Willing Family

After the Christmas holiday and watching Connor scale the stairs like a pro, Jared decided to give stair climbing a try.  Talk about frightening from a parents point of view.  He is far to small to reach the handrail so he is using the banister spindles to propel himself forward.  I am not sure I like this new skill.

Jared got a Little People Farm for Christmas from Buscia and h absolutely loves it.  This morning while we were playing farm he picked up the sheep and said “BAAAA”.  It was adorable.  This was a first for him, he had never made that animal sound before, but it is quickly becoming his favorite.  He has been repeating it all day.

It seems that Christmas was very big for animals this year.  Jared got one of those stick ponies and finds the thing hilarious.  Despite never seeing one before the other day he has the riding concept down pat.  With this new riding skill maybe he will become a cowboy, but more likely he will become a farmer (check out the tractor in the background).  Either way we plan to teach him to lasso next.

Giddy Up!

But before he can become a real cowboy (or a farmer) he needs to become a big boy and he took a big step on that path today.  Today we bought the potty seat and Jared was very eager to try it out.  Notice that he is a bit overdressed for the activity.  Oh well, I guess we are just starting out.

Look at me, I'm on the potty!

I have my game face on!

Parenting isn’t always glamorous but there is always a little bit of humor every day and today was no exception.  And I will preface this with the fact that I probably wouldn’t have found this as funny if it had happened to me.

After dinner Jared and Connor were playing in the great room at my parents while the adults were visiting.  After a little while there was a terrible stink and we all knew that it was one of the boys. Eric caught Jared, pick him up and sniffed his bottom (because as a parent/grandparent it is completely acceptable to sniff another persons butt) and was horrified to discover that Jared had had a blowout and he had stuck his nose (literally) into it.  So Jared is filthy, poop up his back and everywhere and Eric has it on his nose.  The joys of parenting.  

Since Eric was all grossed out because he stuck his nose is poo I had to clean Jared up, which didn’t really bother me because I love bath time.  And Jared was in a great mood for this one.  He was babbling and splashing and said a new word “UP”.  I am super exciting about this because it is his first word with the P sound.  Like I said, the Joys of Parenting.

Before the poo

Up

Wow did this weekend put me in the Christmas spirit! Every activity we did this weekend centered on Christmas and it was so much fun!  I absolutely love this time of year.  Everyone rushing around to make other peoples Christmas wishes come true.  It is just magical.  

Jared’s school Christmas program jump-started the weekended with a holiday rendition of the “Jump up and Down” song.  This is one of Jared’s favorite songs because it is simple and interactive.  Jared wasn’t all that into the song though, maybe it was the new place or a bit of stage-fright, no matter what the cause he didn’t get into the dancing until nearly the end of his verse.  But Jared’s little friend, Crisitian, stole the show with his stellar dancing. I think that Cristian may be the next Fred Astair.  

Jared's Class: McKenna, Riley, Taylor, Shane, Madison, McKenzie, Jackson, Hagan, Jared, Cristian

Jared during his solo. He is pointing to the Christmas tree

Finally dancing!

Next on our agenda was the Lilly Children’s christmas party with Tim, Amber and Adalyn.  This is a great event!  The Children’s museum is much nicer when there aren’t 10,000 other people around.  The only crowded area was the line to see Santa, but that was expected since the pictures were included in the admission price.  Unfortunately Jared and Adalyn were terrified on Santa.  There were blood curdling screams coming out of Jared at the mere sight of the man in red.  The amount of effort that it took to get either child within 2 feet of Santa was so exhausting that we had to refuel with ice-cream and cookies in the cafe.  We always stop for ice-cream when we are at the Children’s Museum.  The excitement of the evening certainly didn’t end with the visit to Santa.  After our snack Adalyn ran off and was out of the cafe before anyone of us could even blink.  People aren’t kidding when they say that it only takes a second for your child to disappear.  Luckily for us we were in a very controlled setting when Adalyn wandered away and we retrieved her quickly.  That incident made me thankful that Jared is very clingy, especially in crowded places.

A ride on the yule slide

Playing in the Kitchen while daddy waits in line to see Santa

A visit with Santa

On the Merry go Round

Jared's first Christmas present of 2009. Thank you Fought Family

The weekend ended with our 2nd Annual Cookie Decorating party at the Simons’s house.  Everything we do with Eric, Mary and Owen is a blast and this was no exception.  We started the evening with the opening of Christmas/Hanukkah presents.  Jared got a series of books called Elephant and Piggy.  They are absolutely adorable books.  We got Owen a name puzzle and a Little People school because Mary is a teacher.  As with all babies and toddlers both of the boys had to put the Little People and puzzle pieces in their mouths.  Toys are delicious!  We ended the evening with the lighting of the Menorah and Christmas music, maybe an odd combination to most, but you don’t know the Simons’s.

Owen eating his W

Jared stealing bites of his first Christmas cookie

If a weekend like this can’t get you into the Christmas spirit, nothing can!

After Eric got Jared dressed in his pajamas Jared leaned toward his crib and said binky while pointing at his binky.  Clear as a bell the word just emerged from his lips.  we have been stressing a bit about Jared’s language being behind, but it seems that he is really catching up.  In the past few weeks Jared’s vocabulary has really been blossoming he can now say:

blue

bike

binky

ball

in addition to his other words: mommy, daddy, hi, bye, more, no

and his signs: more, milk, finished, help, please, and thank-you.

Considering that we say the word binky at our house at least a dozen times a day, I am a little surprised that it took him this long to say it, but he is saying it now and that is all that matters.

Besides the budding vocabulary Jared has recently decided that the tub is a cool place to play, and not just during bath time.  After supper he ran into the bathroom and climbed into the tub, fully clothed.  I guess that he just wanted to play with those bath toys.

When it rains it pours around here.  When Jared starts teething, he really starts teething.  Another tooth, the bottom right canine came through today.  That makes for in about two weeks.  No wonder he has been a grumpapotomas.  All that remains to come in are his two year molars.  I can’t hardly wait (sarcasm)!

After last weeks appointment with Dr. Bowman I went ahead and called First Steps to get the process started for Jared to get some help with his speech.  today was our first appointment and it only took 4 phone calls to get it scheduled!  Talk about government efficiency!  The lady who came by the house to start the process was very nice and helpful.  We spent about 45 minutes filling out and signing paperwork, and scheduling the evaluation.   Because it takes a state employee to fill out paperwork a couple of educated people can’t do it themselves.  It would be too simple for the evaluation and the paperwork to be done on the same day or have the paperwork mailed so that I can have it filled out before the evaluation, but this is the government!  Anyway, Jared’s speech evaluation is scheduled for December 16th.  We will know more then if he truly has a speech delay.

Yet another one of those pesky teeth came in.  This time it was the bottom left canine.  Another three teeth and he will have a full mouthful.