History of the J Man

We had a fun Saturday as a family staying at home this weekend.  The kids literally stayed in their pj’s the entire day.  Including when we went outside to play in the snow.

Jonah made snow angels, Elliott threw snow at us and Bianca had a great time running in the snow.  We also created a snow “mountain,” pulled up a deck chair and helped Jonah sled down it.  Check out the photos and video below.

This is the point we’re at with E lately:  Wakes up at 5am and cries for Mama.  I get him around 5:30 and bring him to bed with me where he is content for about 10 minutes.  I wrestle for him for another 10 while he asks for Daddy then let him go find him since he’s now done showering.  The minute he finds Daddy he starts crying and heading back for my door, saying, “I want Mama.”  But of course isn’t happy with me at that point either.  And thus the day with a clingy 20 month old begins.

Elliott is talking a lot now.  It’s not always what we want to here but it’s nice that he can communicate.  Here are some of his favorite phrases:

“I want Mama!”

“Not me!” or similar “And me!”

“Let’s go!”

“I want more.”

“Naked paaarty!”

I need to get it recorded but it’s cute to note that Jonah comes out sounding more like “JsaJsa.”

Hanukkah and Christmas shared a weekend this year so needless to say we’re still digging out from all the new toys.  Below are some photos of Hanukkah at Nana & Papa’s house on Christmas Eve.  Highlights were the ride-on Thomas train for Elliott and the pirate ship for Jonah.  Julie was also excited about her new Kindle Fire and Chris put his Leatherman too right to work.

I think Uncle Tim’s shirt in the photo below says it all.  

I woke up yesterday morning to the best holiday gift of all.  A real kiss from Elliott!  I ask him for a kiss every morning but usually that means he leans in to MY mouth with his cheek or forehead.  Yesterday at 6am on the walk from his room to mine he actually GAVE me a real kiss.  Complete with lip contact to my cheek and the SWAK noise.  So cute!  It’s amazing what they figure out literally overnight.  I love it and of course am making him give me kisses repeatedly now more than ever.  LOL.

Some new photos of Jonah’s current obsession with everything involving swords, light sabers or those who them.

Not sure what it is about kids and taking their clothes off but last night, as we were trying to get them dressed for bed, both kids took off!  They were literally running around upstairs, bouncing off the walls and the beds yelling, “Naked Party!”

It was adorable!

We wanted to immediately reach for our cameras but stopped ourselves (they can thank us in about 10 years).  We were all laughing and running…it was one of those organic moments that reminds you how fun it can be to be a parent.  It was only slightly stressed by our concern about Elliott since he’s not potty trained.  :-)

Elliott turned 18 months yesterday and had his check up right on his half birthday.  He weighs 23.1 lbs and is 32.5″ tall.  That weight only puts him in the 20% for weight.  I’m not sure Jonah ever ranked that low.  Elliott seems to be skinnier than Jonah but that’s fine.  I attribute it to the fact that he’s not a big milk drinker like Jonah was.  Elliott a happy, healthy kid.He’s climbing all over the place, trying to do whatever Jonah does and talking more each day.  He was even saying, “no, no, no” as he fell asleep yesterday.  Plus he’s starting to string 2 words together.  His favorite phrases now are, “Let’s go!” and “And me!”

Below are some photos from our time at the new doctor’s office for his check up.  They make you strip down the kid to check his height and weight then have you wait in the waiting room.  So rather than get him dressed just to get him undressed again when the doc came in, I let him wear my sweatshirt.

Daddy & Elliott outside

A fun photo of the family taken before trick-or-treating

Elliott has decided that he likes to dip. This is a photo of him eating his yogurt with a tortilla chip, he doesn’t eat the chip just uses it to dip.

We did Halloween last night in 2 stages.  Jonah is at a stage where he doesn’t want to do anything so when we were ready to go trick-or-treating he didn’t want to go.  I think he was having too much fun passing out candy to the kids who came to the door.

The last thing I was going to do was force him to go get candy so we said fine and took Elliott out.  Elliott walked around holding on tightly to my hand on one side and holding a piece of candy firmly in the other hand.  When we got up to a new door he’d put the piece of candy from his hand into his bag then reach for a new one which he would hold until the next place.  He was reassured that he could keep it as long as it was in his hand.  I’m not sure if Jonah knew really what candy was when we took him out at this age.  Elliott certainly knows already about candy.  Fortunately I was able to swap out some all-natural fruit snacks for him after dinner, instead of candy.  Not any better for his teeth I’m sure but at least they had a full serving of fruit.

Then once we got in from trick-or-treating with Elliott and showed off all his candy guess who decided he was ready to go?  So out we all went again, this time with Jonah AND Elliott.

We should make Elliott walk a couple times around the block each night before bed.  The kid actually slept this morning until 6:00!  He usually wakes up around 5:00am.