Peanuts!

The restaurant where we ate tonight had little buckets of peanuts on every table. It turns out that the little booger is a huge fan of peanuts-- just like me! He even figured out how to get the shells off all by himself.

Next time we go down south, I'm going to have to get the kid some boiled peanuts. Then he'll really know how to live.

Football and Dance?

The little booger continues to love watching football. He sat down on the couch this evening, turned on the TV, and asked me to find some football. Luckily it's bowl season. We're going to have to record a game to have through the off-season.

In unrelated goings-on, the little stinker has been attending Kindermusic classes at daycare for a while now. We get a copy of their cd every month so that we can listen to the music at home (and he can keep learning or whatever). Anyway, he busted out these moves last night. I laughed so hard I cried.

It's too bad he's a little camera-shy.

Back to Work

We had a great (but short) Christmas break and were back at work today. Look at these two goofballs-- they were getting ready to put some new hooks up in the bathroom.

I'll post some holiday photos in the next few days. Can you believe it's almost 2012?

Merry Christmas!

The little dude was entranced by a light snowfall the other weekend...

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Television!

One of my friends gave us a ton of DVDs for kids-- mainly with illustrated stories. She thought the little dude might enjoy "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" because it's set to a reggae-style beat. Here's a picture of the little stinker watching the video:

She was right-- he loved it!

Win Some...

... lose some. We went to a holiday lights display a while ago that was, um, disappointing. Here are a couple pictures of the little guy from it.

He had a blast looking at the spotlight and the luminaries, but all the pictures look like we were in some godforsaken black hole (with a train).

Hopefully we'll do something more photogenic next year.

My Top Chef

Sorry for the cheese-ball title. Anyhoo, the little booger helped me make dinner rolls tonight in preparation for some holiday festivities. Kneading dough is one of my favorite baking tasks... it was even more fun with the little booger helping me.

What?

The little booger loves his legos. He loves to build a crooked chimney, and he alternates between saying it's a tall tower and saying it's a giraffe with a window in it.

I've never seen a giraffe with a window in it, but if any mad scientists are reading this-- please make that happen.

Bedtime Blues...

The little guy is starting to get up and run around upstairs after bedtime. It's frustrating and hilarious at the same time. He's a total ham, so he'll parade back to bed with a humongous grin on his face and flapping his arms like a chicken (don't ask-- because I don't know). I don't have any pictures of that, though, so here's one of the little dude and me goofing around tonight.

Disbelief

We had baked potatoes for dinner tonight. The little dude was willing to eat sausage crumbles and cheese, but he wouldn't touch the potato! Eric told him that the potato was like a french fry. The little stinker looked at him like he'd grown an extra head and said "It's not Chick-fil-A. It's a pizza!"

Also, I love that he's pruning in this picture. My son and the Olsen twins are similarly and totally chic!

Santa!

We went to the mall to see Santa this evening. We arrived at the beginning of Santa's 30-minute reindeer feeding break-- whoops!-- so we wandered over to the food court and got some dinner. Then we made our way back to Santa's workshop. Santa was on duty and the line was looooooong (and filled with misbehaving children-- ours included). After a few minutes I asked the little booger if he wanted to keep waiting in line or go home. He said he wanted to go home. We left. There's always next year, and...

...I like home, too.

Getting There...

The little guy is doing really well in his Big Boy Bed. He goes down pretty easily at night (knock on wood) and he's started to stay in his room past five o'clock in the morning. Notice that I didn't say staying in his bed... here's how we found him this morning.

Snacking!

The little booger just hung out in the kitchen tonight while we fixed dinner. He was really entertaining-- here he is playing with the oven mitts.

Eventually, though, he discovered the bag of sausage crumbles. He ate, like, half the bag and then didn't touch his dinner. Pre-dinner snacks might be yummy, but they aren't always the best idea.

