Pictures with Santa

This year's ward party included a fun photo opportunity with Santa Claus himself. As soon as the jolly, old man entered the room, Jonathan (worried) scrambled up into my arms, and Amelia burst into tears. Hold me, she sobbed. While Jimmy conversed freely with Santa Claus, the two younger kids clung desperately to me. Even after seeing the candy cane that Jimmy got, they were not convinced that Santa was a nice man. Eventually, a girl came along and gave Jonathan a candy cane. While he ate the candy, I stuck him on Santa's lap for a picture. As long as he had the candy cane, he didn't care what happened to him. Amelia did not like to be the only one with out a candy cane. She timidly approached Santa for a candy cane and consented to have her picture taken with him.

New Word List for Jonathan

As Jonathan grows, so does his vocabulary. It is still very limited (it should take off around 18 months) but it includes some really cute words. Like his sister, he seems to learn words in bunches of 5 or 6. The previous bunch and the current bunch do not overlap. He also whispers when he says words with the exception of MO! (more) he knows that one very well and is not shy to say it.
Here's his 14 month word list:
cookie: perfect ennunciation. He said it for the first time to Betsy Mollenhauer, a cousin.
ding dong: perfect ennunciation. He says this when we come up to the front door and he wants to ring the door bell.
MO!: more
sha: shoe
fa fa: this means dog and is the sound that dogs make, according to Jonathan.
ba: ball
bu: bus
ticko ticko: tickle tickle. He holds up his feet after a diaper change for "tickle tickle."
There may be a few more, but these are the most common for this bunch of words. I am excited to see what he learns next.

Waiting for the Other Sock to Drop

Last night, Jimmy and I were playing a game on the old NES. Jonathan wanted to sit on my lap, but only for a few seconds at a time. One time that he sat on my lap, I noticed that he was wearing only one sock. I played with the toes on his right foot, and I asked him, "Jonathan, where's your other sock?" I tugged the sock on his left foot to show him what I meant. Not surprisingly, he got up and walked away, as he had already done countless times. I didn't think anything of it and went back to saving the princess.

A few minutes Jonathan came back, held a sock up to my face, and said "Taa!," which I think was supposed to be "Tada!" It was the match for the sock he was already wearing! I know he understands some of what we say, but that he understood my question about the sock and went and found it is amazing (and cute) for his age!

Christmas Cards

Our Christmas cards need a little explaination this year. We went to a Christmas card making workshop at the Clara Barton National Historic Site in Glen Echo, Maryland. (Clara Barton was born on Christmas and annually sent out more than 500 cards) For the cards, everyone was to dress up in historic costume (turn of the century) get their picture taken, and then use that to create a card. So we started searching through the costumes. I found something. Gary found something. Amelia settled on a pink women's blouse (none of the kids stuff was pink, and that's all she wanted.) Jonathan was oblivious to the event and wore a hat and vest. Jimmy had a tantrum and wouldn't cooperate. So we took the picture without him. Then it was time to go make the cards. Amelia wouldn't take her costume off and give it to the next girl. She had a tantrum. Then Jimmy started whining because he wasn't in the picture. SO he took one by himself wearing a hat. We left. We got a copy of the one of the 4 of us. They didn't give us the one of Jimmy.

You will be getting a card (not hand made) with the picture of the 4 of us and Jimmy's school picture. Maybe next year, we'll all get in a picture together.

Later, I found a picture of Jimmy standing in a George Washington cutout (taken at Valley Forge last summer.) If I had been on the ball, I would have sent out that one with the card, so at least we would all be in costumes even if we were not in the same picture. Here is the picture of Jimmy for you all to enjoy.

Salad Anyone?

A few days ago, the kids and I were enjoying vegetable sticks with salad dressing for a snack. As Jonathan doesn't really have enough teeth to chew carrots, I gave him an alternate snack (crackers.) He whined about that, so I gave him a plate with a little salad dressing and a celery stick and a carrot stick. (so he didn't feel left out) He threw the carrot and the celery over the side of the high chair tray and eagerly picked up the plate and licked the salad dressing off!

