Merry Christmas

We took a quick trip down to Jordan's parent's house for Christmas.  Jordan's sister was there with her family, so that meant lots of kids and lots of excitement.

Here's another try at the two boys wearing matching clothing picture:

 

And here's a picture of all the cousins who were there:

 

Loving Grandma

Jonah loved everyone else's gifts from Santa

But wasn't too thrilled by his own.

Santa also left some animal crackers for Jonah, so all was good in his world in the end.

 

Skyler had all the perfect reactions.  Lots of "that's just what I wanted!" and "It's what I asked for!" And even an "I can get it wet and don't have to wind it!"

  

Don't you just love Super Jesse, the Amazing High Jumping Baby in that last picture? 

We proclaim Christmas 2008 a success and hope you all had a wonderful and special day as well!

Christmas Ties

I bought these shirts for the boys last month.  They were on clearance, the sizes were right, and they had red in them, which means they would make great Christmas shirts.  Jonah already had a navy blazer, so I found one for Skyler.  All that was left was the ties.  I wanted solid red, how hard should that be, being it Christmastime and all?  I found plaid ones and dotted ones, but no solid red, so I decided to settle for the plaid ones I had seen at Target.  Except that when I went back to get them, they were no longer there.  Kohl's had one solid red tie (one being the key word there, not so useful when I have two children), but since time was running out, I settled on these festive ties (which I let Skyler choose).  But when Sunday morning rolled around, I wondered why I put so much effort into finding ties - Skyler woke up sick and didn't go to church.  Oh, the irony.  I was ready to pack them up for next year (when I'm fairly certain that solid red ties will be all the rage) but Skyler wanted to wear his to church on the Sunday after Christmas.  So, better late than never, right?

And, um, the best part of having two boys in matching clothes is taking a cute picture of them together.  Neither boy cooperated for that one. 

Thumbs Up!

I was looking through pictures on the computer and when I came across these ones, I realized that I haven't ever written about the boys' mealtime activity.

A few months ago, when Skyler started being a little less picky about what he ate, he started simply giving things a thumbs up or a thumbs down to indicate if he like them or not.  So Jonah picked up on this.  But, as you can see from the pictures, we're still working on the whole thumbs up part of the thumbs up. 

 Skyler still always does this too, but it's much cuter when Jonah does it.

Jonah is not Skyler: Exhibit A

I love how different the kids are.  Here are some pictures of Jonah watching his favorite DVD.  Jonah will sit and watch something, Skyler never has and currently won't sit longer than maybe 20 minutes for any type of show.  He claims that anything else is too long.  But the look on their faces is so different.  Jonah is always just so intent on catching all the action and will sit in one spot until he's done watching (which at this point, is maybe 15 minutes).  Skyler will barely keep his eyes on the TV and get up several times to do other things.

Christmas Parade

Earlier this month, we went to see the city's light parade.  We parked at the park n ride and took the "bendy" bus (for free!) to our spots on the parade route.  This was initially Skyler's favorite part.  This is the bus that Jordan rides whenever he rides to or from work and when we told Skyler that we'd be able to take the bus, he decided that going to the parade would be a good thing.  We took sandwiches and ate while we waited for the parade to start.  I'm sure Jonah was very confused about the whole thing.  But once the parade did start, he loved looking at the lights and cars.

Conversations with Jonah

Jonah: Mom, Mom
Me: What?
Jonah: Ummmm.... Woof.

Baby Who?

Yesterday, Skyler was helping me get the Nativity set out. He pulled out the Baby Jesus and said, "oh here's the baby!" I asked him who that baby was. He said, "I don't know, I don't remember". Apparently we have some work to do.

My goal with this picture was to have Jesus in focus and Skyler not.  I realized after this one that he should hold the figure up a bit higher.  However, there appeared to be a link between how high he held it and whether or not his eyes stayed open.

My Best Little Helper

Last night after dinner, I asked Skyler to take his plate to the sink. Then I started to get Jonah down from his seat. He would not let go of his plate. I knew it wasn't because he wanted more since he was trying very hard to get out of his seat. I asked him if he wanted to put his plate in the sink. He started nodding, so I got him down and he walked to the kitchen and as best he could (meaning he's not tall enough and the plate actually landed on the floor) put his plate in the sink. Why is it that the most willing helpers really aren't the most helpful?

Some other fun Jonah stuff:

Jonah has started saying "look!" an awful lot. He's always been into pointing, so I'm sure he's glad to have a word to go along with it.

Jonah walks around saying "what" an lot. Just totally randomly. It's fun to see when they understand a word, but also funny when they clearly don't quite get it yet.

Jonah thinks it is his duty to follow me into the bathroom and give me toilet paper. What ever would I do without him? He also really likes to sit on the toilet and get his own toilet paper, which I do like to encourage despite the fact that some days it is quite annoying.

Watch

Jonah's latest thing is calling out "watch!" and then doing something totally spectacular.  Usually it's just flipping on and off light switches (isn't he talented?), but sometimes he'll do front roll type things on the floor.



And, as you can tell from the video, his other current thing is trying to steal the camera!

Skyler's Other Soccer Shirt

Since Skyler's soccer shirt had a big number on it, he thinks any shirt with numbers on it is a soccer shirt.  On Monday night he asked me to wash the soccer shirt he was wearing (the one in the picture - there's a number on it, promise) because he wanted to wear it for Joy School the next day so he could show his friends how much he loved soccer.  I thought it was funny that he asked me to wash it, usually he just pulls things out of the dirty clothes if it's what he wants to wear.  He wears a certain pair of sweatpants nearly everyday, but never asks me to wash them!  Maybe it's because I've picked up on the fact that he treats them as his only pair of pants and I wash them after about every two wears (unless I need to sooner for whatever reason). 

