise more posts with pictures later, but I have a lot of catching up to do.

JJ's surgery went well, no problems. He is a little more emotional than usual, but that's mostly the result of the anesthesia. Also, he's hungry, but only wants pizza, which he can't have for 2 weeks. I've cleared my schedule for the next two weeks, because I don't know what to expect.

And then after that, preschool starts. So I'm not really sure exactly when I'll have a few moments to update my blog, but I'll try to snatch a minute here and there.

Talk, Talk, Talk

Yesterday, JJ's aunt was over. We were playing "What does a ______ say." Then we started getting complex. "What does your daddy say." JJ responds, "He doesn't say anything. He just talks." That kid has cracked me up more than a few times in the past couple of days.

Patience

We had a rough evening tonight and finally it was bedtime. JJ was not being very cooperative while I put his pj's on and finally I told him I didn't have anymore patience tonight. Without missing a beat he says, "Here, you can have mine" and holds out his hands. Then he says, "Now my patience is all gone."

Joining the Baseball Team

After watching Chicken Little a couple of times, JJ decided he wanted to join the baseball team. Lucky for him, our local rec center had a beginner t-ball class. So I signed him up. Two days a week for 3 weeks, couldn't be so bad.

And looking at these pictures, it looks like it was a great experience. But, oh, how wrong you would be.
These pictures are from the first two days. After that it went down hill. I don't know what happened, but all he wanted to do was sit on my lap and pick the grass. About the only thing he would consent to do was run the bases. The last two days he wouldn't even get in the car to go. So we'll be working with him at home and see if we can overcome whatever issue he has. I'm thinking the problem has more to do with participating in a group, than anything related to baseball. Maybe we'll try again next year.

Swimming Lessons

Earlier this month JJ took swimming lessons. It was quite the adventure. JJ loves the water, but does not like to get his face wet and has never on purpose put his face in the water. Bless his teacher, she was so patient with him. For the first week, all he wanted to do was play with her little rubber ducks. And whenever she was busy with another kid, he's walk away to go sit on the steps. When I asked him why he was running away, he would tell me that the wind was really strong and it was blowing him away and he just couldn't stay with his teacher. He really liked the water and being with his teacher, but he just did not want to participate. Eventually, the teacher just started dunking him under the water.
But on the last two days, he finally got over it and started putting his face in the water and blowing bubbles.
Above you can see him plug his nose, he's about to go under.
And getting his noodle tied around him for the trip to the deep end. I don't know what made the difference, but I think it was probably his teacher, she was great. And now, when we go to the pool he likes to practice his swimming lessons. He sticks his face in, he does his front and back floats, baby kicks and mama kicks and big ice cream scoop arms. So in the end, this turned into a positive experience for him.