Sinter Claus

A few days ago, Amelia was eatting breakfast and she said "Today I am going to say my "ar's. gRits. suckeR. wRapper. Hey everything has ar's in it!"
Suckers and wrappers are not usually served for breakfast. They were from "Sinter Claus" someone Jimmy learned about in kindergarten. In Africa, they put their shoes outside for Sinter Claus to come and fill with candy. Jimmy immediately came home from school and stuck his "shoes" outside (paper cut out shoes they made in school.) He checked on them all day, to see what would happen. I thought that this was a Christmas only thing, but Jimmy insisted that it was everyday. He took this so seriously, I took pity on him and put a few suckers in the shoes in the night. In the morning, he woke up early, went outside and collected his shoes with candy inside. I thought he would be happy at that. He came in, dumped out the candy, and stuck the shoes back outside. Mercifully, the "shoes" blew away that afternoon and that was the end of that.

Cheaters Never Prosper

Jimmy and Amelia were having a race to put on shoes today. Amelia got done first because she didn't use socks. "I won, I won!" she cried. "No you didn't! You didn't use socks. Cheaters never prosper!" Jimmy called back. "Ha Ha I prospered!" Amelia taunted. And then back and forth over whether or not she actually was actually prosperous. I thought it was a pretty funny arguement. I guess you had to be there.

What is fragile?

Amelia asked me what fragile means. I asked Jimmy to explain (to see what he would say) he said:
Fragile means it can be broken easliy. Like bricks or rocks or chains. Everything in the world is fragile to me.

We are Thankful for Hats

Jimmy celebrated Thanksgiving in school today. Doesn't he look cute in his Indian get up?
Amelia also wore a hat today. She likes to wear this shower cap. She calls it her "red wig."
Jonathan loves to root around in other people's dressers and put on their clothes. Here he is in the baby cape that Gary was blessed in almost 30 years ago!

Halloween

I know it's a little late, but here is a picture of our kids from Halloween. Starting from left to right, there is Spiderman, a mermaid, and a pirate whose costume fell apart. That's an eye patch around his neck (his hook and hat are in his bucket) The kids enjoyed the church trunk or treat, but the neighborhood trick or treating was a little too scary for Amelia. After ringing most doorbells, we could hear the sound of dogs barking. This was enough to send Amelia screaming and running away. Maybe next year she'll be used to dogs. Then again, maybe next year she'll choose to stay home.

(To get your own Ariel hair, mix 1 packet red kool aid with a free sample packet of conditioner and apply to wet hair. Leave in as long as you can and then rinse. Wash hair with toothpaste to remove all color)

I also included a picture of Jonathan in his carseat, taken that night. You might get the idea that he has crossed eyes... but he doesn't! It happens to be extra skin growing in the bottom corners of his eyes. We are assured that he will grow into his skin.

The Natural History Museum

Last weekend we had beautiful weather so we decided to have an adventure in Washington DC. After some discussion we decided on the Natural History Museum followed by a walk along the National Mall.

The Natural History museum houses many great artifacts including dinosaur bones and the Hope Diamond. We did not see those first. We started in the basement with the "Birds of Washington DC" exhibit. The kids were really animated and pointed at all of the birds (they were taxidermied.) They exclaimed over the owls and hummingbirds especially. I really enjoyed seeing a bald eagle. Did you ever notice how it's feathers grow down its legs, looking like bird pants? I thought that was pretty funny. The kids loved the ducks and the turkey too. Jonathan kept trying to say bird (bwa) and Jimmy and Amelia were amazed to see real birds so close. As we turned the last corner, we came upon a pair of large, white swans, in a glass case. They were at waist height for adults, so the children could not see them. Gary lifted each kids up, starting with Amelia to get a better look. As soon as she saw the bird, she let out blood curdling scream! It was genuine terror! She shook and sobbed she tried to get away. She was inconsolible at the sight of these swans. Neither Gary nor I could see what the problem was. She was fine for every other bird on display, but those swans really set her off.

After that, we went to the gems and mineral halls. Nothing could be scary there. ANd nothing was scary there. We all oohed and aahed over the beautiful rocks and minerals, spending more time on the mineral displays then on the gems set in jewelry.

