History of the J Man

If only we made money on product endorsements….

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.

Just as Elliott learned to kiss overnight it seems Jonah has gone from pure scribbles to drawing actual recognizable forms over night.  We’ve always encouraged art and creative projects but until now he’s dabbled in it a bit but has been more into developing his physical skills vs his artistic ones.  By that I mean that he’d prefer to run and jump or hit a ball with a bat rather than sit at the table coloring.  Maybe things are changing due to age or his interests are changing or it’s the influence of school…I have no idea.  Regardless, it’s fun to watch this change and see the new skills develop.

Check out the post it note drawings he did for me from the back of the car today.  I think they are pretty good.  Way better than the scribbles I was expecting.  And lest you misinterpret, those first few are of “mama’s drill.”  Can you tell we’ve been doing a lot of work around the new house?

The one with the 2 people shows one running, but only one…can you guess which?

And lastly, a word he wrote out after eating lunch at Johnny Rockets.

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.  

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.  :-)

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.

I can’t get over how big these boys are getting and how different their personalities are.  They get along really well together but Jonah is like my sister was as a kid.  If you ask him he never wants to go anywhere or do anything but once you get him there he doesn’t want to leave.  Elliott, on the other hand, will bring everyone their shoes then go stand by the front door and shout “let’s go!”  Here’s a photo of them waiting at the door to leave.

And a photo of Elliott from our visit to Santa’s Village last weekend.

Sitting in the living room last night Jonah feels my leg and then says, “Mama, why do you have a beard growing on your legs?  Mine are nice and smooth.”

How do I even begin to answer?!