Chrismakuh 2011

The 2011 Sherman Christmas Tree

Cousins

(Avery 14 mos, Jacob 3, Heath 2, Owen 18 mos)

We celebrated our third annual Chrismakuh this past weekend with the Wulfows and Shermans. With four children age three and under this year, the fact that the Christmas tree was still up on Sunday night with all of its ornaments still on means it was a success.

Faster than a Roomba

Today we spent the day vacuuming the house.

Okay, not the whole day, but at the time it felt like it.

Thanksgiving, etc.

Working backwards since that's how the pictures uploaded:

Hello mud.
I've always thought I'd encourage my kids to play in the mud and rain puddles without a care in the world; just watch as they discover nature, that kind of thing. But man, cleaning up the aftermath is not fun. I think in the future this will be more of a spring/summer activity where I can just hose them off out back. But they loved it and I do believe they would have stayed out there all day long in the cold if I had let them.

Thanksgiving up on Long Island - The boys and their cousins Heath 2 and Avery 13 mos.

Pajama party with Nana, Papa and Heath

We took Jacob into Manhattan for the day and saw FAO Schwarz, Rockefeller Center, and Times Square. He did so well and said his top three favorite things were: 1) riding the subway, 2) riding the train in from Nana and Papa's house, 3) and going on the escalator at Penn Station. Yep, in summary, we could have just gone on the metro at home. He did mention Santa ice-skating at Rockefeller Plaza as his fourth thing.

Superman

Memaw stayed with us for a few days before Thanksgiving.

Look what we did this week

First, I don't know how I never did this experiment growing up, but I read about the idea on a craft blog and tried it - just mix cornstarch + water = strange feeling mixture but a giant, fun mess.

Second, this morning I asked Jacob if he had any requests for what we did today and he said, "Let's go on an airplane!" I asked if he had any money to buy a plane ticket and he said no. So, instead we took a little trip down to Gravelly Point near the airport and had a great time watching as the airplanes flew right over us just before they landed. Amazing - we ALL enjoyed it thoroughly!

Fall Back

I found a few pictures I've been meaning to share that span summer to the present, including: Owen's first haircut picture which was about 4 haircuts ago, but I must document it here; my birthday (11/11/11 this year!!!) which is represented by Jacob below holding the appropriate accessories; a rainy day craft fair with the girls; Jacob & Owen with some of their buddies (Sarah and Stacey's boys this time), Gabriel, Henry & Lyle - are you noticing a trend with our friends?; and just a few of our afternoons outside.

Jacob is currently obsessed with how old everyone is ("how old you are?" is usually how he introduces himself to new people), mainly because he's using the information to gauge when he will be able to do certain things (go down the pole at the playground, ride a two wheel bike, go to college, things like that). His other obsession is littering and trash. Most playgrounds end up much neater after we've visited than they started, to my chagrin. I vaguely remember when he asked what litter was, now I just wish I'd been more careful about how I answered. Oops.

Owen is 17 months. We are amazed at how much of what we say he understands. On the one hand he is so polite that when I tell him to go get his jacket to go outside, he usually brings mine with his! On the other hand he has been caught several times climbing on top of the dining room table and he doesn't give the impression he feels bad about it. He is very determined, wants to do everything the way Jacob does it, and his current obsession is the potty (refer to earlier post).

Halloween 2011

Here are our little zoo animals on Halloween night on their way to trick or treating.

And the night before at our neighborhood parade where the boys were thrilled to learn there was a rescue truck they could tour.

Without Owen's full costume on many people mistook him for Eeyore. Some even thought Jacob was just a plain old monkey. But nope, Owen was an elephant & Jacob was an orangutan (he corrected anyone who guessed otherwise).

Possibly TMI

WOW! What a wild Saturday night - a second post in one weekend and it's not even Halloween yet. I just had to share this Owen story. All these months he's been watching as we are in the process of potty training Jacob. He's been dragged to countless public restrooms, perhaps witnessed a few "emergencies" behind a tree at the park, and definitely knows where to find me and Jacob when he yells he needs to go pee pee at home. So tonight I was making dinner and Owen comes to me and says "pee pee" with no provocation, he takes my hand and walks me to the bathroom, lifts the lid, and starts putting on the potty seat. I sat him down with all his clothes/diaper on, and I swear he poops right then and there. I couldn't believe it.

Now, I'm no fool... I've seen this tease before (though a few months later with Jacob) and it didn't lead to potty training any earlier, but I still just about died laughing. The rest of the night all he wanted to do was go "pee pee", and anytime Jacob had to go, Owen dropped whatever he was doing, made a beeline for the bathroom and had his "turn". I taped one of these moments as we were just finishing dinner.