Then we went to go and see the reptile skeletons and the insect zoo. All of the bones were neatly arranged and very sterile however they gave Amelia the willies. Gary and I enjoyed the turtle skeletons. Jimmy like seeing the graphs that demonstrated bone growth and develpment.

In the Insect Zoo, Gary got to hold a large grass hopper. I asked if he would hold the kissing cockroach next and he laughed at me. It turns out I had heard wrong. It was a HISSING cockroach. We passed it by and headed to the dinosaur area. We all got a thrill out of seeing real, life size dinosaur fossils. Jimmy got the biggest thrill out of (drum roll please) the computer kiosk. He couldn't get enough of the computer display and had to be dragged away to look at the actual dinosaur bones. Once he noticed those, he thought they were pretty neat. Especially the t-rex. Amelia liked the baby dinosaurs.

We ended the day on the National Mall, with a short walk to the Washington Monument. It looked beautiful against the setting sun.

Want to know when Jesus will come?

We have a famous super hero in residence. He came home with Jimmy from kindergarten on the first day of school. He wears the same clothes as Jimmy and he looks just like Jimmy. However, his family of 7 brothers was killed in a car wreck and he was forced to join our family. His name is "Crismon Shedds." Crismon Shedds' super power is that he was born knowing everything. He's not around all the time, but sometimes he puts in an "appearance."

Last night, during dinner I made a joke about the millenium (don't ask, it was political) which lead to the discussion of what the millenium is. We explainned how Jesus will come and it will be wonderful, but no one knows when it will happen. Not even the prophet or angels in heaven know when it will happen. "oh yeah?" says Jimmy "Just ask Crismon Shedds!"

UPDATE: more info on Crismon Shedds.

Chore chart

I decided it was time to pass off some of the housework to the kids. I never make it through my list at the end of the day. I found a chore chart maker online and each week, I sit down with the kids and review what needs to be done. They then choose 2 things they are willing to take over for the week. Jimmy hangs his up and takes it very seriously. He vacuumed under the table for a week. He washed the windows. He said 2 things was not enough and he chose more. He chose hard jobs and did them well. He gets upset if someone else tries to do HIS job. I am grateful for his hardwork; I think when he is older he will accuse me of making him my slave!

Burning Lipstick

A few nights ago, I made "wild black bean soup" for dinner. It had 1/2c picante sauce in it, so it really packed a punch. It had a nice flavor, but it left a lot of heat in the mouth, in particular the lips. I liked it (with some hesitations, I could only finish half a bowl before I couldn't take the heat.) Amelia liked it. She ate a few bites and requested water. She ate a few more bites and requested water. She ate a few more bites and had a glass of water. She drank 5 larges glasses of water and then said "this soup is like burning lipstick!"

Copy cat!

Gary asked the children who wanted to say the bedtime prayer and Jonathan's hand was up first. "MA!" he shouted, in near perfect imitation of Jimmy and Amelia. He had no idea what he was volunteering for, or even that he was volunteering for anything. He just knew that when someone says "who wants to say the prayer" you are supposed to raise your hand and shout "ME!"
We tried an experiment: over the next few minutes, Gary asked at random "who wants to say the prayer?" and every time, Jonathan's hand flew up in the air and he shouted "MA!"

I guess it won't be long now before he can take a turn for real.

Jonny's Word List

As a former student of speech pathology, I really enjoy keeping word lists of my children's first words for the second year of life. (where the language development really takes off)
Jonathan turned one last week and he added his first word (other than Mama and Dada) After we dropped Jimmy off for the bus, he waved and said "bye bye"
So here is a list of the current words he says and uses spontaniously;
Mama
Dada
bye bye
done (da)
more (ma!)
amen (men)
Amelia (ni-ya)

He babbles a lot using sentences of made up words. He even pauses for me to respond. He can't wait to communicate!

Seeing Red

Jimmy and Amelia don't really see eye to eye on most things lately. Most apparently clothing. He loves camoflague and she loves pink. She loves dresses and tights and he only wears denim, jogging suits, and t shirts. One could say that she is a "girly girl" and he is a "boyly boy" (I can't think of the real word at this time) But they both agree on the color red. He loves wearing red jogging suits with red shirts (no collars or buttons please!) she loves wearing red dresses. The more glitter the better. (she has one that was covered with glittery dots, but the glitter has long sinced washed off) In fact, she reminds me of Ginger Grant (the red head from Gilligan's Island) sometimes. Very pretty, very formal, and overdressed for most occasions!

