Christmas

Christmas with John this year was amazing. It was so fun to see the excitement and joy on his face now that he sort of 'gets' it!

The tree. Notice all of the ornaments are missing from the bottom- we had to move them because John was way too interested!


Hanging out in his new 'Cars' tent.


Gift Time!!!





By the end, John was a pro at opening presents :)

Taking a break to read a book with Mommy. John didn't really understand the whole open all of the presents and then play concept, he wanted to play immediately following each one!


Oh Lego's!!!


Playing 'Magformers' (complete with sound effects, see the tongue?!)

'Magformers' are the BEST toy. I'm not sure who is having more fun, John or the adults! He loves it when Mommy builds a tower and he gets to knock it down... I'd recommend them to everyone with a curious child, the instructions say ages 6+ but at 2.5 John does great with them. Unfortunately we can't take them on the boat because the magnets will mess with the compass, which is very important :(

Santa!

We are in Venice, Florida at Grandma and Grandpa Goff's house for Christmas. On Christmas Eve, Santa came by boat (!!) to the clubhouse for a little celebration. All the children (about 15 grandchildren of residents here) gathered at the top of the steps and then followed Santa and Mrs. Claus into the clubhouse to sit on Santa's lap and get a little goody bag. I was a little worried about what John's reaction to a 'real' Santa might be, especially because he didn't nap at all and was a bit cranky by 6:30PM. I shouldn't have worried. John was waiting at the top of the dock steps for Santa, grinning and jumping up and down excitedly. He then hurried and followed Santa into the clubhouse, never more than a few feet behind. At one point, Santa stopped and John took the opportunity to hug his knees, almost knocking him over! Santa picked John up and gave him a big hug (darn it, just at that moment my camera card was full!!!). Then, he got chosen to be the FIRST child to sit on Santa's lap. I asked John what he asked Santa to bring him for Christmas, and he answered "pissmass presents mamma!"


Santa arriving on the boat






Putting out our 'reindeer food' (oatmeal with glitter in it- the glitter reflects in the moonlight/Rudolph's nose and attracts it, from the library story time in the Keys- cool idea huh?!)

Milestones...

I read a few BLOGS, and usually people mark milestones- for example "100th Post!" etc. Well, I missed my 100th post, by a lot it would seem! By my count I'm at 195. Since I'll probably forget to mark the 200th post, I'll mark this!

Happy 195th Post Captain John!

For this happy occasion I'll do a little catch up of photos from the past few weeks.

Idol

John IDOLIZES his 'Bubby Owen'. This morning we looked at Owen's Blog and John was inspired...
Do you see a family resemblance?

A Glimpse....

A little conversation John and I had the other day. Pulling into Bahia Honda in the Florida Keys, on the bow just after putting the anchor down....

John: Oh Look! A beach!
Abby: Yeah, do you like beaches John?
John (dreamily): Yeah... Girls in "tini's" live there..... ('tini' means BIKINI!)

Oh boy. John is 2 going on 15, this is just a little glimpse into our future I think!

Kapok Tree

One of our favorite books lately is The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry. A wonderful book about nature and conservation that I highly recommend!

Well, we were walking around Key West and found a real Kapok Tree! John had so much fun climbing all over it and exploring, and what a great way to make the book more real!

In my spare time...

I crochet! We have had a few loooooong car trips lately, so I've been working on something besides blankets- aren't we cute?!



Who knew it would be cold enough in Alabama in November to wear them!

Sick

Jeff and I have both been a bit under the weather these last few days. So far John seems fine, but time well tell. I'm pretty sure its just a bad cold, but its miserable while it lasts! Here are a few photos to tide you over...

Cousins

Twirley

John has a new habit



ahem


OBSESSION.

Hair twirling.
Its constant.
If you pull one hand away the other is immediately on top of his head to keep twirling.
Sometimes he says 'tirl mama's hair'.
Its adorable, really.
So adorable that I had to cut a knot off the top of his head the other day.
I mean, its adorable.
Right?

A visit...

TQ and PopPop got 'permission' a few weekends ago to bring Owen up to the 'real house' with them. So Friday night they drove to Rockford and stayed over night with Jed, Mandy, Owen and Julian. Saturday morning they got up early and made it here at (well, right in the middle of) nap time.
John and Owen had a fabulous weekend together, and truth be told, when Owen was told on Sunday evening that he'd have to go home the next morning he said (and I quote) "No! But I don't wanna go back there! I want to stay at the real house!!!" There were some people (ahem, his parents?) who thought he'd have a hard time being away from home for 2 nights. I get that totally, John has never spent a night away from me and he's past 2, I'm not sure if I would do as well as Mandy and Jed did!!!But Owen was the star, not only did he sleep well and night but he took gasp a NAP!!

We went to Pond Hill Farm and the boys got to play in the tractor!




They painted pumpkins


They played at the beach...



With these two special people watching nearby!


They read books with PopPop


And, they watched "Bee Movie"- which has become the house favorite since then, with both John and Owen imitating parts of the movie!


It was a busy, but amazingly fun weekend with 'Bubby Owen' !!

~Peace

Imp

imp.

-noun
1. a little devil or demon; an evil spirit.
2. a mischievous child.

I don't think John is devil spawned, but mischievous child fits him perfectly :)

Tractor Fun!

A few weeks ago we took John to the Second Annual Mackinac Bridge Tractor Crossing... What a fun day!






Yes, this is a PINK tractor- called the 'pinky' made by John Deere (I think)