Oh, Lord

We usually say grace at dinner, but the little booger has gotten really into praying before meals so now we say grace at breakfast, too. Sometimes we even take a mid-meal break to say grace again. We basically pray whenever he wants us to-- it's not like we want to say "Oh no, we already prayed. No need to do that again." Right? *sigh*

Anyway, tonight during dinner he paused, bowed his head, and said "Thank you God for food and chicken nuggets. Amen." IT WAS SO ADORABLE!!!!

Love

The little dude has said "I love you" to me maybe once... but we got him these new pajamas and now he won't stop with the "I love guitars." Really? Thanks for nothing.

Naturally

The little guy was SO EXCITED to see the tree this morning! Apparently he thought we'd stolen it from daycare because he kept asking to see the ornaments they have. I was pretty self-congratulatory about putting all "touchable" ornaments at the bottom of the tree... so of course he did this when he got up from nap time:

Of course he did.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Today we loaded up the fam in my.. err.. our new Jeep and headed down to a local nursery to pick out a Christmas tree.  This year we decided to get one with the roots so we could plant it after Epiphany and make Christmas a little greener.   Emily had visions of our little family walking through the fields and the little guys picking out our live tree.  In reality, the booger just wanted to go watch the fire in the 55 gallon drum.  It was cold so I can't blame him.  We finally got him over to the trees when we found one we wanted.

"Hey buddy!  Do you want this tree?"
"No!"
"How about this tree, Stinkerpants?"
"No!"
"What about that tree?  Wouldn't it be a nice one?"
"No!  I wanna go see it (the fire)!"
"(sigh) Fine."

Eventually we picked one, against the kid's wishes, and brought it home.  When we got home we tried to get it out of the Jeep and into the garage and "Oh, my back" was that thing heavy.  Luckily a neighbor saw us struggling and came over to help.  We got it out, but man is my Jeep muddy now, which usually is a good statement, but not when the mud is in the new carpet!

Now we needed to get a basin to put the Christmas tree in so Emily measured the root ball and we headed to Lowe's.  We picked one out and brought it home.  Eventually we decided to try to get it in the house by ourselves and after a good half hour it was finally in its place, except the basin was too small so it doesn't really fit right.  Check it out below.

I hope that is some strong plastic.  I bet the bottom is hovering around 5 inches above the ground.

All in all it was fun and we'll have the tree for as long as we are in our current place.  Here it is after the trimming!  Merry Christmas to all!

Awwwwww

Beau and the little dude are really hitting if off these days. The little booger is always trying to pet Beau-- and he's actually petting him really gently! It's so sweet.

Yum!

The little booger got a treat tonight-- ice cream! He's pretty serious about it, but he comes by that honest.

And I'm Amazing (Again)

The little dude loves coloring ("I color!") and lately he's been asking us to write his name and other words. Well, I might not be able to read a book as well as The Guy, but I can draw one mean school bus around the words "SCHOOL BUS". I'm ba-ack, and my years of art classes were totally worth it!

In other news, the little guy recently started playing with his turtle stacking toy again. It's funny to see him with it because he's so much bigger now.

The Guy, Not Mommy

The little dude is already too cool for his parents. His Pete the Cat books have a website where you can listen to the stories with music and stuff. I'm not naming names here, but somebody doesn't want his mommy or daddy to even read along with "The Guy." Boo.
 

Just Like His Mom!

I make a mess of myself in the kitchen. I tend to wipe my hands on my pants (the dogs love me after I've finished cooking) and I spill stuff on myself all the time. It looks like the little booger takes after me! Here he is helping me make pizza tonight:

Even though he can be a complete mess, I love it when he helps me in the kitchen... flour mustache and everything.

Bye Bye Baby!

The little dude said goodbye crib and hello toddler conversion kit today! Nap time consisted of him running laps around his room yelling "I get up!" Bedtime, thank goodness, was a lot more successful.