Happy Birthday Jonny

Wednesday marked Jonathan's first birthday. The kids enjoyed "painting" on the sidewalk with brushes and water pitchers and exploring the paths around our community. That evening, Jonny coated himself with cake and ice cream. It was a peppermint flavored snake cake (he chose the flavor.) He really gets a kick out of snakes and thoroughly enjoyed eating one to celebrate his first year of life.
His birthday present was a singing rocking horse, which we did not have wrapping paper for. We covered it with a large blanket and hid it in a corner. That was not enough to fool Jonny. First thing in the morning, I found him with head and shoulders under the blanket, dancing to the music of the horse!

New house photos

This is our living room. We haven't gotten it "just right" We are still pushing things around.

Note the ride on toys on the balcony. The kids love to play there.
This is the kids bedroom. We painted it green, to be like the room from "good night moon" We even found a moon shaped lamp.
This is the play room. If you turn right, there is a play kitchen and baby dolls. If you turn left there is a tool bench, pirate ship and a racecar eating dinosaur.















Here are some pictures of our new place. We really like it here.

MOVE!

Last week, we moved into our new home. It is a 3 level condo. Jimmy says that his favorite part is the balcony. He can often be found hanging out on the balcony, where he and Amelia pull doughnuts (that's all there's room for) with "their wheels" (trike and scooter.)

We only have 5 boxes to unpack (unfortunately the "bonus boxes" that have a little bit of everything!) and are happy to be settling in. Pictures and details to follow eventually! (thanks for your patience)

Jonathan's Tricks

In the last week, Jonathan has picked up a few cute tricks!
Trick #1
A few days ago, we were all blowing kisses after dinner and he thought he'd join in the fun. He stuck his pointer finger in his mouth and began to blow. (I guess this one is still a work in progress, but it sure is cute!)
Trick #2
Jonathan can follow simple directions like "clap your hands" or "touch my nose" (He is working on eye and mouth too)

Amelia's Prayer

Amelia said the family prayer tonight. I don't think I'll get it exactly right, but here is goes:

...Please help us not tell poop jokes; tell stories the right way not with real names instead of made up ones*; and we all know about pull ups**...
*Gary likes to substitute names of real people into the childrens stories and she does not care for this
**What we all know, I don't know. Your guess is as good as mine!
I guess you had to be there. She is just starting to say prayers for real. She used to say thank you for the food (whether there was food or not) and Amen. Now she goes on and on about all of the things she cares about. It's very sweet, and often times very funny.

Church Time

Today in church, Jimmy wanted to sit on the front row. Gary and I know that the kids need containment so we sat on the second row (using the first row as a baracade.) Jonathan loved being so close to the front and was attracted to the stairs leading to the pulpit. Gary was on his feet chasing after him most of the meeting (he's a great Dad). Toward the end, Jonathan climbed up on the box that the chorister stands on to lead the music. He took a moment to catch his balance, then he started to wave his arm like mad JUST LIKE THE CHORISTER! He is such a hoot!

Jimmy's News

Jimmy is really into math right now. He likes to know how much 3 sixes is and how many 2s are in 1000, etc. He likes numbers so much that he made up his own!
A thillion: the largest number
definition: It is so big that "a thillion plus one turns into a negative number"


He really likes school and plays karate and ninja turtles there all the time. (although he does not like ninja turtles best, he likes "rescue heroes") He says that his teacher Mrs Magoffin does karate too. At the end of class when they have left over time they have a vote on what to do and they always do karate. (How's that for a kindergarten fantasy!)

Amelia the teacher

Since Jimmy is in school, Amelia has been taking greater pains to get along with Jonathan.This means that she can sometimes be seen holding his hand and leading him off to make mischief. She is also imparting her vast 3 years of knowledge and experience to him, bit by bit. Here is one piece of advice she gave to him a few days ago:
"Take your Barbie, bend it over like it's a frozen gogurt (demonstrates by bending her at the waist) and you have a gun!"