We've been talking a lot about gratitude lately, because 'tis the season after all.  Two nights ago at dinner, I warmed up some corn, but then realized that it had been in the fridge for too long.  Skyler was upset because he wanted corn, so I offered to open up a new can for him (I work hard for my children, I know).  After I did that, he didn't want any corn.  Jordan told him that I had got that corn just for him, so he should show that he is grateful and eat it.  Skyler announced that he was grateful for the corn, he just didn't want to eat it.

Night-Night Jonah

 

Several weeks ago, Skyler decided that he wanted to put Jonah to bed.  So he took Jonah upstairs, put his pajamas on him, and then read him a story.  He needed a little help with the pj's, but other than that, he did a nice job.  Jonah must not have thought so, because he hasn't let Skyler do it again! 

Bits and Pieces

Just a few random things that have been going on lately

Jonah is into throwing things into the trashcan.  While sometimes useful, this could also be troubling.

When Skyler turned four, he announced that he'd start eating the crust of his sandwiches.  This lasted for a short while and which point he decided that he will only eat crusts on church days.  He holds to this, and while he doesn't always eat them (sometimes he just takes them off himself) he never insists that we take the crusts off on Sundays.

Skyler is a stubborn eater.  I wouldn't say he's necessarily picky, because sometimes it seems like he tries really hard to not like something since he told us before he tried it that he didn't like it.  He must always. Be. In. Control.  As a result he really won't eat a whole lot.  We told him once, "look Jonah likes it", to which he replied, "Jonah likes everything, and I just don't".  And that is totally true.

Skyler has been learning about being kind at joy school.  He's been quite polite this week, which has been a nice change, because normally he yells at us anytime we tell him "thank you" or if we thank him in advance, he refuses to do what we are thanking him for.  One day he brought home a book of kind words.  It just has words like "please" and "may I" on each page.  Jonah loves it and I read it to him several times a day.

Jonah likes to take my hand and take me on little walks around the house.  Usually it's because he wants something and he'll take me to what he wants.  He used to be pretty good at signing, but has decided that grunting and vague pointing is much more effective.

Jonah thinks that every animal is a dog and therefore says, "woof".  Skyler likes to take advantage of this by asking Jonah "What does the cat say" and laugh like crazy when Jonah says woof.

I heard Skyler tell Jordan, "I love you dad, sometimes"

Jordan and Skyler were talking about how, although Skyler's full name is Skyler David Ficklin, we just call him Skyler.  Skyler then said, "when I do stuff bad you call me that name".

Some For Me, Some For You

The boys don't really share all that often, so I like to take pictures when they do.  Here they are sharing a ring pop.

 

 

A Visit From Grandma

My mom and aunt came for a short visit this weekend.  We had a great time hanging out, baking bread and cinnamon rolls, going to the Balloon Museum, and going to Skyler's soccer game.  Here are some pictures from our weekend

At the museum:

Aunt Judy and my Mom both thought the air thingy that makes your paper airplanes fly was pretty cool

 

 

Halloween

We spent Halloween weekend with Jordan's parents at their house. I don't really care for Halloween at all, but I do like candy, and dressing up my kids is fun, as is eating their candy (I know I won't get away with that for too much longer!). So, ultimately Halloween causes some moral issues for me. But, I digress, because really you're all here for the pictures, right?

Jonah was a monkey, Curious George to be exact, and Jordan was the Man with the Yellow Hat. I was supposed to be Professor Wiseman (if you watch the PBS show, you know there's got to be something going on between her and TMWTYH), but Jordan forgot to bring home his lab coat from work for me to wear. Skyler was Handy Manny. He fixes things and has his own show on the Disney Channel, which must mean he's as cool as Hannah Montana, right? I had forgotten Skyler's good jeans to go along with his shirt (but at least I wasn't the one who forgot the condiments for the hot dogs at the Trunk or Treat) but luckily his extra outfit that I keep in the car included a pair of jeans. Both of the boys had lots of fun at the trunk or treat and doing some other trick or treating around the neighborhood. I declare Halloween 2008 a success.

For comparison's sake -

Jonah decided to add some leaves to his treat bag

  

  

Jonah enjoying his beloved lollypops and Skyler checking out his candy

 

Goal!

On Saturday, we were finally able to capture Skyler's victory dance on camera.  It may be hard to tell if Skyler was the one to actually kick the goal, but some slow motion shows that he did, and trust us, if he hadn't kicked it, he wouldn't have been celebrating!

A Little Bit of Self Promotion

Being Savvy is a blog all about parenting preschoolers.  They have local pages too, and the Albuquerque one (that I write) is now up.  It's all about things to do with your kids with a local twist to it.  If you're local, please check it out and tell all your friends too!  If you don't live around here, check it out anyway, but also look to see if there's a city near you with a page (the list in the upper right corner).  A Tucson page just launched and a Phoenix area one should launch within the next month.  Many cities are coming soon, so keep checking back.

Pumpkin Patch

Last Friday, we drove to the other side of the mountain to visit a pumpkin patch.  We got to go on a hayride to the pumpkins and choose a few pumpkins to take home.  There was also a petting zoo, haybales to climb on, a big slide, and plenty of other things we didn't get a chance to do.  Skyler decided at the last minute that he did not want to go down the slide.  The girl in front of him screamed the whole way down and I think that made him nervous.  He is eagerly awaiting next year because he says he'll go on the slide then. 

Waiting for the hayride to start

 

Choosing the perfect pumpkin

The rule was that Skyler had to be able to carry the one he chose.  So the one in the last picture didn't make the cut!  Jonah thinks that pumpkins are cool balls and keeps trying to throw his.

 

There were several of these and Skyler made me take his picture with every one of them!

Jonah climbing on the bales of hay and Skyler climbing out of the little hay bale maze.