The only problem is that we didn't notice that we got the wrong rail until we took it out of the box two years after it was delivered... and it is white, not birch. Oh well... we can pretend it was intentional.

He's amazing!

The little dude is starting to draw things (as opposed to just scribbling).

The other day he drew a circle and then told us it was a circle. Here are the four things he drew today and how he explained them:

I'll admit that the helicopter is a bit of a stretch, but the snakes are totally amazing, accurate, and wonderful.

Pete!

The little booger got two Pete the Cat books for his birthday from his great-grandparents on his mom's dad's side. (Hi!) He LOVES Pete the Cat. 

The books are really fun to read, so I don't mind that we read them over and over and over and over again. Did I mention that we read them all the time?

Lids

The little guy had a great time playing with his hamper lid and his daddy tonight before bath time.

I'm not sure this was Eric's favorite game ever, but he'll be fine.

Cinderella Man?

I'm not sure what the boy-version of the name Cinderella is... but we put the little dude to work the other day cleaning the cabinets.

Do you see his big-boy underpants? The little stinker woke up Saturday morning and insisted on wearing big-boy pants, not diapers. We managed to convince him that pull-ups are big-boy pants (phew!), but the little guy isn't messing around with real diapers anymore. Unbelievable!

If you lie down with dogs...

... you'll melt your Mama's heart! Here's another photo from our Sunday-at-home:

They are so cute together. Sadie keeps trying to play with the little guy. The problem is that when she wants to play she runs away from him and barks her fool head off. He doesn't really understand that, but I'm hoping they'll figure it out someday.

What a Man!

The little guy stayed home from church this morning (our final germ precaution). Instead, he spent the morning without pants-- watching football and reading a Jeep catalog.

It is cold and flu season...

The little booger had to come home from daycare today with a fever. This is how he spent the afternoon:

After a couple of doses of fever-reducing medicine, he perked up a little. I picked up a little something extra at the store for my poor baby tonight: Tow Mater from the movie Cars! I'm such a sucker.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you are enjoying something tastier than a banana peel.

Big Jump

The little dude spent a long time tonight climbing to the top of the step-stool and jumping off of it (he used to use it as a little desk). Here's an action shot:

And here's a video:

We shouldn't be left alone. I clearly can't handle the responsibility.

Sort of...

I guess I do follow the little guy around and take his picture, but in my opinion these sunglasses are a bit overkill.

Just call  me Mom-arazzi.

Daredevil

Today at the playground I learned that the little booger is getting to be a really good climber! He climbed up this ladder without any help.

At the top, he checked my his watch-- look at the time!

So he started back down.

He had to turn around...

... so he could pause and enjoy the view.

Then it was time to keep going.

This kid is fearless and it scares me to death!

Go Cinnamon Rolls!

The little guy has a future as a sports announcer (or at least a color commentator). When he watches football he always says "Whoa! They run SO FAST!!! Hahahahaha... they fall down." Wouldn't he be a great addition to ESPN?

Snow!

Already! (Noooooooo.)

The little dude was pretty fascinated, so we stood outside in the freezing cold for about ten minutes while he looked around and argued that it was rain, not snow. Then we stood outside and froze our tails off for an additional five minutes while he helpfully informed me that it was snow, not rain.

Cheesey-Cheese Cheese

Here's our little cheeseball, cheesing with some cheese curls (dinner of champions).

All Politeness

I tend to pile things that belong upstairs at the bottom of the stairs to remind myself to put them away. Usually I end up stepping around the pile until we're about to have people over. It's a bad habit, and one that's about to change. The other night as the little booger was walking down the stairs, he said "Excuse me, stuff."

Anyway, here's a picture of him reading a book!

Hello?

The little stinker was playing with the (unplugged) phone tonight. It was a nice break from Elmo videos.

When he put it to his ear to talk, he said that he'd been on a buggy ride and made the dogs stay before he fed them. It was fun to hear the highlights of his day!