Darn R's

In speech pathology, the letter R is often preceded by the word "darn" because it are so tricky for children and therapists to correct. (now don't worry, children have until they are 8 years old before /r/ is a concern) Amelia and I had a conversation the other day where this came into play.
Amelia: This is my brother Wocky.
Me: Why do you call Jonathan "Rocky"?
Amelia: Not wock, like the thing on the gwound. Walk like what people do.

I was impressed with her ability to clearly explain away my confusion.

Lion King

Jonathan didn't used to like sitting for books, especially not the one word with one picture board books. But last night, he listened to "Lion King" and loved it. I was reading it to the bigger kids for bedtime and he really liked the lion fights and the roaring sounds. He even roared back! Today, he sat on my lap and listened to (the abreviated version) of it again. I am happy to find a book that he likes to hear.

School

Jimmy started kindergarten this week at Newton Lee Elementary School in our new neighborhood. I am driving him there until we officially move in at the end of the month. The first day of school must have been enjoyable, but I really don't get what happened. He came home from school telling us all about how his teacher has a flashlight and they get to go through secret passages. AND only the kids in Room 1 get to know the pass word for the secret passage. When pressed for details, none were given. Jimmy raelly enjoyed the school library on the second day of school. He checked out George and Martha, Encore! I always love reading George and Martha with him. Jimmy dreaded the third day of school because a fire drill was planned and he was scared it would be too loud. He made it through just fine. I thought that he liked school, but the other day, he told me he wished that Amelia would go to kindergarten instead. He is jealous of the extra time she has at home. (so THAT explains behavior problems we've had lately!) I'm sure it will all balance out over the next few weeks.
I never knew that being a parent of a school kid was so much work. He comes home with huge stacks of papers for us to fill out (most are PTO fundraisers, what they need the funds for,they don't say.) But hardest of all to figure out has been the "kiss and ride" drop off for the kids. The first day of school, they decided to let the kindergarteners out 30 minutes early, to get the parents used to the carpool lane, but did not tell the parents that they let the kids out early. Jimmy and his class had to stand out in the rain until all of us uninformed parents showed up at the regular time. At the end of the week, they sent home a flier explaining all of the rules for drop off/pick up, but this was a little late for me. I had already been chewed out about a different "violation" each day. I look forward to our move, so Jimmy can take the bus instead. Thanks for hearing out my rant. AND thanks to MOM and DAD for all of their hard work putting me through school.

Chuck E Cheese

After a long day/week, we decided to have a fun family date at Chuck E Cheese, a fun pizza place with mini rides and arcade games. Jimmy loved the games and while Amelia prefered the rides.

Jimmy hit the jackpot at a SpongeBob Squarepants game, inserting one token and pushing a button. Out came the tickets. They kept coming and coming and were piling up on the floor! When they finally stopped coming out, Jimmy tore them off and brought them back to Mom and Dad. The chain of tickets trailed behind him. Amelia, in her excitement for Jimmy, kept stepping on the tickets and hindered his progress.

Amelia really liked the rides. Her favorite being a high top shoe shaped one. She brought me over to a large light up high top shoe shaped basket ball game and proceeded to climb up into the hole where the balls come out. She said she wanted a ride! I think she was too short to see what the ride was all about. I had her get out and put in a token to show her what it did. Out came the basketballs. She tried and tried to shoot them at the hoop, but again height was an issue. I lifted her up and held her over the hoop so she could drop the balls in (she missed.)

Jonathan enjoyed a toddler area with stairs to climb and a platform area with slide attached. He even learned to go down the stairs backward (for safety) I was really impressed. Going down stairs will be very important as our new condo will have 2 flights.

Jonathan's Post

Since Jonathan doesn't talk yet, I haven't included him in my blog postings (which are primarily funny things the bigger kids say.) I realize this is not fair to my youngest, so I'd like to rectify that.

Jonathan started taking steps about 10 days ago. He is now venturing around taking half a dozen steps at a time before crawling to complete his journeys. He enjoys pushing large balls up the slide in our living room and when he finally makes it to the top with the ball (he is persitant) he cheers for himself! Then we all clap too and tell him what a big boy he is. He really likes clapping, more so than the other kids did/do.

