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.