Sign Making

This is sort of Jack's new thing, since he is very proud of his phonics skills, he likes to write signs. He makes them for everything he is playing pretend with, like the fake grocery store, he makes them for the neighborhood kids about twice a day, he makes them for me. It is very cute. Just like everything else he does, it uses a lot of paper! A few days ago Sam was messing up Jack's crafts and it was driving Jack nuts so I took Sam to the bathtub to remove him from the scene for a bit. After a few minutes Jack slipped the following sign under the door:

Sound it out a few times, and you'll figure it out for yourself!

Christmas Program

Jack being a ham as always


Video: Where is my mom? Where? Where? Oh there you are!

Jack's Christmas Program was this morning and it was really very cute. Here is a few of the videos and pictures from the big show. I will put another few pictures up later after I figure out how to get the red eye out! Please note, if you listen carefully you can hear Keith say all of the following to me (1) That some ladies rear is in his way (2) That some kid looks like a troll and my personal favorite (3) "Man someone farted.... bad.... was it you?" Unfortunely for you a few of those quotable quotes might be on some of the videos that didn't make it here, but I'm sure you'll hear at least one. Hope you guys have a very Merry Christmas!




Video: Some Extreme Jack Swaying



Video: Counting the "little angels"



Video: Jack is SO HAPPY to have Santa surprise them

Words Lists

Lets just be honest here, you really have to like my kids to care about this. I acknowledge that and I am not offended. But Keith and I were looking at the comparisons and to us it was interesting.

We made these lists of the words they can say when they really start talking, which for both of our kids was around this age, after 18 months.

Jack's is 3 1/2 columns and Sam's is 1 1/2 so that already tells you the major difference. But, it is also interesting to see how much of Jack's personality now is evident in his list. He still loves animals. Letters and counting are still high on his things I really enjoy list. And he still is ahead of some others his age in areas like reading (he could read all those letters that he could say on his list at that time, too).

What does that mean for Sam? I would say that he is definitely more of a trains and trucks guy then Jack ever was. "Choo choo" is one of his favorite words as well as some of his favorite things to strew about the house. Will he still have a propensity for saying "Poo poo" several times a day in a few years?

Sam has also taken to calling me "Leeeh-Saa" throughout the house (thanks, Keith). He will make a huge mess, say, throwing out all the DVDs from their cases, and call me in to check it out with several chants of "Leeeh-Saa". Mama must be a thing of the past (at least for this month).

One of the sweetest things Jack would do at this age is that when we put him down to sleep at night he would say "Bye-bye, See-Ya, Luff You." Then he would just lay right down and go to sleep. Sam is more about some incessant cries for BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK and then a few minutes of gentle rocking. You are lucky if you are left with an open mouthed kiss, which is something Jack would have NEVER done. I have heard Sam whisper "Ni-ni" back to me a few times as I leave his room, on the occasions when he is tired enough to fall right to sleep.

Anyway, I still love reading over Jack's list now that he says everything and does not call the number seven "Debbie" which we thought was SO precious. So, if you have kids this age or younger, I encourage you to write it down. You'll be glad you did.

Visit with Santa

No one is screaming. It is a miracle.

Not quite so weekly Jack Art

Keith had a birthday so I assume that is why we all have our ages displayed. I do not know why Sam is "1A" instead of 1 or why I am "28B."

Some Christmas music for you to enjoy.

It was Col Baby, in the Billiard Room, with the Candlestick

Sam has taken presents number 11 and 12 out of Jack's stash and apparently made them evaporate. Jack has woken up for the past two mornings (at the crack of dawn) and come in here to find his gift and been unsuccessful at locating the desired number. Let's just say there are some pretty grumpy people up in here at around 6:00 a.m.

Like living with a mini Mary Poppins

Sometimes I just don't know where Jack gets the way he phrases things. A lot of it is, of course, modeled after the way I say things (thank God, mostly not how Keith says things, though Jack did say "What the hell" in the grocery store line recently, don't get me started...)

Nana is perfect and has made the kids these gift baskets yearly where you open one small gift daily from December 1st until Christmas Day. He LOVES it, of course, and lives for the time of day when he can open a new one. Today, right when we got home from school, he went looking in his bag for the number 4 to open for today. I was in the back, and he opened it and brought it in. It was a Christmas themed notepad.

Jack: holding it at arm's length "Today's gift (really, gift?? not present??) is really QUITE boring."

Me: "But, Jack, it is a pad of paper. And yesterday's gift was a set of markers. So if you go get the markers and use them with the pad you can make pictures with them." (Have you people forgotten he is art crazy??)

Jack: eyes light up "Well, then, it is not really too too boring AFTER ALL"

that pretty much says it all

He wrote this by himself, too.