Jonathan also had his first big boy time at the park. For the first time yesterday, he wanted to climb and slide at the park, just like the big kids. He crawled from play structure to play structure and then went up the stairs to play with the steering wheels, go down slides, hang on the the bars like a monkey in a cage. He really is a lot of fun for everyone.

Pool Party

Our apartment complex had an end of summer pool party, complete with DJ and burritoes. We thorooughly enjoyed swimming with the kids. They really are quite confident in the water now.

At the party, two competitions were held; one was a hula hoop contest and the other was limbo. Jimmy and Amelia eagerly participated in both. Neither kid has used a hula hoop. Jimmy watched the other kids begin to spin the hula hoops around their middles and decided to give it a go. He held on tight to the hula hoop and ran in circles as fast as he could to create the illusion of a spinning hula hoop. Amelia decided that the best way to make the hula hoop go round was to hold on and twist her waist from side to side so that both she and the hula hoop did quarter turns in either direction. While they didn't win (and 9 year old girl one, and paraded around the pool spinning the hoop the rest of the evening, even eatting and drinking while making it go) I gave them points for creativity. Jimmy has done the limbo before and stayed in for the entire song. Amelia cheated and went under ducking forwards everytime. (Although there were times she didn't need to duck to clear the bar)

The Flag

I never realized how many United States flags are flying around town until Amelia became infatuated with them. Every time we pass one (driving, walking, etc) she bursts into song (which she made up herself, mostly) and while it doesn't really have much of a tune, it makes me feel patriotic!

Amelia's Flag Song
RED WHITE AND BLUE!
My country too!
My flag my flag my country's flag
Everytime I see my country's flag
I have to sing a song about my country's flag
RED WHITE AND BLUE!

Jimmy's job

Jimmy wants to be just like his Dad (and who wouldn't?!) and he often tells us of the antics at his work "GSRI." He is not sure what Dad does at his job, so he often includes the names of Daddy's coworkers in his stories and makes up the rest.
Jimmy: I got in trouble at work the other day.
Me: What happened?
Jimmy: Well, I am a lumberjack for GSRI and I chop down trees... well, I accidently chopped down a tomato plant instead of a tree. I didn't know it was a tomato plant instead of a tree. I hope I don't get in trouble at GSRI.

Baseball game

Last week we went to Frederick Maryland to catch and Keys game. The Frederick Keys are a minor league baseball team. As we walked up to the gates, Amelia sang for us:
Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out to the crowd!
(missing a few lines here)
I can't ever relax cause it's
Woot! Woot! Woot! for the home team
If they don't win its a shame,
For it's one, two, three strikes your out at the old ball game!

Road Trip

What summer would not be complete without a road trip? Our family took a road trip across Southern Pennsylvania last month, visiting Valley Forge, Hershey Park and Gettysburg. It was an enjoyable trip with a lot of pretty countryside, mostly farms and rolling hills covered with trees. Pennsylvania also has a nuclear power plant or two. The stacks were visible for part of our drive. As we left the area, Jimmy said in a very disappointed voice:

"Hey I can't see the nuclear power anymore!"

Jimmy's discourse on Kilts

I was folding laundry with the kids earlier this summer when the following conversation took place.
Amelia, teasing "Jimmy, here's your skirt!"
Jimmy frowns
Me "That's silly, boys don't wear skirts!"
Jimmy "Well, boys do wear skirts. They are called kilts and men wear them with big heavy purses. They wear the purses so that when they sit down their private parts don't show. I don't think I want to wear a kilt. I think that the big heavy purse would be too heavy for me."

I have no idea where he learned about the sporan, or even if that is REALLY the reason they wear them.

Third times the charm?

Hi All! I am giving the internet another try. I filled up my first website, can't log on to my second one and am hoping the third time is the charm! With this website, I intend to post the funny or otherwise unusual things that my kiddo diddos say. Uploading photos was a little complex for our computer/internet connection to do reliably, so I'll stick to words this time. I hope it will amuse you and help you get to know them a little bit better!